Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Character Analysis

NEW BLOG POST!!! Yayy.  I am so happy to be blogging again.  My computer was out of commission for awhile.  Thankfully I did not lose files but my keyboard was not working.  Then I tried to use my husbands computer and it stopped working as well.  Thankfully now we have fixed and back up keyboards! woohooo. Anyway, I have a short post for you today.

This week in reading we are focusing on character analysis.  My students have been having a hard time telling me details about the characters so we decided to focus on traits and feelings of characters.  We first defined what each meant.  One of my students was dead on with definitions while most of the others had no clue what the difference was. It was great.  He sometimes struggles with confidence so we celebrated this knowledge to the fullest.  He was very proud after that!

Anyway, then we came up with some examples.  The kids had some great ideas for character traits and feelings. I think the fact that the school focuses on virtues really helped in this area.

Then we practiced together identifying these things through our read aloud. I am currently reading Shiloh which has some dramatic events in it to really help with this.  We were at the part where Marty confronts Judd and lots of emotions are shared by each character.

During their independent reading time, I asked the kids to grab 2 different colored flags and mark the traits and feelings that they found in the books they were reading.  I was quite surprised how many of them struggled identifying these things on their own.  Good thing it is still early to keep reinforcing these ideas.

After the reading time was up we gathered back to the carpet to share our ideas and what we found in our stories.  The students then each added a trait or a feeling to our chart. Here is the finished chart.  I was quite pleased with this lesson and think the rest of the week will really make this concept stick.



Happy Hump Day!!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Currently it is September

Even though none of my calendars say September, I guess it really is. I cant believe it.  This summer and the first few weeks of school flew by for me.  But here we are with the currently.  I am not feeling well so I will keep this short.


My three things are fairly self explanatory. I want to start cooking more.  This summer my husband and I ate out a LOT, so we need to get in the habit of cooking again.  We had some great meals this weekend though so I think we are on the right track.

Grad School. Ugh. I think I need to start this soon. I want to apply this month. I will need to do it online since I am internationally located, but any advice otherwise would be awesome!

Reading: I want to keep reading this month like I did over the summer. I want to finish the book I am half way through and then finish another one in September.  Hopefully it is not too lofty a goal.

Cant wait to check out the other Currentlys! Go and enjoy.  I am in the top 50... I cant believe that.  ha.


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