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.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
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
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
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Agatha Christie - Crooked House
The mystery is underway and our classroom slueths are hot on the trail of the killer.
The mystery unit is always my favorite! This year we are reading Agatha Christie's Crooked House. We began the unit with an author study of Christie. Students worked in small groups to research Christie in the computer lab and then turned their findings into an oral presentation. We all learned so much about this unique author.
Currently, we are reading the story. Students are using their detective notebooks to track the suspects and clues in the book. We will be moving into an independent reading and peer discussion format next week.
It is so exciting to see so many of the students gaining academic independence. I can't wait to share my observations and ancedotes with you at conferences. If you have not already done so, please sign up at mysignup.com/conferences .
The mystery unit is always my favorite! This year we are reading Agatha Christie's Crooked House. We began the unit with an author study of Christie. Students worked in small groups to research Christie in the computer lab and then turned their findings into an oral presentation. We all learned so much about this unique author.
Currently, we are reading the story. Students are using their detective notebooks to track the suspects and clues in the book. We will be moving into an independent reading and peer discussion format next week.
It is so exciting to see so many of the students gaining academic independence. I can't wait to share my observations and ancedotes with you at conferences. If you have not already done so, please sign up at mysignup.com/conferences .
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Fall round-up
Well, it has been an exciting fall! Here is a roundup of our experiences thus far!
Writing:
We continue to focus on topic sentences. Students have come a long way in their ability to write a quality topic sentence!
We have spent the last two weeks working on writing a descriptive paragraph of our home. Through this 10 day process we have learned how to generate ideas, put those ideas into paragraph form, create voice and narrative to our writing as well as engaging in the editing/peer editing process.
Literature:
This has been an exciting week in Literature. This week we finished our reading of Hamlet! Student response to a Shakespearean Tragedy was amazing. The students could hardly contain themselves as we worked our way through the last eight pages of the book. There were lots of, "I knew it!" and "NO, I can't believe that happened." It is amazing to see young readers get so excited about Shakespeare!
If you have the time I strongly recommend you have your child tell you all about the play!
Grammar:
In grammar our focus this week was pronouns. Student's did a wonderful job with this and we will be moving on to prepositions after MEA.
Finally, for the next 8 weeks I will be taking a professional sabbatical. I will greatly miss all the students. Natalie Rancone will be my substitute. She is a wonderful literature teacher and I am confident the students will have a great time with her! Please make sure you give her a big Cologne Academy welcome!
See you all in December!
Mrs. Gordon
Writing:
We continue to focus on topic sentences. Students have come a long way in their ability to write a quality topic sentence!
We have spent the last two weeks working on writing a descriptive paragraph of our home. Through this 10 day process we have learned how to generate ideas, put those ideas into paragraph form, create voice and narrative to our writing as well as engaging in the editing/peer editing process.
Literature:
This has been an exciting week in Literature. This week we finished our reading of Hamlet! Student response to a Shakespearean Tragedy was amazing. The students could hardly contain themselves as we worked our way through the last eight pages of the book. There were lots of, "I knew it!" and "NO, I can't believe that happened." It is amazing to see young readers get so excited about Shakespeare!
If you have the time I strongly recommend you have your child tell you all about the play!
Grammar:
In grammar our focus this week was pronouns. Student's did a wonderful job with this and we will be moving on to prepositions after MEA.
Finally, for the next 8 weeks I will be taking a professional sabbatical. I will greatly miss all the students. Natalie Rancone will be my substitute. She is a wonderful literature teacher and I am confident the students will have a great time with her! Please make sure you give her a big Cologne Academy welcome!
See you all in December!
Mrs. Gordon
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Welcome Back!
We are starting off the year with a BANG! Here are a few things we are working on in MUR:
Writing:
In writing we are working on "flow". This is a writing procedure that teaches us that ideas need to flow from one sentence to the next. We have been putting this skill to good use by writing paragraphs about how to do something.
Students are also partaking in peer editing and having their work read to them. I have seen tremendous progress in everyone's writing over the past week.
Advanced MUR students have been working on writing a "quality" topic sentence and both groups are stretching their vocabulary by including multi syllabic words in their writing.
Hamlet:
We are off to a great start with Hamlet. We have learned about Shakespeare's life, the Globe Theater as well as literary and structural elements of a Tragedy.
Spelling:
We continue our study of root words in spelling. This week students are working with the root manu.
Writing:
In writing we are working on "flow". This is a writing procedure that teaches us that ideas need to flow from one sentence to the next. We have been putting this skill to good use by writing paragraphs about how to do something.
Students are also partaking in peer editing and having their work read to them. I have seen tremendous progress in everyone's writing over the past week.
Advanced MUR students have been working on writing a "quality" topic sentence and both groups are stretching their vocabulary by including multi syllabic words in their writing.
Hamlet:
We are off to a great start with Hamlet. We have learned about Shakespeare's life, the Globe Theater as well as literary and structural elements of a Tragedy.
Spelling:
We continue our study of root words in spelling. This week students are working with the root manu.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Summer Fun!
Well, it has been a very exciting summer! I kicked off the summer with a trip to Disney World. Yes kiddos...that is Mrs. Gordon with a storm trooper! The summer continued with trips to the beach and Michigan. Don't worry I also had lots of time to create fun and exciting lessons for MUR!
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It's going to be an awesome year. Hold on to your books and notebooks...off we go!
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