Questions to ask your child this week:
Reading: Students continued to meet in their literature circles to read and discuss their books focused on social movements and social change. They had some compelling discussions in class on Wednesday! When we return from Thanksgiving break, each group will work together to produce a one-pager demonstrating their understanding of their book. *I encourage students to read a book (or books) for fun over the Thanksgiving break! Audio books are also great choices for long trips. Writing: We began our personal narrative unit this week. We read and discussed three examples in class, and worked on two brainstorming activities. When we return from Thanksgiving break, students will choose one event from their lives and begin writing about it. This unit will take several weeks, and students will complete mini-lessons focusing on core elements like descriptive writing, organization, and grammar/mechanics as they write.
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Due to the snow day and field trips, we met for ELA on Monday and Friday of this week. On Monday, students found out their literature circle reading groups. Their first book discussion will be this upcoming Monday, and students met in their groups to assign literature circle roles and start filling out their literature circle planning sheets. As a group they decided what page or chapter they wanted to read through by Monday. Some students may have some reading to do over the weekend to meet their goal. I'm looking forward to hearing their discussions on Monday!
Questions to ask your child
Reading We spent this week doing a read-aloud of the short novel Seedfolks, which the kids really seemed to enjoy. Each chapter in the book is narrated by a new person, all of whom contribute to a community garden in Cleveland. As I read, students kept track of the character traits of each new person. On Thursday and Friday, students chose one character to focus on and analyze what that character thought and felt, their contributions to the garden, and what assumptions other characters had about them before interacting with them. Students showed this analysis with either a character portrait or a 'found' poem. You can see the project description here and the rubric here. Students will have half of class on Monday (about 25 minutes) to complete their project; I encouraged several students to take their project home to work on this weekend, so they're in good shape to finish up on Monday. Then we can dive into our first literature circles of the year, with kids working in small groups to read a novel of their choice. Stay tuned for more details on this next week! Photos of kids working on their project: Reading:
As we get ready to write a snapshot memoir next month, we explored how to use figurative language, including metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification, and onomatopoeia. After practicing how to take notes in class, we read Gary Soto's poem "Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes" and examined how the author used figurative language. For Halloween, we read the short story "The Monkey's Paw" and looked at how the author created a dark and spooky mood with language. Writing: On Tuesday students wrote their own ode to an everyday object, using at least three examples of figurative language. On Thursday after our Halloween parade, students practiced their expository writing with a fun Halloween-themed activity. Each student drew a monster, then wrote out instructions for someone else on how to draw it. Students then swapped only the written instructions with a partner and tried to draw each others' monsters. As you can see from some of the examples below, it was a real lesson in how important specific instructions can be! |
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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