Viewing: October, 2020
October 23, 2020
Building Strong Reading Habits and Skills
In fourth grade, we kick off the year with a mini-unit focusing on the habits of reading. This includes how to choose a just-right book, why readers abandon books, how to discuss books, activities to build students’ reading stamina, and so much more. I want students to develop a life-long love of reading and to look at reading as an enjoyable hobby, not just as a requirement tied to school. We launched the year with these activities in order to provide students with a foundation for all of our other reading activities throughout the year. You’ll hear more from me, in the coming weeks, about your child’s “just right” reading level and how you can use that information to support his/her continued growth as a reader.
One of the best ways to grow as a reader is to discuss what you read. Throughout the year, this will be a focus. I want students to learn how to have conversations about what they read, beyond sharing factual information about the book and telling whether they like it or not. Over the years, I have kept track of the different kinds of thoughts readers have about their texts, and I narrowed them down to eight different categories. Listed in the graphic to the left, these ideas help us to make the idea of “Reading is Thinking” more concrete, and less of a nebulous “Gee… I’m supposed to think about… stuff… while I read!” Kids can focus their thinking in different categories, which can help to build these habits so the ideas come naturally as they grow and mature. Students are often encouraged to “stop and jot” while reading and to record some of their ideas on sticky notes, which then get placed in the book. (This is why we go through sticky notes to quickly in class!) This can facilitate engaging discussions about books. Wondering how you can help your child? Use these eight types of thoughts to guide some of your reading discussions with your child. Rather than asking an open-ended question like “What did you think about _________?”, you can ask a more specific question using one of these eight types of thoughts. It can lead to a great conversation, especially when discussing connections.
With a lot of these foundational skills established, we’re now in the midst of our first core literacy unit. Students are learning about narrative elements (characters, settings, problems, main events, and solutions), and while these are hardly new concepts, they’re learning more sophisticated applications of these ideas. For example, where stories for younger kids have characters who are clearly “good” or “bad”, stories for upper elementary students tend to have more nuanced characters, with flawed protagonists or antagonists who still have redeeming qualities. Likewise, where stories for younger kids have a clearly defined problem and solution, stories for older children will start to have multiple problems and endings that may not solve problems as much as resolve challenges. As you read with your child, or as he or she reads independently, ask him/her questions about these different elements. (We’ve finished learning about the setting, and we’re now learning about characters. Next week, we will begin to work on identifying the problem in a story!
The start of the school year wouldn’t be complete without some reading assessments. This year, we’ve started to use an assessment tool called aimswebPlus. aimswebPlus is an online tool that allows us to administer and score an oral reading assessment as well as reading comprehension tools. We are also continuing to give your students DRAs. DRAs (Developmental Reading Assessment) help me to identify your child’s independent reading level, which will allow me to work with you to help your child to find just-right texts. The process of giving DRAs (which are always given individually to students) is taking a bit longer than normal, because we (of course) couldn’t give these assessments in the springtime, so we’re doing some extra catch up. But it’s well worth the time, as I’m getting to know your kids very well as readers.
As valuable as the DRAs are, I also value getting information from reading conferences. In a reading conference, I sit with a student, invite them to read to me for a bit, and we discuss the story they’re reading. We always use whatever book they’re currently reading, so it’s a great opportunity to discuss reading interests, habits, and much more!
In the next post, I’ll fill you in all about what we’re doing in writing! Enjoy your weekend!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 8, 2020
Off to a good start in October!
I can’t believe that tomorrow marks the 15% way through the school year! Your children are such bright and hard working students, and it’s great to see the kids coming together as a group, despite all the distancing protocols we have in place. (They may be physically distant, but there’s nothing distant about their social instincts! I mean that in an entirely good way.) At recess, it’s not at all unusual for me to see many of our students opting to stick together by choice. I’m really happy to see the connections forming.
I have lots of updates to share with you about our academic work, and I’m going to touch on some of these in an upcoming post. For now, I want to fill you in on some miscellaneous topics, as some of these are most time-sensitive.
Nightly Homework
With all the changes we’re all working with, we’re focusing on academics in class and are not sending home worksheets for homework right now. But as I keep reminding the kids, this doesn’t mean that there’s no homework. Each night, students should be reading for around 30 minutes. As I shared at curriculum night, I want this to be enjoyable for kids, and I’d rather students read for 25 minutes and find it pleasant, rather than force them to read five more minutes as an obligation. Kids who CHOOSE to read will develop the habits to be life-long readers, whereas kids who see it as a chore are less likely to have the same success. (No judgement here! My son is an avid reader, and my daughter is very much a reluctant reader. I get it!) I leave it up to families to schedule reading time each night, and while I don’t have a reading log for families to sign (as I’m a firm believer that it just promotes us fudging the truth when we have a busy night – I’ve been there too as a parent), I will have ways for students to share what they’re reading at home. We might share about our books during Morning Meeting or write book recommendations for one another. I might ask them about their free-choice book when we have a reading conference, or I might have a Google Classroom question for them to respond to as morning work. (Or something else!) So while they’re not filling out a log, they certainly are accountable.
Students also should be practicing math facts each night. I don’t do timed math fact quizzes in class, as I’ve found that the stress of the timer often results in worse performance (an observation supported by multiple academic research studies in the education profession). Instead, I have periodic math conferences with students in which we work on different skills and work on flash cards together. From these, I’ll make individual fact practice goals for each student. I’ve worked with each student on their addition and subtraction facts, and we’re midway through multiplication facts. I met with two more students today and hope to have these goals ready in the coming week.
Lunch Orders
Just a friendly reminder that if your son or daughter is ordering lunch from the caf, please place the order online from home. Students no longer order in the classroom when they come each day. Let me know if you’re having trouble placing your orders.
Preparing for… ANYTHING!
We are certainly living in uncertain times, and the reality is that we could be shifted to remote or hybrid if the situation warranted. To be ready for that eventuality, students are bringing their whiteboards and their word study workbooks back and forth each day. They should keep them in their black and yellow book bags. They don’t ever need to use these at home, but if we end up remote or hybrid, they might need them. So we want them to stay with the kids. I also sent a hard copy of multiplication charts and place value charts home with each student. Please keep these stashed away somewhere safe for the same reason.
Books and Black and Yellow Bookbags
Please help your son or daughter to remember to bring his or her independent reading books back and forth each day, along with the black and yellow bookbags. They can check out three books at a time from my library, and they also have books from the school library. These all can travel in those black and yellow bookbags (if they can fit). Kids are always welcome to bring in books from home or the public library. As we get further into the year, we’ll be talking more about reading levels so we can match kids with books in their “just right” range. More to come in October and November.
Water Bottles
Please help your son or daughter to remember to bring his or her water bottle each morning to refill. All water fountains are closed for safety reasons, but we have some beautiful, new water bottle filling stations around the building (ask your child about how we collect data about how they’re used), so kids can refill as-needed.
Art Supplies
Huge thanks from Mrs. O’Brien for sending in all the art supplies! They’re going to be put to good use! Your fourth grader should be bringing back home their sketchbooks. Those are to use if/when we end up going remote, so they can stay at home. If your child doesn’t yet have crayons and colored pencils in school, please consider sending some of each in if possible. That way, we don’t have to share materials. (Please know that when we DO share, I always quarantine the supplies afterwards, so we do so safely.) If you need the school to provide any of these materials, please let me know.
Jackets
It’s getting brisk, especially when we go out at around 10:45 every day for snack and our mask break. We’re going to go out for our mask breaks whenever the weather will cooperate, so please make sure your child has a jacket or sweatshirt here at school. (It’s not just about the weather at 1:45 when kids go out for recess. Use 10:30 as a good reference time if you’re looking at the temperature forecast.) Kids are absolutely welcome to keep a spare sweatshirt at school. (I might even remember to remind them to bring them home every month or two so they don’t start to ferment in their lockers. :-D)
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Last but not least, YES, we will have parent-teacher conferences this year (online, I believe) accompanying report cards in November and March. Please look for a link in my email to complete a quick survey to indicate your preferred times.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss