4PA students have been very busy over the past two weeks! We have spent a great deal of time with a text titled "Lenny's Red-Letter Day", which is about a boy named Prakash who struggles with whether or not to befriend a boy named Lenny who is different than he is. Prior to reading the text, students were surveyed anonymously and required to answer the following questions: When you choose a friend, how much are you influenced by:
What your friends or classmates think of this person?
What your parents think of this person?
How the person looks or dresses?
How much money he or she has?
Afterwards, we viewed a video called "My Shoes" that had a significant impact on the students and made them think about the perspective of someone that is less fortunate than they are. They realized that it may be extremely difficult to make friends when one is different and unable to fit in. Please feel free to view the video below.
We also spent time annotating the text and discussing literal and inferential ideas. We tried out a new strategy from a book that many teachers are reading at Gombert called Making Thinking Visible. The strategy is called Chalk Talk. We did a variation of this particular strategy and used technology rather than chart paper. The basic gist of the activity is to provide students with open-ended questions that will allow them to make interpretations about the text. The students worked at stations and responded to questions using the interactive bulletin board from a site called Padlet. Students were encouraged to link their ideas to their peers and/or add additional information. The students really enjoyed this task. Next week we will be participating in our very first Socratic Seminar and will begin creating a Google slide presentation about fractured fairy tales.
Welcome to the Project Arrow Blog. I am excited to share with you, through use of our blog, all of the wonderful learning that will be happening in our classroom throughout the year. Please come back frequently to view student photos, access educational links and to receive an in depth view of our PA world. I will also provide important tips to assist your child throughout the school year.
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