This week the students continued to practice using context clues to find the meaning and clarify the meaning of words.
The students were introduced to a plot hill diagram (traditional plot hill) as a way to understand the structure of a fiction novel. We examined how during the different parts of a story (beginning, middle and end) we usually find certain story elements. For example, in the beginning, we learn about the main characters and setting. In the middle, the main character usually has to face a major problem, and therefore he/she makes some kind of big decision. In the end, the main character solves his/her problem. We will be charting these events from My Father's Dragon on our own plot hill diagrams as we continue to read.
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This week the students engaged in a close reading of a section of chapter two.
They also used context clues to decipher the meaning of words. Using context clues helped them to understand words on a deeper level even though they may have had an idea of what the word meant. This activity helps students more appropriately use the word in context. In other words, when students use context clues to uncover the meaning of a word, they can then use it in their everyday lives more readily and correctly. This is in contrast to looking up the meaning of a word in a dictionary and using the dictionary definition to understand the word. I encourage your child to dig deeper and use context clues to uncover the meaning of new words he/she comes across. This week marked the beginning of the third session of ALO. The students previewed and started reading My Father's Dragon. We worked on:
-using context clues to find the meaning of unknown words. -explaining the importance of characters and events. -describing the characters and setting. NEW vocabulary words that we came across included: obliged and inhabited. Students should read chapter 2 by next class (during their independent reading time at school) and answer a question about a vocabulary word. Some other stories related to My Father's Dragon include: Cross-Country Cat, Calhoun The Dragons are Singing Tonight, Prelutsky The Dragon that Ate Summer, Seabrooke Dragon's Egg, Thomson Other books in the My Father's Dragon series include: Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland. Katie and the Sad Noise and The Wonderful House-Boat Train are books that may be used to enrich text-comparisons. |
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May 2016
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