Important Dates & Reminders
*I will try to highlight new dates and information with red text.
October 8, 2013 - Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment (Please avoid scheduling appointments and absences on this date). Please read the following letter.
October 25, 2013 - Field Trip to Highbanks Metro Park for Earth Science. Please email if you are able to chaperon. Thank you!
October 25, 2013 - End of the first quarter
October 28, 2013 - No school, teacher grading day
October 31, 2013 - Halloween party (extended lunch from 12pm till 1:30pm, most students go home to change into costumes). Please note it is district policy that no costume may include any weapons or facsimiles.
What We Learned This Week
If you have time, explore some of the links to the right under Favorites with your student.
Word Study
We are tackling three ideas in word study: high frequency words (those that have been identified as the most prevalent from a wide selection of a range of third grade reading material), spelling generalizations and syllable types. We do not apply phonemic understanding to our high frequency words, but simply use multiple strategies to memorize them. I only introduced one word this week, "several," but will increase this to two words per week as we gain familiarity with the process. After I have written the word on the board, given a definition and asked for student sentences utilizing the word, I use the following process:
- Students write the word at the top of their dry erase board. I check to make sure they have spelled it correctly so we aren't practicing incorrect spellings as it is very difficult to un-learn material.
- We read the word letter-by-letter, tapping under the letters on our dry erase board, and then say the word, clapping its syllables. We do this three times.
- We tap the word down our arm from the shoulder to the wrist, spelling it out letter-by-letter. We then glide down our arm from shoulder to wrist saying the word. We do this three times.
- We use the pad (not the tip as the pad gives more friction) of the finger and "write" the word as we say it letter-by-letter. We do this three times.
- We then write the word, saying each letter and then underlining it as we say the word.We do this three times.
- Finally, we erase our board and, with closed eyes, write the word.
Once we have this process down, it should take no more than five minutes a day. The benefit of what may initially seem to be a curious approach to spelling is that we are using a broad approach of kinesthetic, verbal and auditory methods to put this information into our brains (and provides multiple ways of retrieving it).
We then develop phonemic awareness by applying a spelling generalization to our weekly spelling words. While students are given words that represent the generalization, these are not necessarily the words they will be assessed on. Rather than memorizing words, they have to show they can apply the generalizations. This should remove the burden of practicing spelling words at home in the traditional, memorization approach. Next week's spelling generalization will be on short and long e sounds. If you would like to extend your student's phonemic awareness, you can try any of the following suggestions:
- See it, say it, spell it (three times for each word ensuring practicing correct spelling)
- Sort by pattern
- Write additional words with the same patterns
- Write the words in alphabetical order
- Count syllables
- Use words in sentences
- Word ladders
- Identify parts of speech, often multiple
- Practice lists of words: colors, days of the week, months, holidays, states, countries, etc.
- Keep a list of words you miss to practice
- Family spelling bee
- Research word origins
- Have fun with palindromes (e.g., never odd or even)
- Introduce a new vocabulary word or idiom each night at dinner and see who can use it correctly most often.
We are also supporting our spelling generalizations by applying syllable types. Open syllables end in a vowel and produce a long vowel sound (e.g, ba/by). VCE syllables end in a vowel-consonant-silent e and produce a long vowel sound (e.g., cake). Closed syllables end in a consonant and produce a short vowel sound (e.g., cat).
Finally, as we begin paying attention to interesting and rich language, here is a good article on teaching vocabulary, Doing it Differently: Tips for Teaching Vocabulary:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/vocabulary-instruction-teaching-tips-rebecca-alber?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-vocab-tips
Reading
We are working on fluency. While some students struggle with decoding unfamiliar words because they have not developed grade level phonemic awareness, the vast majority of struggling readers' focus is fluency. My explanation of fluency is "we are not reading word-by-word, but are reading smoothly so our reading voice sounds like our natural speaking voice." It is truly a combination of rate and accuracy and has increasingly become an indicator of struggling readers.
I am encouraging most students to develop their fluency by having them "glide" their finger under the line they are reading as they read. This is different from tapping each word as many Kindergarten students do. Gliding helps students to read smoothly, avoid skipping words, and most importantly, avoid skipping lines.
I am also asking students to tap punctuation, specifically commas and ending punctuation. Many students who are still in the "learning to read" phase ignore punctuation, which can lead to confusion.
For example, ignoring the comma in "Let's eat, grandpa," creates a very morose dinner. Additionally, many third graders will begin a following sentence with the last word of a preceding sentence, e.g., "Stewart finished his dinner. It was cold outside." can easily become, "Stewart finished. His dinner was cold."
To support comprehension we are working on summarizing short passages. Students must identify the subject and predicate (the who and what) of our reading selection. They can further support their summary (aka "main idea," "central theme") by adding where, when, and why.
We started note taking with our read aloud to further support our ability to summarize our reading. Students are encouraged to write down what they consider to be "note worthy" information. As we share we can model noting characters, setting, and sequence of events.
Writing
We wrote our first persuasive essays on running for student council. These included a strong (and indented) topic sentence, supporting details, and a conclusion. I'm grading these in more detail this weekend, but I was very pleased with initial efforts. Students who wanted to run for student council positions shared their writing.
We spent a lot of time developing complete sentences by focusing on subject and predicate.
Math
- Rounding to the nearest ten
- Rounding to the nearest hundred
- Putting numbers on a number line
- Expressing numbers in expanded and written form
- Place and value
- Inequalities
I will send these home next week. I will also send information (supported by a blog post) on additional math resources.
Science
Our Thompson Park Tree Trek blog (see link under Favorites to the right) is up and running. A few photos were in the wrong order and so they are not on the blog at this time. Many thanks to Mrs. Carmichael for helping the students upload their photos and observations. The UA City Forester shared, there is an active link to our site from the City Parks and Recreation Department as well. I'll share it as soon as he sends it so you can show your student. They'll be very proud of their work.
