Well, with all the snow days there's not a whole lot to share in terms of what we've already done this week but I can definitely share what's in process as well as what's to come. We'll begin with math. The kids have been working to collect data in preparation for learning about various types of graphs. They have done this in the form of surveys. Some of their questions have been...
What is your favorite book series?
What's your favorite video game?
What's your favorite subject?
What's your favorite subject?
What's your favorite animal?
What's your favorite food?
Today Ms. Nozsa is going to help them learn to tally their results in an organized fashion and then they'll begin thinking of ways they can represent their findings artistically. If you've ever seen the Snapshots feature at USA Today's website you know what we mean by "artistically." It's a statistical graphic that shares numerical data in creative ways (if you haven't seen these before try Googling it. They really are very cool.). In the coming days they'll share these same sets of data in other forms - bar graphs, pictographs, etc. We're also creating some of these in class to support our work as readers and writers. A few weeks ago, when learning about different features of non-fiction texts, the class created a bar graph showing which of these features we have been using most often in our own non-fiction writing. Yesterday we created another class graph showing what types of thinking we've been doing as we read our silent reading books (making connections, making predictions, asking questions, putting ourselves in the story, and so on).
In reading we are currently doing a whole class novel study of Caleb's Story. This is the third book of the Sarah, Plain and Tall series. In this book we are introduced to a new character - Grandfather. Grandfather is both mysterious and grumpy. Papa is not excited to see him come back to the farm because he had left many years ago without any explanation. There are many complex relationships going on which makes a great resource for learning how to talk about literature in a way that builds upon, or challenges, the ideas of others - as opposed to just taking turns sharing our own independent thoughts. We'll finish this text in a week or so and then the kids will self-select books for another round of class book clubs. This is a popular classroom structure because it is social and reflects the same sorts of structures to be found in the real (outside of school) world.
In writing we are focusing on "reading like a writer." This means to study texts for examples of author craft and to give these a name. This sort of inquiry helps the kids see that they can create their own path for learning by noticing and naming the the things they see (in this case, in writing). In the coming year they'll learn that if a favorite author is doing something cool in their writing then we can try the exact same thing. What I love about reading published texts as a writer is that it ensures the kids are not limited to learning only what Ms. Nozsa and I know about writing. The sky is the limit. So far we have found that authors....
write in paragraphs
use page breaks (or pauses/skips) to jump ahead in the story
use onomatopoeia (sound words)
use humor
include dialogue
describe the setting
share character traits (letting each character have their own personality)
use quotation marks around dialogue
use end marks
write "building sentences" ("It felt like we were going down the stairs. Or up the stairs. Or up something worse than stairs!"
The kids created this list from just two paragraphs of a favorite class read aloud. Imagine what we'll find after a week! Each day I ask the kids to pick one or two things from the list they'd like to try in their own writing. If you happen to come across something you appreciate in a text please pass it along to us. We'll look at it in class. A few years ago I found a magazine that had a headline that read,in relation to the government spending, ...
One.
Trillion.
Dollars.
How cool is that?! It really leads you to read those three words in a very specific way, doesn't it?
That's it for now. We'll have much more to share next week!
Chris
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