March Update

Post date: Feb 25, 2016 7:51:34 PM

WCO: Evaluate how authors are strategic in creating meaning through more elements and more complex text

WCO: Creating meaning strategically in Reading

4C: Communication

21st Century Skill: Resiliency

Gary Paulsen Project:

Students have completed their Gary Paulsen novels and are working to complete a "book report" project that demonstrates their understanding of elements within a story! These will be shared with you all during conferences, but here is a little preview :)

Students have determined a project that will share their learning and evaluation of different story elements, including, major events, plot elements, character development (protagonist, support characters, antagonist, etc.), setting, authors purpose, etc.

During their prep, students developed an Element Organizer to house all of their findings, text-evidence, and personal opinions of the impact each of these elements have on the development of the story they read. I have seen a HUGE jump in their abilities to find text-evidence and use it as support in their responses! Well done 5th graders!!

We are currently working on developing a creative presentation to share their work with their classmates. They have been asked to find a real-world audience to talk to. Some examples include, a book reading by Gary Paulsen himself, a new cast that discusses major events, a museum walk of the setting etc. It is important that they are addressing a specific audience and have a clear purpose that they will be sharing during the presentation. They skills they are working on here will following them through the rest of their years as a student, and I am beyond impressed with their out-of-the-box thinking! We cannot wait to share this with you!