Working with Literary Heroes has really given me some AWESOME ideas. The boys love it so much, I simply cannot express it. And of course, the gushing blood from Saint George and the Dragon put them over the top! :)

I just made a close reading passage for my kiddos, because we needed to focus on pulling information out of the text. The hero books were just too long for a good close read, plus, I didn't have a class copy of the shorter ones. This is what I ended up with:

It's in my TPT store here if you want to take a look.

Graphic Organizers have been great for this unit as well. This one I am especially fond of:

Students fill in the hero trait on the left, and then have to draw details from the text to support their responses. This works AMAZINGLY with the Essential Question for Literary Heroes:

"Can Heroism be conveyed in words?"

The kids are learning to use the language, "He was a hero because he was _______. I know that because the author said _________."

I put together the graphic organizers that we have done so far, and they can be purchased at TPT here, if you're interested. :)

Jillian

Close Reading Literary Heroes

5:51 PM

So this is the type of week it has been. A week of Mondays, as my husband put it. (And yes, that stool is very broken)

But my kids have absolutely ROCKED at learning to use protractors to measure angles this week!!
We did a sorting activity with angles (Obtuse, Right, Acute), and then measured them to the whole degree. They worked with partners, and you wouldn't believe the math language I heard them using! :)

We also did another angle measuring activity, and one of my students looked right at me and said:

"Mrs. R, this isn't math, this is fun!"

Bless him. He has no idea how much that made my day. So now I'm working on putting some finishing touches on it. Be prepared for an awesome freebie when I get it together!

Jillian

10:05 PM

We're beginning our Literary Heroes unit (finally!) tomorrow!! I'm so excited to introduce it to the kids, and I know they're going to love this unit. I've been searching all over for ideas on how to introduce the unit, but I haven't had much luck finding anything. I did find this awesome video by Matthew Winkler on YouTube about What Makes A Hero:

I can't decide if it is a little complicated for my fourths, but I keep thinking I'll show it at some point. I don't think I'll use it as an introduction, though. Has anyone else found a great multimedia resource for literary heroes?

Jillian

Literary Heroes Video

8:31 PM

So with the launch of my new blog, I decided I needed to put my best foot forward. I redesigned my profile picture for Teachers Pay Teachers, and am working on making a blog button as well. Here's my new design:

I'm hoping to get the blog button up and working tonight, but I'm having some trouble with the coding. Ah, the wonders of the modern world! :)

Jillian

6:48 PM

I am participating in a Spring Cleaning Sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! (Almost) Everything is 20% off! Come take a look around! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Jillian-Ramoly

Many thanks to 4th Grade Frolics for the darling poster!

Jillian

Sale TeachersPayTeachers

9:22 AM

Benchmark is right around the corner! But what comes after that for 4th grade? 

Common Core Unit 6: Literary Heroes

I don't know about you, but I haven't read all of the books that are listed for student reading yet. So yesterday, I grabbed The Young Merlin Trilogy by Jane Yolen and started reading.

After the first page, I grabbed a pad of sticky notes and started marking.

And after the second "book," I ran out of sticky notes and had to stop!!

If you haven't read this book yet and plan on reading it with your students, you need to know two  very important things.
         1. This book is AMAZING, and your boys will love it!
         2. The vocabulary in this book is killer!

Just to give you an idea:
I have noted these words, along with many others, that 4th graders will probably have trouble with:

• tincture
• wodewose (which are explained as the wild people)
• Matins
• stolid
• yearning
• perilous
• imperceptibly
• sotto voce
• oblation
• haunches
• capricious
• wanton
• cosseted
• penance

And the list goes on, and the list goes on (la da da da de, la da da da di (insert music from Sonny & Cher here))

Seriously, though. You need to know that this is coming before your students ask you these words. The book has a healthy amount of figurative language as well. Boys (and girls) will love the few magic things that happen, but you may have a few that feel dissapointed. With a book titled Young Merlin, they (and I) assume that this will be a story of magic, and swordfighting, and dragons, and knights in shining armor. The only knights are in the army that marches through, the only magic in the last few chapters of the book. And all the dragons are in his dreams.

I can't WAIT to read this with my students, but I have no idea how this roller coaster is going to be. It may be pretty bumpy!

Has anyone ever taught with this book before? I would love to hear how your students did with the deeper, underlying currents of the book!

Jillian

Book Review Literary Heroes Vocabulary

8:52 AM