We had a good class today. The students were ready to learn and we got a lot accomplished.
How does one think? I propose that thinking is really made up of asking and answering questions. And since writing=thinking, it makes sense to spend some time cultivating the skill of asking good questions. When you get good at asking questions, you will never lack for anything to write about! Our Quick Writes This year will be focused on the skill of asking good questions. This time, students were given the topic of Pencils. In three minutes, students each generated as many as possible:
things about
topics pertaining to
aspects of
PENCILS
as they could think of. They had some GREAT ideas! Each week we do it, the better they will become.
Grammar
Students were given the KEY to all the grammar worksheets for this semester. I explained that as we work through our grammar–parts of speech and phrases–they will need to correct their own work. There is alot of learning that happens in that process! The KEY is also posted on Google Classroom–I won’t be handing out another one. For the most part, I will teach grammar mini-lesson and they will have some in class time to complete their worksheets. This works well so I can answer any questions they might have while we are all together. Today, we reviewed nouns, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs. They have four worksheets.
We didn’t take time to discuss Peace Like A River in Literature today. Instead, we will have a more in-depth discussion next week for a Literature Discussion. For homework, they will read chapters 4 & 5 and complete 3 Reader Response questions.
Writing
In the writing portion of our class, we shifted from writing a Key Word outline for factual articles into a different type of outline used for narratives (stories). It is called a Story Sequence Chart. Instead of choosing 3 key words from each sentence as in a KWO, I modeled how to answer questions for each part of a story: setting/characters, plot/conflict & resolution.
I wrote a blank Story Sequence Chart on the board and students copied it in their notes. I asked students to memorize it for next week. (There will be a quiz on it!)
Then we filled in the template together after reading Aesop’s fable “The Wind and the Sun.” Students are to finish it as homework and bring it next week. (I attached a copy of my SSC you can look at if you need extra help.) In the future, we will rewrite the fable using that chart.
Homework
Read Peace Like A River Ch. 4 & 5
Story Sequence Chart, Template & Source Text–Complete the template & bring it next week
Grammar–complete; correct your work!
Links for This Week
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