Viewing: September, 2016

Sep 28

September 28, 2016

Our first writing piece!

We’ve finished our first writing piece of fourth grade! For the past few weeks, we’ve been working on a descriptive writing assignment in which students had to choose a single moment from their summers. This one moment was turned into a snapshot, as if someone paused a video at one split second. (Still photos are “SO” 1996… :-D) Students brainstormed details from this memory and completed a graphic organizer in which they listed details for their SEVEN senses of writing: the traditional sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, along with both thoughts and feelings. Over the past week, we also worked on enriching their word choice (remember those Wordstorm packets from last week’s homework?) and adding similes to better describe valuable details. Finally, students pulled all these pieces together to draft their descriptions, and they self-revised and self-edited their work before doing both with a partner as well. (Ask you child what the difference is between revising and editing, and ask them which you should always do first!)

Over the past few days, I reviewed each student’s work and provided some feedback to them in their Google Doc. As I shared at open house, you should ALWAYS have access to your children’s Google Classroom account (with their username and password) so you can review their work and my feedback. All I ask is that you DON’T make any changes to their work. I know families come with the best of intentions, but even the most well-intentioned edits and revisions cansidetrack plans I have for lessons or activities. Additionally, it’s important that when I review a student’s work, I know that I’m reading their own work, not something edited or otherwise supported by a grown-up at home. I appreciate you saving that for in-school, unless a specific assignment asks them to work with you at home.

This assignment, which you’ll find under the “Brainstorming Summer Memory” activity, was assessed using our snapshot writing rubric. At the end of your student’s response, you’ll find my comments along with my scores. In each of the seven areas, your child was evaluated on the same four-point scale we use on the report card: An E reflects work that exceeds my expectations for a fourth grader at THIS POINT of the school year. An M reflects that the student’s work meets expectations, while an A indicates that the work is approaching expectations and needs continued growth. A score of B indicates that the work is below expectations and that we’ll continue to work together to improve in this area. We discussed this in class, and your fourth grader can help you to understand each of the areas I assessed.

In class today, we discussed the kind of feedback I gave (often having to do with focusing on a single moment and not a series of events, addressing run-on sentences, adding details to better describe the seven senses, etc.), and most students identified specific ways in which they wanted to improve their writing. This piece was a learning activity in which the students worked with me and with each other throughout the process. Today, students begun writing their family snapshot (as opposed to their summer snapshots). This piece of writing is very similar, but it focuses on a different memory than the summer snapshot. Additionally, this is a wholly independent piece. Students were given the same graphic organizer, editing and revising venn diagram, and Wordstorm lists to help them, but they’re independently moving through the process of developing their response.

We’re just starting this project, so I appreciate you letting your child move through this part themselves. But I encourage you to review your student’s Summer Snapshot project with your child! Keep an eye on their Google Classroom page for more work as the year goes on, and feel free to contact me with any questions!

Interested in learning more about Google Classroom? This video is a bit old, but it’s a terrific introduction to the platform!

Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss

Sep 27

September 27, 2016

Independent Reading in Fourth Grade

There are so many important things for us to cover this year, but one of the most critical is helping students to build a love of reading! Teachers work to ignite this spark for students (or, more appropriately, to help them to ignite that spark themselves), and we have several ways of helping students along. First, throughout the year, you’ll see different ways in which I’ll work to match students with appropriately-leveled books. This is something that, as time goes on, your student will learn to do for himself or herself to a certain extent. Another focus is on building independent reading skills. When we have independent reading time in class, everyone is reading a book that’s right for them and we have discussed (and will continue to discuss) some of the many strategies that successful readers use.

Several parents have inquired about a nightly reading log, so I want to take a moment to share my philosophy about reading logs. I don’t use formal reading logs for students for a few reasons: First, it turns the reading into a chore. I’d rather a student enthusiastically read for 20 minutes a day and enjoy it than “force” themselves to read for 30 minutes because they need to reach that exact amount of time for the reading log. If the end goal is for students to LOVE to read, then it should not be tracked as a homework assignment. (That said, it IS a homework assignment. More on that in a moment.) Second, knowing that parents have busy lives, I understand that there may be some nights when kids read a lot, and some nights when there may be less reading. I’d hate to put parents into a position in which they feel that they need to lie on a reading log to avoid their child getting penalized for a tough family schedule that was outside the child’s control. You have enough to juggle, particularly because I’m aware that some of my homework assignments (particularly the computer-based activities) may take more time than conventional worksheets. (I hope you feel that the payoff is worthwhile!)

By now, half of you are probably cheering for a year without reading logs, and half of you are appalled that I’m letting your fourth grader “off the look” when it comes to nightly reading. Let me assure you: I’m not. My expectation is that students read each night, hopefully about 30-40 minutes. That’s in line with all fourth grade classrooms. What’s different is that I’m asking them to be accountable to you, as the people in charge at home who see the whole picture (in terms of what they’re reading, how they’re feeling about the experience, what else is going on, etc.) as opposed to making them accountable to me (where I am disconnected from what’s happening after school). If you’re feeling that your fourth grader is reading each night and is benefiting from the experience, that’s terrific! But if you find that your child’s “willful” reading lasts only five minutes before you need to push more, or if your child has to be poked and prodded to read a book, or if you have any other concerns, I hope you’ll reach out to me so we can talk more. But to summarize: Your child should normally be reading about 30-40 minutes each night, and I ask that you help to ensure this happens on a regular basis). But I’m just an email away if you have questions or concerns.

A few side notes: (1) As I write this, I’m realizing that I haven’t discussed this enough with the students. I’ll fix that tomorrow! (2) As the year progresses, there may be specific reading challenges in which I send home a log, but those will be the exceptions, not the norm. (3) When we meet for our fall parent-teacher conferences, I’ll have completed our first reading assessment with your child, and I’ll be able to give you his or her independent reading level (which can guide you and you and your child choose books at the library or bookstore). If you’re interested in knowing sooner, I’ll have the results by Halloween time, and again, I’m just an email away!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss

Sep 14

September 14, 2016

Day 9: What’s happening?

It feels as if we’ve been in school for many weeks! The students are doing a great job learning the routines of our class, and this has allowed us to move into our curriculum with efficiency and enthusiasm! Our first focus in reading has been discussing many of the strategies that successful readers use. We’ve discussed how readers choose books for themselves, why some readers abandon books, and how to use our class library. This afternoon, we’re going to again team up with Ms. Kelleher, our library-media specialist, to learn about how to choose a “Just Right” book for ourselves. This will be helpful as we find students’ independent reading levels in the coming weeks. Yesterday, we learned about how to “buzz”, that is, how to have a group conversation about a single topic. You might be surprised to hear that we’re focusing on something so fundamental, but we’ve found in fourth grade that dedicating time NOW to discussing the basic ideas of taking turns, making eye contact, etc. allows student discourse down the road to be significantly more productive and engaging.

Click to enlarge!

In math, we’ve been working on place value! Our first few lessons introduced place value concepts and built upon the students’ prior skills. Today, we worked on rounding numbers; a concept that we’ll spread out over a few days. Estimation can be a challenging skill for students, so I teach them the roller coaster strategy. (See picture.) This method lets students break up the rounding process into five steps, and by adding a visual piece, it makes it less overwhelming for many learners. Feel free to show this image to your fourth grader to help them with their homework. Tomorrow, we’ll translate this strategy to a more traditional process in which they round numbers without the elaborate visual process. We’ll return to the roller coaster method when we work on rounding to different places, such as taking a number like 8,372 and rounding to the nearest thousand (8,000) or nearest hundred (8,400) or nearest ten (8,370). I don’t expect mastery on day one, and I admire the hard work students are showing!

We’ve started our Targeted Instruction rotations! As I explained at curriculum night, TI will allow us to meet each student’s individual needs by breaking up classes. For example, during the TI block one week, I might focus on rounding numbers, Mrs. Castle might focus on descriptive writing, and Miss Lacasse might focus on map skills. Rather than whole classes traveling together, we’ll each send our students to the teacher who is offering the activity that best fits student needs. We’re excited to have many different teachers collaborating with us, so stay tuned! This week, students ARE rotating among each teacher as whole classes in order to establish routines. Next week, we’re going to start to shuffle students.

Questions? Send me an email! Have a great day!

Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss