3B Blog News from Mrs. Kerian: Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac - Stevie Nicks

Today was another great day! The students are really into a super routine and we got a lot accomplished. Here are just some of the topics/activities we covered today:
* We learned how to pick books based on purpose, interest, comprehension, and knowing the words. We can remember this by "I PICK"- P is purpose, I is interest, C is comprehension, and K is knowing words. Students will soon be picking new books for their bookbins as well as books to take home.
* We have built our read to self stamina up to 7 minutes. I think we can make it to 10 tomorrow if we try hard. :)
* Buzzing may be what bees do, but we also learned how to "buzz" as a way to discuss so that it is done quietly. Kids really enjoyed doing this to discuss books.
* The smartboard was again a hit in science with students going up to move digits to create numbers I would state as well as manipulating a number grid. Pages from our math journal are also scanned in and now can be used on the smartboard.
Those are just a few of the skills/strategies we are working on to lay the foundation for the year. A lot of time is spent the first month of school building muscle memory and routines to guide the rest of the year. Thus, we are busy establishing these routines. Next week we will learn "read to someone" as part of our literacy Daily 5.

I was shown this YouTube video at an inservice last week and fell in love with it. The background is that these kids in the video live in a very low income area. Many of their parents don't show up at their performances, parent-teacher conferences, etc. So their music teacher taped the students singing "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks as dedication to a teacher (you will see at the beginning of the video). To make the story short, Stevie Nicks herself heard about the video and saw it on YouTube. She invited the kids to her concert at Madison Square Gardens in New York!!! Not only did they go to the concert, they went up on stage and performed with her in front of thousands! Touching story. These kids or this school, PS22, have gone on to be on the Today show and sing various other songs on YouTube because of one teacher showing the world, through YouTube, how talented these kids are. Wow!

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Reading Comprehension Strategies

Inferencing: Experienced readers make inferences as they read. Readers use what they already know and think about what they have read to construct meaning. The reader should ask themselves, "What I already know in my brain" and "What did I just read or see?" to make an inferences that is not stated by the author of person.

Determining Important Information: Determining important information is a strategy that helps us pick out the most important ideas we read. The first line of a paragraph may say the main idea of the page, but a reader should read through the details to decide what is the important information. The reader should ask themselves, "What is the author trying to teach me?"

Summarize: A summary is a paragraph or a statement in your own words that gives the most important ideas from what you have read. Readers determine important information, make inferences, and visualize when summarizing. We use the graphic organizer of "Somebody....Wanted....But....So.....Then....". "Somebody" is the character. "Wanted" would be the what the character wanted. "But" would be the problem. "So" would be how the problem was solved, and "Then" would be the resolution or end.

Predicting:When a reader predicts, they use information from the text along with their own knowledge and experiences to make thoughtful or informed guesses about what will happen in the text. When your child is reading at home, encourage them to stop and share predictions he/she may have as they are reading.

Identifying Text Structure: Recognizing how a piece of writing is organized can help readers understand what is happening. There can be different ways a text is structured.

* Sequential - in order

* Cause and Effect

* Question / Answer

* Steps in a Process

When reading at home, discuss how the text is organized and structure.

Ask and Answer Questions: Experienced readers ask questions about the text in order to understand what they are reading. Asking questions helps readers visualize, monitor comprehension and determine important information. Answers to these questions may be found in the text, or put together from the reader's own experience. At home, parents can encourage students to stop and ask questions while they read and recognize when answers are within the text or needed to be answered by own experience.

Paraphrasing: When readers paraphrase, they tell main ideas using their own words. This helps them check their understanding of what they have read. At home, parents can encourage their student to read a selection, flip the book over, and tell them main ideas from their reading in their own words. Flip the book back over and read another section or page before flipping it over again and paraphrasing his/her reading.

3B Blog News from Mrs. Kerian

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac - Stevie Nicks

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