Boo!

What a terrific week. We began with an author celebration and ended with Fall Festival. Wonderful, exciting, exhausting!

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the author celebration on Friday. It was tremendous. You know, I read and reread and rereread the students' work, but it always sounds brand new when I hear it in front of a devoted and captive audience as performed by the authors themselves. It was a joy for me. And a truly wonderful birthday gift as well. I was so impressed with the students' readings, and I know they were thrilled to have all of you present. We cannot wait to do it again!

In math we are nearing the end of our unit on decimals and measurement. Many concepts taught in this unit are tricky. Students are certainly becoming more adept at comparing decimals, supported particularly through games such as Decimal Top-It. Adding and subtracting decimals continues to be a challenge for many, for many of the same reasons students struggle to accurately add and subtract multi-digit numbers.  Certainly, learning about metric measurement has supported student understanding of decimals and place value. Most recently, students have been working to convert measurements, such as centimeters to millimeters, or decimeters to meters. This has proven to be tricky as well. After some review on Wednesday, students will be assessed on their understanding of skills taught in unit four on Thursday.

Students are also enjoying tackling some difficult problem solving activities as well. Last week, after working through a trickier, multi-step problem, students were able to share with the class their processes for solving.  Students were able to identify many accurate ways to solve the same problem, and were also able to share with the larger group their reasons for making the choices they did.

Our room continues to buzz during reading workshop.  Last week in a fish bowl, Ari and Sammy modeled both ineffective and effective partner conferring. During their ineffective conference, Ari and Sammy simply read to one another their Post-it thoughts, never really stopping to talk about one another's ideas. In the effective conference, the pair spent time discussing each other's notes, asking one another questions and probing one another to go further. In general, students are working to truly listen and respond to their partners during these conferring sessions.

Of course, crucial to this process is having rich, thoughtful notes from which to springboard conversations. On this we continue to work as well. Specifically, students tend to write down questions about their reading, even if at times they feel they can infer answers to their questions. We are working as a group to take our questions further--to stop after asking a question and wonder:

• Do I already have a possible answer to my question?
• Is my question important to the central themes of the book?
• Can I identify other spots in my reading where the question is addressed?

Going deeper reinforces deeper understanding of the texts they are reading. In turn, richer conversations between partners result.

Students are still working to identify spots within the room from which they can read effectively and prevent distractions. Students are expected to read with focus for at least a half hour each day, in addition to the time they spend logging, conferring with me and/or their reading partners.  This week, students will reflect upon their reading logs and consider what types of genres they are reading, mapping their choices in a bar graph. After this, we will of course develop goals about how we'd like to challenge ourselves to stretch and try others genres of fiction.

In writing we have begun a unit on poetry. As we began many new units in all content areas, students considered what they know already to be true. We captured everyone's thoughts on poetry in a web.

In our unit, students will be focusing on writing free verse poetry, avoiding the constraints that rhyming adds to the writing process. As a model for free verse poetry writing, we have been reading All the Small Poems, and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth. These precious poems are all written about seemingly mundane objects. To jump start their writing processes, students brainstormed, traveling the classroom in search of potential inspiration. Students wrote drafts by simply writing descriptive paragraphs about their objects. Next, we will tackle line breaks. Students will learn that poets use line breaks for a few reasons: to make the poem sound a certain way, to make it look a certain way, and to create emphasis and phrasing. In a sense, line breaks give the reader reading instructions, much like punctuation does in most writing. Some students have moved from writing about insignificant object to significant ones. We will work to revise our poems, infusing them with truly descriptive language to engage our audience.

This Thursday and Friday at 2:45 are the LAST two meetings for information about the trip to Puerto Rico. If you are interested in learning more, please come to the Spanish room (K-1) in the Kindergarten wing. If you can not attend, read Señora Bockman-Pedersen's blog and click on the 'Vamos a Puerto Rico' page. ¡Gracias!  You may also email Señora Bockman-Pedersen at bbp@shorecrest.org for more information about the trip.

This week students completed their electricity project Voice Threads. Look for published Voice Threads here at the end of the week.

Upcoming important events:
November 7: no school
November 11: Poetry in the Park
November 12: Seussical
November 21 - 25: Thanksgiving break

Happy birthday to me.

What a terrific day! Thanks to all of you for helping make my birthday a truly special one. In particular, the collective quest to lure author Kate DiCamillo to Shorecrest for a visit moved me. What a fantastic idea! I so enjoyed reading all of the students' persuasive letters, particularly because their words reveal to me that they are making a connection between what we read and their own reading and writing. What a treat. And special as well were the letters from my colleagues at Shorecrest. I am touched that so many took the time to send such kind thoughts my way. In addition to this gift, I so enjoyed receiving lunch (what a luxury) and sharing gelato with the class in the afternoon. The class gift (as if all of this was not enough) of the gift card to Bella Brava and my choice of symphony tickets--well, wow. While I am not sure that all that was lavished upon me is deserved, it most certainly is appreciated. Thanks to everyone!

Last week, to aid in the understanding and recall of information regarding Jamestown and the growing colony of Virginia, students participated in an activity using the clickers. Students used hand-held remotes to answer various questions projected from the computer about Jamestown. Students are able to answer each question anonymously, after which collective correct and incorrect answers were displayed so that students may get a sense of the groups' understanding. The activity was engaging and certainly supported student understanding. The next time we use the clickers--most likely as we learn about the Pilgrims--students will compose the questions, including the correct and incorrect answers that will become the answer choices for each query.

Students are working diligently to complete their electricity projects this week. Last week, students gave life to their storyboard sketches by taking photographs of each step of the processes they intend to teach. After taking their photos, students uploaded their photos to iPhoto and did some basic editing. After selecting their best photos illustrating each step in their processes, students renamed their photos and uploaded them to their Voice Threads. This week, students will finish writing the text to accompany each slide and make voice recordings of their scripts. Once their Voice Threads are completed I will publish the links.

We continue to work to improve our conversations with our partners in reading workshop. While reading, students are expected to record their thoughts on Post-its. When talking with their partners, students are then able to use their Post-its to help guide their conversations. Last week we placed blank Post-its in our books prior to reading. Students are then prompted to record their thinking in writing when they encounter the strategically placed papers.

Using these notes to initiate and guide conversations is a terrific way for burgeoning readers to support discussions about books. And rather than simply reading their notes to one another, students are being encouraged to stop and talk about one another's thoughts. In this way, discussions dig deeper and reflect more closely how we really talk about books that we enjoy. On this we will continue to work all year.



Our trip to last Friday's grand opening festivities at the new athletic center was fantastic. Students were in awe of the new building; their first look at the mammoth lightning bolt donning the ceiling of the athletic center lobby inspired oohs and ahs all around. As we entered the main gymnasium and sat in the bleachers, students could be overheard imagining all of the ways in which they will enjoy and use the building, in p.e., intramurals and, eventually, as members of Shorecrest's athletic teams.

We were all so proud of Asher for speaking eloquently and confidently as a representative of the entire Lower Division about what the new athletic center means to him. Asher also helped describe the contents of the time capsule, contributed by each grade level across all divisions. The fourth grade teachers thought it fitting to add a p.e. uniform and bag since the rite of passage into changing into p.e. clothes begins in fourth grade. Two photos of the whole class were added as companions to the bag; one is posted here. We imagine that in ten years when the time capsule is recovered, students will look back at the photos with matching smiles.

Because a number of students have been coming to school with incomplete homework, we spoke last week as a class about the importance of fulfilling our academic obligations. Without a doubt, homework is a part of life in school. There will likely be times when students feel that they do not have time to complete their homework at night. I understand--running out of time in the day happens to all of us. However, this does not mean that we are not responsible for meeting expectations. If there is an occasion on which a student is unable to complete homework, that student will still be held accountable for completing it during recess. It happens--we adjust and move on. Students are always allowed to have recess after completing their work and sitting out for a bit.

On that note, if your child has a afternoon/evening during which s/he is particularly overextended, please contact me via email. Your child and I can then make arrangements to adjust the schedule accordingly. As an example, the student may complete more reading one night in order to do less on another. Thank you for your support!

Upcoming important events:
October 25: author celebration, 8:30 a.m.
October 28: costume parade and Fall Festival (10:00 a.m. dismissal)
November 7: no school
November 11: Poetry in the Park
November 21 - 25: Thanksgiving break

Celebrate!

McKenna reads her lead.

Fourth graders did a tremendous job presenting at Town Meeting this morning.  One area of focus in writing has been to craft leads that will capture the attention of the reader and make that reader want to read on. Many different types of leads have been modeled for the students, including leads that jump right into the action of the story, leaving the reader to wonder from the start what will happen next. Students who shared this morning volunteered to do so, and how wonderful that they have taken such pride in their work that they are comfortable doing so. Special thanks to Lindsey and Samuel for leading the Pledge, Ryan and Sean for leading the school motto, Ari for acting as introducer, and Aliyah, Will R., Jared, Renata, McKenna, Lindsay, Sammy and Kyra for sharing their leads. What a terrific way to begin the week.

I hope that you will all be able to join us next Tuesday for our first "official" author celebration. Students have been working diligently to compose high-quality personal narratives and have each chosen one to share next Tuesday. The students are very excited to share their work with you.

Batteries and bulb in series.

We had a particularly exciting time in science last week. Early in the week student explored series circuits. We discovered that when placing more batteries within our simple circuit, we were able to shine our light bulbs more brightly. Alternatively, when we added another light bulb to the circuit, the light bulbs dimmed. Then we added switches to our circuits--which we learned how to make last week from a few simple materials. These switches, of course, controlled both light bulbs equally; when the switch was on, both bulbs lit, and when off, both were off.

The following question was then posed to students: Is your house filled with series circuits? How do you know? Students were quick to connect their learning: in a series circuit, one switch would control all of their lights, and they clearly knew that in their houses, there are multiple switches that control multiple lights independently. At this time, I drew for them an example of a parallel circuit and asked them to describe how it was different from the series circuit. In a parallel circuit, the light bulbs are connected to parallel wires. (We also used two batteries in series.) Students noticed the difference immediately, of course. I then challenged them to figure out how they could use switches to allow both lights to be controlled independently.

Students eagerly got to work. It was exciting. After many trials, groups across the board could only control one bulb in each of their circuits independently of the other. After drawing on the board what they had all done, and where they had all placed their switches, students were quick to figure out how they needed to edit their circuits to solve the problem at hand. Today, students turned their plans into reality by testing last week's theory. As a result, student were able to create light bulbs in a parallel circuits with switches that controlled their bulbs independently.

Ryan, Sean, Will and Aliyah were the first to create the working, two-switch parallel circuit.

Students are continuing their study of electricity in technology by creating Voice Threads to teach about a topic learned in our unit. As you might predict, students have chosen primarily to teach their audiences how to create either series circuits or parallel circuits with switches. Students, working in partnerships, are responsible for planning their Voice Threads using storyboards, on which they are sketching their images as well as writing their scripts. Then, they will be using digital cameras to take pictures to match their sketches to illustrate each step of their processes. Once photos have been uploaded to iPhoto, students will select their best images, upload them to their Voice Threads, and narrate each slide. Stay tuned for the completed projects to be published in two weeks.

Students are being introduced to new reading logs this week. The new logs will require students to not only keep track of pages, minutes and genres read, but will ask them to record thoughts in writing both before and after they read each time. Expect to see them coming home Monday; I will be modeling effective entries all week.

In addition to expanding our work in our logs, students will be focused this week in writing quality Post-it responses as well as using those Post-its to help guide their partnership conferences.

In math this week we begin our study of decimals. In this unit, students will be building upon their knowledge of place value, learning about tenths, hundredths and thousandths. Students will be comparing and ordering decimals as well as adding and subtracting decimals. Included in this unit is a focus on metric units of length, which of course supports students' understanding of decimals as both systems are based on ten. Students will be likely assessed on the material in unit 4 at the end of the first week in November.

In social studies, we are finishing up our study of Jamestown. Students will be assessed on understanding of content and processes taught on Friday of this week. The study guides students have completed over the course of our study continue to be scaffolded heavily by me. While I will always read the chapters aloud, over time, students will be expected to do more and more of the work independently. At the end of last week I collected students' work and gave suggestions to them on how to improve their question responses. My notes are written directly on their papers. I hope that students will take the initiative and revise their work to meet expectations. On Tuesday we will learn about the importance of the year 1619 in Jamestown, and this will culminate our learning about Jamestown as we move onto other English settlers, the Pilgrims and Puritans.

Jared uses a flip chart to help him recognize correctly spelled words.

Today we had our first spelling assessment. Students were responsible for learning the words with which they were unfamiliar on the pre-test. More importantly, though, students were expected to know and be able to put into words the silent-e generalization that framed our spelling pool:

When a suffix beginning with a consonant is added to a word ending in a silent e, keep the silent e. If the suffix begins with a vowel, drop the silent e.

Clearly, many students had studied their spelling words. However, many failed to learn the generalization. As important as learning the words is knowing the generalization. If one knows the generalization, one is able to apply it to other words in other situations. Then, our spelling becomes a practice in application rather than just in memorization.

I realize that many of you view our blog though an email notification. Unfortunately, you cannot view many features of the blog in this way, such as seeing the pages, accessing the web hyperlinks, and connecting to our photo gallery. I do hope that you will find the time to view the blog by linking directly to it on line on occasion.  Blogs are published every Monday (evening, at the latest), so you will always be able to view it at that time.

Upcoming important events:
October 21: Athletic Center Grand Opening, 1:45 p.m.
October 25: Author Celebration, 8:30 a.m.
October 28: Costume Parade, 8:30 a.m. and Fall Festival, 10:00 a.m. (10:00 a.m. dismissal)
November 7: no school, staff professional development day
November 11: Poetry in the Park

We are mathematicians.

Sammy and Sean play Name that Number

This week in math, we end unit three. In this unit, students have learned about factors, multiples and fact families, reviewed measurement and have practiced completing What's My Rule? tables. Of course, these skills have been taught before, but as we spiral through the program, they become more challenging. Students have also encountered the beginnings of algebra, identifying true and false number sentences, focusing on using parenthesis to change the meaning of number sentences and solving number sentences that include variables. We also focused on strategies to solve multi-step problems (what we would have called story problems when we were in school!). Students have enjoyed playing many games to help support the skills in the unit. Particularly enjoyable have been Multiplication Baseball, Name that Number and High Number Toss.  For students who enjoy pushing themselves, all games have more challenging versions that students may opt to play.

As we have moved through the unit, we have also been focusing on quick retrieval of multiplication facts. Multiplication facts continue to be pieces of information students need to know quickly and accurately in order to expand their foundation of knowledge in math. Within this unit, students began taking quick timed tests to help them judge their accurate retrieval of multiplication facts. Be assured that the days of timed tests with results compared amongst students are gone. These assessments are instead designed to help students focus on their own progress as they graph their accuracy over time. So far, students have taken just two of these timed tests; another will happen this week. Students are able to see what they are able to complete in a one-minute as well as a three-minute time period. While the first experience with the facts assessment can be a bit stressful, students quickly become focused on how their recall and accuracy change over time rather than on how they compare to their peers.

Samuel, Ryan and Joshua play High Number Toss

This week, we will begin a teaching new model in math two days per week. On Mondays and Wednesdays, students will work in groups and cycle through various activities and teaching so that I may better differentiate instruction. Students who happen to be struggling with a particular skill will receive more guidance, while those who need to be challenged in a particular area will be pushed. As with any new set of routines, this will take some time to learn, but hopefully soon we will be running through this cycle smoothly.

In fourth grade, students receive homework based on what was taught in class that day. With math lessons nearly every day, students will almost always have a study link to complete each night.  Of course, there is an expectation that students are reading at home each night for a minimum of 40 minutes and completing their reading logs. We hope that time spent reading each night is focused and on task, else it serves little purpose. In time and on occasion, students may be asked to reflect on their home reading with a writing task. In addition to math and reading, students may also have some combination of social studies, vocabulary and spelling work, depending on what was taught that day.

From 8:05 until 8:30 nearly every morning, students check their study links and complete a math box activity. During this time, every student checks in with me, reviewing with me their math box work; at this time, if they have questions about homework, students are expected to ask. Periodically and randomly, I ask students to bring their study links with their math boxes for my review. Other work in vocabulary, spelling and social studies is collected and reviewed, but not daily. Problems encountered in those subject areas are addressed during instructional times throughout the day.

Ultimately, with regard to math, students' math boxes are a far better indicator to me of problems than are study links. Because students have the answers for the study links at home, and because some of them complete their work with parental guidance (which is perfectly acceptable if you choose to do it), the study links do not reliably indicate students' challenges to me. For this reason, it is far more valuable for me to spend time reviewing math boxes, which I will continue to on a daily basis. My periodic checks of study links look for evidence of correcting mistakes they have made and then found when using the answer key. Simply changing the wrong answer to the correct one is insufficient. On days when I do not ask to see the study links, students are expected to come to me with problems they may have encountered on their study links.

This week, student will engage in a brief spelling unit on the silent e generalization. On Monday students took a pre-test; any words that students do not know how to spell will become a part of their spelling pool for this unit. Students are also expected to learn the generalization. Next week, students will take an assessment on the words they have been studying. Students will also need to record the generalization on the test as well. Finally, all students will be given three new words; in order to correctly spell these new words, students must know and apply the generalization.

This weekend, students completed the first unit in their Vocabulary from Classical Roots books. We are very excited to be using this book as a part of our vocabulary instruction as it emphasizes root words that, when learned, will help students understand words beyond those that they study as part of each lesson. Once students have completed the first three units--learning six roots--they will choose six focus words from a list that includes eighteen words they have seen in the book as well as new words. Students will engage in activities to better learn their six focus words but will not be responsible for the entire list (as they were for Edward Tulane).

These eighteen words will also become students' spelling words, which will be studied as they engage in work surrounding their focus words and only after our current mini-unit in spelling. At the beginning of the process, students will also take a pretest on all eighteen words. Students will then only be responsible for learning to spell the words that they did not already know how to spell. To culminate, students will take their vocabulary and spelling assessments on the same day. The entire cycle--from the Roots book to the assessments, should take about three weeks.

Picture retake day is next Tuesday. If you sent an order in for the first round, the office held onto those and we will redistribute them on Tuesday. I imagine that the photos already taken will be distributed this week, so that if you are dissatisfied with the picture, you may also have it retaken on Tuesday.

Important Upcoming Dates:
October 14: no school
October 17: our class presents at Town Meeting
October 18: picture retake day
October 25: author celebration (8:30 a.m.)
October 28: Fall Festival--10:00 a.m. dismissal

Teaching one another

Aliyah and Ryan sit in the fishbowl and model an effective conference.

In writing workshop this week, students began peer conferencing. In order to begin teaching students good peer conferencing practice, Matthew and I modeled for students both rotten and fantastic conferring sessions. To model, we use what is called a fishbowl: those who are modeling sit in the center of a large circle of everyone else and engage in the activity (in this case, conferring). The members on the circle must observe without commenting, but are able to share their ideas about what worked and what did not once the modeling session has concluded.  Since the first day, a number of students have volunteered to sit in the fishbowl to model effective conferences.

When conferring, students are expected to sign up on a magnetic board when they have an issue they need help resolving. Thus, when they arrive at the conference with a peer, each student is responsible for sharing with her/his partner in what way(s) they need guidance. Partners are expected to reflect on the author's needs and give very specific ideas to address the problem at hand. No student should, in a conference, sit down and tell a partner, "I would like to know if you like my story." This is not a specific need. Rather, an author is expected to take responsibility for her/his own work and ask a specific question, such as "Does my story zoom in on the important parts and paint a picture in your head?" or "Does my piece give enough detail so that you are able to see the movie of it in your head?" or "Does my lead grab your attention?"

It is the audience member's job to listen intently, give some positive feedback, and then address the author's concerns. The authors know that they may take their peers' advice or not. Once one author has read her/his piece and received constructive feedback, the two students switch roles and begin the process again. An entire peer conferencing session should take about five to seven minutes.

Our goal is to complete and publish personal narratives in time to have an Author Celebration the week of October 24th. Currently, I have tentatively set the date for October 25th at 8:30 a.m. in my room. I will let you know as soon as I am able if this date changes. I hope that you will all be able to join us. Author Celebrations are a highlight of the year.

In reading workshop last week, students spent a great deal of time learning about and using the rubric-style scoring guides that outline the expectations for both behavior and strategy and skill application when reading independently.  Both scoring guides are built around learning objectives.

This first scoring guide outlines expectations for behaviors: does the student act like a reader with consistency? The gray boxes indicate at what level we expect the students to be right now. As time moves on, those gray boxes will all migrate to the left.

This second scoring guide outlines expectations for strategy and skill application.

This scoring guide is designed to help assess whether a student is applying what has been taught to her/his own reading practice. As time moves forward, not only with the gray boxes move toward the left, but additional expectations will be added to the scoring guide.

Students each have copies of both scoring guides. As they work, they have been encouraged to use Post-it flags to determine where on the rubric they believe they are. Students are learning to be more self aware and responsible for their own learning. They have set goals for themselves as well, considering what they believe they need to improve.

In science, students continue to study electricity. Last week students created complete circuits using batteries, small light bulbs and wire. This week students will learn about parallel and series circuits as well as insulators and conductors.  As a class, we will also construct our own light bulb, creating a filament out of very fine wire. Next week, students will learn how to make switches and add them to their circuits, which is always fantastically fun.

Next week we begin another technology round. During this session, students will be working with partners to create Voice Threads that will teach their audience about a concept they have learned in science. Students will be creating story boards to plan their projects, then taking photographs to illustrate their instruction. The entire piece will also be narrated and then published when completed.

Eric and Kyra play High Number Toss

This Thursday is our first round of conferences. I have posted the conference schedule on a page above; just click the tab marked "Conference Schedule" to view the list. If for some reason you are unable to make your scheduled appointment, please contact me right away. Also, you can see that the schedule is tight, so please be on time for your appointment. If you are late, we may need to reschedule. I will also do my best to stick to the schedule. It can be tricky!




Important upcoming dates:
October 6: Conference Day
October 14: No school--staff development day
October 25: Author Celebration (tentative); 8:30 a.m.
October 28: Fall Festival