March Madness in Third Grade!

As you know, Parent-Teacher Conferences are here and so are two half days for students.  Of course, this has caused a shift in our schedule.  But we are masters at making it work here in third grade!

Here's the rundown of what's going on this week:

Reading Workshop:

Our Book Clubs are going along just great!  In third grade, we talk about how we can't just rest on our greatness.  We should always try and take it up a notch!  Our Book Clubs are no exception to this rule.  Students have been guided to lead Book Club meetings on their own.  This responsibility has two essential components.

The first is freedom to choose what to discuss about the text. Since we have spent a considerable amount of time practicing our reading response jobs (Discussion Director, Word Wizard, Connector, and Literary Luminary), students are ready to chose what parts of the book they want to discuss with the group without the restrictions of the "job".  For example, when students come to an unknown word or a part of the book that they have a strong connection with, they no longer have to set it aside because they are not the Word Wizard or the Connector.  They are free to flag what interests them with a sticky and bring it to their next meeting.  This allows for an authentic responses to reading.

The second part is leading the book club discussions without me.  I started doing this last year, and I found that students really enjoyed the freedom and responsibility and the really rose to the challenge.  Students will discuss their findings, decide what the next reading assignment and meeting date will be, and grade themselves and each other on their contribution to the discussion.  Here is the form and rubric that I created for them:

Book Club Meeting Agenda: 

1.    Meeting will begin with deciding who the Discussion Director will be and then with a group summary of the reading assignment.

2.    Next, we will go through and discuss each person’s findings as a group.  This should take a considerable amount of time as it is a discussion, not just a share time.

3.    The group will then decide the next reading assignment and meeting date.

4.    Each member of the group will grade each other and themselves using the Book Club Meeting Rubric.

Names	Participation	Knowledge of Book	Group Respect	Preparedness

	1	2	3	4
Participation	Student didn’t or rarely participated.	Participates some of the time during the book discussions and seems to have little grasp of content of the book (characters, events, behaviors...).	Student participated several times throughout the discussion and seems to have a firm grasp of the content of the book (characters, events, behaviors…).	Student was a leader in the discussion by questioning others and encouraging them to share more.  Student had a firm grasp of the content of the book (characters, events, behaviors…).
Knowledge of Book	Student showed little or no knowledge of the book.  Student didn’t contribute any thoughts about the book.	Student showed some knowledge of the book and contributed some thoughts about the book.	Student showed appropriate knowledge of the book and contributed many thoughts about the book and events.	Student showed a deep knowledge of the book and provided meaningful and thorough explanations of the events.
Group Respect	Student was off task, and didn’t show respect to other members of the group.	Student had difficulty staying on task and being respectful.	Student was on task the majority of the time and was respectful.	Student was on task at all times and was respectful.
Preparedness	Student showed no opinion of the book.  Sticky notes didn’t really add much to the discussion.	Student discussed little or vague opinions about the book.  Sticky notes added some to the discussion	Student discussed some detailed opinions about the book and their sticky notes were thoughtful and meaningful to the discussion	Student discussed several opinions from the book and used evidence from the story to back up opinions.

The use of the rubric not only helps the student know what to look for in others, but it helps them realize what they need to be bringing to the group as well.  We started this today and it was fantastic!  Although they are on their own, I am always eavesdropping!  I was very impressed to see them step up to the challenge and really take this responsibility seriously!

Writing Workshop-Biography Combo:

With are alternative schedule this week, our Writing Workshop has been converted to our Biography poster finish up, which includes a paragraph writing component.  Students have really learned so much through this study!  I would like to have a presentation where students dress up as the person they studied and share their findings.  Maybe next week?  Our next writing focus will be Poetry and our next theme will be Geology.  Both will be introduced at the end of this week.

Math:

We will be finishing our unit on Geometry this week and moving on to Multiplication and Division.  Even though we are already multiplication masters in our class, this upcoming unit will expand on our already amazing skills!

Thank you for reading.  We'll be chatting soon!  

Lastly, our Stephan Gammell inspired portraits were MIND BLOWING!  You'll see them in the hall above our cubbies, but here is a little taste: If you're reading via email. you'll have to go to the blog to see the pictures!