Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Finding Joy in 6th Grade has created her first Linky party with a Giveaway.  
The Linky Party is "What Will I Definitely Do Next Year? "

I've been out of school since May 17th and just got back from Destin, Florida on our first family vacation of the summer and of course I am already thinking about what I will definitely do next year with my 4th graders. While there are so many things I plan to do, here are a few things that I definitely plan to do next year.


The first is getting my students involved in Edmodo.  I began using Edmodo with my 4th graders two years ago and decided to put it to the side this past school year because I wanted my students to devote more of their time in Kidblog publishing their writing pieces, commenting on other students' blogs and making their own blog posts. Throughout this past school year, I started to regret this decision and now I am definitely getting the students involved in Edmodo for the upcoming school year.  I love using Edmodo with my students for the following reasons:

  • It is a great communication tool.
  • Students can practice responding to texts, videos or other's posts and get immediate feedback from teachers or their peers.
  • Collaboration with other classes on book studies
  • Communicating with our pen pals.
  • Back channeling during Mystery Skype Calls.
  • Communicating with our Trucker Buddy.
Edmodo is a wonderful technology tool to keep students engaged and as it states on their homepage "It's where Learning Happens." 



 This past school year students did respond to reading, but not enough. I would like my students to respond to their reading everyday and I plan to implement this into our daily centers as well as during our reading lessons. Students responding to their reading helps them develop a deeper understanding of the text as well as make personal connections. During the end of this current school year while reading The Lemonade Wars I had students respond to their reading by writing a summary of the chapter, answering higher order thinking questions, making connections and writing using vocabulary from the text. This upcoming year I plan to implement this at the beginning and continue throughout. You can check out an example of one of my student's notebooks here.


Finally, I plan to keep my class WIKI updated with homework using google calendar. You can check out my class WIKI here

We were back in the classroom last Thursday and Friday after Hurricane Isaac and I took these two days to have students share their experiences during the Hurricane. I began by reading a story titled Hurricane by David Wiesner to have students make connections with the characters in the story. They then organized their thoughts in a Flee Map, and then took their thoughts and constructed a two paragraph essay describing their experiences and feelings before, during and after the Hurricane. Friday, students published their stories on our class blog at Kidblog. Check them out!


This week we have been super busy getting back into the routine of things and continuing to practice routines and procedures. Monday I taught students how to make a quality comment on a blog post, using the following anchor chart. Then I randomly handed out student's Hurricane stories and had them practice making a comment using a sticky note. Once they made their comment they delivered the writing back to its owner. They really enjoyed learning how to make comments, as well as reading comments made by their peers. I must also thank Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Faust two teachers at my school, as well as Mrs. Howard the assistant principal and my student teacher Mrs. Ronquille for making additional comments on the student's first blog post. They were excited to know that their experience was shared with others outside of the classroom.

I am looking forward to hosting a Blog Commenting Party for my parents, where students will teach their parents how to log in their blogs and make a quality comment. The Blog Commenting Party is scheduled for Wednesday, September 26th.

Check them out making their comments! They did such an awesome job!






Our focus this week in Reading was identifying and describing the Plot in a text. I read aloud Sarah and the Freedom Quilt and created this Anchor chart with students to identify the Rising Actions, Problem, Climax, Falling Actions and Resolution.









We also practiced going to centers this week.

Here the students are going on a Louisiana Scavenger Hunt on the internet. My student teacher put together a packet for the students with links for the students to locate and use to find answers about their state such as state symbols, population, governor, and other facts.

Here is my student teacher facilitating a guided reading center. She is using the basal to review with students how to identify the plot in a story, and teaching them strategies such as re-reading when they can't determine the answer.

Students below are practicing on our state testing site LAPass. They are practicing Proofreading 1. Students were given two chances to complete the test and then recorded their best score.


Here students are utilizing Brainpop to review concepts we have learned this week such as landforms in  the US in Social Studies, Plot in Reading, and they are watching Harriet Tubman because the story Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt reminded them of Harriet Tubman.



Two other things I am super proud of this week check them out below!

Check out our class Goals. The Anchor chart in the middle is and idea I found on Pinterest and modified. I created Reading Goals for my students such as reading 40 books, reading 140 wpm, learning 150 new words and achieving 85% or higher on tests. I then passed out the color stars you see to students and had them write a goal they wanted to achieve. Some of their goals included changing their behavior, typing faster, passing their tests, making their mom and dad proud ( I loved this one!), doing all their homework, and reading for 20 minutes every night.

Finally, Check out my Super Improver Wall, which is going really well. Students began as a Fan (white star). You can see how many have already earned 10 stamps and have moved up to Rookie (orange star). These students received a free homework pass, as well as changing their star.


Looking forward to another great week!
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