What's Happening in 2A?: February 2011

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Podcasting has begun!!

Well...we finally got started!!!! Thankfully the snow has held off so we could get into a routine! The kids are SUPER excited to start doing their podcasts.

Each week the kids are in charge of picking a book from their book tub. They need to practice it for a week and work on their fluency: accuracy, expression, and phrasing. On their assigned day they use Garageband to record their podcast. I am putting their podcasts onto the 2A website. I showed the kids how to find their podcasts but I wanted to give you direct link as well.

I hope you share these with your family members as well. The kids are really excited to hear themselves and their friends read!!

http://webmail.howard-winn.k12.ia.us/Brynsaas/2awebpage/2awebpage/Home.html

From that link clink on student podcasts and you will get a list of the kids that are doing podcasts in here.

Happy listening :)

Comprehension Skills and Strategies

Distinguish Fact and Opinion: Your child learned that facts are statements that can be proved. Opinions are what someone believes. The words I believe, I think, and in my view are clues that someone is expressing an opinion. Most students are able to state a fact; however, opinions are more challenging. Please practice this at home.

Sequence Events: Sequence is the order in which event take place. Clue words such as first, next, then, and last help readers know when events occur. When your child is summarizing have them sequence the events using the clue words.

Make Inferences: This is a strategy that readers use to understand what they are reading. When making an inference, readers need to fill in information that the author did not include. Readers must combine what they know with details from the text.
Pictures and words (text clues) + background knowledge (what we know) = an inference

Summarize: A summary is a paragraph or a statement in your own words that gives the most important ideas from the text that was read. Step 1: find the main ideas from the selection. Step 2: shorten and combine those ideas.

Categorize and Classify: We can categorize and classify objects, evens, ideas, and characters by how they are alike and how they fit into groups. When students are reading they can find types of things that are similar and group them into the same category.

Monitor Comprehension: Students must ALWAYS monitor their comprehension while they are reading. If they don't understand what was read they need to reread it. When readers are confused they can use "fix-up" strategies. Here is a list of those strategies:
*reread more slowly
*look up words
*read on
*use picture clues
*summarize
*ask for help