English Literature
The Phantom Tollbooth
By Norton Jester
The Percy Jackson
series
By Rick Riordin
The Hobbit
&
Lord of the Rings
By JRR Tolkien
Wings of Fire
The Mergansers will be working on "reading comprehension" in the same way students in a university study literature, by reading and discussing novels. We will call this Literature Studies and sometimes refer to them as our "Literature Circles." Small groups of learners reading the same novels together and discussing the stories with purpose and the intent to discover the 90% of the meaning under the surface. We will be collaborating in this approach with both Raven and Snow Goose learners as well. For the first round, learners have chosen... "Bridge to Terabithia", "The Westing Game", "Island of the Blue Dolphins", "Call of the Wild", and for the Raven mixed group "Dracula". Future novels may include, "Charolette's Web", "Frindle", "White Fang", "Ender's Game", "Old Yeller", "Sounder", and so many others.
Stay tuned for more information and for how to ask your Merganser about their novel and this type of novel study... I will let you know as we role this out. Thank you!
The first thing the Mergansers have done for reading this year is to make sure we all have a book we are reading at school. We have at least 30 minutes of "R&R" or "Relax & Read" time daily. In the next week, I will sit with each learner and listen to them read aloud, so that I can zero in on each readers ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development - aka: their stretchy zone).
Mergansers should be reading a minimum of 30 minutes, in a quiet focused setting, everyday outside of The Attic. Research has shown this is the most important habit for a successful future.
I have also begun reading our first "Read Aloud" novel, The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien. Reading aloud to the learners is an essential instruction strategy for teaching reading comprehension. Through metacognition I can explain what I am thinking as I read and ask specific questions that help guide their critical analysis of the text. We will sometimes use expository text for read-aloud as well.
