Today we started class with a writing prompt about Halloween- some kids wrote about their plans for tonight while others chose to write scary stories. Afterwards, I gave students the opportunity to share about their plan for tonight- what their costume is and their favorite candy. Reece’s were the clear favorite across the team...while many students indicated a dislike for licorice.
We then read a couple chapters of our read aloud book before moving onto social studies where we continued our discussion about Native Americans and how farming changed the world. no homework tonight 😊
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Today kids used the text to find evidence that answered our essential questions. We then wrote down these notes in the Social Studies section of our notebooks.
Students spent class today typing their narrative stories into google docs and revising their story as they typed. We talked about the importance of focusing on just a small moment in their story- so instead of writing about an entire hockey tournament, maybe focus on just the last game...or even the last period....or the moment when you won/lost.
Homework: Read for 30 minutes- sign posts! Students continued working on show not tell today- this is definitely something that is a struggle for many kids - they were having a really hard time, for instance, showing through their writing that a garden was beautiful without writing "the garden was beautiful" or a variation there of. I will be doing some small group instruction later this week with the students who need some extra practice before they get it. Once students finished this they began typing the next draft of their narrative story into google docs.
Homework: read for a minimum of 30 minutes- making sure to note any signposts adn more importantly STOP and THINK At the start of class we set up the social studies section of our notebook using essential questions as a way to organize our notes. We then read the rest of lesson 1 about the First Americans and the Newton homeroom was able to identify something from the text to include under one of the essential questions (the Arbour homeroom will be able to do this next class).
Over the weekend I began reading through the narrative story draft packets. It became very clear that I needed to focus my instruction this week on "Show Not Tell" Please see the handout that we went over as a class (and they glued into their Humanities notebooks) and then the sentence practice we began at the end of the period (and will be finishing tomorrow).
Homework: Read at least 30 minutes- stop and think when you notice the signposts- make sure to note them in your book! Today I introduced our next read aloud, Front Desk by Kelly Yang. In addition to reading the first chapter I also gave the students some background information about China in relation to some of the things that were brought up in the book (ex: the one child policy).
After read aloud I introduced our 4th sign post: Words of the Wiser: When a supporting character (usually older and wiser) offers insightful advice to the main character....Ask yourself: What's the life lesson, and how might it affect the character? I explained to the kids that this signpost is often useful in also identifying the theme of the novel or story. For this lesson we watched a video clip from the 4th Harry Potter movie. The students watched the clip (a few times) and identified not only the Words of the Wiser signpost, but Contrasts and Contradictions and Tough Questions. Afterwards, we had a discussion about what the importance was of each of these sign posts in the clips and what it made us think about. Homework: Read for at least 30 minutes- identify sign posts We will be going to the book fair tomorrow during LA for about 10 minutes- so students may want to bring money to purchase a book :) Today we continued learning about natural resources- both renewable and non-renewable. We ended our class with thinking about how the abundance of natural resources is connected to our countries wealth, population, and power.
For the first half of class today the class had a discussion about the end of the book, The Way to Bea. Kids talked about what they learned about each of the characters based on their actions at the end of the story. We also talked about some of the lessons that we can take away from the story: 1. Sometimes we hurt other peoples feelings even if that wasn't our intention. 2. The only way anyone else can be expected to know if we don't like the way we are being treated is if we speak up! No one is a mind reader.
After our discussion kids responded to a writing prompt about the book and then we continued working on our outlines for our narrative stories. Homework: Read for at least 30 minutes Students all took the geography assessment to start the two blocks. Afterwards I finished reading The Way to Bea, tomorrow I plan to have students respond to a writing prompt about the ending of the novel which we will then use to have a discussion during WIN.
All students were given an outline packet today which I explained and went over how to fill it in and what details they needed to add. I explained to them that the more details they were able to put into their outline the easier it would be for them to actually write their story. Homework: Read at least 30 minutes- looking for signposts |
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