Compare and Contrast Families

The latest assignment in Reading Workshop is to describe the family in the SSR book students are reading.  Then they have to compare and contrast that family with their own.  This is just another assignment in the group as students are working to respond to a prompt.

What is Your Dream?

Do you dare enough to dream?  What is your dream?  Although this clip is from a couple of years ago, the power of the song and the message hasn't weakened.

Organization for Writing a Response Post

The assignment to students was to write a blog post about how the main character in the book they are reading responds to problems he/she faces using specific details from the text to support their points.  

These are the two methods of organizing the essay:

¶1  Introduction—Title, author, purpose for writing, and describe the problem
¶2  First Response—How the character reacted and details to support it.
¶3  Second Response—How the character reacted and details to support it.
¶4  Third Response—How the character reacted and details to support it.
¶5  Closing—wrap it up

or

¶1  Introduction should include the title, author, and purpose (what you are going to write about)
¶2  First Problem's Response—How the character reacted and details to support it.
¶3  Second Problem's Response—How the character reacted and details to support it.
¶4  Third Problem's Response—How the character reacted and details to support it.
¶5  Closing

By the way, you can write more paragraphs. :)

Character in a Book

Students wrote a blog post about the main character in the book they are reading. They shared how the character acts, thinks, and feels and compare him/her to themselves. This should have an introduction and conclusion, and should be at least 5 or 6 paragraphs. Students had two days to complete this assignment.

Hey Students, Who is in Charge of You?

I am spending the next three days at the Ohio Etech Conference.  This is a chance for me to be the student and learn about using technology in the classroom.  Many of the ideas that we use in Reading Workshop originated from past conference.

This brings me to the topic of this blog post

HEY STUDENTS, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

Whenever I am not at school, I learn a lot about the students.  I find out who is motivated and successful.  Is that you?  Or do you need your mom or dad or teacher telling you what to do every minute of the day, just to be successful?

Do you see a substitute teacher as someone that you can try to take advantage of or do you know that you need to be understanding and responsible?  Will you be the one that gets the sub to write a note about how this was such a great class?  Or will you get a trip down the hall to visit the principal?

Do you know that everything you do during the next three days will be for a grade?  Do you know that I will be reading blog posts about the characters in Watchers Rewind?  Do you know I will be monitoring Study Island scores?  Or are you a motivated student that is going to do your best just because you have pride in your grades and your blog?

Good luck the next three days, Reading Workshop students.  I am anxious to see how you do.  In fact, I can't wait until Thursday when we discuss this post.  In the mean time, please think about what you do and what it says about you!

A Spiderwick Kind of Class

The students in 604 have been infected by Spiderwick.  Over half of the class has read at least part of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's five book Spiderwick Chronicles series. These books venture into the world of fantasy with an easy to read style.

In book one, The Field Guide, after their parents get divorced, the three children, thirteen-year-old Mallory and her nine-year-old twin brothers, Jared and Simon move with their mother into the Victorian home where their great-aunt Lucinda lived previously.

The kids discover a world of faeries, a secret library hidden in the house, and later discover Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You in a chest in the attic. Soon after moving in, odd things begin to happen, like strange sounds in the walls, and small unexpected and unfriendly other occupants are in the house.

This is a fun series with nonstop adventure  through all five books.  It is great to see a class find a series they enjoy.  And the good news is there are three new books they can read, Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles.