2nd Grade:I enjoyed listening to a lot of the class share their versions of The Traveler & The Donkey. It was fun to hear the different endings and morals of the story. Today we transitioned to report writing in Units 1 &2. We read from lesson 5 and made our first KWO together. All of the details for the lesson are in the book. Please make sure your student has their IEW PALS with them each class. I also handed out 2 sheets of special lined paper. Students are to write on them and turn them in next week. Due next week: Final copy of Dairy Cows & final copy of Holsteins. Please use the example of the Dairy Cows and finish lesson 5 at home. It is really important if your student is narrating that they still copy it in their own writing. 3-5th Grade:Today we talked about subordinating conjunctions. These are big words, but thankfully we have used the because clause in previous lessons so it wasn't brand new. All students were given a foldable. 4 &5th graders were to write on the inside "doors" an example of a complex sentence using the correlating subordinating conjunctions. Remind them of the example in class:
Although it was raining, I went for a run. Because I was hungry, I ate nachos. The subordinating conjunction is the first word of the dependent clause, therefore it causes a comma! This is considered inverted order. If we re write it in natural order then it does NOT need a comma. I went for a run although it was raining. I ate nachos because I was hungry. All grades were asked to memorize the www.asia b subordinating conjunctions. The lesson about Archimedes is fascinating! It has a lot of details too. The 3rd graders only have 2 lines left in their KWO. I'm attaching the finished one. Please remind your students to read their source text, to narrate from their KWO, and THEN to write. If any of them have state testing in the spring, this is an excellent model & schedule to follow. 2nd Grade:This week we had a really small 2nd grade class. We enjoyed listening to stories from almost everyone there today. Next week we are on lesson 5 and we'll transition to report writing. Here's the sample story sequence chart we filled out together in class. Remember, each of these roman numerals is a separate paragraph. The details of the lesson are scripted out in the book. Have a wonderful sunny week! 3-5th Grade:All 3 grades finished with a complete KWO. Please have your student narrate their KWO to you. This week they only have 1 paragraph to write, so there is no reason for it not to be edited & dressed up! I did ask for all 5th graders to write/type on the bottom of their paper another idea for a topic sentence & clincher. Just like I wrote below. It's not a big deal, but I wanted to challenge 5th graders to generate some new topic sentences and clinchers on their own. I know a lot of the class may already do this independently, but I wanted everyone to practice. Here's an example of what t put at the bottom of their paper. It can even be hand written. Alternative Topic Sentence: Alternative Clincher: Also, I hastily erased the board to prepare for the next class and forgot to take a pic of the completed outline. Thankfully Abigail S. let me snap a pic of her KWO and it is absolutely neater than what I wrote on the board! Due Next Week: Final copy lesson 16 (challenge yourself in your dress ups & study vocab) 2nd Grade:![]() We are in the full swing of writing in 2nd grade. Remember to read the entire lesson of section 3 of the PALS. Today we heard Ant & the Chrysalis stories from Zoe, Scotlyn, and Emily- thank you! Please remember if your child is narrating a heavy portion to have them still writing a little bit each day. They can go back and use the story as copy work or write a paragraph and then you write a paragraph etc. The goal is to be writing about 10-15 min. a day each day. Due next Tuesday: Written story of Ant & the Grasshopper. Please finish the following story sequence chart (does your child know the 3 sections of a story sequence chart), and use the attached IEW schedule to finish your week! Then have your student bring a final copy of their story to class. Please have them practice reading aloud on Monday so they are prepared to share with their class Tuesday! 3-5th Grade:I packed a lot of information in today's class. First of all, thank you to ALL 3rd & 4th graders for having your papers completed. We had almost a 100% completion rate in 4th grade and we did have all 100% of students read in 3rd grade! Way to go 3rd grade!!! We did something new today for reading aloud and although it consumed more time, I really believe it was beneficial. The students wrote on strips of paper 2-3 positive things about each classmates paper. They were broken up into groups and each group listened, read, wrote, and handed out their feedback. I think the students really enjoyed hearing specific feedback: nice strong verbs, a lot of quality adjectives, good title! etc. Students were told not say "good job, cool, I like it...." but to give feedback according to their checklists. We also played a really fun vocabulary review game! Ask your kids...I think everyone enjoyed it. This week's assignment is to finish the kWO for Athens from Lesson 15. This is a LARGE source text with over 3 paragraphs. Cameron Leonard made a perfect remark, "So we are going to have to take these 3 paragraphs and summarize into 1?" Exactly! Please make sure your student re-reads their actual source text before completing their KWO. Also, the narration component of KWO is crucial! I'm looking forward to hearing about Athens as one of the most signifiant cities of ancient Greece.....(great hints in there for your topic sentence).
2nd Grade: The kids shared some changes/dress ups from their Goldilocks story. A lot of them added some creative quality adjectives and strong verbs. Way to go! We are working through Lesson 2 this week from section 3 of the PALS writing. Please remember that these beginning lessons are meant to be heavily narrated. If the physical writing component is too much, then please use your best judgment to break down sections and only require certain portions to be written. The goal is to narrate the story using the story sequence chart and to write a little bit each day. 3-5th Grade:The Lesson 13 reports were well done! I really enjoyed listening to everyone's papers today. We are continuing in lesson 14. There are technically 2 paragraphs in this lesson. I told 3 & 4th grae that it is up to their mom if they need to do the second paragraph. One option would be to finish the first paragraph together and challenge them to do the KWO independently for the 2nd source text. Fifth graders- I would like all of you to challenge yourself to finishing both paragraphs from the two different source texts. Don't forget those clincher sentences need to repeat/reflect 2-3 words from your topic sentence!
2nd Grade:Welcome back! Today I wanted to ease kids back into the habit of writing daily. We are in section 3 of the PALS writing. Lesson is re writing the Golidlocks story. I know most of the kids already turned in their copy in September. This time, we re read it, story sequence charted it, and talked about possible dress ups. IF I handed back their original version, please work to dress it up. Then, re write it and turn it in and done! However, if one was never turned in (I handed back all I had this morning), then please have your child narrate from the story sequence chart their version of Goldilocks. It may seen redundant or even too simple, but I think it's really important to re visit a piece they have written and dress it up! Look for ways to include strong verbs, quality adjectives, or who/which clauses! I also gave each student a blue writing journal. This is for them to use at home. I'm attaching a picture of my 6 year old's own writing journal. I would like all the students to read or listen to a book, and then record a brief summary about it in their journal. Then, they can add a picture too! I don't edit these. I encourage my own daughter to go back and self edit, but basically this is her own reading record. Audio books or read aloud books would work wonderfully too, and studens can journal certain chapters etc. I just ask for the date & book title to make it at the top of the page. This should be something that encourages your child to be reading and writing a little bit each day! 3-5th Grade:Welcome back! I hope this week isn't too bumpy as you get back into the swing of routines, deadlines, and actually doing school! We are moving from inventive writing (using story sequence chart) to report writing (key word outlines). Today we are started Unit 4 Summarizing a Reference. This unit is similar to Unit 2, however we are not taking each sentence and choosing 3 words to write about. We are picking the most relevant, important, and interesting facts to report on. Students should take key words from facts not per sentence! Here are some images that are quite useful for Unit 4: Due Next Week: Finish lesson 13. All grades completed this KWO. Please have your student narrate to you from their KWO. This is a crucial step! Write, edit, and return final copy next Tuesday! 5th graders- please do the challenge assignment!!
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Kelli HeacockThe Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) equips teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. Archives
May 2017
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