Welcome to Mr. Grotte’s

2005/2006 Information Center

Date: 12/9/05

Upcoming Dates and Activities:

Dec. 9 Report cards sent home

Dec. 9 Book orders due

Dec. 21 Gingerbread houses

Dec. 22 Winter Vacation Begins

Academics:

Math- math concepts that were focused on this week were:

· Estimated distance to various points

· Comparing length of routes

· Giving oral, then written directions that involve nonstandard measurement of distance

· Finding a standard of measure

· Displaying data and finding the middle

Today’s math pages: 51-56

Reading- this week the students read a realistic fiction story titled Talent Show. The students practiced making predictions, taking notes, and writing a summary. The students also got to participate in some reader’s theater activities.

Writing- this week the students began a persuasive paragraph. The assignment asks the students to persuade their parents to do something for them. Watch out parents, they were pretty excited about this assignment. Another concept we worked on this week was singular and plural possessive nouns.

Science/Social Studies- we spent the entire week sharing our science projects. The projects were absolutely wonderful. There was so much thought and time put into these projects. Everyone should be extremely proud of the effort. I really enjoyed listening to the presentations and the students were just as interested. Good Job!!

What Are Literature Circles?

In literature circles, small groups of students gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students' response to what they have read. You may hear talk about events and characters in the book, the author's craft, or personal experiences related to the story. Literature circles provide a way for students to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss, and respond to books. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach. Students reshape and add onto their understanding as they construct meaning with other readers. Finally, literature circles guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and extended written and artistic response.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand what literature circles are is to examine what they are not.

Literature Circles are . . .	Literature Circles are not . . .
Reader response centered	Teacher and text centered
Part of a balanced literacy program	The entire reading curriculum
Groups formed by book choice	Teacher-assigned groups formed solely by ability
Structured for student independence, responsibility, and ownership	Unstructured, uncontrolled "talk time" without accountability
Guided primarily by student insights and questions	Guided primarily by teacher- or curriculum-based questions
Intended as a context in which to applyreading and writing skills	Intended as a place to do skills work
Flexible and fluid; never look the same twice	Tied to a prescriptive "recipe"

From Getting Started with Literature Circles
by Katherine L. Schlick Noe & Nancy J. Johnson
© 1999 Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.

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