Hero

Our hero unit is starting to pick up steam.  Today we started to read about Jason our second literary hero.  It was great to see the class make connections between Jason and Hercules.  As we are reading the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, we are having the students stop at the end of every few paragraphs and talk at their tables or in their groups about the most important words.  

The students are doing an amazing job of finding the important words in the text.  When the students pick a word, they have to have a reason why the word is the most important.  It is fun to listen into the conversations at the different tables about the most important word.  Some of the time the tables will all agree but I like it when they disagree about the word they are going to pick.  Then the students have to use the text along with their thinking to prove why their word is more important.  These mini-debates allow for some great discussions about the text.

In our read aloud our hero squirrel Ulysses started to fly today.  Threatened by a waitress at a doughnut shop he leaped and started to fly around the diner.  

The moment was important in the book because of the reaction of Flora's father George.  When George saw the squirrel flying around the restaurant, the way he reacted struck us as strange.  I thought the moment was a perfect time to stop and let the students do some extra thinking.  

The class took some time and wrote in their read aloud notebook.  It was amazing to see what the class was able to share about what they were thinking about this important moment in the book.  I cannot wait to see what happens next in the book.

I need to keep it short tonight.  I hope you are all having a great week.