Many students come to the fifth grade with a wide 
span of
knowledge, be it from travel, life experiences or from just reading books.
There is nothing like a good book.
In
my class, you will find that we do whole book reading with the entire class.
Students are given study guides that will accompany the chapters in the class
book. From here the student is expected to read the material and come to class
prepared to discuss the chapter. This is the time that the wide range of
interpretations and perceptions come into the fold. While some students may not
have the maturity or insight to understanding character development or to
understand the author’s intent, there will be a student(s) in the class that
will be able to bring to the discussion to a high level of reasoning and
critical thinking.
Great
discussions come from this class period. Discussions concerning ethics, racism,
and integrity are developed as students begin to think of the world around
them.
Students
will also have the opportunity to work in small reading groups so the
discussion can be more personal and less intimidating to the student who may
not want to speak in front of the entire class.
Some
of the class books that we will be reading this year are:
Constance, Patricia Clapp
Sign
of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare
Greek
Myths, Olivia Coolidge
Goodbye
Where
the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
The
Westing Game,
Ellen Raskin
Ajeemah and His Son, James Berry
Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis
Carroll
Students will be developing such skills
as: inferences, drawing conclusions, context clues, sequencing, predicting,
making connections, figurative language, main idea, summarizing, cause and
effect, point of view.
Developing
these skills will be done in a variety of ways. Creating book reports, time
lines, graphic organizers are but a few of the different activities the student
will be engaged in.
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