Literature Circles and Science Modeling

We have successfully kicked off our literature circles! We began by talking about what it looks like to have a good discussion. After reading a short story, four students modeled with a "fishbowl" discussion. The other students watched for good examples of discussion tactics along with things they could work on.

For our literature circles, each student has a role to play. These include the Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, Summarizer, Checker, and Vocabulary Enricher. In order to become familiar, students practiced these roles in groups of others with the same role. We read through a folk tale called "The Fox and the Horse" to practice, and when students finished their roles, we did a "jigsaw" so that students could have a practice discussion. 

When we started our literature circles, students studied the historical era of their book. Each book is a historical fiction or non-fiction novel. Students researched the author and era.

In science, we have been studying the earth's movements. In particular, we have looked at types of boundaries, faults, and stress that cause and affect earthquakes and volcanoes. We used play-dough to represent different types of stress and faults. 

Finally, we have started studying the life of Christ and his ministry. Students read about the Israelites' return to their homeland, and they worked through the story of Jesus' temptation with a partner. We talked about watching out for causes of temptation today.