This first break in the school year seems like an apropos time to pause and reflect on our learning and progress so far. In doing so, I realize that among the many things to give thanks for this year, I am truly grateful to my students for sharing their ideas, opinions, and experiences as we've explored literature and writing. I am thankful for this job in which I can foster communities of intelligent and engaged readers and skilled and creative writers. I know that our work can be a passion for some and a dread for others, but if we can consider and share common human experience through reading and writing, we've achieved something vital to our growth as individuals and a community.
This week we will visit the library so that students may again choose their own novel to read. While there may not be a culminating project with this one, we will revisit the strategies that readers use to deepen their comprehension of text, and students will be using sticky notes to monitor their thoughts as they read.
We have a new list of vocabulary drawn from "The Monkey's Paw" for which students inferred meaning based on context in the story, checked their inferences against a thesaurus or dictionary, and began composing word ladders of synonyms for these words. We will revisit them after the break to play with them some more.
After the break, students will embark on a short story writing workshop. They will engage in multiple pre-writing activities to brainstorm character, setting, conflict, and plot events. This will give them a chance to use the elements of fiction we have been examining within short stories to write their own! It will also facilitate their use of descriptive language and "juicy" word choices in their writing.
I want to wish all families a peaceful, pleasant, and safe Thanksgiving!
Homework: read novel w/sticky notes to monitor thoughts; enjoy your book!
Monkey's Paw vocab quizlet
