First of all, I have spent the first few weeks of school getting to know my students with formative assessments around reading and writing. In building our classroom community, my students' first assignment was our Very Important Person (VIP) project. Students took on the role of being a reporter/journalist and practiced taking notes and reporting in a small writing and spoken piece about another student in our class.
To me, reading often and regularly is essential in improving Language Arts skills. My goal is to help students not only improve in their reading, but to also work on becoming independent readers who think about what they read. I believe that students need control over what they read, so I let them have many opportunities for choice in their reading as possible. Currently, students are working on their Book Review Project. I took students to our school library, and I had our media specialist help students find a book they would enjoy reading. My only rule was that their book had to be a novel for this assignment. After they have chosen their novel they will then take notes in their Book Review Journal. We have experimented with their reading pace so they are more aware of how much they read in 30 minutes. This will also help them to feel not so overwhelmed by having to read an entire novel as they can pace themselves and start to think about how long it will take them to finish reading their novel. Some are taking longer depending on their note taking style. If they take notes as they go, it may take longer. I remind the students that there is no one correct way to take notes, and we have shared student examples of note taking for this project. Most are on track and moving with greater speed. We have focused on writing details about their book's characters, plot events, settings, quotations, questions, and chapter summaries. I have been providing some regularly-scheduled class time to read so that it becomes more of a habit for them to have their book and to keep the momentum going with their reading. The kids are doing a great job. Their end product will be a book review write up to include a summary of the book, information on their favorite characters and passage in the novel, story map details, and whether their book deserves a 5 star rating. I have loved reading student book reviews in the past as their personal voice really comes through in their writing. Ultimately, students will get to share their reviews with their peers so they can hear about some favorite books. Students also know that they have to read and take notes for homework if they are to finish on time. Books are to be read and notes finished by Monday, Oct. 17th with their final book review write up due Friday, Oct. 21st.
In addition, my Advanced Language Arts class is working on preparing for their Oregon Battle of the Books project. We have created Literature Circles, which are like book clubs, where students read a novel from the OBOB list in small groups, take notes, ask questions, expand vocabulary, study characters, setting, and plot in order to have in depth discussions about their book. Students have set up group ground rules on their own and have designed their own calendar of due dates around finishing their reading of the book. My job will be to guide their discussions and develop reading and writing assignments that deepen their thinking about their books. Students are expected to take notes and complete assignments for their literature circles. I love that they are gaining experience in working collaboratively with their peers and taking ownership over their learning in this process. They have been doing an amazing job getting started. Their first novel needs to be completed by October 21st. They will read a new book every three-four weeks until the end of January. At that point, our media specialist will get students into official OBOB teams and prepare them for the state competition.
Most recently, we have spent a week working on our District Writing Assessment which will be my students' first scored writing work sample. This will be helpful in reviewing each student's need in developing and improving their writing skills.
It is obvious my students are ready to learn, and so far we are off to a wonderful start! Please feel free to email or call me with any questions or concerns you have about your child.
Quote:
“We read to know we are not alone.” |
 - C.S. Lewis |
