LITERACY & ELA

In everything that we do in literacy and ELA, we place text at the center. Whether it is choice reading, complex texts, short stories, or novel studies, all lessons are planned with text at the core.

Independent Choice Reading

• I used our school-wide house system to create a classroom house challenge to promote wide reading.

• Daily, we start each class with a short bellringer, followed by 10 minutes of silent sustained reading.

• Weekly, I promote books through Book Trailer Tuesday, First Chapter Fridays, and First Line Face Offs.

• At the end of the year, I use Lit Circles to promote collaborative discussions based on students' interests.

• I conference with students bi-weekly about their individual reading goals.

• I use room transformations to promote books: Genre Cafe, Surfing through the Genres, Blind Date with a Book, etc.

Novel Studies

• Through novel studies we apply the skills that students are learning in their ELA classes with a daily focus on individual fluency & word study.

• Percy Jackson, Touching Spirit Bear, & Peter Pan

Vocabulary

• Morphology Mondays: Every Monday we learn new affixes and base words. This is a cross-curricular word study with history.

• We incorporate the same words and method in each class.

• We use different methods of assessment focusing on frequency and real-life applications.