Opinion Writing
Figurative Language
Book Discussions
I would love for each child to be reading nightly at home. Your child will get more out of their reading if you engage in conversations with them after they read. Below are some questions I found from Lexile.com. You can use these to guide your discussion. It would be really fun if you had your child write these questions on slips of paper and put them into baggies: one baggie with the "before" questions, one baggie with the "during" questions, and one baggie with the "after" questions. Pull a question out of the baggie before, during, and after your child reads each night. Add additional questions to the bag if you come up with new ones!
- Why did you select this book?
- What makes you think this book is going to be interesting?
- What do you think the book is going to be about?
- Does this book remind you of anything you've already read or seen?
- What kind of characters do you think will be in the book?
- What do you think is going to happen?
- Will you catch me up on the story? What's happened so far?
- What do you think will happen next?
- If you were that character, what would you have done differently in that situation?
- If the book was a TV show, which actors would you cast in it?
- Where is the book set?
- If the main character in that story lived next door, would you guys be friends?
- What does the place look like in your head as you read? Would you want to visit there?
- Did you learn any new words or facts so far?
- What was your favorite part of the book? Why?
- Who was your favorite character? Why?
- What was the most interesting thing you learned from the book?
- Why do you think the author wrote this book?
- Would you have ended the book differently? Did it end the way you thought it would?
- Did the problem of the book's plot get solved?
- If you could change one thing in the book, what would you change?
Opinion Writing
The following is a link I found through Scholastic.com. It has a good overview of opinion writing and will be a resource I look to when students begin drafting their own opinion piece. I will not be using the example about technology however, I will pull some elements from the document to use in my teaching.
Reader's Workshop
Teaching reading through a workshop format has been very successful for me. At the beginning of reading time, I will have a mini-lesson where I model/teach a skill or strategy in a whole group setting. In these early weeks, I will be coaching students on how to choose "just right books" for their workshop bag, how to use their reader's notebooks, and the general expectations for reader's workshop. After a few weeks of setting up reader's workshop, I will focus my lessons on seven comprehension strategies. The strategies are: Metacognition (recognizing your thoughts during reading), Making Connections, Visualizing, Inferring, Determining Importance, Questioning, and Synthesizing.
Following a daily mini-lesson, students will read independently while I have individual conferences with students. As the year progresses, I will begin book clubs and hold book club meetings during independent reading time. I have found a lot of success in using book clubs because they engage students and hold them accountable for their learning.
Writer's Workshop
Writing instruction will also be in a workshop format. Mini-lessons will focus on the 6+1 Traits of writing, which include: Ideas, Organization, Word Choice, Voice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, and Presentation. These traits cannot be taught without also teaching the Writing Process. I will also be giving lessons to help students know the stages of the writing process and helping them see that certain traits go with each stage.
During independent writing, I will be helping students hone these traits in their own writing.
Like I said, the workshop format has proven to be a success in my previous classes. I believe most of the success comes from the individualized nature of workshop. In reading, students choose from a plethora of classroom literature and in writing, students are crafting pieces they choose. My goal, as a teacher,l is to meet and push students from where they are in their learning and the workshop format allows me to do just that.
Writer's Workshop Information-This is a huge document that talks about writer's workshop. You only need to read the first few pages to get an idea.
http://www.ttms.org/PDFs/05%20Writers%20Workshop%20v001%20(Full).pdf
6+1 Traits
Writing Process: While we will focus on the 6 traits of writing we will also be taking numerous writing pieces through the writing process. This site explains the steps in that process.
http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/
Writing Activities
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/writing-activities-for-kids.htm
Word Study
Next week your child will begin
their first week of "Working with Words". This part of the Language
Arts curriculum is based on "Words Their Way" by Donald Bear, Marcia
Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, and Francine Johnston. Word study helps strengthen
students' knowledge of how words work enabling them to write and read more
fluently. During word study, students examine words they already know how to
read, and sometimes spell. This allows them to gain insight into how the
spelling system works. I assessed the children's knowledge of phonics and spelling patterns with a spelling inventory and then matched them with the level of word study they need. Every other week your child will receive a new page of sorting words, focusing on a specific letter sound or spelling pattern. I'll meet with the 3 word study groups when they receive new words so we can discuss the word patterns and/or meanings of prefixes and suffixes. Every 8 or 9 weeks I will reassess students' word knowledge using a spelling inventory to determine what new strategies should be taught.
During the week we sort, re-sort, speed sort and go on word hunts to build up our familiarity with the sound or pattern. Sorting is a thinking skill which requires attention, discrimination and seeing and hearing patterns. I like this program because the children work at their own skill level, it's hands on, playful, and the activities vary.
In the next few weeks, check out the activities that are listed on your child's working with words list. Your child will learn a variety of sorts in class that they can show you. You can practice some of the activities throughout the week. Allow for some creative sorting and categorizing. They only take 5 - 10 minutes and it's well worth it.
Library Checkout Video
