Friday, October 14, 2016

Announcements and Reminders:                           Pull out your books! Remember that the end of the term is coming up on October 26. You have until October 19 to turn in any late work to our class!! Don't forget to complete any reading make-up work (homework) if you have been given a pink sheet in your folder.

Targets for Today: I can define metacognition. I can begin my BICUM brochure.

Today’s  Agenda: Silent Reading! Go ahead and fill out your reading log. Partner Fluency practice! When we call your names, one of you should grab the marker and eraser, and the other should pick up the new articles to read. Now I need two volunteers!  Image: recyclenation.com Did the first person see different results than the second? What did they do differently? Thinking about our thinking is called metacognition. It's like looking inside your brain and discovering that it is actually a really nice, really powerful car. Sometimes we expect our brain car to just get places, and we think it will drive itself there. But here is the catch!! You get to be the driver! You have the controls.  Image: pixabay The rest of this class will help you recognize the controls in that car and practice using them. These skills will help you be a better reader, and they'll help you in a lot of other ways as well! We'll call them strategies. We'll keep track of these strategies in something called a BICUM brochure. But what does BICUM stand for??  "Be In Control: Use Metacognition"  Come up to the front and grab a colored piece of paper and a couple colored pencils. Watch this demonstration on how to fold your brochure!  Your front column will look like this:  You get to draw any picture you want on the front! If we have time, we'll also practice a couple of pre-reading/thinking strategies. On your inside left column, copy down these four steps to a SELF check.  Let's walk through a situation together. Imagine this: "Winifred is used to getting up early, but today it was especially hard. Last night she stayed up really late watching a scary movie with her friends, and she woke up with barely enough time to get ready and catch the bus. When she got to school, she realized that she had forgotten to finish her reading for English! It was only a short article, and she had glanced at it when the teacher gave it to her. It was about the 1950s, a topic she actually liked and knew a lot about. She rifled through her backpack and found the article, then sat down on the closest bench in the commons area. She started to read." -What was her study area like? -Her emotions? -The level of difficulty of the thing she had to read? -How was she feeling physically? Now you come up with a situation!! Make sure to include some description about: Study Area Emotions Level of difficulty of the article/book/assignment Feeling physically Write down your story situation on a blank piece of paper!  When you're finished, read your story to your partner. They will do a SELF check to decide if this is a good situation or a bad situation for reading and understanding.

If You Were Absent: Make a BICUM brochure and copy the sections above. You can ask for help from Mrs. Mace or Ms. Dorsey. Grab a pink slip to make up your reading time.

Vocabulary: Metacognition: awareness of our own thinking, knowledge, and mental strategies. Strategy: a specific way of reaching a goal; a method or tool