Non-Fiction to Fiction

The first 4 weeks of our rotations have been great so far. We've practiced using different reading strategies in our non-fiction text. We've gotten an understanding of non-fiction features, main ideas (and supporting details), questioning strategies, and making inferences. It is just the start of this whole process, so we aren't looking at proficiency across the board. Our kiddos are doing great work though, and the feedback they are receiving is being used to make their work better.

The current events homework that I have for them every week is a great example of this feedback loop. I don't enter current events into our online grading system. I have a good idea of what those scores would be, but I don't score it because I don't know who is doing the homework. Is that a student's work done independently, or is it work done with a parent helping guide them along? I give them written feedback, and put it in their returned work folder. Some will inevitably make mistakes week after week, which will prompt some small group instruction. Others will read it, and use it the following week. The change from week 1 to week 2, and then into week 3 has been dramatic. Topic sentences without article titles, and only loosely hitting main ideas have become more specific. Details fit well with the topic, and use transitions effectively. Conclusions that were missing were now being employed, and were quite creative. Why was that happening?

Part of it is getting used to a new teacher (last year to now having me). I also think it connected with some in-class work, and intentional instruction around putting main ideas and supporting details into an effective summary.

Looking ahead, we are going to kick it into gear with some fiction this week. We'll use our basal reader to get us started, as well as kicking off the 30 Week Challenge (30 books in 30 weeks, some choice, more directed). I'll post more about the 30 week challenge tomorrow. I'm excited about the transition. Here we go!