Today we set-up our Google Classroom. Our first project involved using Google Docs to help us with taking our draft pieces of writing through the writing process and into publishing. Google Classroom also helped us with greater classroom flexibility and differentiation.
Students all have secure usernames and passwords and can continue working on their writing at any time. (This includes at home!) Moreover, I will always have access to what they are doing and I will be able to provide feedback.
Today we shared some of our writing during Author’s Chair. Over the last six weeks, we have been putting an emphasis on clearly establishing a situation/topic/problem with a strong introduction, well-sequenced events, and a satisfying conclusion.
The Author’s Chair is an opportunity to share writing and receive positive feedback from classmates.
Today the students used the strategy “Keep It or Junk It” to help us get ready for Kids Court and our Mock Trial. The Keep It or Junk It strategy has students working in small groups to identify key vocabulary from a text. This is followed by students working as a class to negotiate what the key vocabulary is and why. Words that are important are kept while words that are not, are junked.
The list of words will be used for writing an argumentative essay.
From time-to-time, students will complete a Math Write. This is a chance for students to share their math thinking and support a claim using the vocabulary of math. The focus has been on place value, the addition and subtraction of decimals and soon the multiplication of whole numbers.
In a scenario titled Saving Sam, students worked individually and with partners to develop strategies and solutions to a problem. In this case, Sam (the candy worm) was drowning and his only chance of survival involved placing a life preserver (Life Saver) over his body with nothing but two paper clips. Working individually, two students developed answers. Working with partners, 16 students were able to save Sam. Apart from learning through inquiry, there was likely another lesson buried in there.
Thank you Jolene Hamilton, 5th grade teacher at Verdi Elementary, for first sharing this lesson with me.
Room 360 