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A sketch of Ashley from
Out of the Deep. |
This week has found us focusing on detail--detail with respect to two class books,
Out of the Deep and
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
For
Out of the Deep, each child has been assigned a character or story element to track as they as read in class or at home. They share their perspectives in words and images on our shared
Out of the Deep website. The focus is to see the story from many perspectives as well as to collect the clues that are an integral part of reading a mystery.
With respect to
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, children are creating a large paper-cut bulletin board which depicts the parallel story threads of Minli's journey and the Chinese folk tale stories. We are creating the bulletin board to inform students' story understanding and thought in preparation for our visit to a play that tells the story. When we see the play, we'll pay attention to the way the set designers decided to portray the settings, characters, and story line.
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Child's Google Draw sketch of the book's
"bad guy." |
Also, with regard to our endangered species introduction, students have been asked to cull the details from complex text and turn those details into student-friendly informational posters--posters that will serve our as reference sheets for our upcoming team research project.
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| Bindy from Out of the Deep. |
It's been a bit too much detail for one week, and would have been better if I balanced these detail projects with other kinds of learning, but nevertheless, the students are reaching for these deep learning goals with teacher guidance and support. As they reach, they're gaining practice with reading with greater care and focus, visualizing what they read, and synthesizing the big ideas into images and words that relay the story details to others. These are all important skills when it comes to learning with depth and meaning.
Today, I'll slow it down, and give students some time to think about their work so far with lighter activities, activities that will help them solidify the ideas and concepts learned so far, and activities that will inspire more work related to the paper-cut board, posters, and online "book talk."
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| Example of what the online Out of the Deep Google share page looks like. |
