A Peek at My Week

Last week was the first full week we've had in a while, and I think our stamina is in trouble!  It was nice, though, to be uninterrupted during a unit.

It's finally the golden time of the school year when we were able to open up plans for a unit and not have to start from square one. We have started our work with Witness by Karen Hesse, and it was the first unit we repurposed last year (what I've been calling old units that we are rewriting with the Common Core and inquiry in mind.) We still have work to do, but we aren't starting from scratch, and it is so nice to feel more than one day ahead of the game!  

I LOVE this novel.

I'm linking up with Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for A Peek At My Week :)

This week the students will have their first try at focused small group discussions.  Here's what the week looks like.

Monday:  20 minutes to finish reading Act II, prep for small group discussions including reviewing conversation starters and how they will be grading themselves, small group discussion, whole group wrap up of Act II.

Tuesday:  Reading day. Students need to read Act III independently, complete four record and responses (or writing long off of a post-it) either with stickies and notebooks or using four note cards on Noodle Tools. They also have to consider how different characters displayed (or not) five different habits of mind.

Wednesday: 10-20 minutes to finish Act III work, small group discussions. Wrap of Act III.

Thursday: Reading day for Act IV. Record and respond & Habits of Mind analysis.

Wednesday & Thursday nights we have conferences from 4-8, and Friday we have them from 8-12.  They were scheduled differently (Wednesday night and all day Thursday) but students are making up a cold day on Thursday.

I'll be back through the week to talk about our reading day processes. I also want to write about how we approach the reading days with our co-taught classes (a work in progress!!), what we specifically do for the record and respond and Habits of Mind analysis, my thoughts on whole class novels/anchor texts, etc., and how we guide our kids to have more effective small group discussions (or try at least!) Oh, and how could I have forgotten...I'll discuss our wi-fi "using older siblings' passwords from the high school and then oops those credentials spreading like wildfire through the school" debacle that unfolded on Friday as well.

Does your school let students have wi-fi access?
Currently ours doesn't.

Never a dull moment!

Michelle

Mid-Game Change

Have you ever started thinking about the next day's lesson and realized that it a) wasn't right; b) didn't flow well from what you'd just covered; c) that it was maybe a little too complex for the time of year? This happened to me on Friday after school when my special ed co-teacher, Robin, and I were reflecting on how the lesson had gone with our two co-taught classes as well as what was coming up. 

I've written about how Carly and I planned a lot this summer and gave new purpose to our first month--reviewing reading comp skills and teaching the routines we use in 7th grade for responding to lit--and heading from "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto with a focus on making connections, making inferences, and vocabulary  into a non-fiction article with Cornell notes and article summarization seemed to be way too much for Monday.

"Is it too late?" (Robin)

"Well...............................................it isn't Monday yet, I guess!" (me)

So instead of Cornell notes tomorrow, up on the block is Julia Alvarez's "Names Nombres" and a focus on writing long off of a Post-it, text to text connections, Costa's Levels of Thinking, and vocabulary.  They will also have a name paragraph to write. I know that seems like a lot, and in the past I would have considered this beating a dead horse (that idiom sounds really awful when written out...even more awful than when it is just said.) But I'm coming around to the concept that we aren't "teaching stories;" we are teaching skills and routines using stories to get there.

At any rate, since we don't have the photocopies for some of this done yet, I'm going to start the story and teach them about writing long off of a Post-it & give them time to do it in class  I'm still feeling a little scattered and trying to figure out the flow, but I think it'll go well.  I've taught this story many times, and we "wrote long" with students starting last winter.  It'll be nice to teach this routine early this year so they can use it all nine months. 

I made a PPT for writing long using a notebook example I made to go with Witness by Karen Hesse.  What do you think?

So here goes for Week 2 of 2013-14 :) Hope all is smooth sailing in your classrooms this week!

Michelle

PS  Head on over to I'm Lovin' Lit!!  Erin, a huge Saints football fan, is graciously offering a freebie after each Saints victory this season.  Erin, I can't say I'm a football fan (although I have been in the Superdome!) What can I say?? I live in Vikings territory ha ha!