Week 8: November 1st-4th

 

Tuesday, November 1st

    ➽Activity of the Day: Case of the Greedy Gnomes

    I worked with a group of 3 for the Case of the Greedy Gnomes. These kids are above average for reading comprehension and mathematics. The Case of the Greedy Gnomes is a multi-day riddle. Each day, these kids would interpret bar graphs. There would be math questions corresponding to the graphs (ex. How many more blueberry pies were there than apple tarts?), and each question would have a letter (ex. the letter e). Following the example, if there were three more blueberry pies than apple tarts, the number three would correspond to e. Above the graph were blank spaces with numbers underneath them. For this blueberry pie/apple tart problem, every blank space with the number 3 underneath would be replaced by an 'e'. When the blank spaces were filled, the result would be a clue as to which of the Greedy Gnomes stole the gold.

Thursday, November 3rd
 

    ➽Activity of the Day: Reading at a higher Level

    Ms. Carlson's class recently got a new student. I'll call them S. S is not always in class because they working parents. One interest they do have however, is reading. The first time I worked with S, it was their second day here. Mrs. Carlson didn't even know where their comprehension level was yet. S and I were going through some books Ms. Carlson had picked out for a starting level. It soon became apparent these books were too easy for S. Not only do they have a large vocabulary, but there's not much to comprehend in those books. So we jumped to level J. Level J is beginning chapter books. These books are much trickier. While S's vocabulary is suitable for this level, these books require comprehension. At the end of each chapter, I would ask S questions about the plot. While it was first tricky for them to convey, they began getting the hang of it.