We have been working on building our reading and writing stamina. This past week, all three classes reached the 15 minutes of reading stamina mark and we got to celebrate by reading outside. When we are doing "real" reading, students are focused on reading good choice books, reading intensely, and falling in love with their book. We are working so hard this year, and building our reading stamina is our first step to success. :) On Wednesday, we kicked off our first project of the year with a fun game of DinoGo. Students got into small groups and went through the school solving clues and collecting fossils. Teachers all over the school got into the spirit playing different dinosaurs for the 4th graders to find. The 4th graders has an absolute blast playing DinoGo and are even more excited to begin our work for our Jurassic Night. :) Students have a school reading log and home reading log. The school reading log is glued into their reading notebook and will be added to throughout the whole year. The school reading log will track their reading at school. The home reading log came home today for some students and will come home tomorrow others. We are learning how to track our reading in class, so students will be tracking their home reading too. Students know that when they fill up a complete reading log, they can turn it in for another.
For the reading log, students are encouraged to write down all their reading. If they do 5 minutes in the car, they can log that. If they do 75 minutes at home, they can log that. We are working on creating, learning, and understanding our reading lives, and this will help us know when and how we read the best. J Of course, if their reading log isn’t with them at the moment they are reading, that is okay. As you are probably aware, fall conferences are just on the horizon. I am excited to share your child's STAR data, PARCC data and beginning of the year work with you. :)
Fourth graders lead their own conferences. We practice and prepare for conferences and value the fourth graders sharing their own learning with you. Since this is the first time they may be doing this, I ask that you are patient with your child as I am sure they are nervous. I will have conference slots from 4-8pm on Wednesday and Thursday next week. If these times don't work for you, please let me know and I am happy to set up another time. Today, the fourth graders went from being 4th graders to readers. HOW COOL IS THAT! We talked about what it meant to read intensely and how readers do this often. The 4th grade readers know that intense readers: -Read books they WANT to read -Read as if they are IN the book -Note the important things to talk about later (stop and jot) -Figure out confusing parts -Do the work the book is requesting We practiced reading intensely today while continuing to build our reading stamina. Readers used post-its to stop and jot and learned what it really meant to be "in" the book. We are so excited to continue our journey towards becoming the most intense readers we can be. Last week, we began to focus on building our reading stamina. We came together as a class to talk about what "real" reading looks like and then we set off to practice our "real" reading. Students were surprised at how low their reading stamina is at the moment and they are all excited to participate in some friendly competition as they build their stamina. Many students asked me if they could practice building their stamina at home and I LOVE that. If your child is interested in working on their stamina, I would recommend: -Setting a stopwatch -Watching while they read to make sure they are doing "real" reading. Please ask your child what "real" reading looks like. -The moment you see they aren't "real" reading, stop the stopwatch and talk with them about it. The goal for all 3 classes is to be "real" reading for 30 minutes by September 16th. Right now, the red block is in the lead with a little over 6 minutes. :) Today was a busy day in ELA. Students wrote and designed their final drafts for their Best Part of Me writings. I am so excited to read everyone's final drafts this weekend and will be sending home rubrics next week (fingers crossed).
While students were working, I met with each student individually to give them their book level and check their notebook organization. The majority of their ELA notebooks are super organized, but some students have some work to do. They are always welcome to come in at lunch (when I am free) to organize their notebook. :) Book levels look a little different this year as we are using letters instead of numbers. The levels are on an A-Z scale. Students will get constant updates on their levels and will record them in their notebooks. Students' book bags should be filled with about 3-4 books, with 2 of the books being on their level and 1 slightly below (as a "rest" book) and one slightly above (as a "push" book). I will be working hard with each student to make sure they are reading from books that are perfect for them and interest them. |
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