The Missouri Reader Vol. 36, Issue 2 | Página 20

Some students showed extensive prior knowledge of
all of camping, while other students knew where to
camp but not things they might need. For example,
Johnny knew he could camp in the woods, but
struggled to come up with the things he needed and
what he could do while camping. Tim, however,
showed extensive knowledge of camping. Tim goes
camping at Beaver Lake and knew he needed his tent
and fishing pole. He goes fishing and swims in the
lake. When students were placed into cooperative
groups of three they were able to talk about camping.
The students gave each other ideas and prior
knowledge was shared. Conversations revolved
around personal camping experiences being shared
with students who had not been camping before. For
example, Tim shared about his hunting and fishing
experiences with Johnny. Johnny in turn was able to
write about needing things like sticks to start a fire
and cook fish. As the students shared experiences,
they were able to fill in their organizers and begin to
think about what they would do if they were camping.
During the last week of instruction the students
used a beginning, middle, and end organizer to write
about being an owl and flying over a park, city, beach,
or zoo. The students picked where they wanted to fly
over and were put in groups by park, city, beach, or
zoo for cooperative learning to help fill out
organizers. Most students picked a place they had
prior knowledge of because they had been there.
Willie realized he knew nothing about a beach and
decided to switch his choice to the city.
As students worked in their groups they talked
about things they saw in each location and how they
might look if they were flying far away or closer to
the place. They also talked about words they could
use to describe each thing they saw. The organizers
showed knowledge of all the places. For example,
Willie, Elizabeth, Tim, and Ryan wrote on their
organizer of how tall buildings can look small from far
away and very tall from close up. Bryan, Billy, Casey,
and Jim talked about how the animals looked small far
away and how they looked the right size close up.
They used words like tiny and green, and small to

describe the animals. Lacy, Vicky, Trenton, and
Angel wrote about the blue beach looking small from
far away and how tiny the people of the beach look
from far away. The students enjoyed sharing
knowledge and when one student was unsure they
were able to listen to other group members and write
down an idea on their organizer.
The first benchmark writing prompt was for
students to write directions from the park to the
school using the map they were given. While some
students could do this with ease, the class average
shows that students were struggling overall to write
directions in a way for a person to follow from start to
finish. The second benchmark prompt, which was
given after five weeks of working with graphic
organizers, was for students to use a graphic organizer
to compare and contrast two animals and tell what
each one needs. According to field notes, students
filled out the Venn diagram first then began writing
their comparisons. Field notes also stated that some
students were writing beginning, middle, and end on
their Venn diagrams to help them remember how
their writing should flow on the final copy.
Students’ writing scores increased each week as
they used cooperative learning and graphic organizers
to complete the writing process. During week one,
students used cooperative learning and graphic
organizers to write a story about camping. In their
cooperative groups they edited their papers using the
editor’s checklist organizer. The conversations
regarding editing were on spelling and neat writing
over content. The class average score on this writing
was a 2.7. During the fifth week, students were
writing a paper using graphic organizers and
cooperative learning to compare and contrast Johnny
Appleseed and Martin Luther King Jr. Conversations
for the editor’s checklist revolved more around
content and helping each other look up more specific
information about each person and what they did in
their lives.The class average for this writing was a 3.1.
During the eighth week, students wrote a story using
graphic organizers and cooperative learning about an
owl flying over a park, city, beach, or zoo. According
©The Missouri Reader, 36 (2) p. 19