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| Back to School Night slide: It's always satisfying to be a witness to the peaks |
It's been a few days, so here's an update:
I'm not sure if you remember this Back to School night slide, but it pretty accurately shows the highs and lows and overall growth. Some days the class as a whole struggles--with writing fluency, being respectful to each other, overcoming challenges.....Then there are days like that last couple when the class leaps with improvement. For example, yesterday morning we had our first Strawberry student-led discussion. Students were given three questions, one at a time, and had three minutes to discuss each of them. The questions were: 1. What is progress? 2. Do you think progress is a good or bad thing? 3. Lots of historians think Westward Movement was progress. Do you agree or disagree? A mature, interesting conversation ensued. Students waited their turn to speak, attentively listened, and respectfully agreed or disagreed with each other. In the end it seemed that students thought Westward Expansion was a good thing--"We just wouldn't be here without it," one student bluntly stated. Native Americans losing land and technology were all issues also discussed.
It almost felt like a college history class--talking about what we can learn from the past. You would have been impressed, and I should try to tape the next one.
student-led morning meetings: This is the time of year when students take a leadership role a run morning meeting (on Tuesdays and Thursdays). The student leader thinks of the type of handshake, invents either a discussion question or chooses a picture book to read to the class then chooses a short game to play. So far this week Anika led a meeting. Students sign up on the calendar if they're interested and meet with me the day before.
book report project: Students are especially excited about their book report projects--they keep talking about and planning them even through lunch and recess. There will be films, skits, gameshows board games and even a pinate next week.
progress reports: In a few days you should be receiving your child's progress report, and I must admit that the process was arduous. I wrote five narratives (separate paragraphs) for each child: approach to learning, social/emotional growth, reading, writing and math. Upon reflection, here are a few themes:
vast improvement: Based on the beginning of the year, students have really improved on their overall reading, writing and math fluency and confidence.
parent support: Please be sure that you read the math parent letter for a list of activities. Fourth grade parents--remember to continue practicing rote math facts using flashcards or multiplication.com. Also, be sure your child is reading for 30 minutes even on nights there is no reading log. Try to monitor your child--you can always trade off reading or read the same book and talk about it.
Homework tonight is to:
1. Read for 30 minutes (students who did not complete their The West nonfiction reading/responding should finish).
3. Spelling
Have a good night!
Jed
