Our field trip is coming up this week! On Thursday, we will be going to the river! Please have your student dress in warm clothes since we will be on the water and it is supposed to be windy. The temperature is usually 10-15 degrees cooler on the boat. Also, please send in a hardy snack for the morning. Due to the schedule, we will not have much time for lunch and will eat our snack before leaving. Once we get there, one class will have about 15 minutes for lunch around 10:45 while the other will get about 15 minutes around 12:15. When we return to school, students can have another snack, or finish their lunch if they are still hungry.
We have wrapped up our novel studies. I am so impressed with how diligent the students were in completing their work and reading the novel. I tried a new approach this year where I gave the students more freedom in completing their work (much like they will experience in middle school) and was very impressed with how they rose to the challenge and were able to complete what was expected of them. Kudos to you for raising such responsible young people!
Now that novel studies are over, I am sure you are wondering what is next?! I am in the process of setting up an independent biography project for the students that will be worked on primarily here at school. This project should take us through the rest of May in to June. The majority of the work will be done here at school. Students will be tasked with reading ONE biography book about a person that I have on a list of Heros. While reading, students are to look for ways that this person fits a description of a hero. While they read, they will take notes on notecards and these will be used to write a 2-4 page essay about their person. The biography book that they check out from the library will be the primary source from which they get their information, but they will also be required to use at least 2 more sources. Only 1 of the 2 other sources can be online. Wikipedia and google are not credible sources.
After the research phase of the project is complete, the students will be writing an expository essay about their person. The main question they are striving to answer through this essay is how/why should their person be considered a hero? We will do most of the writing in class during small group time and I will be meeting with them to make sure that they are working on this as we go. Since they will have note cards, this will greatly help them organize their thoughts. By the time they finish, when the title page and bibliography are counted, I am expecting them to have a 4-6 page essay.
Students will also use their note cards to create a presentation that they will share with the class. Again, this will be done in class as I want them done in a very specific format.
The only part of the project that will be completed at home will not be due until June 4. The students will get a list of final products that they can do/create for this part of the project. This will be graded as part of the project, and will be based on their person.
A list of people will be available for the students to choose from tomorrow. I'll put the list here as well if you would like to share with them a little sneak peak into who they might want to choose. As a precaution though, I have asked them to pick someone they know very little/nothing about since that will make the actual research and citation of knowledge much easier on them. Everyone will also be doing someone different. There will be no overlap, so someone might not get their first choice. In choosing the people on the list, I have tried to choose people who have had to overcome adversity in their life and have still become very successful. The list is by no means comprehensive, nor does it encompass all of the very successful people who have over come obstacles to achieve greatness. A very real concern for me is if the biography that the students are asked to read are appropriate for 5th grade students and that limits some of my selections.
More information will be coming home to you about this project very soon. Please let me know if you have any questions.