This coming week is a full week of learning and fun. The fun part is really for me! You see, I have a student teacher working with me for the next 15 weeks who just happens to be one of our school graduates and a former student of mine. Her university suggested she just observe and do small jobs in the classroom like grade papers, work one-on-one with a student, etc. for the first four weeks. Bah humbug! I'll have several photos next week of Ms. Murphy in action! She's going to do a Language Arts lesson with my eighth graders at the end of the week. Here she is timing the Wise Men SCOOT activity for my eighth graders. She is grading their papers this weekend also, bless her heart!
Meanwhile I'll be finishing up this Citing Text Evidence lesson from Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit with my eighth graders on Monday and Tuesday. It comes from her Interactive Writing Notebook product. However, this Citing Text Evidence lesson is offered as a FREEBIE. She explains it well on her blog at this post.
My sixth graders will be finishing up My Side of the Mountain... hopefully! We have had so many interruptions what with Christmas programs and parties and snow/cold days (four already) that we got far behind. This was their first full-fledged novel done completely with Literature Circles so it was a tad slow going. I'm going to speed them through the last one-third of the book lickety split so Miss Murphy can take over afresh in two weeks.
My fifth graders will just be introduced to Literature Circles this week. On Monday, I'll teach them the six jobs as outlined by Harvey Daniels in his book, Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student Centered Classroom, a book I've used since 1998. We'll also watch a brief video of a small Literature Circle in action.
After numerous chases, hissing and growling matches, calming treats and spray, and brandishings of the squirt bottle, progress is being made... I think... I hope! Where once the two could not bear to be in the same room, we now have the old queen coaxing the young feline to play, I think. Lulie does not trust Daisy and will not respond to the coaxing. Lulie knows that Daisy might just be coaxing her to come closer for a good thrashing! LOL!
I want to start literature circles with my students soon, and I am collecting ideas. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love Harvey Daniels' Literature Circles book. He is definitely one of the best in that area. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteMary
Fit to be Fourth
I just love Erin's Interactive Notebook Resources! I haven't done literature circles in a very, very long time! It's just so hard to fit into 55 minutes! But this post gives me hope!
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
Carla
Surviving Sixth Grade
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