Curriculum

=Reading=

In reading we will be reading in partnerships, clubs, and guided reading groups. During reading partnerships two students will be reading from the same book and will be marking places in the story that they'd like to discuss with their partner. We have been working on finding places in the story that help us learn about a character through action, dialogue, and thought.

We are getting reading for our non-fiction unit which will be done in "Reading Clubs." A reading club is a group of same level readers reading from a basket of themed books. We will have themes of natural disasters, nighttime, and mammals. Students will read these books and share facts that they are learning with other students in their partnerships. They will then take all of the learning about that theme and put together a poster demonstrating their learnings. We will also be learning about how nonfiction writing is structured and will be writing our own nonfiction pieces.

We have learned about the features of narrative and informational text. While study Magic School Bus (chapter books) we learned about the unique features of these stories and how they combine both narrative and informational text.

=Writing=

During writer's workshop we learn about the craft of writing and read books "like a writer." We studied Patricia Polloco and Tomie DePaolo while writing our personal narratives. Later, a study of beginnings and endings of informational and narrative writing will take place so we can learn to incorporate those techniques in our writing as well. Students keep track of each minilesson to help them during their writing. So far we have written a personal narrative (focusing on a small moment in our life), a persuasive essay, and will soon be writing a research report for our own story "When Winter Comes . . ."