Last year I was itching to get my kids reading good books. I wanted to do some in-depth study of characters, plot, and ways stories are woven. I went to a training, and was incredibly fortunate to find a teacher that was doing just that- and willing to share! So in the Spring I had two rounds of novel study, and it went moderately well. If you consider that I was in my first year and had never had 60+ kids doing a novel study (between 5 books) then the level of achievement rises dramatically.
Hit fast forward and here we are today. I have 60+ kids exploring 6 different books. Four of the books are new to my novel study unit on challenges (A Wrinkle in Time, the Lightning Thief, Rules, and Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH) and they have been well received. I've met with each book group in each rotation group, giving them some background as well as vocabulary preview. How is it going? So far, so good. I'll be able to tell more once I get my first round of FQR sheets back and can see what they are documenting for their summaries. I'm also keenly interested in their responses where they need to decide which character is most or least like them. We've modelled solid response writing, and I did so again prior to handing out the FQR sheets, so I am hoping for really good responses- solid connections, multiple examples, lively descriptions. We're also going to self/peer assess our sheets on Friday. This will allow me to leverage those students that consistently make those connections, and expand in their writing.
So far so good. Different than last year. Better? We'll wait and see.
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