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| Jared reads his Important Poem at our first Author Celebration |
To help students understand the importance of finding just-right books, I make a sports analogy: if I wanted to learn to play tennis, the best place to learn as a beginner would NOT be at Wimbeldon with Rafael Nadal. Rather than learn to play, I would simply get pummeled, my skills not improving and my self-confidence pouring down the tubes. No matter how many times we played--if that was the only experience I was having--I would simply not improve. Rather, I need to play against someone who is willing to play just above my level, who will help teach me how to become a better player: the challenge of Nadal is not one that will improve my ability. I need one that is just right for me. The experience of learning to reads works much the same way: we need to read books that are just a tad bit difficult in some way, along with explicit, solid instruction, to learn to become stronger readers.
Together, we identified some signs that a book is not just-right:
- reading is not smooth (fluency)
- reading is not expressive (fluency)
- reading is too slow (fluency)
- student stumbles over words--over 5 per page is too many (decoding)
- student fails to recall or understand what s/he read (comprehension)
Students and I have been reading together as I ask them to judge--using the above criteria--whether or not the book feels too difficult. Then, most often, I am guiding students to different book choices. Needless to say, this has been difficult process for some students. Many students seem to believe that if a book they are reading is found to be too difficult, that they have failed in some way. Many have argued with me that they "always stumble over words that way--I like to be challenged." I am trying to help them see that they should NOT be stumbling over words that way, and that doing so is not helping improve their reading skills. (When they experience difficulty retelling me what they have read, they are more easily convinced, however.) These are very imbedded beliefs that we will work diligently to change.
In writing, we spent some time last week considering what makes quality writing so good. Students first brainstormed characteristics of high-quality writing. Then we considered which of those characteristics were genre-specific and which could be connected to most writing.
Finally, after narrowing things down, students categorized the remaining characteristics. What we found is that good writing:
- stays on topic,
- is organized,
- uses sufficient and relevant details,
- includes specific and interesting words,
- uses proper mechanics, and, most importantly,
- is full of voice.
After that introductory activity, we have begun our study of personal narratives, which--because writers write best when writing about what they know--is a perfect place to begin. So far, students have learned to generate ideas for personal narratives by recalling people, places and events that hold meaning to them, and to recall memories with respect to each. This week we will spend some time talking about the differences between seed and watermelon stories--seed stories focus intently on small moments, whereas watermelon stories are more expansive and delve less deeply into one topic.
Once we each had a long worm as well as a snip-it of a worm, we balled each up and had ourselves a watermelon and a seed. This tactile, visual activity often helps students begin to see what it means to focus intently on a small moment and to write about just that, and we can refer back to our Play-doh seeds often throughout the year to remind ourselves of this focus. After this activity, students selected one of their seed ideas about which they will begin writing tomorrow. I look forward to our first official author celebration in about a month. I'll keep you posted as we get closer to a date. 
We also embarked upon our study of Colonial America history by creating our web outlining beliefs of what makes our America special, different or good when comparing it to other countries. Students shared ideas about freedom, equality, racial and religious diversity as well as democracy. As we study this period of history students will continually look back to this web as we make connections between where we began and where we have arrived. Our reading began contemplating that in 1607 as Haley's comet soared through our sky, Europe was undergoing dramatic social and religious changes which helped create the environment in which our country was born.
This week we will also begin our study of electricity and, specifically, electrical circuits. We will begin by learning about static electricity so that we may build a bridge to how electrons move from atom to atom, which is what movement is harnessed in an electrical circuit. In the middle of the week will will be learning about the Periodic Table of Elements and building various atoms. This understanding of atoms--particularly of electrons--will help students better understand electricity.
This week we also begin our first three-week rotation in the computer lab, during which students will learn to publish their Important Poems using Frames, a tool which allows students to animate their recorded text, choosing from various backgrounds. Once these projects are completed, projects will be posted so that you may view them. Students also began their keyboarding sessions, spending some time learning about Type to Learn 4, the program used to teach keyboarding skills. Students were all eager to use the fun program, which is set up to teach skills through games.
I enjoyed so much seeing you all at Back to School Night. Please know that if you have any questions that were left unanswered, I am always available by email or in person after school. I especially hope our new-to-Shorecrest parents felt both welcomed and informed. We are thrilled to have you--and your children!--with us.
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