We've been really digging into The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The strategies we're using are annotating and paraphrasing in order to comprehend this complex text better, and the skill we're practicing is introducing quotes in our writing. Some students are listening to it being read aloud, and others are trying it on their own. This challenging text is bringing about great discussions - most generated by the students. We'll be writing a polished piece in response to our reading starting next week.
It was exciting for me to see in the Board Buzz (notes from the latest board meeting) that our K-5 students will have standards-based report cards next year! Check out the myriad reasons why the district is headed this way - the reasons match up why we're going without points/marks the past few years in ELA class. My personal favorite quote: "One of the goals of the standards-based report card is to give more effective feedback to students. The focus in standards based grading is on a particular student's skills instead of the "points" they earn in class based off their knowledge of a particular subject. This helps teachers stay focused on the course goals, and it gives individual students feedback about their individual strengths and weaknesses. The idea of seeing the student as a whole instead of just their scores in class improves the teachers' knowledge of their students..."
|
|