Capitalization, and Homophones, and Expository Writing.... Oh My!

Wow... time flies when you get busy!  I apologize for not posting over the last few weeks.  This year is well underway and things are heating up in writing class.  Our 4th graders have been working away on capitalization of historical documents and events, book/movie/essay/song titles, religions, nationalities, races, and languages.  As well, we have focused on the use of capitalization within a friendly letter.  A fun and easy way to have the students learn the rules of capitalization is to make a "flip book".  I use the flip book as a teaching tool and when it is complete, the final product then becomes a study guide for the quiz.  On each "flip" of the book, students write the rule that is being taught and are given an example of how it is used.  After introduction of the rule(s) the students are paired up and asked to create two or more examples similar to the one provided.  When finished, we come back together as a group to share our ideas, and correct mistakes.  To check for understanding of each rule, students are told to use the flip book as a resource, to create a short 5-6 sentence essays showing examples of the rule(s) they have learned.  This allows the students to scaffold their learning, and provides an opportunity for them to seek out information, before coming to the teacher for help, giving the student a sense of ownership over their learning.

After our school wide field trip to the pumpkin patch, the kids were asked to use their narrative writing skills to succinctly tell about their experiences.  I use the word "succinct" due to the design of our new STAAR test.  The word succinct is defined as the mark of compact, precise expression without wasted words.  To test our students writing skills, it is now our states belief that a 1 page, 26 line piece of paper is enough space to express their ideas to a given prompt.  (We won't go into personal beliefs regarding the implementation of this new process of writing luckily, I decided to leave my soap box in the closet.)  As I have stated before, in previous posts, we will adapt to the expectations, so that students can show mastery and "everyone" will be happy.   Most of the kids are doing well expressing their ideas and staying organized.  They are finding it difficult to stay within the 26 line limits, but that's what the revising process is all about - adding and deleting information.  Our final products should be ready for sharing soon!

Looking Ahead:

We have so much coming up in the next few week before the end of the holiday season.  We are revisiting expository texts and looking at how authors use factual information to teach/explain something.  We have read books like, "Animals That Build Their Homes" by McClung, and "The Popcorn Book" by DePaola, both of which are fun books to share with kids.  Our focus, when reading these books, are in the details.  We examine the differences between narrative and expository details, by looking at words choice and voice to identify the differences. 

As well, we will begin our study on Homophones, specifically taking a detailed look at the most commonly misused homophones like; there, their, and they're, its and it's, your and you're, to, too, and two, and although they are not technically homophones, we will address the difference between "our" and "are".  For those of you who live in the south, you already know why this is necessary.  Our southern accents, make it difficult to hear the difference between these two words, as we tend to "drawl" or lengthen many of the words that we speak, and place stress on the wrong syllables.  Other words (not exactly homophones) that give 4th graders trouble are where, we're, and were, so we will address those as well. 

Check back with us after the Thanksgiving break, Wed. Nov. 23 - Sun. Nov. 27, to see what we're up to.  I hope fellowship with your family is delicious!!