Week Five: July 9 - July 13

Hard to believe…summer school is almost over!

Reading

We continue our book clubs and the students have become more comfortable with their book club responsibilities and discussions. As they’ve gotten more in depth with their books, their discussions have become more thoughtful. Many students have gone beyond sharing to actively participating in a discussion by asking (each other) why they feel or think the way they do or sharing their thoughts and opinions on similar topics of discussion.

This week, we focused on the reading strategy of asking questions. We read the picture book, The Lotus Seed and asked questions about the story before, during, and after reading. We then proceeded to answer our questions and realized that we find answers to our questions from the text, through outside sources, and by using our inference skills. We determined that asking questions is a strategy that good readers use because it helps us to clarify meaning, determine the author’s intent, and learn more about what we’re reading.

Writing

We’ve been extremely busy writing as the students worked hard to meet a Wednesday deadline for this Friday’s newspaper publication. The students continue to write to meet next Wednesday’s deadline for our last newspaper publication on Friday, July 20th. This week, we also talked about writing good leads by “opening with a scene” and “how -to writing.”

I am extremely proud of each student in the reading and writing workshop. In just five weeks they have accomplished so much. I believe that they will walk away from our summer of writing with a new appreciation for the writing process.

Preparing the newspaper for delivery!

Preparing the newspaper for delivery!

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