News and Notes 9/26

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

Word Search

As we settle in to our fourth grade routines, this week we began our I.D.R. conferences.  As a part of our reading curriculum, students select an "individualized daily reading" book to work on during independent reading.  We use this "just right" text to practice the various comprehension strategies we are exploring together as a class during reading workshop.  This week the focus during I.D.R. was on finding new vocabulary in our books.  Of course as readers we are constantly coming upon new words that we don't know.  It is important to first recognize this fact and then learn what to do about these words.  Instead of skipping over them all the time, there are other strategies we can use.  This week the fourth graders enthusiastically read their books and were so excited when they discovered words like "allegiance" and "immortality."  Then we talk as a class about what the words mean, or how we could discover their meaning.  Two things that are becoming very clear about these fourth grade readers - they are enthusiastic about their books and love a good word search!

Problem-Solvers

One of the greatest skills students develop in school is that of problem-solver.  Across all subject areas and fields of study, problem-solving impacts all of academics.  In all vocations and professions, being a capable problem-solver is a highly valued quality.  In increasingly complex social situations, being able to navigate and solve problems with friends and family is an essential skill.  Math seems to be one of the school subjects where problem-solving is naturally a part of the content.  As a result, each topic of study in fourth grade has one lesson dedicated to discovering a new problem-solving strategy for fourth grade math.  These lessons are great for integrating math content into a "real" world context.  In the end of our first topic of study in fourth grade math, we learned the strategies of drawing a picture/model and writing an equation.  The students were given a variety of story problems and asked to draw a picture and write an equation to solve the problems.  Teaching these basic strategies very explicitly helps our students take and apply them to new situations.  Fourth grade loves being problem-solvers and they proved themselves to be highly skilled with their drawing and equation-writing!

Finding the Right Word

Our personal narratives are taking shape.  This week we focused on how to include the "right" words.  We discussed the importance of adjectives in writing and brainstormed different adjectives that would help our stories develop depth and give the reader a sensory experience.  We also identified some of the most commonly overused verbs (i.e. said) and talked about more specific alternatives we could use (i.e. whispered, whined, or declared).  As we sharpen our skills as writers, we are finding the balance between the art and science of writing, between knowing the rules of the English language and the beauty of a well-crafted tale.