Scroll down for Resources and Websites to use for ELA/Reading
Welcome to our blog! Dear Families, Welcome to 4th grade! I am looking forward to getting to know you and your child and working together to help your child succeed! As parents and guardians, I understand that you are the most important teachers in your child’s life. It is with that understanding that I appreciate the role that you and I each play in the partnership to your child achieving the goals set forth for him or her. Hopefully you will find this blog to be a helpful tool in making this school year the best it can be! I will try and keep it updated with school and class happenings. We will provide you with links to help meet our standards and always know what’s going on! Once again, welcome to 4th grade! I know that together, we can make this a wonderful school year! Sincerely, Mrs. Huff
WE IMPLEMENT READER'S WORKSHOP. THIS IS THE STRUCTURE WE WILL USE EVERY DAY DURING OUR READING BLOCK. HERE IS AN OVERVIEW FOR EVERYONE. Components of Reading Workshop The Mini-Lesson Each Reading Workshop session begins with a mini-lesson that lasts approximately 10–15 minutes. During each mini-lesson, the teacher introduces a specific concept, also known as the teaching point. Most often, the teaching point focuses on a reading strategy or skill. The teacher will explicitly model or demonstrate the skill for the students. Students then get a chance to practice the skill or strategy on their own or with a partner. This part of the mini-lesson is called the active engagement. Individualized Daily Reading (IDR) During this time students are engaged in self-selected texts at their independent level. They use this time to practice the skills that are taught during the mini-lessons. Students read in book nooks around the room while the teacher holds individual reading conferences or meets with small groups of students for guided reading, strategy lessons, or book clubs. Closing This is a 5–10 minute time period in which students gather back on my reading carpet to reflect on their work as readers. I make sure to reinforce my teaching point for the day and emphasize the importance of continuing to use the strategy that I taught whenever they read from now on. I also give students a chance to share their reading work. Since I certainly do not have time every day for every reader to share, I vary the way I allow my students to share.
Here are some websites that you might find useful! Language Arts Websites : ( Left click on the links) Game Goo-Meet Fearless Frieda, Spanky the Tooth Taker, and other friends as you go on scavenger hunts and more. Grammar Blast-Pick any link and you will answer 10 grammar questions. See if you can earn 100 points. Grammar Gorillas-The Grammar Gorillas need help identifying parts of speech. If you click on the right word in the sentence, the gorilla get a banana. And you know, a gorilla with a banana is a gorilla with appeal. Harcourt Grammar Practice-Practice the types of sentences and more by choosing a clubhouse. Kidport Language Arts Skills-Want to improve your English and grammar? Check out these language arts pages. Scholastic-Great ways games to practice and master grammar skills. Super Kids Vocabulary Builders-Looking for an easy way to improve your students' vocabulary? These should help - and hopefully be fun, too! Write On Reader-Let Buster Book and Penny Pencil be your guides as you travel through the fabulous world of reading and writing! Writing Hot Topics-Writing prompts and journal topics. Reading: We will continue to work on Text structure and understanding non-fiction texts through learning about animal defenses. Writing; Persuasive Writing Skills: proofreading/editing (punctuation/grammar rules) Non-Fiction Text Features and Text StructureWhat are Text Features?Text features are to non-fiction what story elements are to fiction. Text features help the reader make sense of what they are reading and are the building blocks for text structure (see below). So what exactly are non-fiction text features? Text Features and ComprehensionText features go hand-in-hand with comprehension. Without them, comprehension could be greatly compromised. For example, if the author wants a reader to understand where a country is in the world, then providing a map helps the reader visualize and understand the importance of that country’s location. If the anatomy of an animal is vitally important to understanding a text, a detailed photograph with labels gives the reader the support he needs to comprehend the text. Text features also help readers determine what is important to the text and to them. Without a table of contents or an index, readers can spend wasted time flipping through the book to find the information they need. Special print helps draw the attention of the reader to important or key words and phrases. In my experience, readers of all ages, especially struggling readers tend to skip over many of the text features provided within a text. To help readers understand the importance of text features, take some time before reading to look through the photographs/illustrations, charts, graphs, or maps and talk about what you notice. Make some predictions about what they’ll learn or start a list of questions they have based off of the text features. Sometimes, it’s even fun to make a point to those readers who like to skip over the text features by retyping the text with no features and asking them to read the text without them first. Once they do that, discuss how difficult comprehension was. Then, give them the original text and help them to see the difference it makes in understanding. Some Common Text Features within Non-Fiction
Captions: Help you better understand a picture or photograph
Comparisons: These sentences help you to picture something {Example: A whale shark is a little bit bigger than a school bus.}
Glossary: Helps you define words that are in the book
Graphics: Charts, graphs, or cutaways are used to help you understand what the author is trying to tell you
Illustrations/Photographs: Help you to know exactly what something looks like
Index: This is an alphabetical list of ideas that are in the book. It tells you what page the idea is on.
Labels: These help you identify a picture or a photograph and its parts
Maps: help you to understand where places are in the world
Special Print: When a word is bold, in italics, or underlined, it is an important word for you to know
Subtitles: These headings help you to know what the next section will be about
Table of Contents: Helps you identify key topics in the book in the order they are presented
You can download a printable copy of this list for students HERE. What is Text Structure?Simply put, text structure is how the author organizes the information within the text. Why do text structures matter to readers?
When readers what kind of structure to expect, it helps them connect to and remember what they’ve read better.
It gives readers clues as to what is most important in the text.
It helps readers summarize the text. For example, if we’re summarizing a text that has a sequence/time order structure, we want to make sure we summarize in the same structure. (It wouldn’t make sense to tell an autobiography out of order.)
Examples of Non-Fiction Text StructureWhile there are differences of opinion on the exact amount and names of different kinds of text structure, these are the 5 main ones I teach. 1. Problem/Solution The author will introduce a problem and tell us how the problem could be fixed. There may be one solution to fix the problem or several different solutions mentioned. Real life example: Advertisements in magazines for products (problem-pain; solution-Tylenol) 2. Cause and Effect The author describes something that has happened which has had an effect on or caused something else to happen. It could be a good effect or a bad effect. There may be more than one cause and there may also be more than one effect. (Many times, problem/solution and cause and effect seem like “cousins” because they can be together.) Real life example: A newspaper article about a volcano eruption which had an effect on tourism 3. Compare/Contrast The author’s purpose is to tell you how two things are the same and how they are different by comparing them.Real life example: A bargain hunter writing on her blog about buying store-brand items and how it compares with buying name-brand items. 4. Description/List Although this is a very common text structure, I think it’s one of the trickiest because the author throws a lot of information at the reader (or lists facts) about a certain subject. It’s up to the reader to determine what he thinks is important and sometimes even interesting enough to remember.Real life example: A soccer coach’s letter describing to parents exactly what kind of cleats to buy for their kids. 5. Time Order/Sequence Texts are written in an order or timeline format. Real life examples: recipes, directions, events in history Note: Sometimes the text structure isn’t so easy to distinguish. For example, the structure of the text as a whole may be Description/List (maybe about Crocodilians), but the author may devote a chapter to Compare/Contrast (Alligators vs. Crocodiles). We must be explicit about this with students. More Text Structure Resources: