Great Day For Writing!

My day was very long today. On Thursdays, we don't have a planning time until late in the day. I really liked not having to stop my student mid-stream to go to specials. It was a long stretch of learning. I was really proud of my students today.  After brainstorming different ways to respond and write a reading response, the students spoke about which ones would suit their purpose. They then responded, as they said, "In a quick write." They have the verbiage down. After writing for a short period of time, they took the time to meet with a partner, read to a partner, and then get his/her signature. We did this same process yesterday. When we debriefed one student said that he/she liked sharing in this fashion because they could see how other people responded and learned about other books they might want to read. Point of view! I have been talking to them about point of view. They are experiencing point of view within reading responses and within the books that they are reading.

They had some time to continue with their life maps today. After working on it for a bit, I had them share their life map with someone from another table. They found a partner and shared their life maps. I could see how excited they were to refer to the moments in their life and share the story behind the icon or sketch. I saw them pointing to the different parts.  They did this so well today! They are to choose a moment and then write about it for homework. Let's see what they come up with this time. I will leave time tomorrow to have them share.

We started Jeff Anderson's Editing Invitations today. We were studying simple sentences. I started with the invitation to notice. We had a great conversation. Then we discovered that a sentence must have a subject and verb.  I heard Jeff Anderson in my head saying, "The subject is the who or what of the sentence."  I had them label the subject and verb from the mentor sentences. Then we made up a chant. A sentence must have a subject and a verb, a subject and a verb, a subject and a verb!  A sentence must have a subject and a verb, a subject and a verb, a subject and a verb. It was maximum fun!  I can't do the Whip or NeNe, but I can make up a decent chant!

We worked on some Math and made up some Math word problems with our problem of the week. It was fun to see them discover to the pattern and then replicate the pattern using your own words and situations. They love to do this!

Then we were off to the Science Lab! The students, with their group captains, went through 3 stations of estimating and checking. I womaned the volume estimation using graduated cylinders and food colored blue water. The rest they did within their group. They did a good job with this. They worked well within their groups. We then came back to the room to talk about what we learned and to check the data that was gathered. We brainstormed key words that they might want to include in their reflection. Then they wrote. Some wrote and sketched. Others wrote without using sketches. It was nice to see them bring what they are learning in Language Arts into the Science arena! Writing, writing, writing!  Is that all we do?  Certainly!  We write about everything that we learn and do!  What a powerful tool!

Sharing Life Maps

Creating a Life Map

Sharing a life map with a friend

Composing a Reading Response

Sharing a life map! Got prewriting?

Creating a life map