We are continuing to work on our "All about Me" magazines this week. Students are jotting down questions to discuss with their families in the Writing section of their binder, so you might want to ask them if they wrote any questions down. Tomorrow they will take a few moments to review their Beaufort Scale homework from Science class. The instruction given was that the written response was to be done in complete sentences, using proper capitalization and punctuation. I will be taking a writing grade based on their responses and so I will give them Thursday night to revise their papers before turning them in on Friday. The only points that I will be grading for writing will be punctuation, capitalization and complete sentences. They should have a solid base in these areas from third grade. As the year goes on, we will continue to add additional criteria to our writing grades.
In our writing class, we are working on piece called "All About Me" in a magazine format. There are quite a few areas of the magazine that your student may want to discuss with you. Today, some students chose to take notes in the Writing section of their binders with questions they wanted to discuss at home among family members. All of the writing will be done in class and the notes are only meant to remind them to have the discussion. Some of the questions may include:
What does my name mean? Who was I named after? Where is our family originally from? I have explained to the students that because we are all different and come from different backgrounds, our answers will not all be the same. Some families reach back generations and identify with one heritage. Some families embrace many different components to their heritage and some families might not have a focused idea how to describe their heritage is and are creating it right now. The focus is not on right or wrong answers, but on how we are all so different yet so valuable. We have had some insightful discussions and your children are impressing me every day :-) You children may also be asking you for information about family or friends, as one section of the magazine is about someone that they consider to be a hero. I am touched by the pride they show in those folks that have served in the armed forces and in human service fields. We have so many heros walking among us. The students have been told that they will be writing about their friends and about their families. There is a space in the magazine for a picture of their friends and a picture of their family. Students have been told that they can bring a photograph from home,if one is available or they can choose to draw a picture in the provided space. The photograph is NOT mandatory, sometimes we see more in a picture that a child draws, than we will in a photograph, so either option is fine. We will continue working on this piece for several days, as we want the students to take their time and put thought into each aspect of their writing. |
Ms. KnightFourth Grade Teacher, Leonardtown Elementary School Archives
February 2014
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