Settling Into Our Routines

Having our Reading and English periods back to back is great because it gives us time to finish stuff before we have to rush out the door, which always seemed to be the case last year.  Most importantly though, we have more time to read books we love.  Each day it seems a couple of additional students get "sucked in" by a book that completely captivates them.  (Some kids are tougher to crack than others, but I'm pretty tenacious when it comes to matching kids and books--and I've been "matching" longer than they've been "resisting.")  :)   In addition to reading though, we have time to write--about the books we're reading. Some of the students are starting to have some pretty amazing conversations with me about the books they're reading, through the letters that we write to one another.

In English, we are wrapping up learning characteristics of different genres of writing.  We've covered personal letters, journal entries, character-problem-solution narratives, personal experience narratives, and expository writing.  Tomorrow we will begin learning abut various summarizing frameworks.  We will also begin what will be an ongoing study of homophones.

Today, during class, I took a panoramic video of each of my classes as they worked.  The first group's video was taken during the last ten minutes of the period, so by that time everyone was settled pretty deep into their books.  The second group's video was taken as they started our independent reading/writing time, so some are reading and some are writing.  In both videos, one thing is the same:  It's SILENT!  :)  Gosh, I love it when the routine kicks in!

6-1 (3rd/4th Period)

                          6-2 (5th/6th Period)