October Has Come and Gone

This week, we began with Genius Hour and beginning to wrap up our narrative polished pieces, then finished our Global Read Aloud book - The One and Only Ivan. I think this is best represented in the video below...This week, we began with Genius Hour and beginning to wrap up our narrative polished pieces, then finished our Global Read Aloud book - The One and Only Ivan. I think this is best represented in the video below...
Next week, we'll continue to polish our narratives as we head into November!! (Sneak peek - reading Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, using our Readers' Notebooks and WEX writing together...)

Skyping About The One and Only Ivan

This week was full... but our most exciting day was the day we were able to Skype with three classes in Canada (one in each of our classes here!). We asked a couple of questions about The One and Only Ivan, as each of these classes is on the Weebly that was set up to discuss this book, and they are reading the same pages we are each week. However, students really wanted to know more about their schools in general. We found out about recess, having two teachers for the day, French classes, and more!

We also touched base on WHY we were Skyping... it is NOT to "waste class time." It is a valuable use of time, if we are to learn about other kids around the globe. It was impressed upon the class that we need to learn about other people and find out their backgrounds, in order to understand why they do what they do, and in order to avoid conflicts. The stress this week is on communication - give and take.

Included in the week - visualization while reading, asking questions to ourselves about what we have read, writing about what we've read, and we also wrote more for our narrative. In fact, on Friday, we began the prompt that will lead to our polished piece for narrative writing.

MIddle of October?!

Last week, we were able to really delve into The One and Only Ivan, keep practicing our narrative writing, and also wrap up a few loose ends.

This coming week, at least one class will be Skyping with a class from Canada! We'll be chatting about zoos - linking what we're feeling about Ivan, Stella and Ruby, and also what we already know. Our students will be reading (and commenting on) blog posts from Mrs. Middleton's class regarding zoos, as well.  I wonder what their zoos are like in British Columbia and Ontario?? We'll find out Wednesday!

We'll have Genius Hour on Monday, of course, and I'll be asking a few students in one-on-one conferences about what really bothers them - I'm still hoping students will read about issues they are concerned about and then act on them some how, some way... The rest of the week, we'll be figuring out what our narrative polished piece should look like, learning/reviewing how to punctuate dialogue, analyzing the text of the Declaration of Independence... What else?!

The Global Read Aloud

HOT NEWS OFF THE PRESS:
Beginning October 1st, our class will be participating in the Global Read Aloud Project! We will be reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (a fantasy narrative!) and sharing our thinking about the book with other classrooms from across the world. We will be connecting on a more frequent basis with classrooms in British Columbia, and Ontario, Canada! How's that for living up to the district mission statement of fostering responsible, caring citizens in a global community? ;-)

We will be using two primary forms of electronic communication - Edmodo and Kidblog. Students will share questions, answers, and thinking informally and formally, on two safe social learning networks designed specifically for classrooms. Students are not able to join groups unless they have been given a code, so only those teachers who have connected with me and shared our code can join our discussion group. In addition, we'll be holding Skype sessions to discuss the book as a class and share activities/projects on which we are working.

Mrs. Kirr is ecstatic about this project and the learning ahead!

Other things going on this coming week...
Monday - Genius Hour - our first grade for independent reading comes from the students themselves
Tuesday - How to extract information from articles, and stake a claim for their social studies monument
Wednesday - Review/reflection of Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
Thursday - The Cardboard Challenge!

This past week, we dove into Maya Angelou's "Sister Flowers," encountering our first challenging text of the year. Students recognized superb narrative writing in her story, and hopefully will be inspired to create more writing such as hers when we write in class. We did write two days this past week, and were able to share each of those days, and on Friday as well.

One thing we started this week (and will continue next week) was blogging about our community. Students were given one of four subjects (school, suburbs, economy, activities), and began to blog. We will be sharing our finalized blog posts with our Skype friends in Granville, IA, and will use them to share with other students around the globe when we connect.

Next week, we will continue to have Genius Hour on Monday (students are beginning to create their own goals for our 1-1 conferences!), and two days of narrative writing, along with two days of reading.  We will be finishing Wonder (by R.J. Palacio) this coming week as well. Hopefully, our blog posts will be edited for content, grammar, and voice this week, so we can share them soon.

Coming up...
     * Culture blog post editing
     * Read each night (of course!)
     * Whatever writing or analyzing of reading done in class should be finished at home

The week in review:
1.  This past week we enjoyed Genius Hour as one student created a zip line IN CLASS! He'd read a book about gravity, and this was how he chose to share it. We had multiple students create blog posts about the books they enjoyed, and a few who decided to give book talks about books they finished. Authentic sharing at it's best!
2.  We then began our narrative writing unit with two prompts, and many students willing to share.
3.  In addition, we had a paper blogging activity, where we learned the purpose of blogging and commenting, and as a class, we commented on 5th grade blogs from Lake Zurich, IL.
4.  Another classroom connection we made was to a tiny class of 7th graders in Granville, IA. What a culture shock to both schools when we Skyped with them! Afterwards, we had a mini celebration for International Dot Day.


A look at the week ahead...
Monday - Genius Hour
Tuesday & Wednesday - Narrative writing and writing about our school for our Iowa friends (We have the laptops for these two days!)
Thursday & Friday - Reading, using our journals, and learning how to reflect and grade our reading skills