Too tough

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Home : 2004 : September : 26

Too tough
By Amanda K.

Most first graders, especially at the beginning of the year, are not fluent readers and cannot do research in the same way that older students can. I've done similar assignments with my students, but more toward the end
of the year. What I usually do is make a book about selected animals, picking maybe ten or so. I tell the kids at the beginning, before we go through the booklet, that they will be doing a report on their favorite animal from the book, and they need to think about what their favorite animal does. This way, as we are reading through the book as a whole class, the kids can pay attention

to the details of their selected animal. This kind of research is well within their grasp, especially as I am careful to put in mostly words that I know they can read. It's tough to find research books about animals that first graders can handle. I usually have the kids answer some questions I give them about the animal, but I know teacher who have had groups make a poster about their animal. PowerPoint is way over the heads of first graders.