Aunt Isabel Tells A Good One

     We have been working on comprehension skills using Kate Duke's book titled, Aunt Isabel Tells A Good One.  Some of the tier 2 vocabulary words, sophisticated words found in print more than oral language, that are highlighted in this story are the following:  ingredients, gloomy, grumble, villian, odious, and lurk.  Before reading the story, I record what the students already know about these words.  For example, my students described grumble as:

Student Generated/Friendly Meaning

1. a big noise 
2. My belly grumbles when I'm hungry.
3. Grumbles is the sound you hear when the band plays at a faraway football game.      

     The second step is to discover what these words mean in the context of the story during our read aloud.  We compare and contrast the student generated meanings with the contextual meaning. 

Aunt Isabelle and Penelope are creating a story and need the proper ingredients for their story.  They have established the characters (who), the settings (where), the time (when), and Aunt Isabel determines it is time for a PROBLEM.  The proposed problem is that the King and Queen disapprove of Lady Nell's friendship with their son and are sending Lady Nell far away from their son, Prince Augustus.   Penelope grumbles, " I think we should leave that Problem part out."
Contextual Meaning
Penelope is unhappy about Aunt Isabel's proposed ending and complains to herself in a low voice.

The contextual meaning is different than student generated meaning.  Students discover that grumble has multiple meanings. We probe this word further.
When would you grumble?  Say the word after the scenario if you would grumble.

You get to go to a birthday party.     

The party is cancelled.

Mom takes you to the park to play with a friend.

Mom takes you to the dentist.

Show me what grumbling looks like.

I close this vocabulary activity by asking, "What's the word we are learning?"

Here are two videos that go along with what I'm learning in Dyslexia Training.  The first link let's kids meet the author, Kate Duke and learn about how her stories evolve from pictures and oral language. The second link introduces you to the queen of vocabulary instruction, Isabelle Beck.  I selected her book, Bringing Words To Life, to read for my second book report.

Meet the Author Kate Duke  

Isabelle Beck- Robust Vocabulary Instruction

Secretary of Education Speaks about the State of Dyslexia Programs in the United States

After listening to this question and answer session between Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan and Senator Bill Cassidy; I am thankful I work for a school district that has an evidence proven program for dyslexia- Take Flight.

April 18, 2015

Secretary of Education on Dyslexia 4-18-15

New Role as Dyslexia Support Teacher

http://dyslexia.yale.edu/Scientific_American_1996.pdf

Over the summer my Dyslexia Take Flight Introductory course began.  Our instructor emailed five articles we had to read and summarize before our first day of class.  This was one of my favorite articles.  In this article you learn about how the MRI has revolutionized what they now know about a dyslexic brain and how the brain operates when we read.  

Dyslexia is a deficit in phonological processing.  This means they struggle with decoding words, matching the sound a letter makes to the letter itself.  This impairs word identification which slows down the speed at which they read.  This is considered a lower level skill in reading.  On the flip side, comprehension is intact which is a higher level skill.  There is a cartoon example in the article where the girl can't sound out "volcano" properly, but when the teacher asks her what it is she gives many descriptive details.  

This school year 2016-2017, I will leave the 2nd grade classroom to become a Dyslexia Support Teacher.  I am passionate about this journey I am about to embark on.  

The next two days will be filled with some fun activities and I wanted to send out some schedule changes to keep you informed.  Tomorrow, Thursday, December 17th is our Winter Party from 1:30 pm- 2:30 pm.  Due to the party, 2nd grade will be having lunch at 11:00 am.  

 Another important reminder is that Friday December 18th is an early release day.  Be sure to be at Christie by 12:00 pm to pick up your child.  I am sure you will be receiving some reminder phone calls from Mr. Steele.  

Thank you parents for everything you do!  Enjoy your time with your family and I will see your children back in the New Year (Tuesday, January 5th). 

Have a great break!!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Hour of Code Week

For the following week, across over 150 countries, millions of people will try out computer programming for the first time as part of Computer Science Education Week. Anyone can learn to code, including myself, you and your child! The Hour of Code is an hour-long introduction to computer programming that’s both fun and free. 

Christie will be participating on Friday, December 11th from 1:00- 2:30 pm. Hope you can join us and come to code with your student!

November 16 - December 4

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with their family and/or friends. I enjoyed mine. :)

Let's catch up, shall we?

The week before Thanksgiving was filled with engineering excitement! After exploring each stage of the engineering design process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve), the projects were solely student lead and constructed. It was amazing to see their brains churning with ideas.

Each group began with the same "Ask", which was based on two TEKS (The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills state standards):
TEKS2.5D Combine materials that when put together can do things that they cannot do by themselves.
TEKS 2.3A: Identify a problem and propose a task and solution for the problem.

While the Ask stage looked similar, the groups moved on to the Imagine stage where they brainstormed by themselves what their engineering project would look like.
Once the students imagined, I created groups based on similar ideas. Authentic collaboration began as they agreed to disagree and made one Plan encompassing all of their ideas, or as they students would call it, a diagram. This is the stage where their ideas transferred from their imaginations to paper. They drew diagrams of their projects and made lists of materials they would like to use when the time came to create.  They learned about constraints like not enough time, lack of materials, and short on funds (money).  All real world issues!!  Next,  the class began the Create stage of the engineering process the very next day. Most of their supplies consisted of tape, cardboard, markers, string, cotton balls, plastic bags, scissors, and small box-like containers.  I got to clean out my garage of all of the recycled materials I had collected!!

I think almost the entire class would say that the Create stage was the most fun stage of the process! The students were able to bring their plans to life and see what worked and what needed to be changed. This is also the stage where they realized how important our Christie core value of being resilient is when engineering. You all sure do have some of the hardest working and opinionated 7 and 8 year olds I've ever met!
Last, but certainly not least, came the final stage of the Engineering Process: Improve. This provided a time for the students to make changes and/or improvements to their projects in any areas they saw fit. Some of my students were still making improvements during the eExpo! They did not want to stop!

Thank you to all of our friends and family who joined us for the eExpo. We had a blast sharing our creations with you and are so appreciative of your support! :)

The week after Thanksgiving had us working ourselves back in to the groove of school life. 

In Language Arts/Social Studies we studied:

•  r-controlled vowels (ear, eer, ere), for example: here, fear, cheer, deer, dear, steer
•  homophones- a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning, and may differ in spelling. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (past tense of "rise"), or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too.
  
• Expository Writing about Plano's motto/logo for this school year "Make Your Mark", which focused on how a community hero has made a mark on the students' lives through their words and actions. The students also added  how they will carry on that hero's legacy. (These turned out to be so sweet and I cannot wait to share them with you at middle of the year parent-teacher conferences at the end of January/beginning of February. This date has yet to be announced.)
  

Math:

We are continuing to challenge ourselves in Math with that "regrouping" word! The students have been hard at work adding 3 digit numbers. One of our lessons even challenged us to use mental math to solve the 3 digit addition problems! 

Science:

In Science we read "Juan Daniel's Futbol Frog", which is a story about a young boy who discovered a lost frog at his futbol (soccer for Americans) game in El Salvador outside of the rain forest. Juan Daniel's new frog friend is in trouble and the boy engineers a membrane to keep the frog alive. Over the next few weeks, we will be learning about how membranes function and applying our knowledge of the needs of a basic living organism. The class will split up in to small groups this week and next to study the "membrane" of a raisin in different elements and then go on to design their own frog habitat with a model membrane that delivers the appropriate amount of water for Juan Daniel's frog friend. Stay tuned for more on this!


IMPORTANT DATES:

* Hour of Code: Friday, December 11- 1:00- 2:00 pm
* 2nd Grade Winter Party: Thursday, December 17- 1:30- 2:30 pm
* End of 2nd 9 Weeks Assembly: 8:00 am for K-2 on Friday, December 18
* Early Release (12:00 pm) Friday, December 18
* Winter Break: December 21- January 4
* Student Holiday/Teacher Work Day: Monday, January 4, 2016
* Classes resume on Tuesday, January 5, 2016

A letter will be coming home this week with a designated item for your child to bring for the Winter Party on Thursday, December 17th.

Weeks 10 & 11

Language Arts/Social Studies

• Long O (toast, told, soap, most, foam) 
• Long U (mule, bugle, fuse, tune, June, music, duke, bowl, goes) 

• Maps:

- regions of Texas (Coastal Plains, Great Plains, Central Plains, Basin and Mountain)

- our surrounding states (New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas)

- the country of Mexico

- Rio Grande River

- Gulf of Mexico

- cardinal directions (North, South, East, West)

- compass rose

- map key

Math

Double digit addition with regrouping ("carrying the one"). Please practice, practice, practice at home! If your child is progressing with this concept try triple digit addition with regrouping!

Science

Space Unit: We are learning about how the position 0f the Earth in the solar system affects conditions on Earth. We have made our own constellations of stars as well as learned about the phases of our moon! We have come up with some crazy "I wonder" statements and are even starting to take notes like the AVID program uses  in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades! 

NEXT WEEK:

Thursday, November 12th- 

• Book Fair as a class (students who bring money in an envelope or plastic baggie can go shop without the class before Thursday)
• 6:00- 6:30 pm- PTA Meeting for parents in the cafeteria and pajama read aloud for students in the gym
• 6:30- 7:30pm- Special Night time Book Fair shopportunity (shopping opportunity)! :)

See you Monday with crazy hair for the Book Fair because Christie Cubs are WiLd and CrAzY about reading!