Mr. McDougall's Smarties: Making Connections...

Today was about making connections and thinking ...

1st period we got right to work and started by reviewing what has happened in the book we are reading so far. The kids gave a great review for the students who were absent or at Project Boost yesterday. We then read chapters 3 and 4 of our class novel The Indian in the Cupboard. We did a really good job at making sure we understood what was going on, what different words and phrases meant (the book has a lot of English slang words), and we made connections to the texts about Native Americans we have already read (Hiawatha, The Birchbark House, Northwest Coast People).
2nd period we continued to make connections, but now we focused on the books from ReadyGen. (ReadyGen 2b.13). After making connections between how culture is expressed in the different texts, we reviewed the different ways to "hook" a reader when you are writing. Some of the ways we discussed hooking the reader were:

ANECDOTE (a short story)
QUOTE
DROP YOUR READER INTO A SCENE (use sensory details to describe a scene, giving your reader an immediate sense of time and place.)
SURPRISING FACT (an interesting piece of information that your readers aren’t likely to know.)
RHETORICAL QUESTION (a statement in the form of a question.)

The students then had 30 minutes to work on writing a introduction paragraph with a hook and ending that paragraph with the opinion statement they created last night for homework. Then they used the Venn Diagram they created last night to write their second paragraph, the "proving" of their opinion based on text evidence.
3rd period/4th - Fraction Fun! We spent a lot of time today creating our very own fraction kits. We took the time to fold paper, tearing it into smaller pieces (1, 2/2, 4/4, 8/8, and 16/16), and then working a few problems using the pieces to start making connections. We practiced putting the 2 half pieces on the whole... then we put two fourth pieces on the half piece... and so on... we practiced covering pieces to figure what they are equal to. They have to practice that tonight for homework so they can get used to seeing equivalents.
5th period - GYM
6th period - Lunch

(We had about 10-12 students in lunch detention today for either not doing their homework or for behavior during class. Parents, please check homework and make usre your child is doing their job. I need your support to help your children master the skills we are working on in class. It takes a village!)

7th period - when we got back from lunch, the students did a few more practice problems then we passed out the homework they had to do with the fraction kit. We then had Albert come to the front and log into his Renaissance account. I had him log onto Accelerated Math 2.0 to show the class how to log in and what the program looks like. I told them they can log on from home and work on their math skills. We modeled how to watch "videos" on each skill if they get stuck right in the program. I showed them that they have goals that need to be met by February 18th. We ended the day looking at the "Show What You Know" intro to Chapter 6 in GoMath. I was pleased to see that the students had no problem identifying the different fractions on the pre-test page. I have to say it was the first time all year I didn't see them freeze up and not know what to do. I am still seeing they have problems lining up their math work with the right place value... they are still having problems with subtraction without regrouping and with!... they are still having problems with multiplication (don't know their facts)... and with division (don't know their facts!) I told them in their free time they could log into Renaissance and do MATH FACTS IN A FLASH! They need to practice their basics before they can do the higher level processes.

Homework:

Mr. McDougall's Smarties