Check out our TAG 5 Reading class’s book recommendations for our winter vacation! Don’t forget to read something great every day!!
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Our preliminary thinking about themes in Fish
Today, we discussed possible themes of the book Fish that the author wants to teach us through the story of Tiger’s journey across a country. Check out our thoughts!
Setting: Comparing and contrasting our independent books with Fish
This week, students started reading independent books which have strong connections with our global read-aloud book, Fish. Some students are reading the book A Long Walk to Water, a book based on a true story that narrates the harrowing experience of a boy who has to escape southern Sudan in 1985. Others are reading Inside Out and Back Again, about a girl whose family has to flee their home country of Vietnam in 1975 to escape the violence of the Vietnam War.
In class last week, we discussed the three levels of setting in Fish. This week, students are finding elements of the three levels of setting in their independent books. Students: please reply to this blog post with a comment that compares and contrasts the three levels of setting in Fish with those in your independent book. In your reply, state the name of your book and use text evidence to explain each similarity and difference that you write.
Research Update: February 27, 2015
Hi families!
We have been trying to keep our momentum going with our research process despite Mother Nature slowing us down these last few weeks.
Currently, students are planning for drafting by organizing their notecards into groups of main ideas. They will begin drafting next week, using their new Google Drive accounts, so you can have them log in and see their drafts from home as well!
Our big objectives right now are synthesizing notes into groups of big ideas, and then making sure we have at least 2 details – names, numbers, explanations, mini-stories, or quotes from experts – to explain each idea in our outlines. This work requires some higher-level thinking! I encourage you to talk to your children about the categories they are creating for their sub-topics and what details they are finding most interesting.