Please remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page for fun classroom pictures and explanations of reading skills.
5th Grade Reading Class
First Month of School
Students are learning about the different genre's of reading. Students will be reviewing key elements of plot and story vocabulary.
1.The first genre students will be reading is Fantasy. Individually students will be placed into groups and reading various fantasy books. As a class, we will be reading Tuck Everlasting. Click the links below for more information on Tuck Everlasting and extra activities.
2. Our second unit is Nonfiction. Students will read a biography and several informative books.
3. Our next reading genre is Historical Fiction. Our main book we will be reading is called Esperanza Rising. Below is some websites to further your knowledge on the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
http://www.kidskonnect.com/subjectindex/16-educational/history/267-great-depression.html
http://www.wartgames.com/themes/american/greatdepression.html
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/dust-bowl-migration/
Figurative Language helpful website
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/languages/words/idioms/
http://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/figurative-language.html
4th Grade Reading Class
First Month of School
Students are focusing on learning what is comprehension as well as story vocabulary and elements of plot.
1.The first genre students will be reading is Fantasy. Individually students will be placed into groups and reading various fantasy books. As a class, we will be reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
2. The second genre students will be reading is Mystery. Students will become detectives and solve various cases! Students will also write their own mystery!
3. Our third unit is Nonfiction. Students will read several informative books.
Text Structure
http://www.literacyleader.com/sites/litlead.essdack.org/files/Text%20Structure%20GCHS.ppt.pdf
This website is a wonderful powerpoint presentation to help explain differences between nonfiction and fiction text structures.
http://www.u-46.org/dbs/roadmap/files/comprehension/3expostext.pdf
Another worksheet that goes over the definition of various text structures.
http://www.ereadingworksheets.com/text-structure/
This website provides you with worksheets students can complete for extra credit.
4. Our next genre is Realist Fiction. Students will be reading as a class On my Honor as well as several other realistic fiction books. Our goal is for students to learn how to properly act and to realize all actions have a consequence.
5. Our last unit we will study will be poetry! Students will actively read and write several poems.
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Below are a list of skills students will learn and actively perform while reading. The best way for students to improve their comprehension is to read one page in their chapter book and make a thought. A thought is one way to keep students thinking while reading.
QAR
For every page students read, they should be able to create a question. They can be asking questions when they are confused about something or to ask the question to begin a discussion about that page. There are four types of QAR questions: Right There, Think and Search, Author and Me, and On my Own. Right There questions are questions that you could point to the answer. These questions help correct confusions in the book. Think and Search questions are the best type of question to ask. These questions lead to making inferences or wonderful discussions. Author and Me questions relate to how the author wrote the book. On my Own questions are the questions that relate to the person's opinion or lead to making predictions. These type of questions you don't want to ask. They do not help you make meaningful thoughts.
Visualizing
While reading, students should be making a mind picture in their head. Another words, reading is just like watching a movie but using your imagination. Students should be able to visualize the character, their movement, as well as the background.
Predictions
A prediction is not a question. A prediction is your guess of what will happen next. In order to make the prediction meaningful, the sentence should relate to what will happen on the next few pages as well as relate to the book.
Inferences
An inference is made when students use clues in the book to make a new idea. There are 6 main inferences. They are: telling the character's feelings, explaining why the character said or reacted in a certain manner (character motive), describing the character's personality (traits), the extra details that students could add to their background visual, and being able to tell what time or season the story takes place.
Connections
There are three types of connections: Text to Self, Text to Text, or Text to World/Media. While reading, students should be able to relate what is happening in the book to either themselves, another book, something that happened on the TV, or in the world. The important thing about making connections is to make them meaningful. This means making a connection to something important in the book, not just on the interesting details.
Context Clues
When students are reading, if they come to a word they do not know, they should not skip it. Instead, students should look for key words in the sentence that will help students come up with the meaning of the word. Another words, using the keys words in the sentence, students can create a synonym(same) for the unknown word.