Today I guided you through a close reading of Chapter One of Charlotte’s Web. Here is what we did!
Monthly Archive for September, 2008
And here are the other two!
The Dark Hills Divide Poem: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Edge Chronicles: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadToday seven members of Edinger House prepared readings for our Literary Salon. And here are five are for you to listen and enjoy (and the other two are in the next post)!
Inkheart: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download I Am Apache: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Dragonrider: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Whirlwind: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadOur very first field trip is just around the corner!! It is to Ellis Island on Friday, October 3rd and the whole grade is going together. Here are the details for the trip:
WEATHER:
Even though the weather has been fairly warm, children should bring a jacket or sweater as the ferry can be quite chilly and we are ending with an outdoor picnic in Battery Park. If rain is in the forecast please be sure your child has rain gear. The museum is indoors, but we will have to wait for the ferry outside. (Hopefully, we have a beautiful day, but if not we will return to the school for an indoor picnic.)
WHAT TO BRING:
The children should bring two bags: one, a snack and drink (which they may eat on the bus on our way to the ferry) and one, a lunch with a drink for when we return in Battery Park. Both should be in a backpack which will be left on the bus during our visit to Ellis Island (as security on the ferry does not allow them). Please no soda, glass bottles, or anything with nuts. They will not need to bring anything else.
PLEASE JOIN US:
You are welcome to join us. Please let me know as soon as possible, if you can indeed join us. Parents should meet us at the ferry (after buying your own ferry tickets) at 9:30. You can buy the tickets online or at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. We are leaving school at 9:00 and will take the first ferry we can make. We will be heading back to school around 2:00 to arrive by 2:30.
Today we looked at last year’s class’s oral history questions and revised them for this year’s interviews.
Here you can see the old questions and our revisions:
Oral History Interview Questions
Edinger House
Fall 2008
Old Country
Where did you come from and when?
What was the reason you came to America?
What was your old country like? (customs, climate, food, childhood/special memories)
Did you leave anyone or anything behind? If so, would you like to tell us more about it?
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your old country?
Journey
What was it like traveling to America? Did you come straight here or stop in another country first? If so, why?
How did you get here? (Car/boat/train/plane/other, time it took,) Did anything interesting happen en route (that is, while on the way)?
Did you travel with anyone and if so, who? Tell me more if you wish.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about the journey?
Arrival
Where did you go when you first arrived and what was it like?
Where did you finally settle and why?
What did you think America would be like? Was it what you expected? Why or why not?
Did you know anyone here, family or friends, and if so whom?
Did you know English? If not, how did you learn it and adjust to the new language?
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your early days in your new country?
New Country
What are the big differences between your old country and the new country?
Have you been back to your old country? If so, what was that like?
What do you miss about your old country?
What are you doing now? (job, school)
What is your current status in the citizenship process? (Are you a citizen? If not, do you plan to become one? )
Is there anything else you want to tell me?
Here’s Ms. Stokien’s final draft:
Monica Ruth Edinger, a very interesting fourth grade teacher at the Dalton School, was born in North Carolina. She moved around a lot because her father was a professor and taught in many different places. She now lives on the Upper Westside of New York City with her new toy poodle pup, Lucy. Monica is passionate about reading and writing, and she also is a runner. Lucy sometimes runs with her! Ms. Edinger attended Barnard College Columbia University . After graduating, she spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, Africa. Monica ‘s family is from Germany and Monica is fluent in German. She enjoys traveling abroad; this summer she went to Peru. Monica also enjoys sweets, especially chocolate. Her classroom is full of ladybugs for good luck. “ After 25 years of teaching at Dalton, being with the fourth grade is still fantastic,” Monica says.
I like it!
Now this is what I’d like you to do:
- After writing your first draft, using information from your interview, read it over carefully. Does it read well? Is there a good leading sentence to make your readers want to know more about your subject? Is everything of interest to your readers (or perhaps is some of it just interesting to you or your subject)? Do you have enough interesting information? Do you end the blurb with something interesting? (Perhaps you want to use a quote as Ms. Stokien did for mine.)
- Once you are done revising do your final proofreading. As you did with your journal letter, check for spelling, sense, capitals, and punctuation.
- Show it to your subject to be sure he/she is comfortable and happy with your blurb.
- Now give it to a teacher who will do a final check.
- Make a final publishable copy on a large index card and put it, along with the photograph, on a piece of cardboard (first using tissue paper to decorate it). Make it unique, creative, and beautiful!
Often books have one or two paragraphs about the author, which are called blurbs. In fact, there are people who specialize in writing blurbs. It is a tricky job because the blurb writer wants to provide as much interesting information as possible about the author in one or two paragraphs.
For your first writing project, you will be interviewing a classmate and using your interview notes to create a blurb.
Looking at a Model of a Blurb
First we are going to look at two different blurbs for the same author, E. B. White. What do you notice about them?
- where he worked
- when he died
- awards & honors he received
- where born
- where he went to school, graduation date
- books & essays written & how many (for children & adults)
- family
- quote
The Interview
Next you will be assigned a partner. Each of you will interview each other. Later in the year, you will be doing a larger project involving interviewing an immigrant. This is a much shorter interview, but you should be sure to listen carefully, take good notes, and allow your partner to say as much as he/she wishes in answer to each question. Before you do yours, here is a model for you to consider: Ms. Stokien interviewing Ms. Edinger:
What is your full name and where do you live?
Monica Ruth Edinger, lives in apt. on W. side NYC nr. Columbia Univ.
Where were you born? Do you have any interesting family stories about your birth and/or early years?
born in Greensboro, NC for 6 mos., never been back, father was a professor, moved to Alabama, moved a lot
Tell me about your family.
my family were my parents from Germany, no longer alive, younger sister in Boston w/ children now in college
Tell me about any pets, hobbies, and favorite in-school and out-of-school activities.
just got a toy poodle this summer named Lucy, very involved w/ rdg. children’s lit, on Newbery Committe last yr., runner,
Tell about some of your favorite things:
books, reading, writing, used to be illustrator, puppy, sweets esp. chocolate & salty things
Is there anything else you would like to tell me?
enjoy traveling, speak German fluently, went to Peru this summer
love being at Dalton, been here 25 years!
Next up — the first draft of the blurb! Here is the one Ms. Stokien wrote with your help:
Monica Ruth Edinger, a very interesting teacher /author of fourth grade at the Dalton School, was born in North Carolina. She now lives in New York City. In her spare time, she loves to read and write and spend time with her new toy poodle, Lucy. Lucy sometimes goes running with Ms Edinger! Ms. Edinger attended Barnard College near Columbia. And then spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching in Sierra Leone, Africa. Ms Edinger ‘s family is from Germany and she is fluent in German. Besides reading and writing, she enjoys traveling and sweets like chocolate. “After the 25 years of teaching at Dalton, fourth grade is still the fantastic,” Ms. Edinger says.
Now Ms. Stokien will go off to work on her final draft. Tomorrow you will do your interviews of each other and then begin your own drafts.
Today you are going to begin your very first literature unit in fourth grade, a study of the children’s books of E. B. White. You can read an overview of the assignment here. To begin I will be giving each of you a copy of Charlotte’s Web to read and, eventually, to annotate. “What is annotating?” you ask. Well, you will find out soon enough! Trust me, it is fun!
Together we will plan out how you will read the book. Most of it will be at home (part of your nightly 30 minutes of reading), but some might be during Lab in school. Some of you may read it very quickly and some of you may want to take your time with it. Both ways are just fine! Together we will decide when everyone should be done. And then we will begin the annotating!
If you want to learn more about E. B. White you can go to these two sites:
Hello Everyone! In a few more days we will all be coming together in Room 909 for an exciting new school year.
I met some of you last year as you were on our buddy house and I’m looking forward to meeting the rest of you too.
I’ve already been in school getting everything ready for you. The room looks spic-and-span and all ready for you to put your personal stamp on it. We’ve got books, dictionaries, pencils, ladybugs, planbooks and more all waiting for you!
On Monday you will come to school a little later than usual and we will dive in! At the end of the day, a little earlier than usual, your parents can come to the classroom to see it (and you can show them around) to pick you up. Then on Tuesday, you will start and end your school day the same as everyone else.
See you soon!