A Student's Perspective on the Reading Workshop

What I like about Mrs.Perrien’s readers workshop structure and lessons…

I like the strategies we use to respond to our reading. Some are hard, but some are easy. You can choose to be challenged, or choose to just take a break. Something else that helps my class understand the strategies is how  Mrs. Perrien presents them to us. She gives us a whole example about what the new strategy is. She makes it easy for all of us to learn, and trust me, my class needs to learn in so many different ways.

I also like the non-fiction lessons we have. We do a hands-on activity with magazines. Mrs. Perrien gives us a list of questions that we need to find in the magazine. We have so many different questions we can ask which gives us a little freedom to do what we want to in our “non-fiction coding.” We then read our question out loud to our class and hopefully they may have an answer. If not, the question remains to be found…

A third thing I like about our reading workshop structure is how we compare our writing to our reading. That helps us improve on our writing and our responses. It helps our responses because we can respond with a comparison, our book, to our writing, which we call “text-to-self.” It helps our writing because we know what, and what not, to do when we write our stories.

Lastly, the fourth thing I like about Mrs. Perrien’s readers workshop is our genre focuses. We choose a genre from a hat and that’s the genre we will either study or do a huge project on. I like how we have to study each genre so we can learn more about it. I also like this idea because it forces us to vary what we are reading. I like it when I don’t read the same genre books all the time. I like my books to be different.

So although I like so many different things in our reading workshop I have to stop at these 4. I really enjoy reading in Mrs. Perrien’s classroom!

-Natalie

Pink Out Orders

Attention all those interested in ordering for Pink Out 2012 the link below will complete your order.  Pink Out is a cancer charity event put on by the students in the sports & entertainment marketing class at the high school.  All proceeds of the event will be donated to Van Andel Research Institute to help fund the research needed to find a cure for this disease.  With the help of all West Ottawa families we can make a difference.  So whether it is buying a t-shirt or even permission for your student to wear their hat to school, every dollar counts!

Deadline for orders is February 1st; will be delivered to the building chosen on the order forms.  All payments may be turned into the classroom, but with checks made out to Van Andel Institute.  Attached is information about the night as well as a coupon for our Buffalo Wild Wings fundraiser night.  If you have any questions please email  ja@westottawa.net.  Thanks for your support!

Pink Out order form link:  https://docs.google.com/a/westottawa.net/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFRXZmtCdU5pOWdTMnVTRzMwcnBVZGc6MQ

Presidential Projects: Assessment

Presidential Projects

Rubric/Reflection

Students will be writing a narrative reflection on their presidential project.  In the narrative students will reflect on the following:

• Was the research completed on time?  Why?  Did you begin the project at home right away or did you wait until the last minute to get started
• Were you able to complete the project by yourself or did you receive help from a family member?  If you received help, how much work did you do yourself?
• Does your project contain all the information found on the research form?
• What was most difficult for you about this project?  What was the easiest?
• What are you most proud of about your research project?

Students will be asked to grade themselves after they have completed the narrative reflection.  Grades will be based on the following:

A = My project exceeds my expectations

B=  My project met my expectations

C=  My project didn’t turn out as I’d planned

Reading Non-Fiction

Parents and Guests,

Please check out my latest post about our Reader's Workshop activities!

Pictures from Physical Wellness!

Last Friday, guest photographer Evelyn Perrien visited the Upper Montessori during their physical wellness class and took over 50 pictures of the kids during tumbling and "sumo" wrestling!  These photos are great!

Gym Class 2012

Next, students should be working on their president projects over the weekend.  These are due next Tuesday.  Today we watched a few minutes of the president's state of the union.  We used this to teach not about partisan politics, but about the ceremony behind the state of the union and the office of the president, who some of the people were in the chamber during the speech, why a few folks were NOT present, why some did not stand or clap why others did, and about the House chamber itself.  It was an interesting conversation and hopefully will spark more conversation at home!

Finally, remember that tomorrow is a half-day of school and there is no school on Friday!  Teachers will be working on report cards.  First semester report cards will be coming home next week.

New Voki Message and Christmas Party Photos

The class Voki (The beautiful lady off to the right!) has a new message for visitors.  Make sure to see what she has to say!

I just found these Christmas party photos on the school camera, enjoy!

New Montessori Classroom at Waukazoo!

I am excited to share the news that West Ottawa Montessori is expanding to include a Montessori section of all-day-every-day kindergarten!  This will allow us to offer the West Ottawa community, and surrounding neighborhood school districts a complete Montessori elementary experience from grades kindergarten-fifth.

To enroll your kindergartener in the Montessori kindergarten option please contact Suzanne at 616-786-1800.  Share the news with your friends, neighbors, and others that might be interested!

Some of the current Montessori staff will be available to answer questions at Kindergarten Round-Up.  This takes place this Thursday, January 19, at Waukazoo!

Classroom Updates

We have a lot going on and a lot to share.  First, students are completing their first semester benchmark assessments this coming week.  We are looking at fluency, reading comprehension, and writing.  The purpose behind these assessments is for the student to demonstrate growth in these areas.  I am confident our class will do well on their ELA assessments.

We are also looking at growth in math.  Students recently completed a piloted assessment in the delta math program, a computerized assessment in math.  Most did well, although many of the 4th graders struggled to adapt to the timed nature of the assessment.  However, it was good practice for them as timed assessments (in all areas) are a part of their educational future!  4th graders struggled a little bit with their math facts; please continue to monitor a few minutes each day of math fact practice in multiplication and (especially) division.  5th graders could stand to spend a few minutes each day practicing the kill of reducing fractions.  Students can make their own flash cards or a Google search of "reducing fractions worksheets" will provide valuable practice.

BUTTONS

I have recently discovered how to add "blog buttons."  I can't believe it took me so long to figure this out!  These will appear to the right on the blog and will probably fluctuate as some will be moved to my reading workshop blog.  I have found a few parenting blogs and organizational blogs for parents that I'll be adding to this site.

TECHNOLOGY MEETING

I am planning to add a technology night for parents, some time in February.  I had a few parents express interest, enough that I think it would be fun and helpful to meet.  I have to check dates with my accountant husband before getting it on the books.

PRESIDENTS

Students have completed the in-class research of their president. (Most students..)  If not at home already, they will be bringing these forms home to begin their project.  Prezi's, PowerPoints, and poster presentations were the definite winners when it came to picking projects.  If anyone would like to use the tri-fold boards to display their poster work, please send me an email.  I would prefer these to stay at school, but will have one available for assembly when the time is right!  Projects are due on January 31st!

BRACES

I will be out of the classroom on Wednesday this week.  Evelyn is getting her braces!  (Yikes!)  Mr. Edwards will once again be filling in for me, so I don't expect the kids to miss a step of their work plan time!

Have a wonderful week, let's enjoy the beautiful snow!  (Yes, I am a winter girl!)

Mrs. Perrien

Pink Out and Hat Day

West Ottawa's third annual Pink Out is planned for Friday, February 10.  This is a wonderful fundraising opportunity that also brings our district together in a special way as we are raising funds for cancer research!  This year many of the Waukazoo teachers got together and decided to sponsor a player's jersey in memory of Mrs. Art (Claudia Hayes-Hager).

Students have the opportunity to pay $1 to wear a hat to school on February 10.  I will be collecting money that morning but also ahead of time.  If your student would like to wear a hat to school on February 10 please send in at least $1 by the Pink Out date.  Watch for more Pink Out news in the next few weeks!  The classroom store will have a few LIMITED EDITION Pink Out items for sale very soon!

Vocabulary and Other Updates

New vocabulary is ready!  We tested today.  The word list can be accessed here.  Students took their pretest today, which is really just a test to help them determine what words they already know and understand.  Our final vocabulary test will be taken on Friday the 13th!

HELP--we are in need of spiral bound notebooks for writing workshop.  I am asking that each family consider donating two of these notebooks to the classroom for writer's workshop.  Students are flying through these books this year!  Most everyone is on their second notebook and a few have already started on their third; the 48 notebooks I bought over the summer are already gone!  If you are able to help, please donate a couple.  (The following link will show you what we need, although they are usually cheaper than the price quoted on the Internet.  See here:  http://www.officemax.com/office-supplies/notebooks-pads/spiral-notebooks/product-ARS21790.

Finally, if you are an eater of any large glass-jarred food, we need the jars!  Meaning, if you eat jarred spaghetti sauce or applesauce (or something in a similar container) please save your jars and bring them to school.  We need the jars for a class project that we'll be doing at the very end of May or the beginning of June.

The President projects will be due on January 30.

Reading is Thinking

I've updated my Reader's Workshop blog with a discussion covering Schema.  Have a great night!

--Mrs. Perrien

January Project: President Research

Back-to-School! During the month of January students will be researching a president of their choice (already assigned) and preparing a presentation for the classroom.


Students have a research form already started. We will be in the computer lab this week to begin our investigations as well as next Monday or Tuesday afternoon. The research form will be due at the end of next week. Below I have listed a couple of websites recommended by students. Your son or daughter may also ask you to take them to the library; however, our school library has many presidential biographies. Students have been encouraged to go to the library for books about their president.

For the presentation part of the project students are asked to create a presentation about their president. This could be a poster presentation, Power Point or Prezi presentation, a skit or short play (with a written script), or a video creation. The presentation part of the project will be a homework project, although students may work on their project in class when other work is completed. Students may ask you for poster board, etc., to help prepare their presentation. (If you need materials, please let me know.) They will bring home their research form on or before January 13.
President Research Sites:

• www.whitehouse.gov

• http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident
***Websites courtesy of former students. I have not verified their usefulness.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Mrs. Perrien