Thursday, August 7th

Today we started with our daily grammar mini-lesson and then we finished chapter 2 of The Giver.  Each student has their own copy and they each take turns reading when randomly selected (I pull their names from a cup so everyone gets a turn).  We also discuss unknown words, character details, and plot points.  Overall, our whole-class study of an exemplary book series helps students improve fluency, listening, and comprehension.  After finishing chapter 2, we continued working on the skill of identifying details that "show."  We looked back through what we've already read and found sensory details in select paragraphs.

We then moved on to reading about the origins of the Bill of Rights.  We did a close read of a text that detailed the struggle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists in 1791.  Students found the main idea in each paragraph and then answered the question:  "Why did we need a Bill of Rights?"