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31 January 2012

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

30 January 2012

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

27 January 2012

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

26 January 2012

Reading Non-Fiction

Parents and Guests,

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

25 January 2012

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.

18 January 2012

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!

15 January 2012

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!