A Peek at My Week {September 15, 2013}

Welcome back to another edition of A Peek at My Week!  This is where we share some highlights of our coming week -- either at school or at home.  I hope you will consider linking up and reading along. 

Please share a few interesting highlights, not your whole lesson plans.  If you use days of the week buttons, don't feel like you have to come up with something for every day.  I want this to be easy and fun for you (and your readers)!  :)

 

We are beginning our third week of school this week and will be giving the fall MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) assessment in reading (Tuesday) and math (next Tuesday).  Do you use the MAP test at your school?  We test three time a year, which is pretty elaborate, but provides great data on how well the kiddos are growing.

 

One thing you may find interesting if you give the MAP test is that NWEA has changed it a bit to resemble the up and coming Smarter Balance test.  You can view sample problems here.  It's not longer completely multiple choice.  Now students have to click, drag, or type some answers.  I will be interested to see how it goes on Tuesday as I watch my class.  We will definitely preview the sample problems on our SMART Board before then.

I'm excited to continue with Writers Workshop this week.  So far, the kids have written "I'm an Expert" papers to let their readers know what they are really good at.  I tried to make this assignment fun, so I encouraged some of the kids to choose something silly that they are really good at.  I modeled with my own area of expertise:  Falling asleep on the sofa at 8:00 every night.  A few of the kids took off with my suggestion.  One of my students wrote his paper on "I'm an expert at not paying attention in class" (at least he is aware of it...) and another wrote his paper on "I'm an expert at hanging upside down from a tree branch without getting dizzy."  The are hilarious!

 

This week we will be looking for writing inspiration from the world around us.  I have talked with the kids about how writers are always aware of things around them and are looking to give a voice to the things that can't speak.  I have shared much of my own writer's notebook with them where I write a lot about nature and my dogs and I think they are starting to get it.

 

So we will begin with Thought Museums using picture prompts.  I learned about this writing experience from my UWM-WP class this summer.  You can read the original post here.

 

Basically, the way it works is you put some interesting pictures or quotes on a large piece of paper in the middle of a group of desks.  The students walk around SILENTLY and comment on what they think is going on in the pictures by writing on the paper.  When you are done, share some of the comments and talk about how we all can see different things. 

 

Students can then use one of the pictures as the subject of a writing piece.  They pick the genre of writing -- a story, poem, haiku, conversation, newspaper article, etc. 

 

I have been gathering some cool pictures on my Pinterest board to use for this activity.  Here's a preview of some of them:

Source:  http://llbwwb.tumblr.com/post/14789158527/merry-christmas-lovely-friends-by-newborn 

 

 

 

 Source:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/63850925/photo-prompts

 

Source:  http://1000bookmarks.tumblr.com/post/25016180334

 

I'll share how it goes!

 

Now it's your turn to give us some highlights of your upcoming week!

 

Have a great week everyone!