Which weather is the worst?

Standards Progression

1st Grade-Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

2nd Grade-Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.

One of personal goals as a teacher this year is to make writing more meaningful for my kids.  In the past I felt like I was just going through the motions. I've always taught writing but I felt like it was a subject that I just checked off each day.  Yes, my kiddos knew how to write, but they didn't seem to write with a purpose so I'm trying to change that this year.

Each year in the winter, my 2nd grade team chooses to teach a weather unit. We spend several weeks observing the weather, collecting data and learning about different weather instruments as outlined in our state standards.  Over the years, we've taken several different approaches to writing during this unit but it almost always includes some severe weather research.  The kiddos are curious and excited to learn about severe weather and as an added plus, we always cover the important life skill of severe weather safety.  This year I decided to change it up a bit and make a switch from plain ole informational writing to opinion writing.  Our kiddos needed some more practice with this genre and when they are excited to learn it can make their writing REALLY great!

First, we complete a chart to find out what the kids think they already know about blizzards, tornadoes and hurricanes.  I typically just put my kiddos into groups and they work together to brainstorm a fact or two about each type of severe weather.  It's always so fun to see what they think about blizzards, because we don't get a lot of snow here in North Carolina so it's a pretty foreign concept for them. We refer back to this chart after we research each type of severe weather to see if what that thought was correct or incorrect and to hit some highlights of some new information that they learned.

Next comes a week or more worth of research.  I usually pull some photos, short reading passages, videos and websites for our research.  We usually research blizzards together, mostly because there seems to be less information on this type of weather.  I always talk to the kiddos about using multiple resources and not just copying the first thing we read.  Each day we review some different resources, THEN compile on information on a research sheet.  We don't go too in depth since I just want them to have enough information to form an opinion and support that opinion with reasons.  Our research stays pretty basic and is usually limited to the following key ideas.

1)What is it?
2)What kind of problems can it cause?
3)What should someone do to prepare or stay safe?

We repeat this process with tornadoes and hurricanes. I gradually release the amount of guidance I give them on the research over the course of the unit.  It differs from year to year depending on the independence of the group.

After finishing our research, we take a day to compare/contrast the big ideas for each type of severe weather. This helps the kiddos synthesize all the information they've learned in order to clearly see the differences so they can form their opinion.

Finally, they pick which kind of severe weather they think is the worst and work in groups to brainstorm their reasons why. Then they each write their own opinion piece.

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