Short and Sweet!

Today was our final day for observing the students' habitats, which turned out to be a great success. We work in a lot of different elements, culminating in beautiful annotated drawings of what they had created. All of the fish and plants made it through the night, and our foray outside yielded a wide array of slugs, snails, carpenter beetles and earthworms. I'm very happy with the project in general.

I conducted a comprehension activity in class yesterday, in which students read an article about scientists exploring giant redwood trees to find out how tall they grow (and why). The students then answered a variety of questions about what they had read, ranging from simple facts to their interpretations of what happened. The focus was on analyzing Informational Texts, an important outcome as we move into more exercises that will require higher levels of understanding to succeed. The results were quite positive, and showed me a few areas we can focus on.

To that end, I have asked each student to briefly look at an Informational Text tonight at home. This could be ea newspaper, recipe book, calendar, Wii manual, etc. They will be expected to note 3 key points, which could be facts, structures (such as a caption or title) or other features that make them interesting. I would like this to be written in their "Journal de Lecture", on the page after tonight's reading log.

In math we have moved on to 4-digit addition. We did some more student-teaching today, as well as some role playing. The response to this approach has been great, and the result seems to be quicker uptake of information and a more profound understanding of what we are talking about. Tomorrow they will answer some questions, and I will start sending home problem solving activities next week.

I consulted with students on their Book Reports today, and they also worked in peer groups to give each other suggestions. They can now go ahead and start working on their project, if they have not already done so. The date of their presentations will be October 28th.

On that note I must go, but please contact me if you have any questions. I will not be in class (or on this blog) tomorrow, as I am attending MUN Convocation and spending time with my family in the evening. I will make my next post on Saturday, so have a great weekend. There will be two "Student of the Week" posts hitting the site on Monday.