Class on 3/3/2016

In this class, we did a variety of activities that could be used when reading a book with a class. One of the activities that really stood out to me was doing three snapshots of the story where group members are instructed to create a "snapshot" of what is happening in the story.

In the first half of Touching Spirit Bear, we came up with a variety of snapshots to "act out". These included a snap of us standing in a circle with Cole on the outside, a snap of Cole beating up Peter, and a snap of Cole being attacked by the bear. This was a great way that we could summarize our main take aways from the story.

Another activity we did was hold a question and answer of all of the characters in the story. Students were each assigned a character. Those characters would then stand in the front of the class and hold a Q&A where students could come up with any question that they wanted to act out. The one thing that I really did not enjoy about this activity is that if the kids do not know the character well enough, they can confuse their classmates and give inaccurate descriptions of the characters.

Reading Vignette 3

The following is my 3rd vignette highlighting my experiences as a writer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBunJ-N344

Reading Vignette 2

The following is the second of my reading vignettes that shares of my experiences as a reader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Y-SvTs__A

Reading Vignette 1

The following is the first of my reading vignettes that shares of my experiences as a reader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6kqv1RY1mg

Multiple Intelligences | Write Arounds | Character Profiles

We completed a variety of activities in class last week that I thought were valuable. The first was learning about multiple intelligences. We did this by each taking an inventory sheet to find out what our primary intelligence is. Then, we looked at various descriptors of that intelligence and wrote positives of it and some things that people may find negative related to that intelligence. We had the opportunity to discuss and write on chart paper to share it with the class.

The second activity we did was in relation to the book we are reading. We did what is called a write around. This was a great way to get writing dialogue going between students. We took pieces of paper and each answered a question related to the text. Then we passed the paper in a circle and had a chance to respond/react to that person's answer. This continued (in groups of 4) until we received our paper back. For students who may not like to participate orally, this is a really great activity.

The final activity we did was a character profile where we each picked a character from the story and drew them on a sheet of paper. With that, we were to answer various questions related to the character to add a well thought out description with quotes and information to back up our opinions about that character. This was a great visual activity that helped us envision the characters in the story.