Welcome to our
Language page! This site will be updated as the units we study
change. On this site you will find information as to what we are
learning about as well as activities and links. Any new link will
appear on this page as well as the "Links" page.
October 10, 2009
Our Focus in Reading this term is on the Overall Curriculum Expectation 1e22 - read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning.
This means that we will be doing a lot this term on using various comprehension and decoding strategies to help us read while reading a variety of texts.
Various texts will include fiction and non-fiction books, graphic texts such as calendars, environmental print, and signs, and informational texts such as the morning message, simple non-fiction books (i.e. about the weather in Science), and instructions.
The reading comprehension strategies we will be focusing on are: Predicting (before and during reading a book), Making Connections while we read (to self, text, and world), and Visualizing ("Making a Movie in our Head").
Decoding strategies include such strategies as sounding out the letter, finding word you know, skipping a word, reading ahead, and then going back to reread with a word that makes sense. Two letters (1,2) will be sent home in your child's book bag so that you may reference these strategies as you read with your child. It is very important to talk with your child about what they are reading. Talking about the reading will help to increase comprehension and make reading more enjoyable.
Students are going to be starting their book bag program the week of Tuesday, October 13, 2009. The books that will be going home in their reading book back will be books they are choosing based on interest. Along with their interest book, they will be taking home their shared reading duo tang in which all our poems, songs, etc. that we read together during the week are kept. The whole bag is expected to be returned on a daily basis. Students can take a new book out once the previous one is returned. This is not our guided reading program. Guided reading books will also be sent home on a nightly basis when guided reading begins (by the end of October). These books will be going home in a separate bag and will also need to be returned on a daily basis. The purpose of our interest book bags is to keep our children LOVING reading. Students are encouraged in class to read books three ways:
- Read the pictures
- Read the Words
- Retell the Story
If the book is difficult for them to read, read it with them or to them. Ask them to make up a story based on the pictures, or tell them to tell you what you read ("Check for Understanding"). Also, while reading their shared reading duo tang, ask your child why certain words are circled or underlined? You can then use this time to practice their "must know sight words" that we practice and put on our word wall on a weekly basis.
I am always expanding on the classroom library. Any books that you wish to donate for the year or suggestions for books I should borrow/buy are greatly appreciated :)
Our Focus on Writing is on Overall Expectation 1e44 - generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience.
Students will be learning about writing simple but complete sentences that make sense, using resources and patterns in their writing to spell some high frequency words correctly, and organizing ideas using various techniques. Time order (First, Then, Next, Finally) and Order of Importance ( Beginning, Middle, and End) are two main focuses this term.
Time order and Order of Importance will be learned through retelling familiar stories and procedural, or "how to" writing using pictured, words, labels, and/or sentences.
In our Daily 5 Writing Time, and in both our home and Monday journal, students work will NOT be corrected. Instead, we will be allowing them to write freely in order to begin to enjoy writing. During these times, students are encouraged to write about whatever they feel like writing that day. Spelling does not need to be correct (unless they are words on the word wall - and later in the year words that we have been learning, are around the room, or in the classroom dictionary). Instead, for example, when I reply to their Monday journal, I will choose one or two misspelled words, underline them, and then reply to their journal with a sentence that uses those words (also underlined for a visual reference) spelled correctly for future use. I encourage this in their home journals as well. Students LOVE writing to and reading letters from their parents, and what a GREAT way to teach them proper printing skills, line usage, and s,form, and spelling without telling them they did something wrong! Please continue to read and RESPOND to your child in their weekly home journal.
However, when their are writing lessons being taught, students are not going to be writing about whatever they want and some high frequency words WILL be corrected and will be expected to be correct.
One tip for home, that I use in my class, is to not have children focus too much on spelling. When we push spelling to our children, they lose the love of writing. Instead, encourage them to use the sounds they know and try it on their own. Then praise them for the sounds that they DID get in the word. Also, we use our "best friend" in class to underline words that we don't know if we spelled correctly so that we do not have to interrupt our great train of writing thought! Then, when we are finished, we can go back and try to get those words from a peer, the teacher, or the dictionary! This can also work when practicing writing at home!
** An author study will be done this term!!! I am undecided as of yet whether to do my study on Ezra Jack Keats or Mem Fox!?!? Look forward to a study being done in the very near future!
** Read more about the Daily 5.
October 12, 2009
** Book Bag Letter Home **
February 1, 2010
The new year has brought about some new and exciting things in Language Arts. We have been working on perfecting our letter writing skills, retelling stories that we are reading, and we are now into procedural writing. We have successfully begun our Mystery Reader program (thank you to our readers so far!!) and we are just starting up Reader's Theater (note sent home in your child's agenda). Please remember to have your child pick a "just right" book and practice every night for fluency and expression... our reading should sound like talking!! If your child is feeling nervous about their turn, write me a note in your child's agenda and I can arrange for some small group practice, prior to their time in front of the whole class, withing their guided reading group.
Earlier in the year I sent home two letters in your child's book bag (both attached above on the website) with strategies to use with your kids to get them thinking while reading, and some strategies for when they get to an unknown word. I encourage you to please review these and use them with your children when they read. Although I am looking for fluency when the students read, I am also looking for reading for MEANING. Ask your children to tell you what happened in the book once they have finished. Are they able to tell you the problem? the solution? the most important events? Retelling is a reading strategy we have been working on since the beginning of January. It is a hard concept for some kids to grasp, especially the most important events part, so asking questions at home will help.
Procedural writing has just begun and already we are having some silly fun! This week we will be making pancakes as a class so we can eat, enjoy, and learn! If you have any ideas for some simple recipes we can make as a class, send them my way and we can try them out! My goal is to make a class "how to" book and recipes are ALWAYS welcome!
We have been working on our long vowel sounds, so please continue to help your child write out some words in their agenda when it is written in as homework. We are at the letter 'u' this week so we are almost done!
We will be moving onto verbs, synonyms and antonyms in the very near future.
