Today students worked on character charts related to our current read aloud, The Gold Threaded Dress. I moved about the room assisting, listening, and thinking about follow-up teaching. Their questions were revealing:
- What is a personality attribute?
- What is a physical trait?
- How can I draw a character I haven't seen a picture of?
- Where do I put the information? (Essentially, How do I read a chart?)
As I think about the common core standard, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions), I realize that we have a lot of work to do in order to grow depth of understanding of story elements and the strategies of visualization and inferencing.
It seems like this will be a year of details as I work to develop students skill, knowledge, and concept related to all the new standards. The challenge is to make this teaching engaging and productive at the same time. Connected to this challenge is the focus on quality work, focus, and care. It's tough to focus with strength on a topic, a topic that's not natural to you. Yet, thoughtful focus helps children to develop skill and facility--important for overall learning. As I focus on the details--I'll also focus on student effort and result.
A year of details.
