It was a busy and productive week of teaching and learning for me and my students. The students practiced some deep math concepts in a number of ways. Tomorrow I'll give them a short quiz to see where they're at with those concepts. Next week we're beginning a deep focus on problem solving and computation. This takes a lot of dedicated practice, and I find its steady, somewhat traditional focus to be a great match for the holiday season.
My small RTI group is focused on reading like detectives. To meet that aim, the students are reading many different genre about a mystery person. As they read and collect facts, and they also pose questions and organize information in multiple ways to make sense of all the facts, data, and descriptions. So far they've read a poem and a short article about the person's childhood. Next they'll read a short drama too to uncover more facts about this person. The "mystery" component is really helping the students to highlight and pay attention the details in many ways.
My small math RTI group is focused on addition, subtraction, problem solving, and checking their work. They are an eager group who find the relevant facts and data intriguing as they solve the math problems.
Other foci for the week ahead include a social competency focus on the friendship pyramid, buddy time with our kindergarten friends, and perhaps a bit more time to watch our current movie, The Secret Garden. Onward.
