An activity students completed this week incorporating the
narrow reading strategy has been my favorite so far. In Science, we began
studying ecosystems and food chains. To build on this in small group, I
separated students into two groups and assigned them either the rainforest
ecosystem or the taiga. The reading required for this activity was a short
passage about each, describing what the ecosystem looks like, the organisms
that live there, the climate, etc. After students read the passage, they
answered five, short comprehension questions. Next, each group created a
summary, highlighting key details about their ecosystem. Then, I worked with
each group to brainstorm a list of 20 words related to the ecosystem – this was
the fun part. The brainstorming allowed me to determine how well students
understood what their ecosystem looked like, and identified the information
students remembered from their passage. Once our list was created, I explained
the creative component of this lesson. Students were given large sheets of
construction paper. The 20 words we brainstormed became the border. Inside the
border, students created an illustration of their ecosystem, which again let me
know how well they were able to comprehend what they read. When evaluating the
students’ drawings, I noted that they were all very similar looking – meaning
all students were on the same page and demonstrated a strong understanding of
the passage and their ecosystem!
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