Our Donors Choose project was funded! We are so grateful and the chair pockets look amazing in the classroom. Kids are now able to store their devices and their Study Buddies in an accessible place so they can work more efficiently!
Check it out!
On another note, our fourth graders have been working on their novel studies and we are almost finished! BCPS Unit 1 focuses on biographies and what makes an individual memorable or a positive influence on others? The two autobiographical novels we're reading are The Tarantula in My Purse and 172 Other Wild Pets by Jean Craighead George and Where the Flame Trees Bloom by Alma Flor Ada. BCPS provided us with journal ideas which we have made into discussion prompts to prepare students for the following day's literature circle or small group meeting.
Each discussion sheet also includes a section for a "thick question". If you haven't worked on thick questions yet, you need to! Your kids will be thankful you did. Thick questions are questions that get people inferring or drawing conclusions and are not simply pulled from the text. Here's a great resource from the Curriculum Corner to get you started.
So, once you have thick questions down with your kids, you can get these discussion sheets going! For those 4th grade BCPS teachers, these resources are really for you. Please feel free to use them with your literature circles during Unit 1 in ELA. All we did was take the journal questions/prompts the county gave us and put them on half-sheets for homework reading.
This homework holds kids accountable, gets them reading at home, and then allows them to bring something to their groups the following day. My students love to complete their discussion sheets and create their own thick questions for their fellow group members. Discussion sheets allow each student the think and processing time they need to be prepared to participate. When we are working in small group, I become one of the group members and participate in the discussion. When we model the behaviors we expect in the classroom, students follow suit!
Here are the discussion sheets for the two novels. Credit in shared efforts go to my teammate, Jen. Hope you find them useful!
Where the Flame Trees Bloom Discussion Sheets
The Tarantula in My Purse Discussion Sheets
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