Math: We reviewed the math quiz from last week and decided to treat it as a formative assessment for a few reasons. One reason was we collectively did poorly on the factors/multiples content (4th grade concepts) which is clearly a reflection on my instruction. However, an equally important reason is that coming off an 11 day break and only two days of instruction, it made more sense to use as a wake-up call as opposed to a graded wake-up call if you know what I mean...Either way, these are in their folders if you would like to look at them tonight...

Homework (based on the quiz understandings):

Three different assignments representing three different needs...factors and multiples task in their math journals, fact family triangle worksheet, or a story problem worksheet. Each student knows what they are to do...

Language Arts: We continued our city research in the media center this morning and had small groups in the afternoon.

Small Groups:

Rumpelstiltskin - I decided to have them independently retell the main events of the story in their RRJs considering we have spent 3 days discussing the story together. Some did well - some, not so much...please read their RRJs to determine where your child is in this...Everyone should read The Gigantic Bell tonight.

How Spider got a Bald Head - We shared/discussed their responses to our prompt only to find the level of understanding was extremely literal (right there information). We talked about reading between the lines and connecting pieces of information together to get a deeper idea of what the story is really saying...this seems to be a shift in attention and effort - not something that requires Earth shattering thinking...

Both JGB groups are preparing to hold our Shared Inquiry Discussions in the next few days. Each group has completed the interpretive task in their packet which serves as a launching pad into a more purposeful examination of the text. This process will help them formulate their thinking during our discussion.