What an exciting, enlightening week we've had. The retreat to Howell Nature Center was a blast, and gave the class lots to think about as we try to decide how to take what we learned and apply it to helping people in our own community who may not have enough to eat. Stay tuned for more on this topic in the future! Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip: Reading:
We continued reading Hoot this week, and students are doing a great job of stopping, thinking, and jotting about their reading. I am hoping that students can be finished with the book by Monday, October 7th. For some this may mean taking the book home to read, and I encourage you to check in with your child on their progress. It will be key for our discussion of the book's themes and for our next writing project that everyone has read the book! Writing: Students continued working on their nature journals. Students are putting our study of descriptive and sensory language to good use as they describe a time they were out in nature. These are due next week Thursday, October 3rd, and I will post them around the middle school commons. You can check out one student's work below:
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We ended this week by learning how to become vocabulary collectors. You can head over to the "Vocabulary Resources" page under the ELA section to see the slides we went over in class (and some pretty hideous drawings done by Lauren). The biggest take away for now is that students are going to be collecting vocabulary words as they read, from either their in-class book or their reading at home (or both). They'll bring their list of words to class on Friday, choose 4 to define, and then choose from 9 options of in-depth activities to show their understanding of the words. I can't wait to see what they create, and will post photos from their notebooks next week.
Reading We spent Monday and Wednesday reading Hoot. Students continued to reflect on their reading and add sticky notes to their books to show their thinking. For students who are nearing the end of the book, they will have options next week of how to reflect on the book as a whole. Writing Tuesday and Thursday were dedicated to our first major writing assignment, a nature journal. You can find the rubric and some examples that we looked at together over at the "Writing Workshop Resources" page. Students will be working to finish their journal pages next week, and will present them at next week's Friday morning meeting. They are creating beautiful descriptive and sensory language! It was fantastic seeing so many parents at Curriculum Night! If you weren't able to make it, be sure to check out the 'Reading Resources' and 'Writing Workshop Resources' tabs on the blog. You'll find links to book recommendations as well as information on what book(s) we are reading in class.
Going forward, Mondays and Wednesdays will be dedicated to work in our Reader's Notebooks, while Tuesdays and Thursdays will be for our Writer's Notebooks. Fridays will be flexible, depending on what the class needs! Reader's Notebooks Students dove into our first class novel, Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. As they read, students are practicing pausing, reflecting, and writing their quick thoughts on post-it notes, which they keep in their book. Students all have a handy laminated book mark with prompts to guide their thinking and reflecting. We started making character trait maps for the main character in the novel and a secondary character of their choosing. We focused on showing evidence from the text to support their thinking. Next week we will continue reading. As always, students are encouraged to read for pleasure at home and be ready to log their reading in their Reader's Notebooks. Writer's Notebooks We began an exploration of descriptive and sensory language. On Tuesday students turned 'telling' sentences into 'showing' sentences using active verbs and descriptive language. On Thursday students read an excerpt of A Sand County Almanac and highlighted examples of sensory language, then wrote their own sensory description of a favorite place. We applied that skill on our field trip Thursday, as we paused on our hike for students to record the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of being in the forest. We will be turning these into a polished nature journal beginning next week. Here is the link to the rubric: Nature Journal Rubric Photos from this week: We had a great first week in English Language Arts setting up our Reader's and Writer's notebooks! Reader's Notebooks are a place to write about and reflect on their reading, while Writer's Notebooks are for practicing the craft of writing. We'll be using both in class every week. In their Reader's Notebooks, students created a reading timeline of books that have been important to them in their lives. We also talked about different genres, and why it's important to push yourself to read outside of your comfort zone. On Thursday students created some goals for themselves as readers for this quarter, and on Friday they set up their reading logs, where they will be recording what they read both in school and at home. I encouraged them to do some reading just for fun at home this weekend, and to come to class on Monday ready to log it in their notebooks. Here are both classes generating definitions of different genres in fiction and nonfiction: In their Writer's notebooks, students created head or heart maps of people, places, things, and ideas that are meaningful to them. You can check out some of their work below. On Friday they created a page titled "This summer, my feet have been..." about the places their feet traveled this summer. Don't let the picture Greg posted on the class instagram page fool you - they created some beautiful designs in their notebooks. Both of these pages will be helpful when it's time to generate ideas for personal narratives and other writing projects. Next week we will begin our first class novel, Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, and I will begin reading Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman aloud for the last few minutes of class.
I'm so glad you're here. This is the place to find out about our work as readers and writers in ELA. I'm so excited for all of the thoughtful reading and the compelling and creative writing that will happen this year. Look for a more detailed overview of this year's ELA curriculum to come shortly.
This first week of school, students will be setting up both their Reader's and Writer's Notebooks. These notebooks are typically kept in the ELA classroom, but I encourage students to bring in photos, drawings, text, or other visuals to decorate the covers of their notebooks. Students are also welcome to email me pictures that they'd like me to print. I'll be posting covers next week once students have had a chance to really make them their own. Over the next few days students will set up their notebooks and start reflecting on themselves as readers and writers. I always welcome feedback and am happy to answer any questions (from both parents and students), and I'm looking forward to a fabulous year. |
AuthorLauren Yavor teaches ELA with a reader's and writer's workshop format to SK 5th and 6th graders. Archives
March 2020
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