Newsletter: Friday, September 6th

Dear Families,

This week we continued our discussion about what we might do when we encounter words in our reading we don't know. Thank you so much for the great interview responses last week. The kids came poised to share the strategies each of you employ when confronted with unknown words. After pooling these together everyone worked in small groups to organize these strategies in some way. As they read through each of the strategies, they asked themselves, "What other strategy is similar to this one?" Each group brought their ideas to the floor and we worked together to agree upon how these might be organized. Once completed, the kids worked to create names for each group. Here's what they came up with...

Working as researchers to collect data, the kids organized their findings in a way that allowed them to create meaning from these strategies as well as connect them to other strategies that are similar. In the days since this work everyone has been "spying" on themselves as readers to see which strategies they use when coming to a word they don't know. At the end of independent reading time on Wednesday I asked them to record the word for me as well as write a bit about how they handled this word in relation to making sense of the text. Each card was then taped to our classroom cabinets to create a graph of sorts showing which strategies we tend to use most often. Though the kids are quick to say they only "sound it out," we found most of us actually break the word into chunks or keep going if we understand what is happening in the text. As the year progresses we'll access these charts as well as add to them. To grow as strategic readers who concern themselves first and foremost with understanding, we'll continue to work toward having multiple strategies in our literacy toolbox.

As you read alongside your children at home please access these strategies as well. When they come to a word they don't know help them think about what would make sense, look for picture clues, or back up and try the sentence again. We want to help them become flexible in their use of strategies. Of course, there are times when we might just want to provide the word for them so they can keep reading. A lot of what they learn in terms of reading comes from building a bank of sight-words. There is no harm in providing words so long as we aren't doing it to the extent they are becoming a bit helpless and reliant on others to provide words for them all the time. It's a healthy balance!

 If your child is selecting books that makes him or her feel powerful as a reader (something we'll explore in great detail next week) they should not be encountering words they do not know more than a few times on each page. If you notice the reading is very labored you might want to help them select another book or alternate the reading with them (they read a page, you read a page) to help them move through the text at a more comfortable pace.

Another highlight from our week found the kids receiving small oblong objects wrapped in aluminum foil. Armed with some exploratory tools (hand lens, tweezers, and probing sticks) they were asked to carefully pull this apart, making observations along the way. Their charge was to find out what in the world this thing was. Soon they began to call out in excitement: "I found a bone!" and "Hey, I think this is fur!"

At this point I brought them back together and let them in on the secret - they were owl pellets. Owl pellets are the discharge that comes from the owl's mouth after it has swallowed a small mammal or bird whole and digested all that it needs. "UCK!" a few cried. However, I explained these pellets had been sanitized.

Everyone quickly went back to work pulling all the bones out and cleaning the hair from them. After receiving a chart that showed the names and shapes of the bones the groups began sorting them all out. Our plan for today is to try to reassemble the skeletons as best we can and glue them to a sheet of cardstock. A primary goal for these first few weeks of science exploration has been to observe carefully and create inferences from what we see. Here are some pics of our work...

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Chris