3B Blog News from Mrs. Kerian: Heroes……Special Guest

Monday, May 12, 2014

Heroes……Special Guest

The students are really enjoying our current literacy theme on heroes! The stories are engaging, and the we can't seem to get enough. I love hearing the students beg to continue reading when I say that it is time to stop!!!!! We have read aloud heroes in stories, local heroes, and heroes in myths.

One of the heroes in our readings last week was Sadako. She was a little girl in Japan who got leukemia from the Atomic Bomb and tried to make 1000 paper cranes before she died. The students were introduced to her, curious about her, so I decided to also read the chapter book titled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. It was a wonderful yet sad story about hope and belief.

One of our students, Elyse, was talking about Sadako at home with her family. Elyse's aunt, Brenda, recently beat cancer (yeah Brenda!). Brenda was given a 1000 paper cranes from her sister in law who is originally from Japan in the tradition of hope and positive thoughts. She contacted me and was gracious enough to bring in her 1000 paper cranes today to share with the class! They are beautiful!

Thanks Brenda and Elyse for sharing about your fight with cancer and your 1000 paper cranes!!!! We all decided that Brenda was a hero to us as well!!!!

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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

Monday, May 12, 2014

Heroes……Special Guest

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