We explored story starters and discussed the elements of a story. Next quarter, Chris will be exploring narrative writing. This lesson will help to serve as a foundation for that unit.
Today we read the next chapter of A Christmas Carol. We studied how the setting affects the plot. We also looked at the author's use of diction and syntax.
After choosing the room in which he wanted to work and settling in, this afternoon, Quinn worked on a reading passage I had selected about an African folk tale. After a few initial prompts to focus, Quinn sustained attention and was able to answer all the multiple-choice content questions and one open-ended question for which he added details and elaborated in his response, independent of prompts. When queried about the book we have been reading, Quinn recalled literary features and important elements of the story. He filled in certain key phrases used for effect by the author, Louis Sachar, and remembered the term 'leit motif,' referring to the literary device characterized by repetition of themes and word choices. Quinn was able to recognize that the attributes of the main characters were being reversed and suggested possible reasons prompting the reversal, which added an interesting and more complex twist to the story elements. Quinn prompted me to read one last chapter although there was little time left in our session, and he stated he was pleased with our progress, revealing a bit of a competitive streak when comparing his progress to other students reading the book.
We had fun with story cubes today. Today we worked with story cubes. Story cubes teach problem-solving and help students think 'outside of the box'. They are also a really creative tool that can be used to help encourage creative thinking as well as memory/recall. Chris created many funny stories.
We read the next two chapters of the story today. We studied the character traits of Nathan, the main character. We also used inference to determine what might happen next.
Chris expressed interest in writing his own spoken word poem. We looked at different examples of spoken word poetry. He then wrote a short piece about Super Mario Bros.
Today we watched a spoken word poem called, "Dear Anxiety," paying special attention to how the speaker emphasized his words and changed the pace and inflection of his voice for his poem to be effective for the audience. We then assessed David's writing and found places for improvement. I'm excited for his final product!
Today we started reading a modern twist on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I showed PJ how to determine the meaning of words based on context clues. He also predicted what might happen next. We also studied the main character and determined how the author conveyed his personality through dialogue.
