This is my favourite time of year for writing! It's time to introduce the students to writing sentences with question word sentence starters and specific verbs! Using these two components transforms students' writing and that transformation inspires them to be more mindful of their word choices.
To clarify:
Question word sentence starters- Students will be taught how to start their sentences in a variety of ways (where, what, how (ly), how (ing), when and who). Instead of starting most sentences with I, the, a or my, students can write sentences like this: Into the rushing river the grizzly splashed! (where starter in italics)
Specific verbs- Students will brainstorm specific verbs to match a chosen noun. These specific verbs help show the reader what is happening in the sentence. Example; bear- lumbered, towered, snatched, slumped, grazed, devoured
Last weeks, I introduced where sentence starters and we brainstormed specific verbs for the noun bear. The students were amazed by how awesome their sentences were!
Deep in the forest, the grizzly bear lumbered to his den.
In the river, the bear snatched a fish.
In a cave in the forest, the bear munched his lunch.
Behind a bush, the hunter hid from two grizzlies.
Inside the house, the baby bear devoured the porridge.
Over the next two weeks, I will introduce the rest of question word sentence starters to the students and we will then practice switching between the different types.
LANGUAGE ARTS - READING
Last weeks read alouds reviewed comprehension strategies in addition to discussing the difference between reading fiction and non fiction texts. One on one reading conferences continued to refine student strategy use and adjusted student reading levels. One student used 6 different decoding strategies in one conference! Way to go!
LANGUAGE ARTS - SPELLING
This week, we are going to focus on our Word Wall Words (www) and our new Back and Forth email routines. In order to make time for this, we are going to take the week off from Words Their Way. The second WWW dictation test came home on Friday. I just wanted to take a minute to clarify how I marked each sentence. Each sentence is out of 4 marks. One mark is given for a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence. One mark is given for proper punctuation at the end of the sentence (I make sure that I am super dramatic when I read the sentences out loud so that the students are easily able to identify the proper punctuation). One mark is given for spelling the week's WWW correctly. One mark is given for spelling past WWW correctly. It is important for you to know that students each have their portable WWW in front of them for the duration of the dictation test. All past WWW and the week's new WWW are on their portable word walls. Therefore, the is absolutely no reason for a WWW to be spelled incorrectly. Any WWW spelled incorrectly on the dictation test will need to be written out 5 times correctly at home over the weekend. All dictation tests should be signed by a parent and returned to the school on Monday morning. I really appreciate your support with this process as I try to encourage the students to take more responsibility for their writing mechanics (spelling, capitalization and punctuation).
MATH
We continue to work through our basic facts and mental math strategies in preparation for the challenging task of multi-digit addition. Many gains are being made by the students in this area! I am very proud of their focused efforts with these strategies!
No comments:
Post a Comment