Fourth graders at Cottage Lane Elementary School have been putting the final touches on their research projects that they will be sharing during their publishing parties tomorrow.
Several weeks ago, as part of their non-fiction unit, fourth grade classes began reading books about weather and biomes including marine, tundra, forest, freshwater, grassland and desert. While reading their books, they focused on the elements of non-fiction including an index, glossary, photos and diagrams. After learning about the various biomes and extreme weather, students got to choose one topic and sub-topic they were interested in.
Each class worked on different ways to deliver their research during the publishing party event by developing slideshow presentations, posters and essays. In CLE teacher Jennifer Grennan’s class, students have been creating individual posters about their sub-topic. Students wrote down key facts they learned along with drawings, graphs and context specific vocabulary on their poster. Once completed, the individual posters were put together to form one large poster about the main, overarching topic.
CLE teachers Katie Kopac and Brenda Sullivan’s class have been working in groups to create and design informative slideshow presentations. Each group included non-fiction features such as a table of contents, fun facts, a glossary and photos with captions. Today, each group took turns practicing their presentations in front of their fellow classmates and afterwards, students gave each other positive and helpful peer feedback.
Tomorrow, each class will have the opportunity to present their findings and hard work with their classmates and families. CLE Principal Karen Scarth, Ed.D. explained, “We host grade-wide publishing celebrations for each grade once a year. These celebrations are a way to give our students an authentic audience for their writing and also for our families to see what their children are working on as writers and celebrate their work. Student voice is something that is important to us in South Orangetown, and the publishing parties put our students in the author’s seat, giving them an opportunity to share their voice with a larger audience.”