Going Batty

Spiders...and now bats! Can you tell we are getting closer to Halloween?  Bats are so interesting, although I wouldn't want to run into a roost in a dark cave.  Bats do make for a great topic for first grade research though!  We used the topic to discuss informational text.  As we read different nonfiction books and articles, we recorded our learning on a RAN (Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction) chart.

The chart starts with our background knowledge.  The students brainstormed what they already thought they knew about bats.  As we read, we moved and added post it notes to the other categories.  When our background knowledge was correct we moved the note to "Yes, we were right."  Of course, when we found text evidence of our thinking we were sure to note the source on the the postit.  Sometimes, as we read we found that our thinking changed.  For instance, some students thought bats were blind.  As we read, we learned that bats can see quite well in low light.  If our thinking changed, our postit moved to "We don't think this anymore."  There was also a category for new learning and another for wonderings.

Next, we brought our learning about bats into writing.  We made a bat diagram and took some notes on a graphic organizer.  The notes on the graphic organizer became our big ideas.  Then we came up with supporting details for our big ideas.  We made a chart to organize big ideas and details.

When the students put all the learning together the writing was pretty impressive.  Not bad for first graders!  Writing informational text is not easy and these children did awesome!