Student Work Samples - Alex

95 Pages·2014·11.91 MB·English

Work Samples
6th Grade
Topic: Unpredictability of Hurricanes

These samples were collected from a random pulling from 4 different class: one advanced, one
inclusion, and two grade-level.
These students had studied hurricanes for several days. They’d participated in a hands-on activity
during which they modeled a storm surge, and they’d tracked Hurricane Katrina. They had also
studied other types of storms and weather earlier in the year.
For this lesson, they activated background knowledge by creating a t-chart highlighting the
consequences of calling an evacuation for a hurricane too early vs. too late. They then read an
article that followed the development and arrival of Hurricane Katrina. While they read the
article, they were to keep a bulleted list of details supporting the claim that hurricanes are tricky
to predict. Finally they were to write a RAFT assignment. R (Role of the writer) was a hurricane,
A (Audience) was a storms fan club, F (Format) was a persuasive speech, and T (Topic) was why
you should vote for me for the trickiest storm. They were told to include at least three facts. The
lesson took two days, and was to be succeeded by a culminating writing activity comparing
storms.
After the first day, we realized that for three of the four classes, the article was too difficult. We
based this on their bulleted lists, and listening to their discussions during the reading (they were
reading with partners, stopping and retelling what they read frequently). I pulled a simpler one-
page article from the internet, made just enough copies for partners to share, and tucked them in
the books. This took very little time on my part, and only required 12 copies. The students found
it helpful the second day.
The writing samples bring to light several issues that could be clarified before moving on.