Monday, November 18, 2013

Macrosphere:Microsphere: A Teacher's Week

A weekend of big ideas, the macrosphere, leads to a week of focused work, the microsphere.  The weekend provides time for research, big idea plans, and reflection, while the week gives one a chance to "practice what you preach."

What will this week bring?

Multiples and Factors
We'll jump into this unit with the factor/multiple card project and lots of number talk and action.

RTI Math
My RTI group will continue to learn and practice the skill and meaning of rounding numbers as we take a close look at Thanksgiving dinner preparation costs, and plan a wonderful feast.

Reading Workshop
The book groups will meet every day this week. Project book groups will finalize their presentations and share. Another group will continue to focus on Julio's character and the question,Why or why not should Julio be chosen as class President?, as they read and discuss, Class President by Johanna Hurwitz. The third group will listen to another version of the story they'll soon peform in order to build a stronger sense of character and setting, then they'll continue to practice their play parts, build scenery, and make the final preparations for their presentation to third graders.

The Culture Project
Promised Lands will kick off the week with a musical immigration presentation. Students will also learn how to research online as they find facts and write paragraphs about flags that represent the culture they've chosen to study, and the whole class will embark on an analysis and illustration of Richard Blanco's poem, "One Today," as part of our close reading/reading response work.

Animal Adaptation
To prepare for our animal adaptation day as part of Farm Days, students will read and respond to an animal adaptation informational article. They will also have a chance to focus on animal adaptation vocabulary and concepts as they watch a related film.

Read Aloud
Our read aloud time will continue to focus on immigration and migration picture book stories from all over the globe. As we read we'll continue to focus on comprehension strategies, story elements, and knowledge building.

Professional Learning
Our weekly professional time will focus on the culmination of our persuasive essay unit with shared scoring and reflection. We will also engage in progress monitoring related to our reading workshop and intervention efforts, and discussion about our current goals related to the culture project and close reading/reading response work.

The back and forth of the macrosphere-microsphere informs educators' work well. The key to this back and forth motion is to keep the balance flexible and forward moving--"a little for today, and a little for tomorrow," as my father always encouraged.  Happy Day PLN!