Narrative Writing

Thanks to many of you for donating popcorn, bowls, and napkins.  The kids really enjoyed Friday's Popcorn Publishing Party.  It was a great time to celebrate and share their writing after the weeks of hard work they have poured into it.  I've also included some of our anchor charts (posters) that the students have worked from in this unit as they worked to create their best personal narrative essay.

Literature Circles

Most of the time, we spend a week on a particular reading skill or two, concluding our week with a literature circle where students meet in their lit circles (which are comprised of students reading the same book as they are) and discuss how they applied the skill to their workshop book.  Students have time to prepare for their time (usually marking a passage or two in their book) and then have time to discuss the week's skill or strategy together.  After their time, they reflect on their participation and contributions.  This week, before they began their lit circle discussions, students indicated a goal - maybe something they've struggled to do well in past lit circles.  You'll see this indicated on their theme lit circle paper.  In addition to being able to show they understand how to use the reading skills and strategies, it's equally important for them to be collaborative teammates which is why lit circles are so great - offering opportunities for both to students.

Unity Day

We celebrated Unity Day by making a paper chain uniting all of our ideas of ways to make school a safer place to be for all students.  

Learning Targets & Success Criteria

If you've been around Tahoma for a while, you know that we believe in clear expectations for kids.  Instructionally, this comes in the form of learning targets and success criteria.  Here's the goal, here's how you'll know you've been successful with that goal.  Here is an example of a learning target from one of last week's writing lessons along with its success criteria and student "proof" of reaching that goal.  The accountability that success criteria provides is a great way to be sure students understand the material and can exhibit their understanding.

Respect

Here is our social skills chart we kicked the year off with for respect.  Each time we change it (as I see fit), we discuss what it looks like and sounds like and they earn team points when they exhibit these!  See if your child can tell you what our new social skill is.

WIN Time Choice Board Example

Novel Choice Board

Novel _____________________________________________________

Name _______________________  Teacher _____

1	2	3	4
Write at least 4 predictions about what you think will happen later in the story (or after the end).  Why do you think these things will happen?	Create a graphic organizer (venn diagram) comparing and contrasting two characters in the story.	Compare two settings from the text.  How are they similar?	Draw a picture of the main character, and then write ten words that describe the main character.
5	6	7	8
Like the early explorers, write about a character that shows persistence and/or risk-taking.  How do they exhibit this?  Support with text evidence.	Design a comic strip that shows the sequence of events in the story.	Suggest a solution to a problem from the text.  Why did you choose that solution?	In 4-5 sentences, summarize what has happened in your book so far.

Grading Rubric
4	All of 3 with deep thought exhibited.
3	Paper is labeled with job number, novel title, student name, and teacher initial.  Job is complete.  All components are drawn, answered, or designed.  Information is correct and supported or justified..
2	Some incorrect information or job is incomplete.
1	Lots of errors, incomplete, hard to read.

Growth Mindset