That's a disgusting title isn't it? :) Well, hopefully your child has come home talking about how we SNOT all the time in fourth grade! SNOT is an acronym that stands for:
Small Notes On the Text As a reader, it's important to engage with a text. Gone are the days of just reading the words...now it's time to THINK about what those words mean and what the text is saying! When we read a text together in class, we SNOT all over it! We circle words and draw lines to synonyms. We take notes in the margins about what we think characters are feeling or how the text is making us feel. We write down our thoughts ALL OVER THE TEXT. We dissect it paragraph by paragraph so that by the time we are finished we have made connections all over it! We notice interesting words, we ask questions, and we figure out what the text is talking about. It's important to think about what we are reading. Why did the author write it? What did we learn? Does it remind us of anything else we have read? We train our 4th graders to do this by writing down their thoughts and connections as they read. At the beginning of the year, the students are always a little more shy about writing down their connections as they read. We do a lot of our "SNOTTING" together. However, as the year progresses, they grow braver and more confident as they practice to actively think every time they read until it literally becomes a reading habit! And what a wonderful habit to build! Good readers THINK about what they are reading! I always tell the kids that when you get finished, it should look like you "blew your nose all over your passage!" Gross- but the kids love it and it's a metaphor they never forget! :) Happy Reading! The SNOT Trainer :) The blue folders have started coming home with graded work in them and I'm sure you're wondering why so many grades are scribbled through and crossed out and changed. :) My policy on homework is that it is for practice. I grade it in order to hold the students accountable for doing it. However, the grade they receive is very flexible and has the opportunity to change as they correct their work. Homework is returned to students every morning and they have the opportunity and choice to fix it in order to raise their grade. The students return the work to me and I score it again. Then, I change their grade in my grade book. In my opinion, homework should always be worked up to a 100%. If your child is coming home with work that is not worked to 100%, then this is a discussion starter for you and your child. Are they using their time wisely in class to correct their work? Is getting a good grade important to them? In the grand scheme of things, grades earned in 4th grade mean very little. However, this is the time to build good habits in class and at home, so that when grades do mean something, the students are prepared.
I am happy to return work and help students correct their work until they have a 100% on homework, but my policy on tests is very different. By the time we take a test over a unit we have been studying, the students should be prepared to do well. A test weighs more and is more important that homework. This will be true for the rest of their academic career, and I think it is important to teach them the seriousness of tests. It is my hope that over the course of 4th grade that students begin to build good study habits and good test taking strategies that will help them be successful in school. Test grades do not change in my classroom. I encourage students to take their time, and I force them to use as many strategies as I can in order to help them be successful. However, I do think it is important to understand why a question was marked wrong on a test. Therefore, we will always fix our work on a test, even though the grade will stay the same. When students fix their work, if it is correct, I will simply write an "OK" over the original "x". This is my way of letting the students and you know that they have fixed their work and it is now correct. Fixing incorrect work is important because it retrains your brain to do something the right way. Even when we take tests, we are still learning and getting better at what we do. :) I hope this clears up any confusion about the marks on papers in the blue folder! As you will see from the folder, we are working very hard in class every day! :) Your partner, Allison Griffin :) |
Allison GriffinGet the scoop on the exciting things that are happening in room 211 by reading our blog! Archives
September 2018
Categories |