READING
04/13/15:
Today in class I am sharing this "flipped" video assignment. Students will have Monday and Tuesday night to watch this video and must be prepared to complete this assignment in class Wednesday - Friday this week. It is tile 14 on the Blendspace link: https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/XeaL_FJ1mC2yrw/continent-research-third-grade It may take a few tries to open; this will be good problem solving for students. (I had to click on it, click on something else and then click back on it for it to work.) Also, if your child cannot watch it at home, he/she can watch it during arrival or dismissal. 03/26/15: Lots of learning and reflecting have happened this week! We are in stations full force. Students spend approx. 25 minutes in each station. READING Station 1 and 2 students are independently reading working on growing a theory of their subject (biography). There they set a volume (pages read in 25 minutes) goal and turn in one stop and jot a day. Thank you to the many parents who helped their child find a biography, they are so excited. Some countries were more difficult to find influential people so we had to compromise. Here are the focus questions we have worked on asking ourselves as readers this week: 1. When did the subject make a pivotal choice? What were the consequences? What can others learn from this? 2. What challenges or obstacles helped your subject? What can I learn from this? 3. What did the character learn (about life)? How does this apply to me? 4. Study relationships. Who's in the subjects life? How does this relationship impact this person? WRITING Stations 3 and 4 students are working on writing brave and bold opinions. Here they are ALL OVER THE PLACE, literally. Getting up and down looking at anchor charts, reading research, working in partners drafting partner stories. I have really let students think freely and openly about using their voice to change the world. Blendspace resources are below. RESEARCH Station 5 and 6 students are working on researching their country and taking notes for BIG IDEAS. Reading for the purpose of locating information is very difficult skill for some. Research is due Monday (end of day). Blendspace resources are below. Don't forget... Mock EOG reading Monday and Mock EOG math Wednesday! 3/25/15: Correction... The mock EOG for reading will be Monday, March 30th and math will be Wednesday, April 1st. Monday, April 1st 3rd graders will take a mock EOG in math. This is an opportunity for students to learn what the EOG will look like and feel like. The purpose of the Mock EOG’s is to gather additional data, simulate EOG’s for our students/ staff, and provide feedback to students and staff. This is not a graded assessment. We will be completing a test prep unit after Spring Break. The data from the mock EOG will be used to guide me in teaching strategies and skills. We will start the mock EOG at 8:00 so all tardies will be sent to another classroom. Here are a few tips to prepare your child (today and everyday for learning) - 1. Ensure your child has a good nights sleep. 2. Ensure your child eats a good breakfast. 3. Encourage your child to do their best. Describe effort! Give students examples of how they can do their best. "Brain On" stamina is key! Use their test taking strategies (These are some of the strategies we have talked about in class --- Rev up your mind, skim and scan, and answer the questions with evidence which may require them to look back in the passage, re-read to double check, read every passage, twice if necessary.) 03/19/15: We received some important dates this morning for testing that you all need to be aware of: - Reading Level and Fluency testing will occur sometime between April 27th and May 15th - MOCK EOG - students will participate in a practice EOG for reading and math. This was created by the district and will run as if it is the real EOG. It is important that all students participate in this practice to make sure they know how the real testing climate will be and how the test will look and feel (stamina, length, complexity). Our scheduled dates are March 30 (math) and April 1 (reading). - EOG May 21st and 22nd (reading and math) - Make up testing and retakes for EOGs will run THRU June 2 - Read to Achieve test will occur AFTER June 2 Please limit absences and tardies during these times so that your child feels prepared and ready for their day. 03/17/15: Here are a few reading and writing updates... 1. Writing! We have moved into opinion writing and I have never seen so much writing. Our students sure do have strong opinions. You guys are definitely having strong conversations at home and I am hearing some strong claims and evidences. Here is a Blendspace of all the writing work that we will be doing. I am doing a modified "flip" of instruction in writing so students will be working through these tiles on their own during stations. That means I will be relying on students to read and use the resources on Blendspace independently before the bell, at home or during their station. At the end we will be doing a flash draft for our final piece again. https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/JXG4_fw-aQ6ijQ/mize-wilson-opinion-persuasive-writing 2. Reading! We are finished with our China research and boy did I learn a lot of lessons on digital citizenship for our students. The number one lesson was, students do not know how to use a device as a tool for learning (most only use their device for a "toy"). There was a lot of small group work and teaching students how to use strong search terms to find exactly what they were looking for. Here is our Blendspace for our research. https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/XeaL_FJ1mC2yrw/continent-research-third-grade Our next step will be "continent" teams. Mrs. Parsons class will be working on countries in Asia and Africa and my homeroom will be working on learning more about countries in South America and Europe. Students will be working in teams of three. They will choose their countries on Thursday. This is a in class project but at the end we may need to send home for extra support/time, if needed. Please do not let your child leave their research at home...they will be so disappointed to miss out on their conversations with their team. 3. Reading Biographies. We will be diving into biographies Thursday of this week. We have tons of biographies in the classroom BUT we may need your help. I am asking every student to read about at least one significant person from the country they are researching! 4. Reading Volume...did you know students should read about 21 pages in 30 min. That means they should log about 42 pages a day in their reading log. As I research students using their logs and our conversations, some students are not reading enough books to grow as much as they need. Please help us grow our readers by encouraging them to read at a rate that grows them. Please let me know if you have any questions. 5. Word study was on hold while we made our way through a daily journal from China. We will resume our normal word study habits on Friday this week with "day 2" of our new words. 2/25/15: 1. Progress reports were sent home today. Please check PowerSchool, sign and return the sheet. Students took their end of unit assessment today and I will enter that formal grade as soon as I grade them. Re-test will be next Wednesday for those who score below 84%. 2. Home reading options. Research shows students need to build a reading life that is strong at school and home. Today some students struggled with the end of unit assessment due to a lack of stamina. Some students simply did have enough "brain on" energy to read and reread to prove their answers. Students should be reading for at least 20 min. each night at home and logging in their reading logs. Here are a few online reading options. You can Google search any of these sites. Raz-Kids (personal login cards were sent home last week) Tumblebooks (username weddington/ password books)BookFlix (username weddington/ password bookflix)BrainPop Jr. (username wedhills/ password brainpop)Trueflix (username ccschools/ password trueflix)Culture Grams (username cabarrus/ password student)NC WiseOwl(username wiseowl/ password wiseowl) 3. I will tell kids tomorrow or Friday, but I wanted to send it to you via email just in case Monday is the next time I see students (not that anyone would wish for a snow day or anything). Third Grade Read-A-Thon On Monday, March 2nd, we will have a Read-A-Thon to celebrate Read Across America day. Wear your pajamas to school and bring something comfortable to sit on (cushion, pillow, sleeping bag) Bring any books (Fiction and/or nonfiction) that you would like to read as well as: magazines, newspapers, or your electronic device. It will be a day of reading and a day of fun!!! 2/19/15: 1. Homework for tonight is this our weekly "green" comprehension sheet. It is due tomorrow. Thank you for the support you are giving your child at home in regards to the written comprehension question. I am seeing a difference in class based on your expectations from home! A little teamwork is going a long way! Please look for a comprehension sheet each week. Raz-Kids written comprehension sheets were sent home as requested today. If you did not get your packet, let me know. I had many students request their own packets after seeing others want them. Please feel free to substitute one night a week to Raz - Kids and the written comprehension sheet. *The packet includes every written comp. sheet for your child's "just right" level, don't feel overwhelmed...just one story a week, two questions per book. If your child is absent they have 5 days to make-up any missed work. I write their name on the missing assignment and place it in their "mailbox" for their return. Please be on the lookout for any missing assignments to be completed at home. 2. Grades have been updated and comments for all missing assignments are posted. If you see a 60% with a comment missing, (Will someone let me know, can you see the comment?) this assignment was never turned in. Please look for missing assignments in your child's book bag and binder. Also, did you know that you can sign up for weekly emails from PowerSchool! Check out that feature when you check your child's grades. 3. Writing, Writing, and More Writing! Students are loving publishing their expert pieces! The goal is to post them all to KidBlog! Flash Drafts for writing. We are ending our informational unit and starting our unit on opinion writing. With that I will assess students writing skills in both genres with a flash draft. Monday we will flash draft informational writing (assessment for grade) and Tuesday we will flash draft opinion writing (pre-assessment for goal setting). I will share this with students tomorrow and Monday but here is a quick description. For informational writing, students will be given the prompt: "Think about a topic that you've studied or that you know a lot about. Tomorrow you will be given 45 min. to write an informational (or all about) text that teaches others interesting and important information and ideas about your topic. If you want to find and use information from a book or another source to help you with this writing, you may bring that with you tomorrow. Please keep in min that you will only have 45 minutes to complete this. You will have only this one class period, so you'll need to plan, draft, revise and edit in one sitting. Write in a way that shows all that you know about informational writing." For opinion writing, students will be given the prompt: "Think of a topic or issue that you know and care about. Tomorrow, you will be given 45 minutes to write an opinion or argument text in which you will write your opinion or claim and tell reasons why you feel that way. When you do this, draw on everything you know about essays, persuasive letters, and reviews. If you want to find and use information from books or other outside sources you may bring that with you Tuesday. Please keep in mind that you will have only 45 minutes to complete this. You will have only this one class period, so you'll need to plan, draft, revise and edit in one sitting. Write in a way that shows all that you know about opinion writing." *If you want to help your child collect resources for their flash draft that would be great, but it is not necessary. Students may use information from their state projects, science, social studies, Mrs. Bralley, books in their book boxes, Raz Kids etc... too. 4. Also, if your child is publishing their writing on their personal device I need your help in sending the writing to me electronically or uploading in a KidBlog post. I tried today but many of you have parental controls/restrictions (yay!) and I could not do it without your information. 2/6/15: Writing We are publishing! Students have worked hard to write their expert pieces. Now we are publishing. I gave the students several options for publishing. Two technology based and two "paper and pencil" based. They can choose to use the app Book Creator (free version allows one published book or the paid version is $3.99) and Explain Everything ($2.99). Both apps are on my 7 school iPads but if a student chooses to use their own device they will need to download the app. The two "paper pencil" options were, a book (like last time) or a tri-fold board. If a student chooses to publish using a tri-fold "science" board, parents will need to provide the board. I talked to almost all of the students about their publishing method and "approved" their choice. Please ask your child how they are publishing and if you need to download or purchase anything. Reading We are wrapping up our informational reading unit. This coming week we are working on comparing and contrasting more using the top hat organizer and reviewing main idea. If you are looking for some review in informational reading before our end of the unit assessment you can find passages on the Read to Achieve Live Binder Parent Resources link http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1326906 The R2A parent resources have passages for standards RI.1, RI.2, RI.3, RI.4, RI.7 and RI.8 that address most of our work in nonfiction (The only standard missing that we taught but is not measured on the R2A passages is RI.9, compare and contrast.) Our next reading unit is pretty exciting too and will start around the week of Feb. 17th! Students will be selecting a country they are interested in learning more about. They will be reading informational books, a biography (scientist or inventor) and a folktale related to their chosen country. We will start with a shared / interactive study of China. If you have any artifacts or resources from China please send them in. Homework Every week your child will bring home a green sheet with a constructed response question. This sheet is due every Friday. Also, students should be reading for at least 20 min. nightly, stopping and jotting as they go and recording their reading in their reading log. If you choose to have your child read from Raz Kids, the green sheet, or Read to Achieve Live Binder passages, please count that as their nightly reading. 1/23/15: Reading: In reading we are wrapping up our nonfiction unit, which will be completed at the end of February. Students will be learning about the different text structures nonfiction writers write in. Students will also be working with vocabulary and will learn different strategies to attack vocabulary words while reading nonfiction. And lastly, students will learn how to compare and contrast two articles on the same topic. Writing: In writing we are continuing our informational writing unit. Students have begun drafting their informational book and will work on revising their book and editing it as well. Students will also begin to think about text features they want to add into their informational book. 1/20/15: Thanks for all of the follow - up emails this weekend! I truly appreciate your involvement and support in your child's learning. A lot of parents are wanting feedback on how their child can improve or grow this next quarter. The one piece of advice I keep suggesting over and over is, students can track their thinking with stop and jots. This is such a good habits and a lot of students are not doing this at home. Reading is a commitment of time. Students need as strong of a reading life at home as they have in school. Some students are stopping and jotting at home and I am seeing tremendous growth with those who are. Homework --- This week (Tuesday through Thursday nights) students can choose to read for at least 20 min., stop and jot as they go and record in their reading log OR read and write on Kidblog. Please help your child write an interesting blog post with at least a beginning (introduction), middle and end (conclusion). 1/16/15: PowerSchool has been updated minus one set of papers (a grammar sheet, that will be added over the weekend). Please check Parent Portal and notice any assignment that has a comment. Any assignment noted as 60 and missing can be made up simply by turning in the assignment BUT I need the completed assignment before the quarter ends Tuesday. If you have any questions, please let me know. Some students have sheet(s) from today that need to be completed (we had time in class, 30 min. for each sheet!) 1/14/15: The third grade team would like to invite you to a special family night with your child. Who: Parents and students! Sessions will be interactive so please bring your child. What: At this time we will share information to further grow your child's reading skills at home. Sessions will be differentiated and are designed to meet the needs of your child. We will take some time to look at your child's current performance and data. When: Feb. 5th at 6:00 pm.This is a hands on session so please arrive a little early to pick up your child's book box from their homeroom and check - in. At that time, we will let you know the location of your session. Where: JV Washam Please RSVP using this link by Jan. 30th https://docs.google.com/a/cms.k12.nc.us/forms/d/16WZAI5ylYQoEP29-uyrcvGeN5geB6MXdpsvGCSNaAuk/viewform Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you all! (***Homework pass for all third grade students who attend!***) 1/9/15: Flashlight Friday was a success! Thank you to all who donated. Look at the JV Washam Facebook page for some pictures! Students will be working on a grammar sheet (we worked on capitals this week) and comprehension sheet with written comprehension each Friday. This will help review/reinforce good writing skills that are often overlooked. Reading This week we worked more in our nonfiction books. Here are a few of our teaching points that you may want to reinforce at home or ask your child about: 1. Main Idea --- take notes using boxes and bullets OR bullets and boxes! 2. Grow Ideas by asking questions, then predict the answers! Some stems we used were "How come...? I bet...." or "What if...? I bet..." 3. Reader accumulate the and change their thinking! Some stems we used in class were: "I was right! This section was about...but I did not know...!" or "At first I thought .... and now I am thinking...!" Writing We finished our plans for our informational writing piece and began drafting our introductions. We noticed how authors wrote introductions in the books we are reading and used two examples. We noticed most introduction asked questions and then gave the answers in a clever/catchy manner, shared some fun facts and gave the reader a bit of insight to what their book will teach! I look forward to finishing the drafting process soon! Look for a Writer's Workshop Wednesday homework activity this coming week. I will be sending home writer's notebooks and let parents go on a scavenger hunt looking for correct capitals and punctuation with a handy dandy highlighter! We are in the middle of our Reading 3D benchmark window. This is where students read a book, answer oral comprehension questions and written comprehension questions. They will also complete a DAZE (cloze passage) and be assessed on fluency. These are all things we have practiced all year and just help us monitor growth and develop further teaching/learning opportunities. Students in my classes are being assessed by Ms. DiVito (TRC) or other third grade teachers (fluency). Research shows reflective teachers seek advice from their colleagues for improvement. This will give me a different lens on student performance and help develop learning/instruction for the future. While I am assessing Ms. Divito's students we have had assistants cover classrooms. PLEASE remind your student to always be respectful but most importantly when I am away. I do not like it when I am given negative feedback on any of my classes! Thanks for the support. 12/1/14: NEW UNITS of STUDY! We are wrapping up our character unit and moving into a nonfiction reading unit. Students will dive into nonfiction reading so expect a shift in nightly reading selections at home. Our writing unit is also nonfiction writing. Attached is the student checklist and rubric for scoring the final piece (collected in Jan.). WORD STUDY We are in our second set of word study words, students are working on managing (organizing) their words and learning spelling patterns. Comparing sounds/spellings is very new to them and we are moving rather slow with this at first. If at anytime you want to work on or see word study just ask your child to bring their notebook home. HOMEWORK/Stop and Jots Thank you to all the parents who took the homework survey. It provided great feedback! Good readers stop and jot what they are thinking frequently, this helps us remember what we were thinking so that we can build stronger conversations, understanding and make strong connections. The nightly homework sheet is now completed in class for a weekly informal grade but I do ask that students stop and jot when they have BIG IDEAS! Please encourage this practice at home if you can. UPCOMING ASSESSMENTS Character Unit assessment Wednesday this week. MAP testing --- Thursday this week for reading Word Study --- at the end of our 5 day study (not always on Friday) Reading 3D --- fluency and reading levels benchmark in early Jan. 11/8/14: REPORT CARDS came home yesterday! Be on the lookout for the envelope. I had to leave early Friday (my daughter is not feeling well) and left my homerooms' with them for the sub. I am hearing from a lot of parents about the first writing grade this quarter! This excites me for two reasons, 1. parents are checking Parent Portal and 2. students are asking how they can improve! So, here is our writing plan moving forward until Thanksgiving break. WRITING Monday students will receive their writing pieces back with their pre-assessment (scored but not entered since it was a baseline) and their final piece with rubric and score attached. If students scored a 84% and below they will re-do their piece for a double grade (meaning, I will replace the first grade and add a second grade of the same value). If a student scored above a 84%, they will be able to apply those ideas in their personal narrative to another narrative (personal or imaginative). I want students to really embrace a "growth mindset" and use their first piece to grow! EVERY student grew from their pre-assessment to their post-assessment but we still have some skills to work on. Attached is the writing checklist students use throughout the narrative writing unit. Also, there is a model piece that we used in class as well. At any time, students can take their writing notebooks home. They just need to tell me and make sure they bring it back the next day! BLOGGING Block 1, my homeroom began their blogs today. Monday block 2, Mrs. Parsons' homeroom will begin theirs! READING Students are almost finished with their first book club book in our character unit. They have been tracking their thinking by stopping and jotting and sharing with their club. We are analyzing characters, growing theories and digging back into our reading by rereading. I am loving seeing reading logs reflect this practice too! At home you can support your student by ensuring they are committing to at least 20 min. a night to reading (Mon. - Thurs.) and stopping and jotting as they go. Each night students should "dock" one sticky note on their homework sheet or write directly on the sheet. In the past I have tried various types of homework and would like to receive parent feedback on the two weeks we have collected sticky notes. Please complete this survey by Friday, Nov. 14th. At that time, I will review the results and make changes if needed. http://goo.gl/forms/K4fegwnIi9 11/3/14: We are diving full force into student led book clubs following characters feelings, actions, sayings, and traits to grow ideas / infer character traits and feelings. Reading Homework --- Students should be reading at least 20 min. each night Monday - Thursday, stopping and jotting BIG IDEAS and recording their reading in the reading log. Also, if students are "struggling" with stopping and jotting, refer them to their toolkit! We practice this in class daily. Writing --- students just finished their first published narrative (personal, small moment story) piece and scores are being inputted to parent portal this week. All writing samples will stay in student writing portfolios in the classroom. Let me know if you would like to make an appointment to review your child's portfolio throughout the school year. Word Study --- we are going into our second week of word study. This week everyone is studying the same set of words, contractions. We are working on contractions using not, have, will and is. SO far we have completed a independent reading sort, independent writing sort, partner word hunt, and partner speed sort :) Kidblog is starting soon! Hopefully we will have time this week in the lab! If anyone is interested in discussing this at home here are a few of our discuss topics: 1. internet safety 2. rules for posting --- always drafts your blog first. Use a scholarly voice. Blog about different things (book reviews, recipes, reading responses, interviews, stories, advice, jokes, poems, videos etc...) Do not post anything personal! 3. Rules for commenting --- use a scholarly voice. Start with a greeting. Give the writer a compliment. Make a connection with the writer. Ask a question. Sign your first name. Proofread before submitting. October 2014: Students are working on growing ideas about characters. Ask your child to tell you about their READING TOOLKIT! This is an O-ring with "sentence stem helpers" they can use to push their thinking/understanding deeper. Please help your student remember to bring their reading log, book, and toolkit home and to school each day. 10/23/14: Students have been working on strengthening their thinking when reading by pushing themselves to stop and jot where it matters. The post it notes help sheet should help you with "coaching" your child while at home. Please know that stopping and jotting is helpful to students so that we can track their thinking and look back at our books with purpose, rather than thumbing though tons of pages. STRATEGIES DURING READING Use Post-It-Notes to help your Reading! By stopping and taking a few minutes to take some notes at important points in the story, you will REALLY help yourself understand complex texts. Try using Post-it-Notes, and stick them in the book, so you can reflect on/use that information later. Use them at: 1. Parts that make you think (about characters, events, relationships, etc…) 2. Parts that make you question/wonder & make predictions (or answer your question) 3. Parts that make you hope/want something to happen 4. Parts that make you feel different emotions 5. Parts that make you reflect (look back and wonder if the story could have been different) 6. Parts that you can relate to, or that remind you of your life, or people/events in your life 7. Parts that remind you of another story, the real world, a movie, or a song/poem, etc… 8. Parts where a character (& the reader) learned a lesson/changed in some way (Big Ideas) Here are a few of our anchor charts from reading! These charts show you all of the strategies students are learning in class.
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