We begin our 5th grade year in Readers’ Workshop with a Launching Unit, so all students learn the structure, routines, and skills needed to work successfully during Readers’ Workshop. By deliberately building a strong foundation for successful independent work, I am able to work with small groups and individuals all year long, while the rest of the class remains productive. For returning students, this unit contains some review.
We are currently working on the skills necessary to reflect on and write about our reading in thoughtful ways that push our thinking to a deeper, more sophisticated level of analysis and understanding. Each day as students read, they quickly jot down their thinking (predictions, character analyses, connections, etc). Then, at the end of Readers’ Workshop each day, students spend ten full minutes reflecting on their thinking and writing several paragraphs to expand on their ideas. At times they will write in an open-ended way, and at other times I will assign a specific reading strategy to use in the writing as a form of assessment. The daily practice will help all students become stronger, more reflective readers and writers. These entries will be kept in a journal, enabling them (and you) to see the growth from the beginning of the year. We will work more on developing our reflection and thinking skills as a major focus for next week.
Other routines that we will begin are spelling and grammar work. Students will have spelling tests and lessons on Fridays, and are able to work on their spelling work packets throughout the week in class and at home. Packets will be due each Friday. We use a developmental spelling approach, which is supported by research that shows kids go through spelling stages in a predictable way, and benefit from working on spelling skills and patterns to generalize to other words that contain similar patterns. Grammar work will begin in a few weeks, and will be assigned on Mondays and due on Fridays. Students will practice punctuation, parts of speech, mechanics, editing, vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, homophones, figures of speech, and more.
Our next unit which will begin in October will be focused on Literature Circles Exploring the 5 Themes of Geography, and we will focus on reading strategies. As we begin that unit I will send more information.
Please let me know if you have any questions! You can reach me at wendym@mpsvt.org or call the office at 225-8621.
-Wendy McGuggan
