Dr. Johnson's Reading Blog

Please remember that Thursday is Curriculum Night from 7:00 - 7:45. We will spend this time talking about the reading process, as well as going over things we are working in class. Here are a few of the things we are working on in class: Since our special areas is first thing in the morning (8:30), we alternate between watching the CNN 10 news for kids and math talks. CNN 10 news helps us become aware of national news. We use this information to make connections between the real world and what we learn in social studies and science. Our math talks are about giving students open-ended freedom to create math equations that equal a particular number. For instance, one of last week's numbers was 15, so kids created math equations such as .15 X 10 (to the second power - blogger won't let me make an exponent). We'll discuss this more at Curricular Conversations. In science we are learning about ecosystems. Many of you saw the terrariums we made. These terrariums serve as a ...

I forgot to mention we have a new intern from USC this semester. Her name is Noelle Johnson. I have pasted in an introductory letter she wrote. Greetings! My name is Noelle Johnson! I am an Elementary Education major at the University of South Carolina! I am looking forward to working with Dr. Johnson’s class this semester! I am excited to be in the classroom on Wednesdays and Thursdays! I appreciate the opportunity to learn from your students! Thank you, Noelle Johnson

Hello Families - Since we have this day off, I'll update you on some information from the last couple of weeks of school. Our days are going well and the 5th graders are living into their new responsibilities. They are very excited about working with their kindergarten buddies. To prepare for reading with their buddies, we have spent our reading time reflecting on, and discussing, the reading strategies we use when reading books. The hope that is by understanding our own strategies and attitudes towards reading, students will be more aware of how to help their kindergarten buddies beyond just "sounding out" (which is often treated as the de-facto thing to say when reading with young readers). Here is a list of just some of the strategies students used when making sense of fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels: Repeating words and paragraphs when they don’t make sense When don’t know how to pronounce a person’s name, change it Navigating punctuation (ellipse, e...