4th Grade: Graphic Organizers

If You Had to Choose, What Would You Do? By. Sandra McLeod Humphrey

About the Book:
This book contains 25 stories about moral dilemmas for kids ages 6-12. It is an interactive book and ask students what they would do in the situation. There are questions along with each story to stimulate discussion with a classroom or individually,



About the Author:
Sandra McLeod Humphrey is a retired clinical psychologist. She's a writer and consultant for the Heroes & Dreams Foundation which provides character education materials to schools K-8 throughout the United States and Canada and the author of seven middle-grade and young adult books.

Her Awards include:

• Author of the Month --MyShelf.com
• National Character Education Center's Award for "Exemplary Leadership in Ethics Education" (2000)
• 2005 Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children's Literature
• 2008 Mom's Choice Gold Award
• 2008 American Authors Association Silver Quill Award
• 2009 Young Voices Foundation Silver Award.
  

Purpose:

Students are faced with sever choices while growing up. It is important to allow students to list their possible choices and work through which choice works best. Allowing students to express their thoughts in writing will give students more time to find the write choice.

Minilesson:
The teacher will read the short story Eveybody's doing it, found in If You Had to Choose, What Would You Do?, by Sandra McLeod Humphrey.

Each student will be given a a blank sheet of paper. In the middle of the paper the students will put the title of the short story in a circle. Students will then branch off different ways to solve the problem by drawling small circles with a line connecting them to the title. Each small circle will be a different way they could possible solve the problem.

This would be the end of the minilesson with graphic organizers, but the next step in the writing process would be to have the students write a small paragraph about their final choice and why they chose this answer.

Standard:
Writing Processes
C. Apply knowledge of graphics or other organizers to clarify ideas of writing assessments.