Hi families! We are just finishing up our second unit, Understanding People with Differences. We read some fabulous books in each of our blocks. We've been focusing on several skills - Perspective, writing Expository Text, Summarizing, Character Analysis, Synthesis, Envisioning, and Story Elements.
We are emphasizing developing the skill of identifying and investing ourselves in our character and really knowing the main struggle they are experiencing. In order to really understand reading in DEPTH, we need to go past the point of retelling and thinking that books are simply event after event after event. It's crucial to summarization. Knowing the true struggle the character is going through puts all the events into light by looking through that struggle's "lens."
It's also about, as I said earlier, INVESTMENT. The more you know and care about your character, the more you will engage with the book! In order to do that, we need to name traits and analyze their actions, thoughts, and words. Knowing those enables us to predict, watch contrasts, and to see how the author has presented tasks/events for the character to face that uses those strengths and/or weaknesses. Here are a few of our character charts for some read alouds we've done:
We've also been analyzing our characters in our unit. Ask your child what they know about Sam, Julie, Ian, and Charlie (Block 1), Caitlin, Dad, Michael, Josh, Mrs. Brooks (Block 2), and Mom, Dad, and Jason (Block 3).
In addition, there are some really important ways we can get deeper with our reading. They are called Signposts, and we've reviewed/learned 3 of them so far. Signposts stop us and help us ask questions that lead to the theme, author's message, and the character's true problem/resolution. They also help us identify the climax in a story, which can be confusing when there are lots of events in longer stories.
I know this is a lot of information, but often times it's hard for the kids to express what they are learning, especially if it goes deep. It would be fun for you to try some of these strategies as you read!
We are emphasizing developing the skill of identifying and investing ourselves in our character and really knowing the main struggle they are experiencing. In order to really understand reading in DEPTH, we need to go past the point of retelling and thinking that books are simply event after event after event. It's crucial to summarization. Knowing the true struggle the character is going through puts all the events into light by looking through that struggle's "lens."
In addition, there are some really important ways we can get deeper with our reading. They are called Signposts, and we've reviewed/learned 3 of them so far. Signposts stop us and help us ask questions that lead to the theme, author's message, and the character's true problem/resolution. They also help us identify the climax in a story, which can be confusing when there are lots of events in longer stories.
I have learned a lot about signpost already.
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