Reading & Writing Classes
With the advent of the 3rd Grade Reading Law, reading and writing in Michigan are critical. Students are assigned "best fit" classes to most effectively meet their needs. We try hard to "double dip" so that when students come to class, they can mark a lesson complete in their OLS. Usually, the lesson is a Literature & Comprehension lesson. However, we do also use Science texts (biography of Florence Bascom, for example) to teach reading skills. This is called cross-curricular teaching, and it's the best way to help students make connections and retain their learning!
You are responsible for marking the math and lit & comp lesson complete at the end of class!
In our general education lessons for Math and Reading (WIN best-fit classes), we teach many lessons directly from the OLS. This means that if your student attends AND PARTICIPATES, then at the end of the class, we will tell you:
Only Learning Coaches may mark lessons complete, and this must be done from the LC account. Students do not have this capability. Disclaimer: For math, if you recognize that your student needs additional practice, then we encourage you to use your LC judgement and opt to repeat the lesson independently. For reading, you can continue to practice unmastered skills with every story, so go ahead and mark the lesson complete. |
Teachers will mark Writing lessons complete at the end of each unit. Note: our class connects cover lessons out of order, as we spiral through the standards.
How to Mark a Lesson Complete:
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Book Study
The Book Study is a weekly whole-group class connect in which students read a chapter per week of a book. Students are emailed the chapter for the week to read/listen to BEFORE class so they are ready for the discussion during class. Attendance and participation complete units in the Literature and Comprehension course, which your teacher marks for you at the end of the unit.
Below each book is a file in which you can find a link for each chapter read aloud by one of the 2nd grade teachers. PDFs of each chapter are also emailed the week before so you can be prepared! (We cannot provide pdfs on the website due to copyright laws.)
Below each book is a file in which you can find a link for each chapter read aloud by one of the 2nd grade teachers. PDFs of each chapter are also emailed the week before so you can be prepared! (We cannot provide pdfs on the website due to copyright laws.)
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Writing Units: Narrative, Persuasive, Informative
All writing class connects are cumulative, meaning they build on each other. We recommend that students have one writing notebook so they can keep all of their materials organized and easy to find. Each writing class walks students through the writing process, from brainstorming ideas, writing a rough draft, to editing and writing the final draft neatly.
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Narrative StoryThe narrative story is a small moment with BIG feelings: sad or happy, proud or excited. Students identify moments from their lives when they felt something strongly, and then choose one moment to write about in detail. Punctuation is key to getting those big feelings on paper. We also teach adjectives, or describing words, and brainstorm synonyms so our writing is interesting to read.
Mentor Text: brainstorming story ideas: Click here
Mentor Text for a story with 3 parts, beginning, middle, and end read aloud: The Best Story
Assignment/Class Schedule:
Rubric:
For the Fall Narrative story, the goal is to achieve 3.5 points for all writing categories, totaling 31.5 points.
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Opinion ReviewUsing Imogene's Antlers as our mentor text, students will write a 5 star book review of their favorite book and try to convince their teacher and classmates to read it.
We focus on using descriptive words to support our opinions. Students decide what reasons are most convincing and elaborate on them in their book review. Example Oral Book Review: Little Red Hot Mentor Text Imogene's Antlers Read Aloud: Click here Assignment/Class Schedule:
Graphic Organizer:
Rubric:
Example Final Draft:
For the Winter Opinion review, the goal is to achieve a mix of 3.5 and 4 points for all writing categories, totaling around 33-34.5 points.
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Informative Report
Students will research the insect of their choice. They will use at least two sources to find information about what their insect looks like, where it lives (habitat), what it eats, and how it protects itself from predators.
As the final writing assignment of the year, it is the longest and most in-depth. We encourage to students to get creative! Choose an unusual or little-known insect, and include fun facts about it! Assignment/Class Schedule:
Graphic Organizers:
Rubric:
Example Final Draft:
For the Spring Informative report, the goal is to achieve 4 points for all categories, totaling 36 points.
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