I teach 4th grade, my 2nd year, and it's crunch time...3rd quarter and state testing coming up. We just took our district's state comparison test...if that's what you can call it. It's a test that we are required to give that supposedly mirrors our state standardized test very closely. So, of course the scores are supposed to also mirror what our scores will be like.
Well, I've got some major issues with having way more Resource students, including two MIMR labeled students than my other 3 colleague's classes. Our school has a very high percentage of ELDs and free/reduced lunch, etc. We run into some major language barriers, etc.
I use our basal reader, leveled groups, differentiated centers, and even grade level practice work that is very standards based. It's so much work. But I really need to get cracking on the standards that the basal doesn't focus on.
Please oh please, does anyone have suggestions or activities for the following areas of reading/language arts? I need quick activities or ways to incorporate these learnings into the everyday reading instruction time without taking too much away from the basal. It's required at our school. I actually like our basal too.
1. Personification
2. Root words and affixes
3. Drawing conclusions
4. Main problem or conflict of a plot
5. Resolution of a problem in the plot.
6. Distinguishing between major and minor characters
7. Identify all aspects of a setting
8. Finding fact vs. opinion in expository text
9. Author's main purpose in expository text
10. Identifying persuasive vocabulary
I have actually done some mini-lessons on numbers 2 and 6 especially. But on this sample test they just took, they bombed it. Whenever I teach a new skill in reading, such as the ones above, I put it into a weekly writing assignment. Hard to explain, but the students have been doing very well now on it. Yet, when it comes to the standardized test format...they obviously can't translate it. I know I need to do more test prep, but I don't want to stop using this writing activity I do each week...b/c that gives me an authentic assessment I need.
Suggestions...any thing? I hate knowing that my principal is going to think I'm not doing my job as well as the people next to me. It's just horrible and I hate feeling like this. I obviously need to figure out how to some how turn things into test prep. But...sheesh, my day is already so packed with things that I'm already doing in addition...i.e. poetry and spelling, etc. HELP!
I'm not sure how you do your spelling, but it's one of the ways I focus their attention on root words and affiixes. Some of our word lists focus on words with prefixes or suffixes. I know some people don't believe in spelling word lists (not individualized), but they can serve a purpose for instruction like this. You say you're doing poetry...that' the perfect area to find examples of personification. Without too much searching, I'm sure your students could find lots of poems that include this device.
Great idea Roo...to use the poetry! I will definitely include that with the poetry. I should get into fables earlier than I did last year b/c that would definitely give them a taste of personification.
I found it easier to teach my students about root words while I was teaching about prefixes/suffixes. I taught 3 or 4 common prefixes. Put words on the board and broke them into the word parts and explained the meaning of the word and how it could be decoded since we now knew the meaning of the prefix/suffix. We practiced and practiced for several days about 15 minutes each day. They tell me whether it is a prefix or suffix, what the prefix/suffix means, what the meaning of the word is, what the root word is, and how to spell the root word. (Sounds time consuming, but it is actually very quick when they get the hang of it!) Then we palyed a game. I split the class into groups. I gave each student a list of common prefixes and suffixes. I then wrote words on the board that were on the list. I chose words that we had not previously discussed. When it was that team's turn they had to answer all of the above questions to get 2 points. If they answer wrong another team can steal for 1 point. My students love this game!!! They can't understand why we can't play it everyday!
A lot of these skills kind of come up on their own without having to do an entire lesson. For example, any time you read a story/book, you have the opportunity to discuss the conflict, resolution, characters, and setting.
I told my kids to think of a story like a roller coaster: The beginning of the roller coaster hill is the rising action, the top is the climax, then there's the falling action, and the end of the hill is the resolution. We've used the roller coaster model to fill in different parts of the story, and then we discuss characters too.
I agree with SC try to find ways tyo incorporate each skill with your story. My You might not awalws find an example of every thing on your list in your basal story, but most of them you can include in a quick minilesson with the story. Make a check list for each story to see if you covered all 10 things. ( You may not find pursuasive vocab in all your stories, but then you can make up your won lesson for that.)
If you do a mini lesson with each story, the kids will start to look for those things everytime you read a story. It is so challenging for kids to apply isloted skills towards other stories. If you try to include these skills with each story it will become familiar for them to automatically look for them in stories that they read, since they know you will be asking about them.
I think LA is such a challengng subjet to teach becasue there is soooo much stuff to fit in and include.
02-03-2007, 03:32 PM
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