1 down, 1 to go...

Today was a good day in Room 110! We began by completing our M4T and going over it. Then, we discussed spelling. I originally have always said, "There's an APP for that..." when it comes to spelling. However, that doesn't mean that I don't value spelling and that doesn't mean that I don't care about spelling. I read an article over the weekend on Twitter that got me thinking that maybe I wasn't expressing myself appropriately. So, I read them parts of the article and explained my true feelings that spelling is important but using tools: spellcheck, dictionary, etc., can help us and so we don't necessarily need to MEMORIZE how to spell words. We talked about the patterns we've worked with and then read a book and sorted the words we found into long and short vowels and identified some of the patterns. This hopefully, cleared some things up and showed that I do value spelling but in a way that is different than the traditional spelling test on Friday kind of way. (The article is referenced below.) We also had a mini-discussion on making our writing a little meatier too... and they worked with their Thanksgiving persuasive writing pieces. After gym, we read The Giver, and got right to the part where the Elevens were about to get their job assignments as Twelves when I stopped for the day. We discussed how this book reminds us of other texts and movies we read and compared and contrasted these. Some students had some connections to life or themselves too. For Reader's Workshop today. they were to read and make connections using their independent read. We shared some of these ideas out at the end. Our Columbus State bloggers read their final blog from their CS student. I saw a lot of growth from the students that participated in this project. Kudos to you! Also, Monday, Wednesday and Friday people went to the library. After an indoor recess due to the mini-storm we had, we spent one more day reviewing and practicing for our assessment tomorrow in Math. They worked sooo hard! I'm very proud of the effort and perseverance I witnessed today. Finally, our day concluded discussing Archaic Indians from about 3000+ years ago.