Weekly Update, Thursday, September 22

Greetings,
     Reading - We are practicing tenacity in reading. Today we began writing our first reading response. Every other week, I intend to assign a letter in which the students will react to their reading. The letters will focus on reading targets. This week the targets include:
I can identify major and minor characters in a story
I can identify the major events in the plot of a story.
I can summarize the plot of a story.
In other words, we are summarizing the story elements in the book so far. I am looking for a letter in which story elements are clear in an accurate retelling. To excell a letter would refer to interactions between story elements. This is a practice letter. Letters are usually completed in class.
Reminder: Students are to read a minimum of 30 minutes a night five nights a week.

   Writing - Time for writing Nothing Ever Happens at Whatcom is nearing an end. I don't expect students to publish this piece. The purpose of the writing is to practice using self assessment in the writing process to improve on written work with a focus on Ideas. Yesterday, we used the rubric for ideas to assess two anonymous pieces from fifth graders.

   Social Studies - We have begun to explore civilizations. I read Weslandia to the class. We created folders and I shared the targets for the unit. Today and tomorrow I will introduce vocabulary of climate, natural resources and physical features. Using an atlas we will label maps of the continents in terms of climate, phsical features and natural resources.

   Thanks,

   Tim Lucy