Classroom Slueths Solve the Case!

The Crooked House:
     This was an exciting week for our junior detectives. We began the week with a lesson on formal letter writing and then transferred this skill to our classroom project.  Using their detective skills, students wrote letters to Inspector Taverner revealing the killer and giving him evidence.  It was wonderful to see the student's creative minds at work. Many of the letters are on display in our classroom!
    We will be finishing our mystery unit on February 28th and moving into our final exam.  Our exam will be long answer and contain critical thinking and interpretive questions.  Students will be given the questions prior to the exam to give them time to prepare their answers.  Please look for the rubric and questions on Wednesday.

Discussion Groups:
    After four weeks of discussion groups the kids are pros!  It is amazing to listen to their talks and watch different students take on leadership roles within the group.  I have heard some incredible ideas come from these groups as students dissect the novel bouncing ideas off of one another.  We have really come together as a group!

Station Work:
   We continue to delve into our station work as student learn more about spelling and vocabulary.

Advanced MUR writing project:
  All of the students have completed their pre-writing packet and have begun the introduction of their story.  It is exciting to see their stories come to life. Next week we will be focusing on the main character of a story.  We will be conducting writing activities with our main characters, getting to know them better and adding this knowledge into our stories.

Classroom Sleuths Track a Killer

Our mystery unit continues as our classroom sleuths carefully track clues left by the killer in their detective notebooks. Agatha Christie's Crooked House has proven to be an exciting unit for our students. With red-herrings everywhere, we are scrutinizing each character and their motive. In the near future, we will begin writing letters to Chief Inspector Tavener revealing our predictions regarding the killer!

Discussion Groups:
  The mystery unit has allowed me to institute an exciting new initiative through discussion groups. This discussion format allows students to create independence in their learning, develop interpersonal skills and maximize individual learning time. Each day students are given a reading assignment as well as two open ended interpretive or speculative questions to answer. Students work at their own pace to complete the assignment. Later in class students meet in small groups of 3 to 5 children and initiate a meaningful conversation. Through observational assessment I am able to guide groups as well as individual students through the discussion process.  I am amazed at the high level of thought and analysis the students have been able to achieve as independent learners!

Station Work:
  Our Gifted and Talented students are also embarking on station work.  During this time we are learning to write analogies, create posters for our spelling words, use context clues to determine the meaning of complex vocabulary words and practice writing great opening ended high level questions.

Independent Writing Project:
   The Advanced Middle School group is immersed in an independent writing project. Students are able to chose between a fictional story or nonfiction essay. Through a series of graphic organizers and student/teacher conferencing, the middle schoolers are off to a great start. Please ask your child to share their writing with you. Our goal for this 8 to 10 week writing project is to select two student stories to submit to  various writing contests!

  As always, please feel free to contact me at any time at jgordon@cologneacademy.org

   Sincerely,

         Mrs. Gordon