Reading Grafitti Part 1

Using the Book The Secret Shortcut to learn about story organization

We recently shared the book The Secret Shortcut by Mark Teague as a model and springboard to learn about story organization (beginning, middle, end), adding details and using transition words to help a story flow. After we shared the story of two boys, Wendell and Floyd and their "secret shortcuts" to school - including a jungle, alligators and quicksand, students created their own story maps and devised new secret shortcuts. These maps included new amazing encounters experienced by Wendell and Floyd on their way to school. After drawing maps, groups created three detailed sentences to go along with each spot on the map. We then talked about how to connect these thoughts with transition words. We will be sharing these in class tomorrow. Next, students will be writing individual stories. They have two choices. Each person can write another version of a shortcut story OR they can choose from a variety of wordless picture books we have in the classroom to create their own story. Look for postings of story maps and group stories soon!

A few samples of group summaries for What is Science? and Draw a Scientist...

The 30 Book Challenge

We posed a challenge to the class this week.  The challenge is to read 30 books by the end of the school. year. While this may seem a daunting task, we did talk about the fact that it is supposed to be a challenge. The goal is for each 5th grader is to read 20 books by the end of the year, so this definitely raises the bar. Each person now has a chart glued in to the back of the reading journal to keep track. Book that have already been read this quarter certainly count! As part of the challenge, the books must be in a variety of genres, to push us all as readers out of our comfort zone. The genres include: realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, biography, autobiography, traditional (which includes folktales, fairytales, tall tales, legends) poetry anthology, graphic novel, mystery and five your choice books. This idea came from a book we read over the summer:  The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller

Book Groups

Beginning today, small groups will begin book groups.  With teacher direction, groups will complete readings, discussion and writing about a chapter book. The books we will be reading are shown below. One group will not begin a book group for about two weeks, until the other four groups are finished. This first round of book groups is very teacher directed. After this initial round, book groups will shift to more student led, with the teacher participating as a group member rather than a leader. Book groups accomplish a lot! (see post about why we do read aloud) Beyond read aloud, each individual has the opportunity to read the book independently and then interact with peers through discussion. When the book group is finished, groups will also decide on a way to share with book with classmates.

Farcebook Pages and a Digital Timeline

As a takeoff of a "facebook" page, each person is creating a "farcebook" page to share information learned about a scientist. This particular project gets at the steps of research: collecting articles, forming questions to guide research (as a class, we brainstormed information we thought was important to share with others about the scientists). This information included: scientist birthplace and date, death and any other fact regarding death, family and interesting information about family, intriguing fact about childhood, intriguing fact about scientist's life, major accomplishment(s) to science, how scientist made the world a better place and defining important vocabulary related scientist. Once all of this information is gathered from at least two references, information will be written on a farcebook template page. Pictures and at least one quote will also be included. A second piece to studying the life of a scientist is to create a digital timeline. Each person will choose a photograph that represents the scientist study. Also included will be the date  of the scientist's major contribution and a piece of writing. This timeline will be web-based, so can be accessed for all to view once we are finished. 

Exploring Science

For the last several weeks, we have been exploring what science means. We began with two activities: asking the question, "What is Science?" and Drawing a Scientist. After each person answered the question and drew a scientist, we met in small groups to compile responses. Pictures of those responses will be posted soon. We started with these two activities as a starting point, a way to gather information to show what we think and what we already know. We will revisit these questions after we complete our "Survival by Design" science study (a post about that in the near future), which will carry into the second quarter.

Word of the Week Web

We began looking at vocabulary this week by introducing word webs. The word web includes exploring different parts of the word: definition, syllables, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms, using the word in a sentence and creating an illustration. Up until this point, we have been giving words to look up and just discussing the definition.

Why Do We Do Read Aloud?

One of the 10 Principles of the Informal Program is "We view our school as a center for teaching and learning for all ages." The teachers at Wickliffe are participating in a learning group this year by focusing on a book by Samantha Bennett. She is visiting Upper Arlington to work with teachers this year. The book is titled That Workshop Book. One of things we recently discussed in our class after school was the use of read aloud. We decided to ask the class, Why DO we do read aloud? Below are their responses. They completely understand the reason for read aloud and put it into words better than we ever could have.

Why Do We Do Read Aloud?

•it’s fun
•we learn facts and information about the world
•discover new books, authors or series
•have time to relax
•learn new reading skills and strategies – like predicting, asking questions
•push us as a whole group to be better readers
•helps us learn about new books and books we can recommend to others
•learn new delicious words
•it’s a break from reading on our own
•it’s helps us to read better because we hear someone reading smoothly and with expression
•helps us be better writers because we hear language
•teaches us to make a picture in our head like a movie
•it is a time everyone can come together and listen to a good story
•if you liked the read aloud you can find another book by that author

Word Sorts

As part of the word work we do in class, each person creates two different word sorts. The pattern this week is the letter "y" used as a vowel.  Below is one sort created by a student. In addition to sorts, we look at patterns, we use literature and other texts to prove our pattern and we do lots of writing.

what syllable is the "Y" in?                            

first                second           third

keyboard       heavy             melody 
style              July                already
mystery         apply              quietly
                     reply              memory
                     story

Multiplication

We have started to review the four operations. We have reviewed addition and subtraction and are currently working with multiplication.  There are two processes (or algorithms) we are working with in math. The first (and probably the most familiar to parents) is what we refer to as "the old-fashioned" method. It is the way most of us learned multiplication. The second is partial products. Partial Products breaks the number down into ones, tens, hundreds, etc. and teaches each number to team up with another number and multiply. Students need to become fluent using one method.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Our current read aloud is the story of an eleven year old girl, Melody, who has never talked in her life. She has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Even though it is hard for her to use her body, her mind is sharp. She loves words even though she has never spoken a single one. We are learning that Melody has a great sense of humor despite the difficulties she deals with in her everyday life, many things that we take for granted. We previewed this story before we started reading it and formulated questions based on the information we had. (using the cover picture, the title, the inside book jacket and back cover. We are revisiting our questions to see if they are answered as we are reading. This really is an incredibly touching and uplifting story, even though sad at times. Melody has a strong voice and Sharon Draper has a way with words!