Today, my lesson plan changed last minute (like, literally 10 minutes before the kids came in for the day) and it went pretty well, so I thought I would share what we did with you. We have been using the RACE strategy to respond to comprehension questions about our reading.  If you aren't familiar with the RACE strategy, here is a great post by Becky at Create.Teach.Share (she also has a wonderful freebie that I used to introduce this concept to my kids.)  I wanted the kids to practice the strategy, read the next chapter in our book, and use the computers this morning (since I had totally forgotten we had the cart, hence my lesson plan change.)  So, to do this, here is what we did. I broke the kids up into groups.  Each group was to read the assigned chapter of the book in any way they wanted (silently, in pairs, as a group...it really was up to them) and discuss the chapter as they were reading.  I honestly was amazed that they actually did stop to dis......

The novel Tuck Everlasting (affiliate link) is so full of rich characters that examining their character traits is a must.  Last year, I wrote about how we did that in a decidedly low-tech version here , but this year, since I have access to a class set of chrome books, we took it up the tech notch a bit. To begin, I asked the students to think about one of the characters what stood out to them in the book.  This could be any character, though I did preface by saying that those characters with more information (ie: Jesse or Winnie) would be easier to discuss than those with only a passing mention (ie: the grandmother).  Once the character was chosen, I had the students list all of the character traits they could.  To help them along, the students used this character trait list from Read.Write.Think .   Using those traits, they had to search through the book to find evidence of that character trait and list their own background knowledge justifying why t......

                             We revisited character traits and combined it with a lesson on inferring this past week. Our class novel, Tuck Everlasting , is filled with vivid descriptions of the various characters that lend themselves to deep inferences.  So I asked the students to think about a character that they connected with, and list 10 character traits that could be used to describe the character.  (They used this chart that we had previously glued into our journals from Read, Write, Think) Once they had the list of character traits, the students had to list text evidence from the novel that supported their character trait inference, AND their own schema that led them to the inference. After the list was complete, the students did two things.  First, they wrote a paragraph describing the character from the story using the character traits and the inferences.  I had them use t......

We dove into setting again while reading Tuck Everlasting .  As we delve more and more into citing text evidence, I wanted the students to really see what that meant. Chapter one of the book describes the setting of the book in great detail.  In fact, it is so vivid that I had the students dissect the chapter to create a drawing.  On that drawing, they were only allowed to put something that appeared in the chapter.  If it wasn't written down, they couldn't draw it. Then, I made a copy of chapter one for each student.  They were instructed to cut the text apart, gluing the actual text onto their picture to prove that what was drawn was in the text. This really helped to show the students that authors truly do paint pictures with their words.  It also allowed them a chance to "prove" their drawings using text evidence. Wow...short and sweet!  How unlike me :)...

We started our novel study for Tuck Everlasting this week.  Now, this story is NOT a read aloud.  (we are reading Wonder for that.)  Instead, this is a whole group novel that we are reading to learn about story elements, figurative language, grammar, and fluency.  We use this book in lieu of the anthology, but are learning the same skills that we would if we were sticking tight to the basal.  So this book is something that will have the kids reading, rereading, and then reading again. To introduce the story, I had the students examine the actual physicality of the book before I told them anything about it.  We did this with our first novel study, Gregor the Overlander , as well.  First, I read the title to the kids.  I ask them to make an inference and predict what the story will be about, simply based on the title.   They wrote their ideas on a sticky note and we shared out. Then, I placed the book cover on the doc cam and asked them t......

Foreshadowing is a technique that authors use all the time, yet I find myself rarely discussing it in class.  Well, I thought I would do a little close reading of the prologue in Tuck Everlasting and have the students annotate the text to show evidence of foreshadowing. We started by making an anchor chart for the literary technique.  The students took notes in their reading journals.  While we did this, the students naturally came up with examples from other books we had read aloud in class where the new-to-them device was used.  That was a promising sign ;) Then, I passed out a photocopy of the Prologue to each student (as I didn't want them writing in my brand new books!)  On it, I had them write the main purpose of our annotation at the top of the page.  We wrote: Purpose:  Underline evidence of foreshadowing in the text and write any thoughts about what it may be a foreshadow of. For five minutes, the students worked independently.......