We are back and in full swing! So much to do, so little time!
In reading today, we began our discussion of metacognition. Students had a chance to make a Real Reading Salad with a mixture of text and thinking while I read a picture book. This began our awareness of what metacognition is. Next, we looked at our past reading logs and vocabulary words and chose 3 to focus on for this week's vocabulary homework. Students will work with the vocabulary words that they have collected up to this point as the homework for the rest of the year. This week, they need to "map out" 3 of these words by writing synonyms, antonyms, drawing a picture of the word, and finally creating an original sentence for each word. These 3 "maps" are due Monday, May 9. Next week, the assignment will be different.
Finally in reading, students chose the Avi books that they want to read. I book talked each of 6 books and they used their "Can It Be For Me?" strategy to choose the books. We will begin reading these books tomorrow. Students are being encouraged to read more than one of these books to get a real sense of how Avi writes. This author study will focus on vocabulary development as well as metacognition. It will take us until the end of May.
I will be providing students Tuesday and Thursday's class to read and log their 2 hours. If students are behind on their Genre Pie or if they need to read more to meet the 30 to 40 books completed by the end of the year goal, then I am encouraging them to read the 2 hours at home as well. If any child is absent for any part of the class that is devoted to reading (for a lesson, a dismissal or an absence), he/she is required to make up those minutes on his/her own time. Please let me know if you have any questions about this. The 2 hour reading in school requirement will last the rest of the year. The days of the week that we read could differ each week.
In writing, we talked about redundant writing. We looked at some sentences that were very wordy and whittled them down to the minimum. This provided for strong conversations about word choice. I'm hoping it transfers to student writing.
In science, we finally finished the Heredity Scavenger Hunt. I also went over crucial vocabulary words and their definitions for true understanding of the Genetics unit.
