Sunday, September 8, 2013

First Novel Study.....Wonder by RJ Palacios

+JMJ


So, this is my first pick for our novel study. Since I would have to wait until the library ordered a class set, thus pushing this book back for another six weeks, I decided to buy my own class set. Yes. The Horror! But I know TONS of teachers who do this without blinking an eye. If you are as crazy as I am, Amazon Prime had hardback copies of this book, $9 and shipped in 2 days! Seriously a teacher's best friend! Also, since this is my first year EVER doing novel studies, I want to make an investment. My students were totally into the above book trailer and how could I NOT feed that anticipation? Besides, this book will hook them into another book for next 6 weeks!

So, I've been researching some great studies on Novel Studies, Literature Circles and the like. There are tons of information out there! I've been looking at my Texas state standards and making/tweaking things that my students are primarily responsible for learning. One of the BIG things I hope to hit is inference. It's probably one of my weakest areas and I hope to deliver a total KO on this standard.

So with that in mind, I did make a couple of student response sheets you can get here. I love love love journaling, so that's where we will primarily keep our writings, etc, but for the quickest way to get a grade sometimes, I prefer to have that journal entry on a sheet of paper for turn in, especially if I'm checking to see if they master a certain strategy or standard. I'll update when I get a chance as I go, but there ya go! Hope your year is getting off to a GREAT start! If this is your first year, hang in there. It gets better. I was told that first year teaching was worse than childbirth my first year of teaching. Boy, were they right. But guess what? I LOVE what I do! I LOVE the kids I teach everyday. If you need help, ask for it. If you are struggling, find a teacher friend who can help you! We ALL know what you are going through, and it does get better. Experience helps. ALOT. Until then,

Happy Teaching!

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