Read With Me Cultivating a Literary Community 

We’re moving onward and upward!

This week, we will unveil a brand new resource to help us in our study of the English language: our “working” wiki.

Not only will this wiki become a wealth of information for our readers and writers to refer to, but it will also house our new language board form.  Each week, students have been working independently on a set of practice prompts that review a range of skills: guide words, syllabication, affixes and roots, compound words, abbreviations, common and proper nouns, singular and plural nouns, alphabetical order, and more.  Now, students will be submitting this work online!

Check it out…

As students complete one question, the form will automatically prompt them to answer the next.  Each item has reminders, tips, and explanations alongside the answer choices or space.  And as students complete their work, their responses are automatically added to a spreadsheet for Mrs. Nash to see.

This week, students will use our laptops to learn the new format and begin building the working wiki.  Be sure to check back soon for results!

Wiki this, wiki that.  What in the world is a wiki anyway?  Watch this quick video and find out.

We will use wikis for a variety of purposes, as we work together this year.  Perhaps the most important wiki your child will need to use is our reading log wiki.  This wiki is NOT intended to be a log of their daily or nightly reading.  Rather, this is a place where they can maintain a list of books they’ve read.  Good readers keep records of books they’ve completed.  This helps them to choose books in the future, identify authors they love, notice patterns in their reading, and monitor the variety of their reading material.

Here are a few quick tips for using our reading log wiki effectively:

1. When you begin a new book, begin the entry on your book log.  Enter the title, author, genre, and date started.  Remember to save the entry before you leave the page.

2. Once you’ve completed the book, go back to your log and add the date completed and total pages read.

3. If you abandon a book, enter the total number of pages read and type “abandoned” in the column for date completed.

4. Always keep your Wikispaces username and password written down in your planner.  This way, you are prepared to update your reading log at school as well as at home.

5. Be sure to check in on the community pages frequently.  Contribute your thoughts to these pages carefully.  Remember, this is not a place to just say “hi” to a buddy.  This is a place to better ourselves as readers.

6.  Did you LOVE the book you just finished?  Don’t wait!  Go right to the book recommendations page and “sell it” to your friends while the details are fresh and you’re still excited about what you’ve read!  Book “commercials” are most effective when you’re passionate and excited about the book.

I hope you will enjoy using our wikis this year as much as I have enjoyed using them for the past few years!  Wikis are an exciting, effective tool for us to learn to use.  I can’t wait to watch your reading logs grow!

Right click on this glog and choose “fullscreen” from the menu.  Once you are in fullscreen mode, click and play.  There is a video, a song, and a welcome message from me, as well as some links to check out.  Have fun!

We’re working hard at school on adding information from our Allen Say author study to our wiki.  I’m noticing, though, that (as always) there just isn’t enough time in the day!!  We have only so many computers — and so little time!  I’d like to extend an invitation to you to join our wiki, so your child can contribute their thinking to our wiki while they’re at home. 

If you’d like to allow your child to add to our wiki from home, please COMMENT ON THIS POST.  When I receive your comment, I’ll send you an email invitation to our wiki.  When you receive the email, you will be prompted to create a free account.  This account will merely allow you to be a “user” on our wiki.  (Since it is a protected site, not just anyone can add their good thinking to our wiki!!) 

I can’t wait to hear back from you! 

Today, as the official launch of our third grade author study, we read Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say.  We are so excited to begin this study!

After reading this book, many students had questions about what we read.  Since we will be doing a lot of work and research with this and other books by Mr. Say, I asked students to record their questions on a sticky note for us to compile.  Here are some of their “wonderings”:

What war was it?  What part of Japan?  (no name)

World War I or II?  (Carson)

How old was Allen Say in the story?  (Nicole)

Where was the place in California you were at?  Where were you in Japan?  (Brianna)

What was the name of the war?  (Jessica)

Who fought in the war?  (Chandler)

There was a war in Japan?  (Lori)

What year and day did the war happen?  (Colbi)

What was the war called?   (no name)

What year was it?  (Daniel)

What war was it?  What city?  (Bryce)

What war?  How long ago?  (Jordan)

As you can see, many students were particularly intrigued, confused by, or interested in the few references to war.  In the upcoming days, we will research and answer these, and many more, questions in a variety of ways.  One goal we’ll be working towards is thinking deeper.  We will be sharing and collecting our findings on a class wiki.

I hope you are as excited as we are!  Stay tuned for future details…and keep thinking!