newsletter 06

Banyan Newsletter

November 20, 2009

Reading Workshop

Good Talkers Are Good Listeners: The Art of Conversation We have been discussing the way good talkers can also be good listeners. We charted what our listening minds and our listening bodies should be doing. Our listening bodies look at the speaker, nod and say “uh, huh.” Our listening minds think about what the speaker is saying, listen hard to understand and picture what the speaker is saying.

We learned about how many voices can be heard in a discussion but one at a time. We also focused on the skill of sticking to a topic. We looked at an issue of Time For Kids and picked one related topic that we all agreed to stick to. Then, we had a discussion and tried our best to make our comments stick directly to the topic.

These are all vital skills for regular conversations but also for our discussions around books in small groups, whole groups and partnerships. Try some of these skills at home around the dinner table.

Writing

We also thought about what types of questions we ask each other when listeners want help understanding something: “Can you say more about that? Can you repeat that? Can you explain that differently?”

We used our blend and ABC charts to stretch out words when writing to increase our accuracy when spelling. We continued to use planning strategies and introduced writing partnerships. Writing partners help each other plan their writing work and they share what they have written.

“Turn and Talk” is a new strategy that we applied to our class discussions. Students learned to apply the above skills when talking to a partner about a book.

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Math

We also worked on more story problems using addition. We played some familiar games but used new techniques. We played Roll and Record and Five In A Row with one dot cube and one number cube.

We have been playing games in which the students have to guess the missing addend: How Many Am I Hiding?and Counters In A Cup. The students have a set total, one partner hides some number and the other partner guesses what the hidden number is based on what they can see.

Snails

We researched.

The students looked at our I wonders and decided which questions would be good for research, rather than an investigation.

We introduced Dot Addition in which students use dot images to create a variety of combinations for certain totals.

Snails

We wrote down what we learned.

We looked at books and found some answers to our questions.

We wrote down our answers on post-its.

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Snails

We presented.

We shared our discoveries with the class!