Hello! Several people have asked how to find the word study practice pages. They are available through the "Conferences" link below. You can also find it from clicking this link: www.3rdgradeenglishlanguagearts.pbwiki.com That is also where you can sign up to help on Wednesdays. We did remind the kids that they don't need to use those exact pages. They know how to do the activities and can use a white board or scrap paper. Whatever works best for your family is fine with us. Thanks for taking the time to help them practice. Thanks again to all the volunteers. We so appreciate your help!
We have been reading in our book clubs again this week. Judy Scanlon is a literacy coach for the district. We work closely with her on a variety of topics from writing to assessments to enhancing comprehension. She came in to model a great game on making connections in reading. The kids really enjoyed it! We promised them we would give you the link. We played the "connections" part of the game, but Judy said the games are all of high quality. Check it out as you have time! http://reading.ecb.org/index.html
Have a great weekend! Enjoy the warm-up! We know all the kids are anxious to get outside!!!!
As always, let us know how we can help! Thanks!
Amby and Lynnea
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/normandale/classrooms/3rd/english/index.htm
3rd Grade English Language Arts
Normandale French Immersion School
952.848.4148
Newsletter <http://www.3rdgradeenglishlanguagearts.blogspot.com/
Conferences and Word Study: <http://www.3rdgradeenglishlanguagearts.pbwiki.com/
Friday, January 25, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Book Club Literature Circles
Dear Families,
This week we will start a literature circle style of a book club. We are reading books in the Humor genre as selected by the district language arts committee as an addition to our language arts curriculum. These books are books to be enjoyed in a social setting and add an authentic literature experience to the 3rd Grade language arts program. Each student will be reading different books based on the lexile level of the book and the students’ different English times.
Humor Genre Books
Giggler Treatment
The Kid in the Red Jacket
The Chocolate Touch
Frindle
District level Criteria for genre selection:
Incorporate curriculum Focus On Genre whenever possible
Provide for good variety each year
Reduce repetition across three years (and into middle school)
Enough other appropriate titles at that level for students to continue reading on their own
District level Criteria for book selection:
Cited for excellence by an independent source
Developmentally appropriate content and themes
Written at an appropriate reading level
Not required or assigned to any other grade level
Appealing to both boys and girls
Available in paperback
You can help by asking questions about the book (read below). All information is stored in their reading folders at school. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Book Group Discussion Questions:
1. What did you enjoy about this book?
2. What have you read that is similar to this book?
3. What are some of the major themes of this book?
4. What do you think the author was trying to accomplish with this novel?
5. Who was your favorite character? What did you appreciate about him/her?
6. Consider the main character: What does he or she believe in? What is he or she willing to fight for?
7. At the end of the book, do you feel hope for the characters?
8. What is stronger in the book: plot or character development? Why? Do you think this was intentional on the part of the author?
9. Have you ever experienced anything similar to the action of this novel?
10. Did you find this book a quick read? Why or why not?
11. What are your concerns about this book?
12. How did you feel about the main character?
13. What are the most important relationships in the book?
14. What makes a minor character memorable?
15. What are the most revealing scenes?
16. Are any of the events in the book relevant to your own life?
17. What did you think of the style of the writer?
18. Was the story believable? The characters believable?
19. Did you find any flaws in the book?
20. Compare the hardcover and paperback covers. Which one do you like better? Why?
Thanks and Happy Reading!
Lynnea and Amby
This week we will start a literature circle style of a book club. We are reading books in the Humor genre as selected by the district language arts committee as an addition to our language arts curriculum. These books are books to be enjoyed in a social setting and add an authentic literature experience to the 3rd Grade language arts program. Each student will be reading different books based on the lexile level of the book and the students’ different English times.
Humor Genre Books
Giggler Treatment
The Kid in the Red Jacket
The Chocolate Touch
Frindle
District level Criteria for genre selection:
Incorporate curriculum Focus On Genre whenever possible
Provide for good variety each year
Reduce repetition across three years (and into middle school)
Enough other appropriate titles at that level for students to continue reading on their own
District level Criteria for book selection:
Cited for excellence by an independent source
Developmentally appropriate content and themes
Written at an appropriate reading level
Not required or assigned to any other grade level
Appealing to both boys and girls
Available in paperback
You can help by asking questions about the book (read below). All information is stored in their reading folders at school. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Book Group Discussion Questions:
1. What did you enjoy about this book?
2. What have you read that is similar to this book?
3. What are some of the major themes of this book?
4. What do you think the author was trying to accomplish with this novel?
5. Who was your favorite character? What did you appreciate about him/her?
6. Consider the main character: What does he or she believe in? What is he or she willing to fight for?
7. At the end of the book, do you feel hope for the characters?
8. What is stronger in the book: plot or character development? Why? Do you think this was intentional on the part of the author?
9. Have you ever experienced anything similar to the action of this novel?
10. Did you find this book a quick read? Why or why not?
11. What are your concerns about this book?
12. How did you feel about the main character?
13. What are the most important relationships in the book?
14. What makes a minor character memorable?
15. What are the most revealing scenes?
16. Are any of the events in the book relevant to your own life?
17. What did you think of the style of the writer?
18. Was the story believable? The characters believable?
19. Did you find any flaws in the book?
20. Compare the hardcover and paperback covers. Which one do you like better? Why?
Thanks and Happy Reading!
Lynnea and Amby
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Word Study Packets of Lists
Happy New Year!
Instead of bringing home a single word study list today, your child is bringing a packet that contains his/her lists through the middle of March. Thank you for the many kind suggestions and offers of help as we continue to adapt and adjust the program. Each page is marked at the bottom with the date of the test. On Wednesdays, you can simply take the top copy and start the routine. We would like to phase out the work packet, in which they do the pictures and sentences, etc. Each child brought one home today to complete as homework, like we were doing in December. Next week, we would like to send just the “Cut, Sort, Write” page, completed in school, to help you follow the sorting rule. The pages are linked on the newsletter/website. You can print them to complete or simply do the work on scratch paper, white board, etc. Whatever works well for you family is great! As always, please let us know if you have questions. It is always a work in progress!
Next week we will start a novel study on humorous books. This was an absolute favorite last year! Kids will be working in book clubs as they read, meet and discuss their novels. The district adopted these studies last year as a way to really boost children’s love of reading.
We hope their love for reading can equal our love for teaching these precious students!
Amby and Lynnea
Instead of bringing home a single word study list today, your child is bringing a packet that contains his/her lists through the middle of March. Thank you for the many kind suggestions and offers of help as we continue to adapt and adjust the program. Each page is marked at the bottom with the date of the test. On Wednesdays, you can simply take the top copy and start the routine. We would like to phase out the work packet, in which they do the pictures and sentences, etc. Each child brought one home today to complete as homework, like we were doing in December. Next week, we would like to send just the “Cut, Sort, Write” page, completed in school, to help you follow the sorting rule. The pages are linked on the newsletter/website. You can print them to complete or simply do the work on scratch paper, white board, etc. Whatever works well for you family is great! As always, please let us know if you have questions. It is always a work in progress!
Next week we will start a novel study on humorous books. This was an absolute favorite last year! Kids will be working in book clubs as they read, meet and discuss their novels. The district adopted these studies last year as a way to really boost children’s love of reading.
We hope their love for reading can equal our love for teaching these precious students!
Amby and Lynnea
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Word Study Homework
Dear Families,
We have sent home today the new WORD STUDY PACKETS.
The packet is now for homework.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO (at this point) SEND IT BACK TO SCHOOL!
However, we will be open to feedback about this process, so let us know what you think.
There is a poll posted on our blog, look on the right hand side and VOTE.
You may notice that your child has already completed the packet.
They had time to finish in school. They can still practice “sort and say” at home.
I imagine we will have lots of questions about this, so PLEASE feel free to call or e-mail!
Lynnea and Amby
We have sent home today the new WORD STUDY PACKETS.
The packet is now for homework.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO (at this point) SEND IT BACK TO SCHOOL!
However, we will be open to feedback about this process, so let us know what you think.
There is a poll posted on our blog, look on the right hand side and VOTE.
You may notice that your child has already completed the packet.
They had time to finish in school. They can still practice “sort and say” at home.
I imagine we will have lots of questions about this, so PLEASE feel free to call or e-mail!
Lynnea and Amby
Friday, December 7, 2007
December 6th, 2007
English Update
December 7, 2007
Poetry
We have finished our unit on poetry! Due to some scheduling conflicts, students did a cursive final copy, which they decorated. We will share them in class and then return them to you to enjoy. Our main objectives were:
Finding a topic about which he/she had strong feelings
Trying poetic language or saying things in a different way
Looking at line breaks and how poems are organized
Ask you child what he/she learned! They really did a nice job with this first English writing project.
Reading
We wrapped up our unit on Celebrating Traditions. We also looked at non-fiction text organization and the special skills involved in this reading. We used the opportunity to provide some background information on Native Americans in English to support their learning in the French homerooms. We even slipped in a little work on nouns. Our next unit is called Incredible Stories. We kick off with a Third Grade favorite, Dogzilla, by Dav Pilkey. These are really fun stories that explore the differences between fantasy and realism. Please visit www.eduplace.com for great activities to support these stories.
Word Study: HOMEWORK CHANGES
Thanks for your on-going support with word study. Many of you will recall that at Classroom Information Night, we said that once students were well-established in their routines, we would make some of the word study work homework. Well, that day has come! On Wednesday, December 12th, your child will bring home his./her take home list, as usual. He/she will also have a packet with two activities. The packet will have all the instructions and your kids know how to do them independently. They do not need to come back to school. They are the activities we do Thursday and Friday in class. We will now have that time free for more reading and writing instruction. They should each take no more than 15 minutes and can be done anytime before the following Wednesday. We will send more detailed directions on Wednesday. As always, let us know if you have questions!
Have a great weekend!
Lynnea West and Amby Takekawa
December 7, 2007
Poetry
We have finished our unit on poetry! Due to some scheduling conflicts, students did a cursive final copy, which they decorated. We will share them in class and then return them to you to enjoy. Our main objectives were:
Finding a topic about which he/she had strong feelings
Trying poetic language or saying things in a different way
Looking at line breaks and how poems are organized
Ask you child what he/she learned! They really did a nice job with this first English writing project.
Reading
We wrapped up our unit on Celebrating Traditions. We also looked at non-fiction text organization and the special skills involved in this reading. We used the opportunity to provide some background information on Native Americans in English to support their learning in the French homerooms. We even slipped in a little work on nouns. Our next unit is called Incredible Stories. We kick off with a Third Grade favorite, Dogzilla, by Dav Pilkey. These are really fun stories that explore the differences between fantasy and realism. Please visit www.eduplace.com for great activities to support these stories.
Word Study: HOMEWORK CHANGES
Thanks for your on-going support with word study. Many of you will recall that at Classroom Information Night, we said that once students were well-established in their routines, we would make some of the word study work homework. Well, that day has come! On Wednesday, December 12th, your child will bring home his./her take home list, as usual. He/she will also have a packet with two activities. The packet will have all the instructions and your kids know how to do them independently. They do not need to come back to school. They are the activities we do Thursday and Friday in class. We will now have that time free for more reading and writing instruction. They should each take no more than 15 minutes and can be done anytime before the following Wednesday. We will send more detailed directions on Wednesday. As always, let us know if you have questions!
Have a great weekend!
Lynnea West and Amby Takekawa
Saturday, November 17, 2007
November 16th, 2007
Report Cards
You will receive an information sheet to help you interpret the 1-4 grading scale. We wanted to provide you with a little more insight into the English Language Arts portion of your child’s report card. We hope this helps you get a good sense for your child’s progress, especially since we won’t see all of you at conferences. As always, please feel free to get in touch if you have questions. We still have conference times available. Please use the link at the end of the letter to sign up.
Beginning to mid-grade 2 is our reading benchmark for this trimester. It would not be fair to assume immersion students would start the first year of English at grade level. Second trimester we assess at a beginning to mid third grade level and by the end of the year we assess at grade level. The fluency and accuracy grades are calculated by listening to a student read a passage aloud one-on-one. We time the reading to calculate correct words per minute, listen for appropriate expression and count decoding errors to arrive at the accuracy rate.
Comprehension questions are also a part of this assessment. These, in addition to work from our Houghton Mifflin curriculum, were used to calculate the comprehension grade. Again, mid- grade 2 is the benchmark. The grade on selecting appropriate independent reading materials reflects the work habit of settling in with a book and using this time well for reading practice.
Our main focus in writing has been to establish the routines and expectations of Writer’s Workshop. Students have been introduced to all elements you see on the report card, but have not had adequate practice to measure for an assessment. The one grade you will see in writing reflects a student’s ability to embrace the task and generate writing on that topic. All elements will be graded next trimester.
The weekly spelling test grade comes directly from their word study post tests. We tried to take into account working out the kinks in the system and any time constraints that a particular group may have had on a given week. Because students are taking such a wide range of tests and because our focus in writing has been “brave spelling” to share their ideas, we did not want to penalize students who were embracing that idea. Again, next trimester, as students have worked with a wider range of patterns, have spent more time with a dictionary and have edited work to a final copy, this element will be graded.
Look for good “How to help at home” hints on the blog next week!
Word Study
Thanks to all the volunteers who make the differentiated tests possible! We couldn’t do it without you. There is no test for the week following Thanksgiving. We will be conducting a new spelling inventory to determine new groups. Homeroom teachers are also making new large English groups. We will post the new groups and word study volunteer opportunities on a wiki next week. If you are interested in helping, we would love to see you! We’ll send a quick note with the link when it’s ready! Let us know if you have questions or have trouble signing up. Thanks!
Reading
We will wrap up our unit on Celebrating Traditions and transition to a really fun unit on Incredible Stories! These are always favorites. We will also do some first language reading about Native Americans to support the learning in their French homerooms.
Writer’s Workshop
We will continue to work on poetry, polishing at least one piece to publish. We will be in the computer lab on Friday, November 30th to type and format these final pieces. If you would like to help students with basic word processing, please let us know! Many hands will make this a productive time for all! We will include more details with the wiki link, as we do not have the new groups yet. Thanks!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. We are certainly thankful for such a great group of kids and all of your support. As always, please be in touch with questions!
Amby and Lynnea
You will receive an information sheet to help you interpret the 1-4 grading scale. We wanted to provide you with a little more insight into the English Language Arts portion of your child’s report card. We hope this helps you get a good sense for your child’s progress, especially since we won’t see all of you at conferences. As always, please feel free to get in touch if you have questions. We still have conference times available. Please use the link at the end of the letter to sign up.
Beginning to mid-grade 2 is our reading benchmark for this trimester. It would not be fair to assume immersion students would start the first year of English at grade level. Second trimester we assess at a beginning to mid third grade level and by the end of the year we assess at grade level. The fluency and accuracy grades are calculated by listening to a student read a passage aloud one-on-one. We time the reading to calculate correct words per minute, listen for appropriate expression and count decoding errors to arrive at the accuracy rate.
Comprehension questions are also a part of this assessment. These, in addition to work from our Houghton Mifflin curriculum, were used to calculate the comprehension grade. Again, mid- grade 2 is the benchmark. The grade on selecting appropriate independent reading materials reflects the work habit of settling in with a book and using this time well for reading practice.
Our main focus in writing has been to establish the routines and expectations of Writer’s Workshop. Students have been introduced to all elements you see on the report card, but have not had adequate practice to measure for an assessment. The one grade you will see in writing reflects a student’s ability to embrace the task and generate writing on that topic. All elements will be graded next trimester.
The weekly spelling test grade comes directly from their word study post tests. We tried to take into account working out the kinks in the system and any time constraints that a particular group may have had on a given week. Because students are taking such a wide range of tests and because our focus in writing has been “brave spelling” to share their ideas, we did not want to penalize students who were embracing that idea. Again, next trimester, as students have worked with a wider range of patterns, have spent more time with a dictionary and have edited work to a final copy, this element will be graded.
Look for good “How to help at home” hints on the blog next week!
Word Study
Thanks to all the volunteers who make the differentiated tests possible! We couldn’t do it without you. There is no test for the week following Thanksgiving. We will be conducting a new spelling inventory to determine new groups. Homeroom teachers are also making new large English groups. We will post the new groups and word study volunteer opportunities on a wiki next week. If you are interested in helping, we would love to see you! We’ll send a quick note with the link when it’s ready! Let us know if you have questions or have trouble signing up. Thanks!
Reading
We will wrap up our unit on Celebrating Traditions and transition to a really fun unit on Incredible Stories! These are always favorites. We will also do some first language reading about Native Americans to support the learning in their French homerooms.
Writer’s Workshop
We will continue to work on poetry, polishing at least one piece to publish. We will be in the computer lab on Friday, November 30th to type and format these final pieces. If you would like to help students with basic word processing, please let us know! Many hands will make this a productive time for all! We will include more details with the wiki link, as we do not have the new groups yet. Thanks!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. We are certainly thankful for such a great group of kids and all of your support. As always, please be in touch with questions!
Amby and Lynnea
Friday, November 2, 2007
November 3rd 2007
Dear Families,
This week in the writing workshop we begin our unit of study on poetry. It’s hard to imagine our children on a learning trajectory toward to becoming the next William Shakespeares, Emily Dickinsons and Maya Angelous, isn’t it? But you will be amazed, as we plan to be, by the writing they can do in this unit—they are able to create poems with so much more weight and power than the rhyming jingles we often imagine young children’s poetry to be! We will start by looking at the world through the eyes of a poet—examining objects closely, and trying to see them in fresh, interesting ways. We hope you will join your child in patiently studying and putting words to the details and moments of life the two of you notice together. This is the work that will most support your child in becoming a poet. Throughout the unit, we will study many ways poets work and some of the tools and strategies poets use. We’ll work with the structure of poetry, learning how poets use line breaks and white space. We’ll talk about and practice locating a big, universal feeling or idea in a small, personal object or moment. We’ll discuss and try ways to find the precise words that convey our intended meaning. We’ll experiment with rhythms and patterns, repetition and musicality. We’ll build analogies, metaphors and similes, and extend those bits of figurative language throughout the bodies of our verses. Of course, as always, we’ll revise and edit and publish our poems. We are all looking forward to sharing our poetry work with you, throughout the unit and at the celebration!
As time allows, we are also continuing work on our stories based on the book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris VanAllsburg. The author shares 15 unusual illustrations with a title and caption. Harris Burdick never shared the rest of the story. In true VanAllsburg style (he’s the author of Jumanji, among others), students are left to guess whether Harris Burdick was a real person or if the whole thing is fiction. Students have been stretching their imaginations to tell the rest of the story. Ask your child to tell you which story he/she is writing! Our main focus has been building students’ confidence and sense of identity as a writer. We are working hard to make writing a joy right now. We will slowly raise the expectations for grammar, spelling and style. Visit http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/flash.html for great author and book information! He is currently sponsoring a writing contest on this book! See the site for details! We will not have time to polish all pieces for entry, however your child may like to take on this challenge at home! It’s a really exciting opportunity to share writing with a larger audience! Let us know if your child enters! The site also offers some fun games and book information.
We have started our theme on Celebrating Traditions with several stories on traditions passed down over many generations. One of these stories was The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco, in which a Russian immigrant family makes a quilt to remember their relatives. The quilt is used in celebrations through out the generations as a way to link the family with its past. Students enjoyed comparing the families in these stories to their own. It might be a fun time to remind them of traditions you observe and how they started. Visit eduplace.com for more background information and activities. We are also reading a lot of great poetry right now!
Word Study is progressing nicely. Thank you so much to our many volunteers who make it possible to offer so many lists: Judy Chirpich, Margaret Joas, Gary Judson, Kate Kromer, Jenny Corniea, Susan Ebner, Ellen Dahlquist, Alex Christianson, Cheryl Behling, Sheerin El-Ghazzawy, Michelle Schuveiller, Sandra Thomas, Mary Tadich, Polly Mitchell, Joanne Henry and so many more! We really wouldn’t be able to do it without you! We also need to thank Peggy Mercer, our paraprofessional, who helps on Wednesdays. Please know there will be opportunities to help with word study all year! The homeroom teachers will mix our large groups after Thanksgiving, so we will request volunteers again once you know if your child will come during the Amérindien or Voyageur timeslot.
We will send a detailed newsletter the week of conferences to help you interpret your child’s report card. Conference times are available through:
www.3rdgradeenglishlanguagearts.pbwiki.com
If you have trouble accessing this site or you need to find an alternate time, please let us know! Conference times will also be available in March.
Please let us know if you have any questions!
Amby and Lynnea
This week in the writing workshop we begin our unit of study on poetry. It’s hard to imagine our children on a learning trajectory toward to becoming the next William Shakespeares, Emily Dickinsons and Maya Angelous, isn’t it? But you will be amazed, as we plan to be, by the writing they can do in this unit—they are able to create poems with so much more weight and power than the rhyming jingles we often imagine young children’s poetry to be! We will start by looking at the world through the eyes of a poet—examining objects closely, and trying to see them in fresh, interesting ways. We hope you will join your child in patiently studying and putting words to the details and moments of life the two of you notice together. This is the work that will most support your child in becoming a poet. Throughout the unit, we will study many ways poets work and some of the tools and strategies poets use. We’ll work with the structure of poetry, learning how poets use line breaks and white space. We’ll talk about and practice locating a big, universal feeling or idea in a small, personal object or moment. We’ll discuss and try ways to find the precise words that convey our intended meaning. We’ll experiment with rhythms and patterns, repetition and musicality. We’ll build analogies, metaphors and similes, and extend those bits of figurative language throughout the bodies of our verses. Of course, as always, we’ll revise and edit and publish our poems. We are all looking forward to sharing our poetry work with you, throughout the unit and at the celebration!
As time allows, we are also continuing work on our stories based on the book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris VanAllsburg. The author shares 15 unusual illustrations with a title and caption. Harris Burdick never shared the rest of the story. In true VanAllsburg style (he’s the author of Jumanji, among others), students are left to guess whether Harris Burdick was a real person or if the whole thing is fiction. Students have been stretching their imaginations to tell the rest of the story. Ask your child to tell you which story he/she is writing! Our main focus has been building students’ confidence and sense of identity as a writer. We are working hard to make writing a joy right now. We will slowly raise the expectations for grammar, spelling and style. Visit http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/flash.html for great author and book information! He is currently sponsoring a writing contest on this book! See the site for details! We will not have time to polish all pieces for entry, however your child may like to take on this challenge at home! It’s a really exciting opportunity to share writing with a larger audience! Let us know if your child enters! The site also offers some fun games and book information.
We have started our theme on Celebrating Traditions with several stories on traditions passed down over many generations. One of these stories was The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco, in which a Russian immigrant family makes a quilt to remember their relatives. The quilt is used in celebrations through out the generations as a way to link the family with its past. Students enjoyed comparing the families in these stories to their own. It might be a fun time to remind them of traditions you observe and how they started. Visit eduplace.com for more background information and activities. We are also reading a lot of great poetry right now!
Word Study is progressing nicely. Thank you so much to our many volunteers who make it possible to offer so many lists: Judy Chirpich, Margaret Joas, Gary Judson, Kate Kromer, Jenny Corniea, Susan Ebner, Ellen Dahlquist, Alex Christianson, Cheryl Behling, Sheerin El-Ghazzawy, Michelle Schuveiller, Sandra Thomas, Mary Tadich, Polly Mitchell, Joanne Henry and so many more! We really wouldn’t be able to do it without you! We also need to thank Peggy Mercer, our paraprofessional, who helps on Wednesdays. Please know there will be opportunities to help with word study all year! The homeroom teachers will mix our large groups after Thanksgiving, so we will request volunteers again once you know if your child will come during the Amérindien or Voyageur timeslot.
We will send a detailed newsletter the week of conferences to help you interpret your child’s report card. Conference times are available through:
www.3rdgradeenglishlanguagearts.pbwiki.com
If you have trouble accessing this site or you need to find an alternate time, please let us know! Conference times will also be available in March.
Please let us know if you have any questions!
Amby and Lynnea
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