It has been another week of online and the students seem to be adjusting to it just fine. Me on the other hand, not so well. I really miss having my students in the class. I keep hoping and praying that this ends really soon.
We are well along in our reading, writing and UOI units of study. I can only go by the students who have shared their work with me but so far they are looking OK. One of the biggest challenges online is the teacher getting to see the work of the students. There is no perfect system for this.
I had three discussions about reading with parents this week so I want to share my thoughts. Many of the students are stuck on current series reading novels. While this does mean they are reading, I always ask the question are they learning? Most series are just reruns of the first novel. Formulaic writing that sells really well so the authors use to sell their books. What concerns me is that the reading is a waste of learning time (not reading reading time which is good). I want students at this age to start to expand their thinking as they read and not just read over and over for the sake of reading. Many of our lessons so far, and many to come, revolve around the idea of thinking as you read and expanding on thoughts. Generally this is very hard with series books since most is already known from the first book. While I know we do not have access to the school library at the moment, students can use Overdrive and Epic to select and read books. Secondly, if the book is not a ‘bit’ of a challenge then once again there is probably not very much learning happening. This is a hard one as almost none of us know if a book fits into this category. If a child reads a book and understands all of it, it was not challenging enough. That is what I tell my students. It does not mean it was a bad book, just a book that was too easy for them.
This week in our UOI time, students will be deciding on a small project, planning the project, making the project (if possible) and then reflecting on the project. They have about 10 to choose from. This will mean not as much online time with me other than to ask questions and in need of clarification. I have planned it this way as one of the things I want time to do is conference with my students. I will be using this time to do this while the others are off on their project.
We have completed out first math unit and there will be an online assessment coming up this week. Our next unit its multiplication and division of whole numbers to 1,000,000. While most students will eventually use a calculator for this, this unit gives them the understanding of how it works. One of the more interesting lessons in this unit us using a spreadsheet.
As part of the materials I sent home, there were some math extension booklets. This is not how I would normally do this but given our situation, this is the next best thing. They are to work on these when they have completed the regular daily math work. We have also now used IXL which is kind of a drill program and Greg Tang Math which is more of a math game approach. These are now part of our regular math repertoire and will be used very regularly.
We also started our Typing Club this week. There are a lot of students who have used this in grade 4 and some from other schools as well. There is only one rule about using this system, students must be using two hands to type. While I cannot watch them while at home, I have told them that upon return to school, I will get after them if they are not using two hands. Since middle and high school involve a huge number of assignments handed in typed, this is a good start to help them out.
IXL, Greg Tang Math and Typing club are always available at home if students are bored.
I hope everyone is happy and healthy in these unusual times we live in. I told students that they are now part of history as I am sure it will be written about at some time in the future.
Regards,
Harold Daw
