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Ms. Spucci's Second Grade Curriculum Highlights » English Language Arts Highlights »
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With a special thanks to Beth Newingham for the inspiration. |
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At least three times a week, students will be engaged in Reader's Workshop. They will read a book on their instructional or independent reading level, and then complete various extension literacy activities. During this time, I will be meeting with guided reading groups to work on skills specific to the groups' needs.
Listed below are some highlights from our Reader's Workshop.
Reader's Workshop Binder
This is the binder students use to track their progress with various books. Here they will keep the post-its they use for post-it note reading, write literary letters, write thick questions, and write book reviews for The Zuber Times. Each of the sections in this binder are described below.
Post-it Note Reading: Using Metacognitive Strategies
Reading is an active process. To ensure that students are always monitoring their reading, we use the following strategies introduced in our Houghton Mifflin reading series:
- Predicting
- Visualizing
- Questioning
- Connecting
- Monitoring and Clarifying
Our reading key allows students to use symbols to represent each of the comprehension strategies. When students use any of these strategies, they mark it in their guided reading books by labeling a Post-It Note with the appropriate symbol and sticking it on to the page. When they have completed their book, these post-its are stuck on to pages in their reading binders to monitor their progress and to drive conversation in their book groups.
Click on the link at the bottom of the page to see a copy of our reading key.
Literary Letters
When they are finished reading their books, students can write literary letters about their books to a friend, to a relative or to me.
For some suggestions of topics for literary letters click here. For some examples of literary letters click here.
Writing Thick Questions
Readers are encouraged to ask "thick questions." The answers to thick questions are inferred. They require the reader to make predictions or to formulate new beliefs and ideas. Students are expected to write three "thick questions" about their books when they are finished reading. These questions will drive the conversation in our book talks.
For "thick question" prompts, click here.
Writing Book Reviews
Students who need an extra challenge can choose to write a book review on their book to be published in The Spucci Times.
For examples of some book reviews, click here.
To download this miniature newspaper template, click here.
Book Talks
Students will engage in book talks in their reading groups sporadically. They will discuss the metacognitive strategies they used during reading by referring to their post-it notes, share their thick questions that the group will be expected to answer, and share their book reviews and/or literary letters.
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Ms. Spucci's Class
Smithtown Central School District
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