Being Strategic

The theme connecting our work in the classroom this week has been strategies.

In math, the boys and girls continued to practice strategies for two-digit addition. Most are making the shift from drawings to using numeric strategies that are far more efficient. In reading, they are learning strategies for tackling the topic-specific words that can sometimes be stumbling blocks in non-fiction books. They've tried anticipating words that match a particular topic so as not to be surprised by them. They've used features like text boxes, labels and lines, and glossaries to help with new vocabulary, and they've used context clues.

As writers, the boys and girls have studied the strategies used by Melissa Stewart, author of more than 150 non-fiction books for kids. Stewart's strategies include asking questions to make readers wonder, including details and comparisons to help them understand, and adding fun facts to amuse and amaze them.

All of these strategies are important in and of themselves, but the big idea here, I think, is that learners can choose from an array of strategies and carry them out to achieve goals. Even at second grade, a lot of what we learn and do isn't black and white. There isn't just one right way. Some strategies fit some purposes better than others. Some strategies fit some learners better than others. Sometimes we try one strategy and fail, but there's almost always another way of looking at things; something else to try.

In this vein, I am trying some new strategies in the hopes of streamlining and strengthening a few home/ school routines. Being new to the grade has meant having to develop a lot of new routines. Some have worked just fine; others need tweaking. Here's an update:

Spelling - Early release days and other interruptions have affected our Word Wall spelling schedule. This has been confusing and I apologize. From now on, I will send our five new high-frequency spelling words home every Monday. The words will come home on a more clearly marked blue half sheet to distinguish them from test sheets. The spelling test will always be on Friday and scored tests will be sent home on Monday. If it's a short week, like next week, there will be no new words and we will use the time to review.

Words Their Way - Besides Word Wall words, the boys and girls are learning to recognize common word patterns as a spelling aid. The Words Their Way program used in second grade at Stormonth has students study lists of words with particular spelling features. Beginning after Thanksgiving break, I will send these word lists home. Your child should be quite familiar with how to cut and sort the words according to their patterns. Students are not tested on all of the words, but a sampling of ten. At-school practice of these words follows a five-day cycle. Expect that your child will be tested five school days after his or her word list comes home. Test days vary depending on the spelling group your child is a part of.

Reading - You may have noticed that I've created blue bookmarks that say "I read this book with Mrs. Armstrong." This is to distinguish a practiced book from an unfamiliar one. Please be sure to send the bookmark back along with the book. Whether it's a book from me or something that your child has selected from our classroom library, please read with your child or monitor his or her reading time. Your child should do at least 20 minutes of at-home reading every day. Your initials on your child's reading log confirm this. I check reading logs at least once a week.

Scholastic News - Look for an edition of this kids' news magazine to come home every Monday. I encourage you to make re-reading and discussing it part of your child's reading homework.

If you have suggestions for changes in other home/school routines or questions, please let me know.

One more thing worth a mention is our science unit: Pebbles, Silt, and Soil. Our  latest lessons have been about the uses of rocks. A hike around our school property offered lots of examples, from brick walls and walkways, to drainage ditches, light posts, and our asphalt playground. The boys and girls got a chance to make something of their own from a form of rock - sand. We mixed the sand with cornstarch and water to create some very imaginative sand sculptures.

Finally, a huge thank-you for the many, many contributions to our Stormonth food drive. We sorted our items and counted them by groups, then added the totals using our two-digit addition strategies. Our total was 260 - the highest in the school. What a wonderful lesson in generosity!

Mark Your Calendars:

Fri., Nov. 18 - Food drive ends; total collected announced at an all-school assembly

Tues., Nov. 22 - Stormonth concerts, 10 AM and 2 PM

Wed., Nov. 23 - Early release day for students

Thurs., Nov. 24, and Fri., Nov. 25 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Fri., Dec. 9 - Report cards are sent home

Wed., Dec. 14 - Early release day for students

Fri., Dec. 23 - First day of Winter Break

Tues., Jan. 3 - School resumes

The Gift of Knowledge

A book wrapped in colorful paper and tied with a polka-dot bow made a nice visual for the message I delivered to the boys and girls about nonfiction reading this week: Every new book is a gift of knowledge. There is always something inside to learn. The very best of these gifts are the ones that surprise us, because when we are surprised by a book, it's usually a sign that we are learning a lot. We're outgrowing old ideas and gaining new information and new ways of thinking. So be glad for surprises!

Among our surprises in books this week:

• Dolphins give birth to live babies - tail first!
• The path to becoming a knight began when a boy was just seven years old.
• About 3 out of 10 immigrants died on their way to America in the late 1800s, but still thousands came.
• The Titanic might not have sunk if the captain had paid attention to the warnings he was sent.
• An orphaned rhino can survive, but it needs a surrogate mom and about 5 gallons of milk a day!

Ironically, as reading lessons focused on surprises, one of this week's key writing lessons was about knowing what's expected. The boys and girls received their checklists for informational writing. The checklist outlines what student writing is expected to include - from an introduction that grabs readers' interest, to a body filled details, descriptions, topic-specific words, and expert tips, to a satisfying conclusion. Sharing these expectations early in a unit helps children take measure of where they're at in their writing and how far they have to go. Checklists help them set specific goals (Yes! We're still setting goals!) and identify the steps they need to reach them.

In math, our focus has been on double-digit addition. At first, we conceptualized this with drawings of sticks (for tens) and circles (for ones) as shown on the workbook page at left above. But now, the boys and girls are moving away from drawings to numeric representations as shown on the right page. They are learning strategies like "show all totals" whereby they total all the tens, then all the ones, and then combine. Another strategy is the more traditional method of "showing a new group below" (or above), which is what you may know as "carrying a ten." The purpose of teaching multiple strategies is to instill in students the notion that there is more than one way to find a solution. They are encouraged to find the approach that works best for them.

Finally, several parents asked this week whether there had been a lot of classroom talk about the presidential election results. Certainly, it was a topic that came up, though we did not formally discuss it. When asked about our new president, I didn't share my politics, but I did share my philosophy. I told the boys and girls that the president is an important person, but that each of us is important, too. We have laws to obey, rights to respect, ideals to uphold. We have jobs to do to make our country strong - even 7- and 8-years olds. We are the people and the people make the country.

Mark Your Calendars:

Mon., Nov. 14 - Stormonth's annual food drive continues. Please be generous!

Fri., Nov. 18 - Food drive ends; total collected announced at an all-school assembly

Tues., Nov. 22 - Stormonth concerts, 10 AM and 2 PM

Wed., Nov. 23 - Early release day for students

Thurs., Nov. 24, and Fri., Nov. 25 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Diving into Nonfiction

What do a US map, a diagram of the solar system, a model of an eyeball, a wanted poster for the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, and a guide to an African animal safari have to do with our new reading unit? Plenty! I introduced nonfiction work this week with these artifacts and dozens more and asked the boys and girls to study them closely. Their job was to notice details and then put these details together in their minds to create ideas.

One child studied foreign currencies and made interesting realizations about the images different countries featured on their bills. Another checked out a diagram of beavers at work to discover that these animals are at home both in water and on land. And yet another made theories about why the weather page of a newspaper would include the times of the sunrise and sunset. The purpose of using artifacts like these rather than books was to

provoke a lot of ideas quickly and to dramatize the need for a high ratio between thinking and reading.  As we now turn to books, the expectation is set for the children to alternate between reading and thinking. Gathering information is the easy part when it comes to nonfiction. The trickier - and most essential - part is making sense of the information. The boys and girls will be asking themselves not only "What does this book say?" but "Why is this important?" and "What do I think about this?"

At the same time the children are learning about reading nonfiction, we've launched into nonfiction writing. Our focus is to teach others what we know. So rather than researching topics, we are relying on our own expertise. Some children are writing about sports they know or instruments they play; others are writing about cookie baking and potion making. The start of a new unit calls for clearing out our Writing Workshop folders. The personal narrative stories that the boys and girls wrote for the last two months are coming home to you today. Please take note especially of the story your child chose as a favorite. We edited these with care, decorated covers for them, and shared them with our third-grade neighbors this week.

In math, we've marveled at the fact that the people who invented our system of numbers did it with just ten digits, and that any number - no matter how large - can be created by placing these digits in ways that reflect their value. That's what "place value" is all about. In the early lessons of our new math unit called "Addition to 200," the children reviewed their understanding of tens and ones in our base-ten number system and extended it to hundreds. They are using models and drawings that illustrate the concept of making new tens or new hundreds and then connecting these to equations. If you have not already done so, please review, sign, and return the Unit 1 math test that your child brought home this week.

While I took a hiatus from blog writing for parent-teacher conferences, we celebrated Halloween in the classroom with poems, riddles, stories, math games, and a party. We helped our first-grade buddies follow a set of written directions to make paper jack-o-lanterns. A big thank you to Adream Blair for leading a fun craft activity and to Laurie Woods, Jenni O'Brien, and the Castro family for supplying treats for our party. And thanks to all those who attended our costume parade.

Finally, thank you for coming to conferences. It is always a pleasure for me to meet with you and talk. I learn so much! Your insights help me to better understand your child. I hope that the information I shared gave you a picture of your child's life at school.

Mark Your Calendars:

Mon., Nov. 7 - Stormonth's annual food drive begins

Wed., Nov. 9 - Early release day for students

Fri., Nov. 18 - Food drive ends

Tues., Nov. 22 - Stormonth concerts, 10 AM and 2 PM

Wed., Nov. 23 - Early release day for students

Thurs., Nov. 24, and Fri., Nov. 25 - Happy Thanksgiving!