Day 9 and 10

Well my classroom is partially transformed.  It was fun watching the kids figure out what the white dotted line was down the middle of our classroom.   (For those of you who have not read Maniac Magee, the white line represents Hector Street... the street that segregates the town).  We are posting new things from the book onto the bulletin board as we read them.  I am already seeing it helping some of the students comprehension!  Pictures will come soon!

We also started interactive writing yesterday!!  I could not be more excited/overwhelmed to do this with my students. Here are two pictures (one from each group).  We are working on the four types of sentences: declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative.  They students came up with a "kid-friendly" definition and then we came up with an example as a class. 

Since I have two different language arts classes, it will be interesting as I begin on this endeavor of interactive writing.  We will have two copies of everything.  But so far... the students are working very well with it.  We will have to work on our handwriting, as you can tell.  The students are not used to writing so big, but I told them it will make their writing more legible.  Also, I am thinking about having them write in cursive... that is, once we get the hang of interactive writing.

I am still not too happy with the writing curriculum.  The book we use is okay, but I know I can make it  more fun.  Currently we are working on the writing process: prewriting, first draft, editing, revising, and final copy. 

This week is not as fun as we are taking a standardized reading and vocabulary test.  At least it will give me a rough estimate of where my students are academically!  Hopefully I can begin grouping my students sometime in the next couple of weeks.  I am wanting to do some literature circles and also some word study groups!

And I believe I have caught my first official cold... or possibly just awful allergies.   Yay for being a teacher!