Language Arts

Reader's Workshop

Everyday the students participate in Reader's Workshop. This is where we practice our comprehension strategies. There is a 5-10 minute mini lesson, where the strategies are introduced followed by 30-45 minutes of Independent Practice. During this time, the students are reading on their own, while I conference either one on one or in small groups to ensure the strategies are being understood.

So far this year we have been learning about a variety of Literary Genres. Ask your son/daughter to tell you about their favourite genre!

Writer's Workshop

Everyday students participate in Writer's Workshop. Using our Writer's Notebooks we learn various writing strategies to develop longer pieces outside the Notebook. It is similar to Reader's Workshop where we have a mini lesson then Independent Practice.

So far this year we have been discussing various ways to come up with ideas for writing.  They had a lot of fun creating lists of ideas!

We have also worked on Persuasive Writing, where they wrote letters to convince me to let them chew gum on Friday afternoons...it worked!

Word Study

This is incorporated through our Writer's and Reader's Workshops. We are no longer memorizing lists of spelling words, but rather learning various strategies to understand spelling patterns. I use the student's own writing to determine their lessons combined with lists of commonly misspelled words in the upper grades.