Sunday, April 27, 2014

A Peek At My Week Linky Party


Today I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughingsfor "A Peek at my Week."


So, this week, we're looking at three days of NYS Math testing. At least our school is testing in the morning this year. Last year we tested in the afternoons, and it was horrid!

When we aren't testing, we will be continuing our Social Studies online experience on Mission US, focusing on the American Revolution. This is a free site, and all kiddos need to do is register. We registered last week, and just login to play.

Our class is also participating in novel studies. I allowed kiddos to select the novel they would like to read, from a variety of appropriate texts that I wrote novel studies for. Basically, I've been modeling this all year through our read alouds. With a read aloud, we have a storyboard set up on the easel in the meeting area outlining all important story elements. This is the center of discussions. After reading and discussing a chapter, students answer short response questions either with myself or with a partner in their novel study journal. Now, our class read alouds will continue as they always have, but during Daily Five, students will work on their novel study when they are not meeting with myself. Check out some of the novel studies I created recently that my kiddos adore. These are AMAZING read alouds or independent reading texts! Click the covers below.










4 comments:

  1. I loved Ivan and Wonder -- great suggestions! Good luck with your testing this week. I hope this will be the end of it for you. :)

    Jennifer
    Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

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    1. I looooved Wonder! And Ivan was probably a favorite for the students. This week is our last week of hardcore testing...we still have the NYS Science test, but the kids actually really enjoy that because of the experiments!

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  2. I love your novel studies. I do literature circles, but definitely need to try this! Thanks for sharing.
    Jen
    Endeavors in Education

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    1. Thanks! Once I model responding in writing to literature through read alouds, and have established Daily Five routines, integrating independent novel studies into our Daily Five time is a treat for the students! I let them choose from the novel studies I have, giving them options that are close to their level. This year, I had a lot of kids request I Survived books, so I made a few novel studies using those texts, too, and the kids were PSYCHED! I was too...those I Survived books are really awesome!

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