Happy Holidays!

As this is our last week of school before the holiday break, there were a number of special events planned. Due to these disruptions to our regular routines, instead of learning a new spelling pattern, we reviewed a few tricky words from our class word wall.
Following our discussions about how authors "paint images" in our mind during our visualization unit, we are now turning towards doing the same in our writing by learning about how to write similes. Similes are comparisons made between two objects using the words 'like' or 'as', such as "Santa's belly shook like a bowl full of jelly" and "Ruldolph's nose is as bright as a lightbulb". After reviewing the concepts of nouns and adjectives we began to write our own similes. We will continue to practice using them in our writing after the holiday break. One activity that we will do will be to do some sensory writing with similes about popcorn. If anyone has any concerns with their child eating air popped popcorn as part of an activity, please let me know so I can accommodate for them accordingly. Thank you and have a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

Visualization and Long Vowel Patterns

We dove into visualization this week by talking about how when authors write books without pictures, they use descriptive words and imagery to help the reader create pictures in their mind. These words that help readers visualize we referred to as "words that stick". The more descriptive the author is, the clearer our mental images can be. Visualization includes all of our senses including sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch. We completed a number of activities where I read the students highly descriptive stories and poems as they sketched their mental images. A cute song that helps us remember about visualization goes to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star:

When my teacher reads a book,
Then my brain begins to look.
Seeing pictures in my head,
As the book is being read.
Making pictures me and you,
You can THINK some pictures too!

We also have been looking at some common spelling patterns when writing words with long vowel sounds. In the last few weeks, we have played with the long 'a' sound made by 'a', 'ay', 'ai' and 'a_e'; the long 'e' sound made by 'ee', 'ea', 'ey' and 'y'; and the long 'i' sound made by 'i', 'igh', 'y', 'i_e' and 'ie'.

Unfortunately, we were unable to have literacy stations this week due to my unexpected absence on Wednesday. Hopefully the will resume next week.

Lollipop Update

 I guess I should have confirmed their availability before posting about a planned lesson using lollipops, since apparently finding bags of small lollipops is no easy task after Halloween has passed! I will therefore not be using lollipops in class this week.  I will have made a change of plans and instead will be using microwave popcorn for a visualization writing lesson, but not until after the holiday break. I will post more exact dates closer to the time.

Forgot one thing...

Sorry to post a second time today but I forgot to ask an important question. One of my first activities in my visualization unit involves children eating a lollipop at their desks. Please contact me directly through email at amber.steeves@ocdsb.ca if this poses a concern for you for any reason.
Thank you.

Making Inferences Wrap Up

We have now completed our making inferences unit. We read many books in class to help build our inferring skills. Some favourites were "Duck, Rabbit", "7 Blind Mice", and "Little Green". In each of these books, I read the story without allowing the children to see the pictures. Students had to make guesses on what animal they thought was being described through the story. We discussed how there were no wrong answers as long as they were able to support their inferences using clues left by the author. If you're curious about what animals ended up being described, I won't ruin the surprise and you'll have to ask you child! Children also worked independently on "Inference Task Cards". The task cards were simply pictures of a variety of situations. Children were asked to choose a card that interested them, write what they saw in the card, and then use that information to make an inference about what was actually happening in the picture. I saw a lot of growth in their ability to infer over the past couple of weeks, and I think we are ready to move on to our next unit which will be the reading comprehension skill of visualization.

This week in grade 2 English

Usually when there is a five day week, I have the students visit literacy station rotations for two of the days (usually Wednesday and Thursday). One literacy station centre includes writing independently- either finishing up a writing assignment or choosing a writing activity. Choice writing activities include: class journals, where students write about a specific topic in a journal shared with the class and then read their entry to the class; personal journals written on a chosen topic, list writing about given categories; or writing birthday wishes to classmates that have birthdays that month. Other literacy stations are reading independently, word wall games, and buddy reading where students either read to one another to work on fluency or discuss reading comprehension strategies, or work together to practice a writing skill. While students are working on their literacy stations, it allows me to work on writing or reading with a small group. On weeks that there are only four days of school, such as this week, I do not run literacy stations. I try my best not to skip them too often however since I know that they are a highlight of English class for many students! 

We have now finished our unit on writing friendly letters. You can expect to see your child's letter to the Tooth Fairy arrive home soon. They may ask to put it under their pillow so that the Tooth Fairy can get it... 

Next up will be the reading comprehension strategy of inferring. Good readers make inferences while reading to improve their understanding of the story or text.  An inference is when we understand things that the author does not tell us, but instead use our background knowledge (schema) and clues the author does tell us to understand why things happen, why characters behave the way they do, and how characters are feeling. Next week I will go into more detail of the activities we are doing in order to strengthen our skills of inferring.  

October-Present Update

Due to labour negotiations, it has been a long time since I have last posted. I will provide a short overview of what we have been up to in grade 2 English, and then I hope to return to a more weekly updating schedule. 

For the first few weeks of October we were discussing making connections while we read. There are three main kinds of connections that readers can make: text to self where readers find similarities between what happens in the story and their own life; text to text where they find similarities between two different books; and text to world where similarities are found between the book and the world (or community). This week we will be making text to self and text to text connections using the books "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day", "The Difficult Day", "Oliver Button" and "Amazing Grace". I invite you to encourage your children to make connections in the books that they read at home too, referencing specific examples in the books to support their answers.

I have been using songs about connections as shared reading activities. Here are the words and tunes if you would like to share with them with your child:

Connections Song

Tune: On top of spaghetti

I'm reading a story and my brain says “Hey!”

This story reminds me of the other day.

It's called a connection-

From text to self,

The story reminds me, I've done this myself.

I'm reading a story and my brain says “Look!”

This story reminds me of that other book.

It's called a connection-

From text to text.

My brain remembers and does a quick check.

I'm reading a story and my brain says “Wow!”

This story reminds me of news happening now.

It's called a connection-

From text to world.

It makes my brain flutter, sputter and whirl.

Connections Song 

Tune: Brush your Teeth Song 

When I read a story and my brain says "Hey"
This part reminds me of the other day!
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain say "Whoa!"
This part reminds of my good friend Joe.
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain says "Cool"
This part reminds me of my school.
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain says "Look!"
This part reminds me of another book.
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain says "Wow!"
This part reminds me of my grandpa's cow
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

You probably also saw a writing activity where students were asked to write descriptive sentences about a pumpkin that they had created. We talked a lot about word choice and using a thesaurus to find more interesting words to use in place of other more common ones (such as 'outstanding' rather than 'good'). Students worked through a plan, wrote a rough copy and then produced good copies of their work. 

While learning about media devices, we examined a number of posters to discuss features that helped attract attention and clearly convey a message. We created our own posters in a t-shirt design that had environmental messages, linking to the grade 2 science curriculum. 

In the past few weeks we have been playing with words that contain the long a sound (made by 'a', 'a_e', 'ai' and 'ay') and long i (made by 'i', 'ie', 'igh' and 'y') sound. We also continue to use the class word wall in all of our written work.  It includes many high frequency words and each week children will do a variety of activities to practise four of these words, as well as an additional word chosen by them from their class writing or personal interests. You can find a copy of the word wall words in the "spelling" tab of the blog home page. While there will not be a formal weekly spelling test, children will bring their weekly word lists home each Friday and are encouraged to continue to practise if they have not mastered them yet. Please also encourage many opportunities for reading and writing in English to increase exposure to words.

Our current writing focus is writing a friendly letter to the tooth fairy. We have looked at various friendly letters and identified the key components, including date (heading), greeting, body, closing and signature. We are writing our rough copies right now and will then move to our good copies. Many students have asked if they can leave their good copies under their pillows so you may want to be prepared for that! 

Punctuation and Schema and Spelling, Oh My!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Here's an update of what we got up to in grade 2 English, and what's on the roster coming up! 

We ended our week reviewing punctuation sentence stoppers (periods, question marks and exclamation marks) and the correct usage of capital letters. There are many students who use capital letters unnecessarily within words so that will be a habit that we will work very hard on breaking!

I also introduced most classes to Write and Wipe (M. Lachapelle's class is a bit behind due to a special presentation last week. They will get caught up this week). Write and Wipe is an activity that I plan to do almost weekly with my grade 2 classes to help my students think about spelling patterns and word families. It is called Write and Wipe simply because students write on dry erase boards and then wipe them off. For our first Write and Wipe session we practised words containing the 'an' sound, such as 'fan', 'chant', 'panic', 'animal', or 'ranch', and thinking about where in the word we heard the 'an' sound (beginning, middle or end). Students were then asked to try spelling these words on their personal dry erase board. I always include at least one challenge word to attempt, and this week's was "fantastic". I have no expectation that the students will be able to spell these words perfectly. My goal is to have them thinking about the sounds that they hear and recognizing patterns so that they will do the same in their independent writing. 

My classes have also started using a class word wall. This is a list of words that children will have access to every time there is a writing activity. It includes many high frequency words that they should be able to spell by the end of the year. Each week, children will do a variety of activities to practise four of these words, as well as an additional word chosen by them from their class writing or personal interests. You can find a copy of the word wall words in the "spelling" tab of the blog home page. While there will not be a formal weekly spelling test, children will bring their weekly word lists home each Friday and are encouraged to continue to practise if they have not mastered them yet. That being said, I believe one of the best ways to become a great speller is to be exposed to words so please encourage many opportunities for reading and writing in English over rote memorization of a few words. 

All of this talk about spelling but you will still notice that I will be encouraging students to use what I call "inventive spelling" or "phonetic spelling" during their actual independent writing.Inventive spelling is a phonetic way of spelling words that is completely appropriate for students at this level of learning. It allows them to independently write their creative ideas and not be hindered by the “correct” way to spell every word they want to write. It also is very good practice for letter sounds and blends. As your child becomes more familiar with writing, he or she will make the transition to standard spelling. Please see the image below for an example of inventive, or phonetic spelling. 

That being said, this does not apply to word wall words! I will insist that those are spelled correctly since they are words we have practised and are posted in the classroom. I also give my students access to personal dictionaries, and will have word lists related to the topics they are writing about posted in the room for them to refer to. If you are interested in reading more about inventive spelling, please click on the links below. 
http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/spelling-mistakes/

http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/invented-spelling/

Next week we will begin discussions about schema. Activating schema is just a fancy schmancy way of saying that a person is pulling from prior experience or involvement with a topic in order to better understand a new subject. It helps readers understand what they are reading. Everyone has different schema since everyone has had very different experiences. As we read, we learn new things and our schema grows. We will be comparing our schema before and after reading a variety of books this week to demonstrate that fact.

Making connections will be next up after that.There are three main kinds of connections that readers can make: text to self where readers find similarities between what happens in the story and their own life; text to text where they find similarities between two different books; and text to world where similarities are found between the book and the world (or community). I invite you to encourage your children to make connections in the books that they read at home too, referencing specific examples in the books to support their answers.

Phew! That's enough for tonight. I promise that my posts are not usually quite so lengthy. I hope everyone is well rested, and I'll look forward to seeing all of those smiling faces tomorrow morning! 

First Week Activities

I had a great first week of teaching my three new grade 2 classes! They are lovely groups of children, and I am excited for what the year will bring. The first week was spent doing a variety of "get to know you" activities as I had 60 names to quickly learn! We have now moved on to learning about subjects and predicates in a sentence, and soon will be reviewing capital and punctuation rules.

One activity that I do with all of my classes as a positive reinforcement/behavioural management tool is a bead system. Each student in the class has a pipe cleaner hanging on the wall. When they are caught listening well, working diligently or helping a friend they are given a bead on their pipe cleaner. At the end of the month the pipe cleaners are taken down and are made into bracelets.Students will be allowed to bring their bracelets home to keep, and you will be able to see just how many beads they earned with me each month! I will also occasionally pass out "Caught You Doing Something Nice" tickets which are simply just small coupons that are given to students who are caught being an extra helpful friend.

Welcome to the Grade 2 English Blog!

Thank you for checking out the blog for your child's grade 2 English class! I am happy that the information that I sent home today has found its way to you. We had a great first day, and it was a joy to see so many smiling and eager faces! I will write more detailed posts as the week progresses to tell you more about myself and the program. For now, welcome to a new school year and to my blog!