I had the opportunity to go to UNH in Durham to talk with juniors and seniors who are studying to become teachers. It's hard for me to believe that it was 20 years ago that I was there in their places! I was able to show them some student portfolios and share what we do in the sixth grade. It was fun!
While I was gone, students worked on word choice activities involving the book Toad as well as another verb activity in writing. In reading they looked at some picture books and thought about their themes. Today, I picked up with that activity and gave them some common themes in literature. Then, they categorized the books they read into these themes. I'm attacking theme a little differently this year in hopes of making it more concrete for students. We are looking at the picture books because they have simpler plots and it makes talking about theme easier. I'm really trying to get my students to go back into the literature, quote passages that made them infer and make a conclusion based on these inferences. This is what the small guided reading groups are working on as well during this five day cycle.
In science, we're working on stations having to do with cell parts and their jobs. I'm looking to give a quiz on this material next week, perhaps Wednesdays. None of these stations are homework.
During the extra 30 minutes of class time, we are instilling a Guided Study Hall on Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays. During this time, we are hoping to let students get help on material that they have questions about as well as work on their homework. We hope to cut down on the homework load to make up for the extra time spent in school. Please let us know how you see this working for your children.
