3B Blog News from Mrs. Kerian: Everything is Going Awesome!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Everything is Going Awesome!

Just wanted to touch base with everyone and let you know that things in 3B are going wonderful! We have been busy already this week with various activities and jumping into curriculum. Here are a few of the activities we have been working on:
   * We are well into our Morning Meeting routine. I will be sending a parent not home soon that tells about the Morning Meeting and how it builds class climate and "belonging" within a classroom. We start our day every morning with this routine, and it usually becomes the students' favorite part of the day.
   * Today we will be looking at our first "mystery object" in science as introduction to our plants and animals unit. The students are anxiously waiting for more "bugs" to arrive that we will be observing and learning about. There are obviously a lot of "science lovers" in 3B!
   * Our first chapter in math is a review chapter over concepts in 2nd grade. Yesterday we reviewed making a bar graph from data gathered. Today we will be reviewing "name collection boxes". Students are working very hard in math and loving all the games and challenges that go along with it!
   * We had built our "read to self" stamina up to 16 minutes last Friday but feel back a little yesterday to 11 minutes. (Students were tired Monday morning). This week we will continue to work on building our stamina, doing some assessments to start guided reading, as well as various mini lessons on book selection, what is reading, and starting "work on writing".
   * Our "technology focus" this week is on podcasting. I have shown the students how to use a program called "Garageband" to record their reading (and do other things). Today we did a reading of a book titled How I Spent My Summer through a podcast. Students will be making their own podcast this Friday.

Remember that there are various online activities on the right side of my blog page (one titled "Give a Dog a Bone") and others on my webpage that students can use to build their skills while having fun.

Those are just a few of the activities we have been working on. It has been a great start to the school year! The students are considerate and doing a nice job "filling each other's buckets" instead of "dipping into them". I am very proud of each and every one of my 3B kiddos!!!!

Have a great week!

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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

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Everything is Going Awesome!

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