Today the kids all took their math NWEAs during periods 2 and 3. Mrs. Arbour was very kind and let me have both periods 1 and 4 so that students could all have LA and SS today. So Mrs. Arbour's homeroom worked on their book club reading and prep work in her classroom during period 1, while the Newton homeroom had social studies in here. During period 4 the kids switched classes and the Arbour kids came in for SS and the Newton students went next door to work on book clubs. Please see our Explorer notes below.
Monday is my peer observation day so I will not be in the classroom- students will be working with Mr. Warner and Officer Davis while I am up visiting Frank Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth observing some Language Arts and Social Studies classrooms to learn from other teachers.
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So in LA both today and yesterday students have been working hard reading their books and preparing for their club meetings tomorrow. I have been really pleased this week because kids have been coming to see me in WIN and during class to get some extra help on signposts and writing summaries! So happy they are asking for help- as I shared with both classes, the only way I know they are struggling (as opposed to just not doing the work) is if they ask me for help.
In Social Studies yesterday the students presented their trading cards, and everyone did an excellent job! I was very impressed!! Today we began reading about the Columbian Exchange and how this led to the start of the African slave trade that existed here in the America's for 350 years (more than 100 years longer than we have even been a country!). We will continue tomorrow learning about the exchange of goods that occurred and how this exchange changed the world. Students used class time today to practice presenting their trading cards. All students will be presenting tomorrow - so today I wanted to make sure everyone understood how they were being scored on their presentations (speaking loud enough and clearly, sharing factual information about their explorer, and sharing information in a logical order so that your audience can follow along) and then give them time to practice presenting in small groups. Many students spent more time practicing today during WIN.
Today I gave a mini lesson on how to write a summary. I showed the students how to use the SWBST (Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then) strategy to pull the most important details in order to create an outline of what they read- they can then use this outline to turn into a summary paragraph. We are starting by just focusing on completing the outline- to practice we used our most recent read aloud book, Front Desk, and then as a class came up with our SWBST outline- see the picture below. Students will be using this strategy in their book clubs to help them summarize what they read that week.
Today we read out of the textbook about some more Spanish conquistadors and the exploration they did in the Americas. We had some good discussions about their horrific treatment of the Native American's and how many of the Spanish at the time attempted to justify their actions by saying they were bringing progress to the Natives.
Homework: Trading Cards due tomorrow- must be completed for homework tonight if not yet done. Wow! Our kids did such an amazing job today in their book club discussions. I was very nervous about having them all meeting on the same day- it meant I had to give up some of the control and trust that they could continue on even when I had moved on to another group. Every single group had a better discussion this week than they did last week! The students seemed to all really take last weeks feedback to heart and use it to improve their discussions today. I am so proud of them!
Students all got their scores back today for their first book club meetings. All groups will be meeting on Thursday- students are expected to have all of their reading, summaries, and signpost notes completed before class on Thursday. They are allowed to bring books and notebooks home if they need to finish their book club work- just make sure the books come back the next day as I only have a few copies of each title and many of the books are shared between the two homerooms.
Students worked today on their trading cards and will have class time tomorrow as well. If they are not finished by end of class tomorrow then they are expected to bring them home and finish them for homework - they are due at the start of class on Friday.
So the snow day really threw a wrench in our book club groups! Some of the groups met today, but we did have one group that was supposed to meet yesterday and today was missing half of their group members so as a result we put their meeting on hold.
As much as I have loved being able to sit with one group each day and listen to their meeting, I have found that the meetings are making it very difficult for many students to focus on their reading. As a result, I think what will work best is if all groups meet on the same day- Thursdays- and then we will have silent class periods on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for kids to prep for their meetings. Monday's will still be reading mini lesson days. During this unit students do NOT have to read at home as we are doing a significant amount of reading done here at school. However, if they fall behind on their book club book they can and should be bringing it home to complete the reading in time for their meeting on Thursdays. More of the same today- book clubs met in each class during LA and the students worked on their explorer trading card project during SS. Both classes did a great job today!
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April 2020
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