We created a timeline as a way of organizing the main ideas into a format that was easy to see. This made it evident that he had a lot of things to handle in a short time period.
The students were paired up and given a specific page and date to research. Their task was to identify the date and the event that happened to impact Lou Gehrig's life. Soon after the dust had settled from the sticky note chaos I heard, "Miss. Glenn, I notice that all the sticky notes are in one spot." Another students responds, "Thats because earlier in the line he wasn't doing anything."This is when we decided to write childhood on the timeline. Many other students started to share their observations about the timeline with their groups and it evolved into a wonderful discussion about the story of Lou Gehrig's life.
It was pure beauty! I didn't pose any questions leading them to thinking in this way, they got there on their own. Students are hardwired to inquire about, anything! Giving them a direction to point their inquiry was successful.
An interactive timeline was just what the class needed for everyone to take ownership. Being a class timeline means that everyone must agree with the placement of the sticky notes. Rest assured, we all agreed!
Next, we focused on fact and opinion. I wanted something interactive for a large group of fourth graders first thing in the morning. I decided to play Jeopardy with facts and opinions within the story. After a group of students picked a Jeopardy card (giving me to coordinates) and gave a correct answer the card was then placed on the appropriate side of the " Fact and Opinion Tree".
We also did a Venn Diagram where the students compared service dogs as heroes and Lou Gehrig as a hero. Before setting them loose we made sure to construct a chart with all the details we could think of. This helped the students construct the Venn Diagram, a fairly new concept!
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