Point of View and Perspective

In our core ELA class, we have been learning a lot about point of view, and how the narrator and their perspective affects the story.  By doing this, we read the book, Voices.  This book takes one event, a simple day at the park, and tells it from four different "voices."  The voices are from a "snobby" rich woman, from a poor, jobless man, from the rich child who just wants to have fun, and the poor child who does not really care. It is a beautiful book and it led to a lot of discussion from students about the characters, their perspectives, their lives, and more.

We are going to be reading an all time classic this week (Cinderella) and then reading the story from the step-mother's perspective as well.  Learning point of view and perspective is very important for the upcoming project that we will be doing!

We are also learning different ways to read to someone, such as the strategy, "I Read, You Read" and Choral Reading.  I am hoping that we can build our stamina on this and offer it as a option during Guided Reading time.

For our word study, we have combined forces with the 4th grade.  We are working together to work on spelling patterns.  After this week, we are going to be back to 5th grade to work on Greek and Latin Root words, and then after 1-2 weeks, we will be back to spelling patterns!  We are going to continue this rotating schedule (spelling, root words, spelling, root words) to help students get the spelling that they need, but also the vocabulary that they need as well.

Now, for writing, we are about to move onto the second bend in our unit, which is all about the writing process.  Students will be creating their first written narrative that is ready for publishing over the next few days, and I am SO excited for them to do this! Shortly after that, they will then do another narrative.  The more writing students do, the better they will become at it.