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Sharing our Personal Narratives

Published Dec. 11, 2017, 1:57 p.m.

Use the link below to enjoy oral readings of our personal narratives!

Personal Narratives

Celebrating the Joys of Winter

Published Dec. 11, 2017, 1:43 p.m.

To wrap up 2017, we will be doing a multi-day project. I have been collecting picture books and poems that celebrate the beauties of winter and its holidays. Each student will choose a text that speaks to him/her, then practice reading aloud a portion of the text. All these portions will be shared with the class on the second day of the project.

If you have a picture book or poem that is special to you, your family, and/or your culture, please feel free to bring it to school for this project (by Friday, 12/15).

November 29, 2017: Writing at the Rock

Published Nov. 29, 2017, 8:11 p.m.

Our work in Trimester 1 had us diving deeply into Personal Narrative writing. Students' published stories are ready to be shared. Tomorrow, they will bring home their writing binders for you to peruse. In the green folder inside the binder, you will find the class notes that guided our work and your child's reflections on that work. You will also see the story written as a pre-assessment and the final story of the trimester. Enjoy!

In the meantime, we are working on a digital book of our stories. We'll share those with you in about a week!

November 28, 2017: 5-odd

Published Nov. 29, 2017, 8:05 p.m.

We read a non-fiction book called The Power of Red. While reading, students noticed and made notes about their thoughts. They then looked back over their notes to find an idea they wanted to think more about. They then wrote about that idea. Our discussion about the book focused on our inferences. We did some vocabulary work around the word status. Our current book is called Steelpan Music. As with past books, students engage in a process of reading and note-taking, then writing in response to their ideas. For this book, we tried setting a purpose for reading, based on what we read in the introduction and on the back of the book. This gave students something to keep in mind as they read. We did some fluency work, using pauses and stress to make our expression match the text.

How can you support your sixth-grade reader and our work in class?
- Keep them reading! Make sure there is time for and an expectation of at least 180 minutes of independent reading each week.
- Talk about words - interesting words, funny words, confusing words. Use sophisticated words in conversation with your child.
- Feel free to read aloud to your child and/or listen to audio books together.

November 28, 2017: 4-odd

Published Nov. 29, 2017, 8:05 p.m.

We read a non-fiction book called Building Green Skyscrapers. While reading, students noticed and made notes about their thoughts. They then looked back over their notes to find an idea they wanted to think more about. They then wrote about that idea. Our discussion about the book focused on our reactions to the text, the text's various features, and the author's use of the phrases "in fact" and "actually." We did some vocabulary work around the word absorb, and some work on fluency, practicing reading at a reasonable pace. Our current book is called The Gift of Aloha. As with past books, students engage in a process of reading and note-taking, then writing in response to their ideas.

How can you support your sixth-grade reader and our work in class?
- Keep them reading! Make sure there is time for and an expectation of at least 180 minutes of independent reading each week.
- Talk about words - interesting words, funny words, confusing words. Use sophisticated words in conversation with your child.
- Feel free to read aloud to your child and/or listen to audio books together.

November 28, 2017: 3-Odd

Published Nov. 29, 2017, 8:04 p.m.

We read a science fiction book called Goldilocks III. While reading, students noticed and made notes about their thoughts. They then looked back over their notes to find an idea they wanted to think more about. They then wrote about that idea. Our discussion about the book focused on our inferences and the book's themes. We did some vocabulary work around the word odious, and some word work with long vowel sounds. Our current book is called Diving Deep Into the Earth. As with past books, students engage in a process of reading and note-taking, then writing in response to their ideas.

How can you support your sixth-grade reader and our work in class?
- Keep them reading! Make sure there is time for and an expectation of at least 180 minutes of independent reading each week.
- Talk about words - interesting words, funny words, confusing words. Use sophisticated words in conversation with your child.
- Feel free to read aloud to your child and/or listen to audio books together.

November 28, 2017: 2-odd, 6-odd, 4-even, 5-even, 7-even

Published Nov. 28, 2017, 12:54 p.m.

Our "academic/school" work has recently been focused on developing two habits. These are habits that strong readers do in in their minds when they read. They think a lot, in many different ways. And they notice when they are confused about what the author is saying. We worked on these two habits while reading a variety of current events magazine articles. We tallied the different kinds of thinking we saw ourselves doing, and students looked for patterns in their own work. We then talked about why noticing confusion may be the most important thing a reader does. This habit leads readers to always be conscious of whether or not they are understanding the author's words and message. We practiced noticing confusion, and then worked on what we do with that confusion. Students realized that there are a number of fix-up strategies one can do to clear up confusion.

What can you do to support these habits?
- Offer to read part of your child's book aloud to him/her. Share your thinking as you go.
- Point out or tell your child about something you read recently that was hard or confusing. Explain or show what you did to makes sense of the text.
- Talk to your kids about things going on in the world. Use grow-up vocabulary. Much of their current confusions stem from ideas and words and places that are unfamiliar. A big part of reading comprehension and making inferences is having expansive background knowledge, so the more kids know the better off they will be.

November 10, 2017 - Reminder about Grades

Published Nov. 10, 2017, 3:28 p.m.

Dear Parents and Students,

With the end of the Trimester within sight (Yikes! How did that happen?), I wanted to provide another reminder about grades for my classes. Students earn Effort Grades. There will not be letter grades on their Progress Reports. These grades reflect students' preparation for class, their level of participation, their behavior, and their level of perseverance. Not all of this can be entered into PowerSchool, and what I do put in PowerSchool is sometimes translated into letter grades. Don't panic! You have to look more closely at the assignments and the point values. You also have to remember that the final Effort Grade is bigger than the assignments entered into PowerSchool. Students are usually quite accurate, and often more critical than I am, in knowing the Effort Grade they should receive.

Don't hesitate to ask if you do have a question.

Ms. Ackroyd

October 23, 2017 - Reading at the Rock

Published Oct. 24, 2017, 8:57 a.m.

Since my last blog, here is what we have been working on:
- Writing in response to a text:
When they read a text, students pay attention to their thoughts and keep track of those thoughts with brief notes. After reading the whole text, they look back over their notes, noticing any common, larger ideas or themes. They choose one of these ideas to explore further in writing. The purpose of this writing is to follow a thought from a text to the world beyond the text.
- IR+ Reflecting Reading Log:
There are times when students will read their IR books in class. We call this IR+ reading, and we expect it to be a bit more reflective than normal leisure reading. Students are expected to pay attention to their reading, to notice and reflect on what they do as readers. They record their observations on a recording sheet.
- CAFE and Conferences:
Students learned the acronym CAFE, which stands for the 4 main components of reading - comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary. These are terms I will use when talking with students about their reading. There is a Quizlet available for students to use for reinforcement of these ideas. One way I get to know students as readers is by doing conferences with them. Conferences can be with a student's IR book or with a magazine, or with a teacher-selected text. I've been doing this last kind of conference with all students over the last few weeks, gathering information what will help me plan for the future work of each class.

October 23, 2017 - Writing at the Rock

Published Oct. 23, 2017, 9:25 a.m.

We are deep into our work on writing personal narratives. Since my last blog post, we have worked on:
- Ways to bring out a feeling in your story:
Students were encouraged to isolate the part of each story that is the heart, or the moment the story is really about. This moment in the one a writer wants to write about with detail and feeling. To do that, one goes back to that moment to remember it, to relive it, to feel all the sensations and feeling of it. And to write those details in the way and the order that they happened.
- Staying in the narrator's point of view:
Writers have to be careful about only telling the story as it happened to the narrator, including only the details and dialogue that the narrator would have known at the time.
- Be picky about the details and dialogue you include:
Writers can't tell every detail about a moment or event. They have to choose the details and dialogue that will lead the reader to the meaning or message of the story.
- Edit as you go:
Strong writers are watching all the time for the things that make their stories readable.