Getting our "Clues On!"
We are detectives! Get your magnifying glasses! When we read, we look for clues or small details in the text that the author left behind. This is called inferring. Inferring is an important part of reading. You take what you know (schema) and add it to what you read and then come up with a new idea. We do this when we take a guess on what will happen next (predict). We do this when we try to determine a meaning of a word we don't know. Inferences helps us read deeper in the text and better understand it.
Using context clues helps us to stay focused on what we are reading, and helps us figure out a word we don't know. We look at the sentence the word is in and the sentences around the word, and look for clues that will help us. Sometimes thinking about the text and what is happening helps us understand the word as well.
Using context clues helps us to stay focused on what we are reading, and helps us figure out a word we don't know. We look at the sentence the word is in and the sentences around the word, and look for clues that will help us. Sometimes thinking about the text and what is happening helps us understand the word as well.
Making Writing a Celebration!
We are all unique. We think differently. That means we all start writing in our own way. Some of us need to brainstorm a bunch of ideas before we start writing. Some of us need a plan before we start writing our story, but for some of us, we just want to write. We told ourselves that it is ok whatever our approach, just as long as we write. Mrs. Snyder wants us to have a draft by the end of October. We can have a couple of different drafts by then as well. At that point, we will pick which piece of writing we want to revise, edit and go public with. We like the freedom of writing. We are writing like we never expected we could write!
We talked about the importance of celebrating our writing throughout our process. We celebrated our favorite parts of our writing so far, whether it was our ideas, our first sentences, or our planning. We shared and celebrated with each other. We encouraged each other and responded to each others' writing. Mrs. Snyder took some video of us sharing, but she doesn't know how to post the video yet.