It's been a crazy few weeks, and while lots of learning has been going on, not a lot of picture taking as been going on!
It's nuts at how busy my class is keeping me-I often forget how far we come in a school year.
So, here is an update of what we've been working on - mostly anchor chart style. :)
First and foremast, the most important thing that has happened...
MY SHELVES WERE FIXED!! :D
Look at that beautiful gloriousessness! It's so pretty. It's so organized. I'm in love. :)
We've been spending some time talking about perseverance and how mistakes are okay.We've also been talking about how everyone is smart, but just in different ways. To go along with that, I recreated a chart I found on Pinterest.
We've also been learning about different ways to get along, and how we can start solving some of our own problems.
We've been focusing on sentences and meaning in writing.
Now for the biggie!
We've been spending a lot of time learning alllllll about reader responses and how to do them (as well as practicing them!). {Here are the posts I did last year, which is guiding my instruction this year. Post 1, Post 2}
We've just started learning about character traits, and have already learned about plot and setting.
We've covered a lot! We also been working on math-not to worry about that! We're almost done chapter 1, and will be starting chapter 2 soon.
Here's to the busyness of the beginning of the year starting to slow down soon!
Earlier this week, we worked on some of our close reading skills. Using what I've learned from my workshops, we close read some poetry.
We started off with 'Let It Go'. I had my paper passer pass them out blank side down, and then I had the kids flip them over at the same time.
The reactions were awesome! There were some cheers, as well as lots of moans and groans. Most of my kids have little siblings who constantly play the song/movie :).
I had them do the first read on their own, and write down what they thought the message the author was trying to get across was.
After we shared, we came together to do the next part.
I read it a second time, asking them to listen for figurative language as I read. There were some giggles during this, as I was trying hard not to sing...and I guess it came our serious/sarcastic to my kids!
We marked up our text together, numbering the paragraphs, different types of figurative language and rhyme structure.
Then I had them find two examples (from the text-one group somehow got a little confused-even though everyone else knew it was text evidence) of the author's message we came up with. I had them work in pairs for this part, so they could discuss it.
Then I showed them how to do the Poetry sheet I got from the Mailbox ages ago.
Now it was time for them to do it on their own! And by on their own, I mean with partners :)
I had them do the same steps we did for 'Let It Go' for a Robert Frost poem I typed up a few years ago.
Some groups worked very well together, and some needed a little more guidance.
But all of them worked fairly hard!
This lesson took a lot longer than I thought it would-the whole afternoon! I definitely this is was worth it to expose them to more poetry and get those thinking caps going!
A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on
After we had a cohesive main idea, they needed to find details to support, as well as read the next section and repeat.
The next section went much better.
We started out by sharing our ideas again.
Our main ideas were a little closer together this time!
Then when went through the pages and wrote down the most important idea of each one.
We discussed what they had in common-what they needed to be successful, and came up with an answer.
Which then helped us form another cohesive main idea that included elements from each one!
It's been very interesting to see what each student thinks is the main idea.
I sent them back to find supporting details, read Spring, and come up with the main idea. We'll repeat this throughout the book-and hopefully have stronger main ideas by the end!
My T group is made up of a mix of kids from all three classes. And while I know that they have had summarizing, I don't know how it's been taught or how much it has been practiced.
I had noticed that when I have asked for a summary from this group, most of them have been giving me retells. So I thought a quick lesson was in order!
I wrote down the components of a nonfiction summary-like I had discussed with my class-and had them copy it down in their notebooks, so they could refer back to it.
I modeled using Thundercake, which was our Mentor Text last week.
Then, as we just finished the book you see peeking out, I sent them to work on summaries for it.
They did well! I was much more pleased with the quality of summaries than I had previously gotten-let's hope they keep it up!
After spending quite some time on the characteristics of nonfiction, it was time to shift the focus back to fiction!
I start out by pulling out my plot mountain chart I made a few years ago.
I pulled out two of my favorite stories to read with my class, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, and Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester.
I read The Paper Bag Princess first, and as a class, we plotted out the story (the yellow stickies).
We talked about what each thing meant at the point in the story, and wrote it down.
Next, we did Tacky the Penguin (which my 4th graders thought was hilarious! :) and plotted that story out (the green stickies).
The next day, we added plot (and setting!) to our notebooks.
Now that we had practiced together and discussed it, it was time for some partner practice!
I laid out some books for them to choose from, as well as one of Kelly B.'s organizers (which I bought WAY back when-in 2012!)
Away we went! I had my students pick their partners (and for the most part, they made good choice partners!), and they read away.
Some groups choose to fill out the organizer independently, and some choose to work together-and that's okay! I wanted them to have a little more practice before I move them to totally independent.
After our partner practice, I wanted to see what they could do by themselves. I passed out Shawn the Speedy Snail (from ReadWorks)
and had them do their story mountain as a reader response in their notebooks.
I loved looking at all their mountains-they were as unique as them!
I'm linking up with Primary Chalkboard for their No Worksheet Wednesday linky!
This year, I've been a lot more thoughtful about the work I am assigning to my students-trying to make it more rigorous/thoughtful for them, as well as cutting down on the amount of work I have to grade!
One of my favorite things that I have done (and refined from previous years!) was my Reading Notebooks.
Kids record their responses to reading, task cards and other things in their middle section-totally cutting out worksheets altogether!
Plus, there is plenty of space for them to respond and show their thinking-a must in my class!
Of course, we set everything up with a table of contents.
I've taught them many different ways to respond...sometimes I let them pick, and sometimes I want to see a specific skill.
They are graded-but I've set up quick, easy labels to just pop in-much easier than grading all those papers!
Today, we focused on Story Mountain...allowing some drawing in there!
Definitely something I'll continue next year-I love the depth of thinking I see with this!
(You can do these with guided reading groups too-each of my kids have their own notebook! :)
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