Picture by guldfisken of flickr.com

Over this year the expectations for the Home Reading Log have changed and progressed as students have become more and more independent. As of now, we have a new set of expectations that will be in place for the next few months.

In class we have examined the guidelines, expectations, examples, and rubrics for the Home Reading Log. However due to the school budget and broken copy equipment, you will need to view or print out your own copy from the website. Please use the following information to help you successfully share your home reading with me.

Home Reading Logs

Home Reading Log Guidelines
Home Reading Log Homework Schedule
Reading Log
Book Log
Reading Response Letter Guidelines
Reading Response Example Letter
Reading Response Letter Guide/Helper Letter
Reading Response Letter Rubric

Remember, you can always find these documents in the “Important Documents” section of the website.

Here are the examples, guidelines, and rubric from class. Use this information as you work at becoming a better reader and writer! Please print these materials out and glue them into your HRL for reference!

Reading Response Guidelines.pdf

Reading Response Example.pdf

Reading Response Sentence Helpers.pdf

Reading Response Rubric.pdf

The plot is the sequence of events in the story from the beginning to the end (timeline). Usually the order of events is: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement.

Exposition:
The beginning of the story where the author introduces the setting, characters, and other important information the readers needs to know.

Rising Action:
A series of events that builds from the beginning of the story. Rising action is where the author builds interest and tension in the story.

Climax:
Also can be called the “turning point”. This is the highest point of tension or action in the story. The climax often leads the reader to wonder, “What will happen? How is everything going to turn out?” The climax is an important turning point for the characters or the story.

Falling Action:
The events of the story after the climax or turning point. The events are leading to the end of the story and the resolution.

Denouement:
The resolution. This is the final outcome or “untangling” of the events of the story.

Download a copy of the Literary Elements of Plot here.

Use this information for your notes and test on the Literary Elements of a Story. Remember, these elements are important things you will find in stories in all their forms (book, comic, tv show, movie).

When you are reading or watching TV, can you identify these elements?

Plot:
The sequence of events that happen in a story. The plot
usually happens in the order of: Exposition, Rising Action,
Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement.

Setting:
Where and when the story takes place. The setting is the
geographic location of the story. When a character walks
from one part of a neighborhood to the other, the scene
changes, but the setting always stays the same.

Characters:
The people, animals, or creatures in the story.

Protagonist:
One character who is central to the story and all the
major events in the story.

Antagonist:
The character who opposes, or goes against the main
character or protagonist. The antagonist tries to
prevent the main character (protagonist) from
succeeding or being happy.

Conflict:
Conflict is a problem that happens in the story. Usually, the
conflict happens toward the beginning of the story, at the
beginning of the Rising Action. There are different types of
conflicts:
(1) Person versus Person
(2) Person versus Self
(3) Person versus Nature
(4) Person versus Society
(5) Person versus Circumstance

Theme:
The message that is in the story. Common themes are love, friendship, loyalty, faith, hope, forgiveness, sacrifice, honor, justice, truth, freedom.

Download the Literary Elements of a Story here.

This week we discussed homonyms and figures of speech. A homonym is a word that sounds the same and may be spelled the same, but has a different meaning based on the context it is used in. For example, hair and hare sound the same but mean two different things, one is what you comb each day and the other is a rabbit. They can even have the same spelling like bark (the sound a dog makes) and bark (what is found on a tree) . We can build a list of these for our class. In the meantime, if you like games, you can take a quiz at this link. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/english/homonyms/

A figure of speech is something that people say that is figurative (not something to be taken literally ). For instance, we tell an actor before a performance to “break a leg” we don’t really want to cripple him. When we use that phrase it means to have a great show. The class came up with some other examples like : bouncing off the walls, driving me crazy etc. Lets make list of these words too. They will help us with our writing and in our blog posts.

This year we will be learning about the “Super Six” reading and thinking strategies. These strategies are ways of thinking that readers should be doing all day long!  For Tuesday night’s homework, we just briefly introduced two of the six: predicting (making predictions) and connecting (making connections).  As students read at home each night they will be using more and more of these strategies to respond to what they read.

Before students read, they should think and make a prediction. Use clues from the text or illustrations to predict what will happen next (or for non-fiction, predict what you will learn)

• I think…because…
• I predict…because…
• I’ll bet…because…
• I think I will learn…because…

While students read, they should be making connections.  Think about connections to other stories (text to text connection), to the world around you (text to world connection), or to yourself and something you have done or know (text to self connection).

• What does this remind me of?
• What do I know about the topic? Have I read other books like this or by the same author?
• If so, how does it help me with this reading?
• This reminds me of …
• Remembering this helps me
• with the reading because…

After students read, they should review their predictions.

• Were your predictions correct?  Why or why not?
• My predictions were correct because….
• My predictions were incorrect because…
• My predictions were partially correct because…

Here is the Read to Self anchor chart that the students and I brainstormed.  Together we thought of what students and teachers should doing during Read to Self time.

Anchor charts “anchor” our learning and behavior and we refer back to these important documents each day, every day of the year.

Download our Read to Self anchor chart here.

This is another excellent video from the Common Craft Show.

I like these videos because they do a terrific job explaining a complex idea in, well…”plain english.”  As fourth grade writers, speakers and storytellers, our goal is to learn how to communicate clearly and powerfully!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Because we have been talking about the process of making stories a lot in class this year, I thought it would be fun to share this “behind the scenes” footage of the same video. Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Until I put together a set of photos or a video about how to make a BBB (Beanie Baby Book) or GBBB (Giant Beanie Baby Book), here is a helpful link that shows how to fold this 8-page book from a single sheet of paper.

Today we were briefly introduced to Character Traits.  We will be learning more about these as we read and listen to The Tale of Despereaux.

Character Traits

Character traits are unique attributes or qualities that make up who the character is. For example: “tall” or “rude” or “female” or “courageous” or “powerful” or “truthful”

All About Characters.pdf