Mrs. Barthel's 3rd Grade - 3rd Visit

Mrs. Barthel's class is "into it" when I enter the room today.  They are well into their research projects on animals.  The growing sense of pride and ownership in "their animal" is evident throughout the room.  Everyone is anxious to tell what about the topic of their research.

Students are using  highlighters to mark important facts as they find them. Mrs. Barthel has helped them to construct several pages of blank webs in their writers notebooks.  The webs help provide a well organized structure for recording the important information as they find. 

Mrs. Barthel's students are engaged with topics of their choosing,  doing what Schmoker calls "close reading with highlighter in hand", they are utilizing graphic organizers, and recieving clear feedback from their teacher.  Watching this classroom in action today leaves little room to question why non-fiction writing is such a high yeild strategy for increasing student achievement!