tag:midpac.edu,2007:/elementary/3-5sawyer//59 2007-07-20T03:06:16Z Movable Type 3.33 tag:midpac.edu,2007:/elementary/3-5sawyer//59.2021 2007-07-19T02:07:07Z 2007-07-20T03:06:16Z

Ms. Sawyer Whoosh! Summer school has come to an end. Looking back, we have accomplished so much in just six short weeks. I am proud of the children in the Reading and Writing Workshop. They were goal-oriented and focused, and their hard work paid off. We’ve spent this last week tying up loose ends as the children finished reading their book club books, met deadlines for Friday’s newspaper, and reflected on the past six weeks of summer school. Each child is leaving the Reading and Writing Workshop with a new outlook on reading and writing. They are reading for meaning, and writing not only for themselves, but for others. The children have practiced being “active readers” by using strategies that good readers use to comprehend and find meaning in what they read. They are also more aware of the writing process and the time and effort it takes to take their writing from a draft to a published piece of writing. This has added meaning to their work of reading and writing and added a sense of enjoyment and accomplishment. I’m sure that these skills will help them as they take on a new school year of learning! Thank you for your support. I’ve enjoyed working with your child, and hope you enjoy the rest of the summer! tag:midpac.edu,2007:/elementary/3-5sawyer//59.2015 2007-07-12T03:59:29Z 2007-07-13T00:23:46Z

Ms. Sawyer 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! ]]> tag:midpac.edu,2007:/elementary/3-5sawyer//59.2008 2007-07-05T16:24:38Z 2007-07-06T19:26:41Z

Hooray, for the publication of our first summer school newspaper!...

Ms. Sawyer Hooray, for the publication of our first summer school newspaper! Reading Our reading clubs are underway. The kids are getting into the routine of reading, taking notes, and discussing things about their books. This week, we talked about some of our challenges with book clubs. Many students shared that it was sometimes difficult to agree on the number of pages to read, how to read (out loud or silently), and to stay focused (sometimes conversations strayed away from the book or students read ahead). We continue to talk about strategies that good readers use. This week, we focused on the strategy of “asking questions.” The students are learning that good readers ask questions before, during, and after they read. Further, good readers seek answers to their questions. Writing Many of the students have been interested in writing comics. Last week, Scott Yoshinaga and Audra Furuichi came to our classroom to talk with us about comics; they publish the comic Nemu*Nemu. Scott and Audra gave us great insight into the process of creating a comic and the essential elements of comics. Thank you, Scott and Audra! This week in writing we focused on writing good conclusions. The children determined that good conclusions: wrap up the author's ideas, reinstate the author’s opinions, move the reader to action, or leave the reader with an idea, thought, or impression. The students who published articles in last week’s newspaper are busy writing new articles. If your child did not have an article in last week’s newspaper, you’re sure to see one in our upcoming edition. Please Note: Due to the shortened week, there will be no student "Weekly Reflection" attached to your child's evaluation. I decided to give the students more time to work on their goals. ]]> tag:midpac.edu,2007:/elementary/3-5sawyer//59.1999 2007-06-28T03:19:39Z 2007-06-29T21:38:33Z

It's our third week of summer school, and things are moving right along in the Reading and Writing Workshop!...

Ms. Sawyer It's our third week of summer school, and things are moving right along in the Reading and Writing Workshop! Reading We finally started our book clubs this week. The students had a choice of the following books: Ralph S. Mouse, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and The Phantom Tollbooth. We set the following goals for our book clubs: read together, cooperate and learn together, help each other understand the book, share opinions about the book, and have good discussions or conversations about the book. This week we continued to talk about the reading strategy of making predictions. Along with making predictions, we are learning how to use our inference skills to “read between the lines” to determine what the author is trying to tell us. Writing We have been working hard on our newspaper articles. The students are anxious to see their work published. In the coming days, we will learn about writing strong conclusions and explore the genre of “how-to writing.” We hope you enjoy the Summer School Pueo! Reading with our kindergarten buddies! Interviewing a Jump Start Kindergarten teacher and her assistant ]]> tag:midpac.edu,2007:/elementary/3-5sawyer//59.1992 2007-06-21T04:01:35Z 2007-06-22T19:48:41Z

It’s been another busy week in the Reading and Writing Workshop! Everyone has been working really hard to build our classroom community, our goal this week. We have been writing letters to each other. Not only are we building our...

Ms. Sawyer It’s been another busy week in the Reading and Writing Workshop! Everyone has been working really hard to build our classroom community, our goal this week. We have been writing letters to each other. Not only are we building our letter-writing skills, but we have gotten to know one another better. Reading Last week we talked about how creating mental images helps us to understand the story better and think more clearly about the characters, setting, and important events. This week we practiced using the reading strategy of making predictions. Making predictions required us to explain “why” we thought the way we did. We had to take clues from the story and combine them with our own knowledge to make a prediction. We continue to read our read-aloud book, The Castle in the Attic. The students also have time for reading their own pleasure books and the newspaper. On Friday we paired up with some kindergarten students and read to them! The students enjoyed modeling their reading skills and doing something special for their younger peers. Writing Along with letter writing, all of the students have begun working on their newspaper articles. Everyone has chosen the type of article that they want to write. The different types of articles range from feature articles to movie reviews to comics. The students are learning how to conduct interviews by “anticipating what the reader wants to know” and answering the who, what, when, where, why, and how when writing their articles. We are also learning how to use graphic organizers to organize our thinking prior to writing. We use webs for brainstorming and a FATP organizer to organize our facts and details. This week we focused on writing a “lively lead” or “hook” to grab the reader's attention. In our class we say that we are “fishing for readers." Once the newspaper is published, I think you will be impressed with the creative “hooks” we came up with! We weren't able to publish our newspaper this week and hope to have our first edition published by next Friday. We are taking our time as we work through the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing), which helps ensure that we are producing our best work. ]]> tag:midpac.edu,2007:/elementary/3-5sawyer//59.1989 2007-06-15T02:13:42Z 2007-06-15T20:29:34Z

Welcome to the Reading and Writing Workshop weblog. I will be posting updates about our class’s weekly happenings each Friday afternoon....

Ms. Sawyer Welcome to the Reading and Writing Workshop weblog. I will be posting updates about our class’s weekly happenings each Friday afternoon. Building our Classroom Community This week was a busy week as we spent a lot of time getting to know one another and establishing our classroom and school community. We know that if we want to be successful with our book clubs and our newspaper we need to work together. Some of the activities we participated in to help us grow as a community were name games and team-building activities, creating classroom jobs and responsibilities, deciding upon classroom rules and agreeing to a contract, working together for our newspaper inquiry, and co-authoring a letter to the school about participation in our summer school newspaper. Reading and Writing This week we also got a feel for some of the reading activities we will be focusing on this summer. We participated in a variety of word study activities. We are creating a list of overused words that will be “on vacation” this summer as we find and use synonyms for them in our writing. We also used a morning message to study basic conventions skills, and we are beginning to look at different ways to decode a larger word by looking for smaller words within it. This week, the children also learned about the reading strategy of creating mental images. We will continue to work with this strategy throughout the summer. We were fortunate this week to have a guest speaker, Mr. Curtis Murayama. Mr. Murayama is the editor of the sports section of the Honolulu Advertiser; his son is in our class. He gave us insight about the newspaper business that we can use as we begin to develop our own weekly summer school newspaper. Thank you, Mr. Murayama! The newspaper should be a fun way to learn about the writing process and different kinds of writing. The kids have already taken ownership of this endeavor as they are the ones making the majority of the decisions about what articles to write, the name of the newspaper, the jobs, etc… Our class voted, and we will be reading The Castle in the Attic as our read-aloud book. Our book club books should be arriving soon. The students will be choosing a book to read that seems interesting to them and is at their reading level. We will begin our book club study by making predictions about our books. Next week, we will begin to jump into our newspaper interviewing and writing. We will be looking at different genres of writing such as writing reviews and feature articles. We will also continue our word study and begin our book club activities. Signing our Contract Newspaper Inquiry Newspaper Inquiry ]]>