The Hound
Well … we discovered there was a hound after all. And we discovered the secret of why it was glowing green. Once again, thanks for your excellent participation. We will do reader’s theatre on a regular basis.
Friday, February 24/12
“Who dunnit ?!”
The stories of Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Watson are classic “Who dunnit” tales. Mysteries. Today we tried something new : readers’ theatre based on the story above. We selected our roles, highlighted our parts, did a skim/scan of the play and started reading. Thanks so much for your great participation. Reader’s theatre is a great way to improve our fluency and comprehension. We’ll finish this on Monday.
Have a great weekend. Enjoy the snow!
Author’s Purpose…
BEFORE READING any text, try to figure out what the author is trying to do with this piece of writing. What does he/she want you to “get” from reading it? We continued to work with this idea today and you practiced determining purpose with several text selections.
Tomorrow is Friday and we just might try our first readers’ theatre piece. See you then.
Tuesday, February 21/12
The House …
This morning we did a neat little activity called “The House.” I gave you an article to read (The House) and asked you to highlight what you felt was important. Then, I asked you to read it twice more – once as if you were going to buy it and then as if you were going to rob it. Needless to say, it was easier to find what was important in the second and third readings because you knew what to look for. I gave you a PURPOSE. In the first reading, you had no direction and it was hard to say what might be important. Unfortunately, we sometimes feel like this when we read. We don’t know why we are reading something or what to look for. The lesson here is that we should always know the PURPOSE for what we are reading. If you are unsure, politely ask your teacher for some direction and you will be better prepared to read with understanding.
Friday, February 17/12
Alcatraz inmates …
We took a look back today to the point form notes you made as you read the article a second time. We shared these and then saw how the notes we took could be easily made into a 5 paragraph essay … similar to the one we were working on for Heritage Fair. Next we watched a video that featured 3 of the men who did time at Alcatraz. We then read quotes written by them and we interpreted their meaning. I don’t know about you but I an now anxious to watch the most recent movie based on Alcatraz.
Have a great weekend and Happy Islander Day! See you next Tuesday.
Wednesday & Thursday, Feb 15/16
Prison labor …
I certainly hope you didn’t feel as overworked today as these “inmates” look to be! Thank you for “donating” your time to help reorganize all the non fiction books in the library. Besides getting the job done I think you even learned a couple of things (how and why books are organized as they are) and found some interesting books to read. Great job.
Yesterday we read together the article “Escape From Alcatraz.” Then you each worked on a reread, taking point form notes in different categories. Tomorrow we will return to this to see how you did. We will also hear from the inmates who managed to escape.
Good luck on the court tonight Riley!
Tuesday, February 14/12
Fancy an island vacation anyone?
Maybe not here. Anyone who was sentenced to a “vacation” on Alcatraz was not in for a good time. We did some BEFORE READING work on this topic – brainstormed what we already know, scanned the article’s pictures/captions etc and watched a short video on this infamous prison. Tomorrow … we read!
Remember … be good to your sweethearts tonight! 
Monday, February 13/12
Brrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! It’ cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a cold way to start the week! Minus 30 ish. We need to work hard to stay warm.
Today we returned to the article on teens and technology. After doing the BEFORE READING work Friday we were ready today to read the article and look for specific information. It is good to read with a highlighter where possible. You all did well locating information to either support the ideas that teens are controlled by technology or that teens are in control of technology. It is definitely food for thought.
Tomorrow …. ALCATRAZ!
Stay warm tonight!
Friday, Feb 10/12
Teens and Tech
It is Friday and you have survived your first full week of semester two. Our literacy class is now up and running and I am looking forward to working with you all this semester. We will be focusing on reading strategies & reading comprehension during this course. Hopefully you will learn some things that you can apply in your other classes to help you understand your work better. I think we are off to a great start.
Yesterday we talked about all the things good readers do BEFORE, DURING and AFTER READING. These things help you become an ACTIVE reader instead of a PASSIVE one. We then looked at a checklist to see how well we do these now. Today we did an exercise that is a BEFORE READING activity. We were thinking about, writing down and discussing what we know about the topic of teens and technology. And, we knew a lot! Now we are ready to read the article about the subject. We’ll do that Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend filled with hockey, basketball, ski-dooing and packing for trips!!
