Well, we survived Hurricane Sandy pretty well. For that, I am forever thankful. However, she did do a little destruction to my lesson plans for last week! We spent most of the week "catching" up on things and working the "old fashioned" way without internet access. This week, we will pick up the pieces and move on! Monday will be our first unit test in reading. It includes our novel, Racing the Past, our Daily Oral Language, and a usage test on the homophones we studied last week in spelling. The rest of the week will focus upon improving the rough drafts for the fictional narratives the kids wrote and grammar work with nouns and pronouns. I'm very impressed with the work the students have done for the 1st quarter and I'm looking forward to an even busier and stronger 2nd quarter!
On Monday, we will visit the learning center where small groups of students will each be assigned a famous Egyptian King/Queen to research. They will spend 3 days researching and preparing a presentation for the rest of the class on their person. Their job is to "teach" the rest of the class about their pharoah, his/her life, and their contribution to ancient Egypt. I've also included a little twist of critical thinking to their assignment. They have been asked the question, "If your pharoah were elected president of the U.S. today, would they be a good leader? Why or why not?" I can't wait to hear their arguments for and against!
In intervention, we have been looking at multiple reading strategies to help students with non-fiction reading. These include canning titles, captions and pictures before reading and skim reading for important terms. This week, we will continue to look at more strategies and put them to use with practice drills. On Thursday of last week, we had a great discussion on why we need to use these reading skills and how I am trying to prepare them for high school, college and beyond. I emphasized the fact that when they get to college, they will get to choose their own classes based upon their interests and what they would like to pursue for a career. I shared my own personal stories about the many careers I have tried (legal secretary, book keeping, business owner) before I found my love for teaching. I also shared my own children's journeys and showed them pictures of my kids working at things they love. I think the students enjoyed this talk and it helped them to connect school to their own lives. They were able to see that there is a real purpose to all of the seemingly "boring" lessons that they have. Most were very excited that in just six short years they will be making those critical decisions about what to do with their futures!
That's our week coming up in a nutshell! I hope everyone enjoys their week. :)
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