A Peek at My Week {1-12-14}

I worked a whopping two days last week.  Between two snow days due to the "polar vortex" (LOVE that name!) and a day off for my mom's surgery, I feel like I really haven't been back from break yet.  So this week, I'm going to try to work five whole days and see how it goes!  :)

So welcome to another edition of A Peek at My Week, my weekly linky party where you can link up to share what you have going on this week!  Thanks for stopping by!

This week, we will begin a strong focus on vocabulary.  We are finished with my Word Parts We Know program, where students learn five new prefix or suffix word parts each week for twelve weeks.

This program has REALLY helped my students become better word decoders and readers.  I can't wait to see their MAP test results when they take the test in two weeks! 

Now, they are ready to apply those word parts to a wider variety of words.  We will be using the Word Up Program through Flocabulary along with activities from the totally awesome book, Word Nerds, to master all kinds of exciting language.

In reading and writing, we will be working on figurative language.  In the past, I have taught my students the different types of figurative language through the use of lots of worksheets.....Boring!  Ineffective!  Waste of paper and time!

So this year I came up with an idea.  In reading class, we will be reading lots of nonfiction articles about Martin Luther King, Jr. I thought it would be cool for the students to learn about the different types of figurative language then demonstrate their learning by writing about MLK using figurative language.  I'm not sure what this is exactly going to look like yet, but I will let you know when I do!

Finally this week, I am going back to school myself.  I begin my first class to get my Reading Teacher license.  Since I hope that one day I will become a literacy consultant, this is a must have!  While I am very excited to learn about this topic, I am not looking forward to the extra work.....but as my OLW for this year is "forward,"  I know this is something I have to do to move myself forward both professionally and personally.