Narrative, 2Nd Trimester, 2015-2016

Adam S. Herb Narrative, 2nd Trimester, 2015-2016 4th Grade Reading/Writing

WRITING: The boys continued to use the writing traits that encompass a thoughtful, careful, and creative piece of writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. They are applying these traits across a wide range of topics.

Writing Projects Using an excerpt from Jack London’s Call of the Wild as a model, we also wrote an authentic, detailed description of an animal solving a problem. Students focused on strong and careful word choice, and fluid organization of detailed imagery. They used the brainstorming, drafting, editing, and publishing process in detail.

A Stranger Amongst Us … Boys wrote original stories surrounding the appearance of a mysterious stranger. While the structure paralleled the style of Mollie Hunter who wrote A Stranger Came Ashore, the boys’ ideas were original and they found many ways to personalize their stories and add descriptive details.

Weekly writing prompts are additional avenues for creative and personal writing of varying natures.

READING: Novels remain our springboards to evoking strong discussions and character analyses while introducing the boys to some more mature life topics. Periodical and informational reading, such as “Time for Kids,” have also been utilized to strengthen their reading, thinking, and expressive skills.

The Whipping Boy Prince Horace is so naughty that everyone calls him Prince Brat. But the prince is not allowed to be spanked, so an orphan boy named Jemmy is taken from the streets to be the prince’s whipping boy. When Prince Brat decides to run away, he takes Jemmy with him. The boys begin a wild adventure that lands then in the clutches of two thieving cutthroats! Can Jemmy use his street smarts to outwit his kidnappers and free himself and the prince?

The boys enjoyed the “fable-like” writing in this tale, yet found depth and personal connections in the characters and meaning behind their actions. We talked about loyalty and right vs. wrong throughout and examined metaphors, similes, and vocabulary. The characters learned to take consequences for their actions, and we talked about our personal experiences with that. They created a comic strips or used other forms of digital media to depict a personally created story/scenario that paralleled that of the characters in the book.

A Stranger Came Ashore A wild stormy night, a shipwreck… the sudden appearance of a stranger… That’s how it all begins. The stranger is the only survivor of the wreck, and the Henderson’s gladly give him shelter. But young Robbie does not trust Finn and his unsettling smile. What could he be hiding? The clues Robbie finds are mysterious, and then in one frightening moment, Robbie recalls his grandfather’s warning and discovers at last the terrible, incredible truth about Finn Learson. And Robbie knows it’s up to him to save his sister, before it’s too late.

The boys participated in Literature Circles with the girls at Roland Park Country School during the reading of this novel to discuss and analyze the plot, themes, and characters. Roles include: Summarizer, illustrating, question generating, reading aloud important sections, connecting the reading to real life, examining new vocabulary, and finding examples of great writing.

Time for Kids We spend once out of every one to two weeks reading Time for Kids to keep up on current events and work on skills students need when reading for information.

Vocabulary Development Students engage in vocabulary work on an almost weekly basis on words pulled from their novels and read-alouds.

GRAMMAR:

Comma Use – items in a series, city/ST, yes/no/well introduction, two separate clauses, introductory phrases that “set the stage” (if, as, after, before, although, etc)

Nouns – singular v plural, possessives