Teacher's Resource - Nelson Education

OPPORTUNITIES FOR
WRITING/REPRESENTING
Throughout this unit, students have
numerous opportunities to practise
planning and drafting using a variety
of forms. Their work in progress
should be stored in their writing
folder. Consider asking students to
select one or two pieces to revise,
edit, and publish. You may wish to
use BLM 9: Writing Process
Assessment Checklist to assess
students’ work at various stages of
writing.
A mini-lesson is provided in each
unit to help you develop students’
writing skills. This unit includes the
mini-lesson Drafting and Revising:
Word Choice (page 33). Consult the
Nelson Literacy Overview for a list of
mini-lessons that can be used to
support students as they work
through the writing process.
ASSESSMENT AND ASSESSMENT
DATA
The instructional focuses of the unit
are the focuses for assessment:
visualizing while reading, identifying
which details are important to the
main idea, visualizing while
listening, identifying the
characteristics of a poster, and
identifying the characteristics of
descriptive text pattern.
Throughout the unit, there are
multiple opportunities to observe as
students learn, practise, and
demonstrate target strategies.
Formative assessment data
(generated by discussion
opportunities, Key Assessment
Questions, and Demonstration
Tasks) can be recorded on specific
assessment tools. By analyzing the
data, you can guide students
through subsequent lessons with the
correct level of support. The data
can help you plan for instruction,
differentiate instruction, and begin
to make evaluative decisions about
students’ progress for reporting
purposes.
The Performance Task provides
valuable summative assessment data
that can be used for reporting and
for communicating with parents,
caregivers, and administrators.
Students are invited to assess their
own learning throughout the unit.
They can use their self-assessment
data to make adaptations to their
learning and to set personal goals
for future learning.
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
• Oral Language Tracking Sheet
(BLM 2): You may wish to use this
tracking sheet when observing
students during the unit launch
and periodically throughout the
unit. Taking multiple
opportunities to focus on a small
number of students at a time
allows you to observe every student
over the course of the unit.
• Small-Group Observation
Tracking Sheet (BLM 3): This tool
can be used to monitor and make
notes on students’ participation in
various small-group activities in all
the organizers: oral language,
reading and viewing, and writing
and representing.
• Strategy Rubric Strips (BLMs 6,
10, 14, 16, 17): These help
facilitate recording and updating
student achievement data over the
course of the unit. Each rubric
strip focuses on one strategy, and
has multiple checkboxes so you
can reuse this tool every time the
student is required to demonstrate
the target strategy. Use the rubric
strips to determine the correct
level of support for students in
subsequent lessons and plot
students’ progress over the course
of the unit.
• Reading Response and
Performance Task Rubric
(BLM 21): Intended for use at the
end of the unit, this rubric is for
recording assessments of student
achievement in oral language,
reading and writing skills. The data
can be used as a summative
measure of the students’ ability to
demonstrate the strategies and skills
taught in the unit as a whole. The
rubric facilitates reporting and links
to the Performance Standards.
• Self-Assessment Checklist and
Personal Goal Setting (BLM 4):
Throughout the unit, students are
invited to assess their own ability
to use the strategies taught in the
unit. They can use their selfassessment
data to make
adaptations to their learning and
to set personal goals for future
learning.
• Metacognition: The ability to think
about and reflect on one’s own
thinking and learning processes is
a key skill for successful learners.
Metacognition is a crucial step in
the self-assessment process. Every
unit in Nelson Literacy 4 engages
students in metacognitive activities
by means of Reflect On questions
in the Student Book, recurring
self-assessment opportunities
within each lesson, and the
Criteria for Success self-assessment
checklist included in the
Performance Task (see BLM 20:
Performance Task—Design a
Creature and Its Habitat).
Ongoing Activities
The following activities can be done
concurrently with the unit.
VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT:
BUILDING A WORD WALL
1. Create two word lists at the
beginning of the unit to help
students build vocabulary. Use
one list to capture key content
words related to the study of
habitats. Focus on words
students are likely to encounter
in Science in the years to come
(such as “herbivore”), rather
than on words that are rarely
used outside specialized
contexts (such as “liana”). Use
the second list to highlight verbs
that aid visualization.
10 Nelson Literacy 4 Teacher’s Resource: Habitats and Communities
NEL