Reading Reactions: Big Idea

Oh my gosh, I just figured out how to include "reactions" in the blog!  Even Blogger knows readers react to what they've read!  Although you're options are prefab...  Check them out at the bottom of each post.


Here's another example of a reading reaction.  We've been talking about big ideas, and how part of being a reader is thinking about what we can learn about people and the world from texts.  A big idea is one that transcends the book itself.  It's an idea that's true almost everywhere almost all the time, like the idea you'll see in Frey's reaction to Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech ("Don't judge people if you don't know them.").  Don't worry if you don't see evidence of this kind of thinking in the reactions your child is doing independently at this point.  We're exploring big ideas as part of our read aloud, which is a highly scaffolded setting.  Thanks for reading.

The Teachers' Lounge

Dear Families,

The Teachers’ Lounge is a problem that pushes students to think deeply and carefully about division situations.  It highlights the two types of division situations, quotative and partitive, or grouping and sharing.

In a quotative, or grouping division situation, the number in each group is known and the number of groups is unknown:  24 fourth graders are playing soccer.  The coaches want to make teams of 6.  How many teams can they make?  6 is the number in each group, and the unknown is how many groups will be made with 24 kids.

In  a partitive, or sharing division situation, the number of groups is known and the number in each group is unknown:  I have 24 cookies to share with 6 friends.  How many cookies can I give to each friend?  6 is the number of groups, and the unknown is how many cookies will be in each group.

In the classroom, we talk about whether a division situation is asking “How many groups?” or “How many in each group?”  When you look at the student work below, that is one place your conversation might go.  When you read the juice and water machine situations, think about which problem is a quotative situation and which problem is a partitive situation.

Please start by reading the problem, and involve your child in viewing his or her work.  You'll find some questions below that will guide your conversation.

Please bear in mind that each pair of students saw these problems differently and therefore solved them differently.  Each partnership’s work is valid.  There was no “right way” to go about this.

We started working on this problem last week.  Working with their math partners, students solved the problem and showed their thinking on a poster using equations, pictures and words.  They worked hard to make their work both accurate and clear.  Today, math teams switched posters and left notes for each other about what could make the posters better.  Revisions were made, and then we had a math meeting on the rug where several students shared their work.  After the meeting, each student wrote about how he or she felt The Teachers’ Lounge problem helped them grow as mathematicians (That might be a good way to begin your conversations.).

I love this problem.  As I told the class today, it's like a washing machine.  They go in grass-stained 3rd grade mathematicians and come out clean and shiny 4th grade mathematicians.  This work sets the bar for the level of deep mathematical thinking they'll be doing all year.  I hope you are as moved by the sophisticated thinking you'll see in their work as I was.

Happy thinking,

Lauren

Reading Reactions: Growing New Ideas

One of the goals of doing reading reactions is to linger on ideas that feel important, and to flesh them out so they lead to new ideas.  We flesh them out by doing the reaction and following our thoughts, we flesh them out in conversations with partners and book clubs, and we flesh them out in whole class conversations.  Here's an example of a new idea that grew out of reacting to Magritte's Empire of Light last week.  Denniz noticed that the top part of the painting is light and the bottom part of the painting is dark, and said, "I think he wanted to make the picture because it's like angels and demons."  He shared that on the rug, and then he said, "Maybe he's showing heaven and hell."  I asked, "If that's true, what do you think Magritte thinks about life?"  One of Denniz's classmates said the because the part where we live is in darkness, Magritte must think we're living in a kind of hell.  Intense, right?  Who knows what Magritte really thinks or what he was trying to portray, but this is a really interesting and well supported idea, and it's a perfect example of how a reaction can lead to a new, fabulous idea.


Here's another example, this one from our conversation today about Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech.  Rosie is the main character.  In the part of the book we read today, Bailey, her best friend who is blind, was missing.  Everyone was really worried that something bad had happened, especially since he was alone and cannot see.  It turned out he wasn't lost, and that he had just gone, "for a short walk that got very long."  When they were reunited, Rosie kept insisting that Bailey had been lost, and Bailey kept insisting that he hadn't been, that he'd just gone for a walk.  Here's the class' reaction from that conversation (My notes to you are in pink and blue.).


As students continue to react to text and to discuss their ideas, the expectation will be that the reactions and discussions lead to new (mind boggling!) ideas.


Thanks for reading.

All Right vs. Alright, A While vs. Awhile

Word demon quizzes from last week are coming home today.  A quick note about "all right" and "a while."  I prefer for students to use those spellings, as they seem to be the proper spellings, even though "alright" and "awhile" are indeed acceptable.  Source:


http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/all-right-versus-alright.aspx


"Awhile" is an adverb, but it's much more commonly used as a noun, especially by fourth graders.  "A while" is the proper version when "while" is a noun (It's been a while since...).  Source:


http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/a-while-awhile.aspx

Reading Reactions

Heads up:  There is an example of a reading reaction (Thanks, Jack!) after the jump.  You may find it helpful to take a quick look at it so you have something to picture while I explain reactions!


All year, we've been noticing our reactions to text.  We are studying the different ways readers might react to text, and we're thinking about how our reactions help us understand the text on a deeper level.  There are lots and lots of different ways to react to text, and reactions have varying degrees of sophistication.  We are working to broaden the types of reaction each student has, and to move them further along the spectrum of sophistication.

Grammar, Word Study and Editing

Dear Families,

I hope this post finds you well.  In school, we’ve been talking about what words every fourth grader should absolutely know how to spell right now (list of the 300 most frequently used words also available in the links section.), and about what grammatical rules every fourth grader should absolutely follow all the time.  We’ve also been working to establish editing routines.

GRAMMAR

As we begin our study of spelling and grammar, the class has agreed that all students’ writing should always have capital letters at the beginning of sentences and for proper nouns, correct punctuation at the end of sentences, and that sentences should not be missing any words or have any unintentionally repeated words.  We will not study these things in school—the expectation is that everyone should be doing them all the time starting now.  We will add things to the list as our study of grammar progresses.

Division with Remainders

Last night's math homework included division problems.  While we haven't explored division yet this year, that homework helps me get a sense of what division understanding is still hanging around from 3rd grade.  I hope no one is traumatized!

October Newsletter

Dear Families,

I hope you are all well.  School is in full swing, and it's hard to believe fall is truly upon us.  We are deep into our studies in room 315.  My purpose here is to to give you a sense of what we've been up to in math and reading.

Math

We finished a unit on multiplication a little over a week ago.  The purpose of the unit was for students to:

• build their understanding of multiplication as involving equal groups (There are six baskets of apples.  Each basket has 8 apples in it.  How many apples are there in all the baskets?).
• understand the array model of multiplication (think Small Array/Big Array), and to use it to relate their understanding about the number of groups (six baskets) and the number in each group (8 apples).
• reason about numbers and their factors.  To do this, we collected the factors of 16 and the factors of 48 and looked for patterns.  The students' observations included ideas such as:

• All the factors of 16 are factors of 48.
• The factors of 16 fit inside 48, because 48 is made up of 3 16s

•  begin gaining fluency with the multiplication combinations
  

Last week, we started a unit on data.  The purpose of this unit is for students to:

Why Do We Read?

Last week, we spent some time talking about why people read and what happens in a reader's mind while he or she is reading.  We also shared the things we love to read that paint a picture of our lives as readers.  Here are the notes from our conversations:

Happy First Day of School!

We had a tremendous first day!  It was so lovely to put faces with the names on my class list.  At the end of the day today, we had a "Setting of Intentions."  We started by talking about why we go to school in the first place.  These are the ideas that came up:

• Our parents can't have us at our house all day (they don't want to homeschool us).
• so we can learn so we can get jobs
• we like learning
• so there's  a place to learn how to be a teacher
• to learn
• to get smarter
• to be challenged
• to be inspired
• to be interested in things
• to make friends and play
• to learn about things you never knew you could learn
• to solve problems (school problems and friend problems)

The conversation then moved to why school matters to each individual student, to why each individual student comes to school (looking beyond the legal obligation, that is).  We talked about the word "intention," that it means a plan to act a certain way.  Then each student set his or her intention for the year by answering the question, Why do you go to school?  Why does school matter to you?  The responses will guide their actions during the months to come.  Here are their responses:

Summer Welcome & School Supply List

Hello Families!

I hope you are in the midst (yes, midst--it's not over yet!) of a most glorious summer.  I am enjoying a lovely mix of time at home in Williamsburg, travel, and a wacky summer job on a friend's frozen yogurt truck.  I am very much looking forward to September, and I hope you are too.  I can't wait to meet you all then!  If you have questions or would like to say hello, please email me at playsoutside@gmail.com (note the "s" in "plays"). Please click here to access the school supply list.  See you soon!

Warmly,

Lauren

Algebraic Expressions for Patterns in Perimeter

Last week, we collected data for how the perimeter changes when you add a row of tiles to a 1 x 3 rectangle:

The first rectangle has a perimeter of 8, the second 10, and the third 12.  Can you predict the perimeter of the fourth rectangle?  The fifth?  You probably can.  It increases by 2" each time you add a row.  Our first job was to figure out why.  This student work explains why the perimeter increases by two each time you add a new row:

Next, we wanted to find out if we could find the perimeter of any number of rows without finding all the perimeters before it.  We wanted to find the perimeter of a rectangle with 100 rows without knowing the 99th.  We came up with these algebraic expressions for finding the perimeter for any number of rows (where n is the number of rows and the length equals three):

(n + 3) x 2

(n-1) x 2 + 8

2n + 6

Once we knew that these expressions worked, we tried to find out why they work.  Here's what we discovered:

(n + 3) x 2

(n-1) x 2 + 8

2n + 6

A note to grownups: The first algebraic expression, (n + 3) x 2 is a formula for perimeter.  n is the number or rows, or the width, and 3, in this example, is the length.  (length + width) x 2 = perimeter.  Our purpose here wasn't to find a formula for calculating perimeter (which most students know how to do), it was to write equations that fit this situation and then figure out why they work.

Thanks for reading.

A Division Mystery: The Meaning of Remainders

We encountered a puzzling situation with remainders this week.  Until now, the students expressed remainders as R4, for example, rather than as a fraction or decimal.  The problem that arose this week helped build the conceptual understanding of what remainders are all about, and now we know why you express remainders as a fraction or decimal, not just that you express remainders as a fraction or decimal.

One strategy the students use to solve a division problem is to make an easier, equivalent problem by dividing the dividend and the divisor by the same number, which won't effect the quotient (12 / 2 = 6 / 1).  When they used that strategy to solve 376 / 6, however, they encountered a problem--halving and halving didn't produce the same remainder as other strategies, but no one could find an error in their work.  We revisited the problem today, and everyone tried to figure out why the remainders were different.  We ended with a meeting to discuss our findings.  Here's the original question as well a poster that shows our conclusions:

A Division Mystery

Students solved 376 / 6 in different ways on Wednesday.  Two different answers came up, but there doesn’t seem to be a calculation error in either strategy.  What’s happening here?

376 / 6

Strategy 1

60 x 6 = 360

2 x 6 = 12

376 - 372 = 4

376 / 6 = 62 R4

Strategy 2

376 / 6 = 188 / 3

60 x 3 = 180

2 x 3 = 6

188 – 186 = 2

188 / 3 = 62 R2

376 / 6 = 62 R2

The students worked together to come to the following conclusion, and several students volunteered to make this poster:

ELA Monday and Tuesday

Hi Families,

Just a reminder that the ELA is Monday and Tuesday.  Day 1 will be 45 minutes, and the students will answer approximately 25 multiple choice and some short answer questions.  Day 2 will be 50 minutes.  I'll read an article to the class twice, they'll take notes, and then they'll answer some multiple choice and short answer questions about the passage.  The test ends with a brief editing passage.

I administered a practice run of Day 1 of last year's test so the class knows how it will  feel.  They  did really well!  I'm sending it home today or tomorrow in case  you want to see what Monday will be like.

You've heard it before, but remember that the best thing for your kids to do on testing days is to sleep tight and breathe easy!

Take care,

Lauren

The Meaning of "Democracy" and Fate vs. Free Will

We wrapped up our conversation about revolution last week and are not talking about democracy.  Today in social studies we looked at several famous quotes (below) about democracy.  Each student chose one, and wrote about what he or she thinks the quote means.  Tonight's homework is to draw a sketch that shows the quote in action.  This would be a lovely project to check out if you're so inclined.  If you're looking for something exciting to discuss at dinner, it might be an interesting thing to talk about, as would the philosophical question that came up...


One of the quotes we looked at was credited to Aristotle.  We quickly discussed what a philosopher is, and that lead to an interesting conversation about free will vs. determinism, or fate.  While this was a bit tangential, it was an interesting conversation, and there are clearly some philosophers in the room.  Students, if you'd like to read more about free will vs. fate, page 86 of this book might be of interest (Click "contents" for links to the pages in the book.  You might have to play with the zoom to get it to look right.  Click and drag to scroll.):

Social Action: Day 1--What's the Recipe for Revolution?

We started our Social Action Study today!  My colleagues and I are happy to be writing this brand new study, and the first day was lovely.  The focus question of our study is, "How do people make change?"  We began by looking at the American Revolution (talk about change!) and thinking about what the "Recipe for Revolution" is--What do all revolutions have?  What are the constants in revolutions?  The variables?  We'll linger here for a few days, then it's on to the Constitution.  Later, we'll see how our definition of revolution stacks up against the other "revolutions"--women's suffrage and civil rights--that we'll be studying.  These are the notes from today's conversation: 

Community Writers Series IV: David Bar Katz, Morris' Dad

by Morris and Trevor


Key Words
destiny, belief, importance


What We Learned

• Your best writing comes when you’re writing something that feels important to you.
• If you’re not reporting it’s your job to come up with a good, creative story.
• The most important thing is that you know what’s a good story and what’s not.
• Some writers write because it’s their destiny--lots of people do what they do because they believe it’s their destiny.

The Boston Tea Party

We just finished studying the Boston Tea Party.  We looked at what lead up to it, what the colonists did to avoid it, and what happened as a result.  We’ve focused on the fact that the tea tax was more of a gesture from King George that asserted his power over the colonies, rather than a way to earn money for England.  We also lingered on the idea that the colonists took several steps before they decided to dump the tea in December 1773—The Boston Tea Party was not their first attempt at communicating their displeasure to King George.  Here’s what the class had to say on what lead up to the Boston Tea Party:

1.   One of the only remaining taxes was the tea tax, which the colonists didn’t want to pay, especially since they weren’t represented in Parliament.

2.   They boycotted tea, and when that didn’t work, they refused to unload a November shipment in Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

3.   In New York and Philadelphia, the governors supported the Patriots, and the ships returned to England

4.   The governor of Boston, Governor Hutchinson, did not send the ships back to England.  His sons worked for the British East India Company, and he knew tea in the colonies = money for his sons.

5.   While the Patriots were waiting for a decision from Governor Hutchinson, the Sons of Liberty met to plan what they’d do if he didn’t cooperate with them.  They went to the British East India Company to meet and try to find a solution, but the British East India Company refused to meet with them.

6.   When it was clear that Governor Hutchinson wasn’t going to cooperate, Samuel Adams decided it was time to move forward with the plans to empty the tea into the harbor, and the rest is history.

Today, we talked about the effects of the Boston Tea Party: the Intolerable Acts, which were a series of harsh laws meant to teach the colonists a lesson, and the unification of the colonies around a common goal—they must defend their rights.  At the first Continental Congress, where delegates from almost every colony met to discuss what to do next, Patrick Henry said, “All America is thrown into one mass.  The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more.  I am not a Virginian, but an American!”  At the end of our conversation about what happened after the Boston Tea Party, a student commented that Patrick Henry’s quote about the colonies coming together was like Barack Obama urging republicans and democrats to work together.  The class concluded that good things happen when people put their differences aside and work together (and then erupted into a song about President Obama!  Something from JibJab?  Who knows, but it was amazing!  They never cease to delight.).

Boston Massacre Open Conversation, February 24th

Open conversations are an important part of our curriculum.  During an open conversation, the class gathers on the rug to discuss a topic related to something we're studying.  The class votes on the topic ahead of time, or I choose the topic.  Each student prepares his or her "beginning thought" about the topic so they come to the meeting with something to say.  The class talks without raising their hands, and with minimal direction from me about who should speak.

Our study of the Boston Massacre culminated in an open conversation last week.  Here's what we did leading up to it:

Spring Conference Schedule

Dear 5^th Grade Families,

Conference time is approaching soon and we are excited to speak with you about your child. Parent-teacher conferences are an extremely important part of the academic year. An opportunity to share your child’s progress in 5^th grade, we utilize all 15 minutes of our conference time. Please be sure to be on time so we can optimize our time together.

Please note that our times may be different from other teachers in the school due to our larger class sizes. If you have another child in the school, please leave a note with the sibling’s name and teacher on the slip. We will try to coordinate with his/her teacher so that your conference times are close together. Conference slots are given out on a first come, first served basis. Please be sure to send yours back to school (or email Lauren B. at playsoutside@gmail.com) as soon as possible, especially if you are asking for a specific time. We will, of course try to accommodate you.

Conference confirmation slips will go home on Tuesday, March 9th, so please be on the lookout for them.

Independent Memoir Projects

Dear Families,

I'm going to start sending home the Independent Memoir Projects with comments from me this week. Everyone will have theirs back by the middle of next week. The memoirs were wonderful! I'm quite happy with the quality of the work your kids produced on their own. They're really coming into their own as writers.

Over the course of the project, I provided feedback in writing and in conferences a few times for each student. Because the majority of that feedback was suggestions for ways to improve the writing, the comments I'm sending home with the published memoirs are compliments only. When your child's memoir comes home, please feel free to add to my compliments!

Best,

Lauren

Moment of Silence for Haiti

We had our think-a-thon for Haiti today.  The letter I wrote to students sums it up.  At the bottom of the letter there is a list of words.  After the 45 minutes were up, each student shared a word that expressed how they felt during the 45 minutes.  You'll find those at the bottom of this post.

Community Writers Series III: Paul Sagawa, Sammy's Dad

by Sammy and Henry G.


Keywords
confident, research, proud, audience, careful, persuade, trust, descriptive



What We Learned

• You have to be confident about the article you write.
• You really have to consider who you are writing for.
• If you are not confident about your article the people that read your article won't feel confident about it either.