Reading and Writing News from Mrs. Lambert

This year, we started Reading Workshop by discussing and practicing what makes a good reader, including how to choose a book, when to reread, and identifying genres. We've also summarized stories by sequencing the key events. During Silent Reading, scholars are reading chapter books.

We are currently learning how to use a Two Minute Preview in a variety of texts. In two minutes, scholars use text features to determine what a book, article, or passage is about. They may read the title, skim the back summary or review, flip through the pages to see the pictures, and read captions, headings, subheadings, and bolded/italicized words. At home, you can help your scholar to practice this strategy by asking them to examine different texts to figure out what they are about. Encourage your child to explain which text features (title, back, chapter names) were used to figure it out!

Coming up next in Reading Workshop, our scholars will use reading strategies for problem solving when meaning breaks down. We will also summarize and explain the lessons or themes in works of fiction. Please take the opportunity, while your scholar reads at home, to ask them about what they are reading. Could they summarize what they just read? Can they explain what the lesson is in their story or how the main character changes?

In Writing Workshop, scholars have been developing writing stamina by composing personal narratives about places that they've been. They viewed their Cannon Writing Portfolios, and they've reviewed third grade writing strategies and how to spell K-3^rd grade sight words. Scholars have learned about the 12 Stage Analytic Writing Rubric, which helps writers to focus their stories on one clear main idea. We have also discussed how to use mentor texts to guide how we set up and use descriptions in our stories.

This week, Scholars began a unit on using “Freeze Time” in their stories to describe to the reader what they were thinking, sensing, and feeling, and they describe the physical response to their emotions. Scholars will continue to develop writing stamina and work on strategically writing details to support a main idea in our compositions. Please ask your child about the parts (and hand motions) of “Freeze Time”!

Learning Objectives - Week 5

Reading:

I can preview texts to figure out what is important.

Writing:

I can use details to support a central idea in a narrative composition.

Learning Objectives - Week 4

Reading:
I can summarize and share my thinking about the texts I read.

Writing:

I can use mentor texts to improve my narrative writing.

Reader's Theater

Scholars had fun reading Reader's Theater Versions of Tacky the Penguin and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!

Learning Objectives - Week 3

Reading:
I can sequence the events in a story.
I can share my thinking about the texts I read.
I can summarize and share my thinking about the texts I read.

Writing:

I can use mentor texts to improve my narrative writing.

Getting to know you...

Scholars created Heart Maps to share about people who are special to them, their favorite things and hobbies, adjectives that describe them, important memories, and their goals for the future.

(Credit: http://writeonfourthgrade.blogspot.com/)

Learning Objectives - Week 2

Reading:
I can tell when I need to reread.

I can be a good reader by visualizing while I read.

Writing: 

I can see the characteristics of Emergent, Early, Developing, and Competent Writers.