We Are In Charge!

     Last week we learned that we are in charge of our own writing, the captains of our personal narrative stories.  We talked about a rough draft of a story is a place for us to try out new things and then decide what works best for each of us.  This starts to put the responsibility on the students rather than relying too much on me.
     We also spent some "time" at Ellis Island in New York as another stop on our Northeast tour.  We learned a lot about the troubles that immigrants faced when first coming to America.  We were able to watch a video with pictures that showed people arriving in America many years ago.  We also listened to a story called The Memory Coat.  This also gave us more information about what life was like for an immigrant entering America.  At the end of the week we worked with partners to write a journal entry about life at Ellis Island.
     In math we started a new homework assignment called Good Evening Math or GEM.  This is going to be beneficial in reviewing previously taught concepts.  Each night there will be three problems that are review for the students.  The students need to bring this back to school the next day.  We will be spending some time during math to correct the problems.  Next week we will be taking an assessment on Place Value.  We will also give a multiplication pre-assessment to see what fourth grade standards students may already know.
     We continued to ask questions last week, a strategy that good readers use.  We spent some time looking at the types of questions that we have been asking.  We learned that many of our questions were predictions.  These types of questions are important, but we are learning to ask "talk-worthy" questions that require the reader to think more deeply about the text.  This will take a lot of practice.  We will continue to work on asking those thought provoking questions next week.
     On Friday we also earned our reward for completing our 3rd Paw Print Classroom Chart!!  The students went into the computer lab for extra computer time!
     Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

     Mrs. Lewis  :)