Passionately Curious

In Their Own Words

Can second graders really understand plagiarism and learn how to paraphrase in their own words?  After reading several pages in the children's All About Books, we noticed that some of the language did not sound like our students' voices. The children are so engaged in this project and we do not want to stifle their momentum.  However, we also don't want to encourage them to copy from the texts they are researching.  For second graders, research is a new idea.  It's especially difficult to write down factual information without copying.  There's only so many ways to say that the Earth is 93 million miles away from the sun.  Learning to paraphrase and state the main idea is a part of our reading curriculum and this is a good time to reinforce and practice this strategy.  It's not a strategy my students are expected to master in second grade, but one they will practice throughout their lower school years.  We discussed the idea of plagiarism with our students.   As teachers, we are always learning how to teach more effectively and to revise, rethink our lessons. We will encourage the children to read for information, then put their books away and write down what they remember.  Next time, we'll also make sure that the children choose topics they already know a lot about!

All About Books

As a final project of the year, the children are writng "all about books."  After our recent study of insects, they were already familiar with many non-fiction texts.  We broadened the discussion and began looking at how author's organize their facts and information.  Using Lucy Calkins' Units of Study for Primary Writing as our guide, the kids began to examine different books, from frogs to pharaohs.  We made note of the common features that most informational texts have, including a table of contents, sections or chapters, diagrams/labels, illustrations or photographs, pages with extra information, how-to pages, find-out-more pages, a glossary, and an index.  All year, we've stressed that authors write about what they know and love.  We encouraged our young authors to do the same. The subjects chosen by the children include soccer, pandas, horses, the solar system, and more.  We can't wait to learn all about them.   A few children were so excited by this project that they gave up valuable playtime after lunch to keep writing!