One more week to go....

With just one more week to go of 1st quarter, students have been working very hard reflecting on their growth...and boy have they grown!!!  With my help, students used various assessments and their iReady scores to set goals for themselves for next quarter.    

Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:

​In Langauge Arts...

• During RTI, students are learning how to participate in small-group instruction.  Using leveled readers, 5 to 6 students work together in a group at a time.  During this time students are engaged in pre-reading activities, this may involve activating prior knowledge, setting the learning objectives, going on a picture walk before reading, predicting, asking questions, etc...  Then students are asked to read the text quietly to themselves.  We stop from page to page to discuss comprehension and other specific skills a reading group is working on or focus on a specific learning need.  I may tap a child "on and off" during their reading just for me to listen into.  This is to check for fluency.  Students may volunteer to read out loud for the group if the objective is to model fluency, otherwise, taking turns reading out loud is not a common practice during small-group instruction in D103.  Research has shown that this type of reading has no student benefit.  Students end up doing less of the reading themselves (since they're listening-in much of the time), student should be accountable for the entire text, and it can be a humiliating experience for many.  
• As an extension from last week's Wonders curriculum, students revisited the following essential question:  How do families work together?  Students then answered the following question:  How does my family work together?  Students created tree maps to organize their family members with post-its and including each member's contributions to the family.  With the tree map helping them to organize their thinking, students then answered the questions about how their family works together using Q.A.D.E.
• In writing, students are publishing their writing.  This quarter students learned that writing is a process that takes a lot of time.  Let's recap the writing process students went through this quarter.  They started with a circle map and a one-day event idea and jotted down any relevant idea that came to mind.  Using their circle map, students thought of three "big ideas" about their one-day event they wanted to elaborate more on.  Then they created flow maps.  There flow maps helped them to sequence their ideas in chronological order with an introduction and a conclusion.  Then students learned about transition words and how it helps to organize thoughts, so they added those, where appropriate, on their flow maps.  Students then create a draft.  They conferenced with me, got feedback, drafted again or published with revisions.  Students learned a very important thing this quarter:  Writing is a process that only improves with each revision or draft they make.  

In math...

• ​We reviewed time to the hour and half hour.  Students used mini geared clocks to see how the hour hand is affected as the minute hand moved around the clock to the half hour.  It was emphasized how the hour hand is in the middle of 4 and 5 when the time is 4:30 and how we do not draw the hour hand at 4.  
• We also reviewed the double strategy and the near-double strategy to reinforce mental math addition. 
• Using their knowledge of place value, students compared three-digit numbers using greater than or less than language, then practiced with the symbols (< and >).  As a next step, students then ordered a set of three or more three-digit numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least.  
• Students learned about another mental math strategy, adding or subtracting 10 or 100 to any given number.  We first used base-ten blocks to show how a number like 756 changes when you subtract or add 10, then add or subtract 100.  Students learned to apply some mental math strategies here to be more efficient.   

In Social Studies...

• Students were put into groups and began to develop and create their skits about Stranger Danger.  In 2nd quarter they will be created a public service announcements for the younger 1st graders and kindergarteners to educate them on how to stay safe in risky situations.  

REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS

• I will be at another training on Monday and Tuesday 10/2-10/3.  This training is about phonics and reading instruction and will allow me to implement many wonderful and new strategies in the classroom.  Mrs. Uson will be the substitute again.  Tuesday is resource day, so they will spend majority of the day rotating through different resources classes anyway.  I have a full day of instruction planned on Monday and for the portion of the day they are in D103 on Tuesday.  
• A pink Parent/Teacher Conference Forms appointment form went home on Thursday.  Please mark your calendars for your child's conference time.