From Good to Tremendous

There are a variety of good things happening in the classroom right now. I've got my assessments laid out for the remainder of my unit, some small and some big. I didn't quite have this laid out earlier, and it is a bit of a relief (I knew where I was going, but there are few assessments with the curricular materials... and they're spotty). So assessment is going on the right track.

One of the lead up projects is creating an audio advertisement for one of the early colonies. This requires finding main ideas in our social studies text, deciding which they'd most like to live in, and then spinning the information into a written script. To put it all together, I'm teaching a few kids how to use Audacity, and then having them teach others how to use it (they essentially become engineers leading their peers). Thus far it has been really successful. Hearing their ad, and then knowing they'll be voting for where they'd most like to live based on the ads, has generated some buzz.

I'm also pulling small groups during each rotation. I have 3-4 students per rotation, per day, that I am focusing on monitoring their comprehension. Right now we are doing less strategy instruction, but that will come back post-Thanksgiving. I'm working more on nonfiction structures, and text structures as a whole, which has also been successful.

Lastly, some good things are coming in our writing block. Devoting a number of days to writing (3 weeks now?!) has given us a chance to really develop some ideas. We're writing essays, and now that everyone is back from sickness we're moving towards putting things together. Very excited.