In March third and fourth grade language groups at Prairieview have practiced identifying synonyms. Naming synonyms is a great way of increasing vocabulary. Students have taken pride in learning new words and rapidly listing synonym pairs. They have also used context cues to infer synonyms of unfamiliar words while reading.
Prairieview students have also listened to stories and summarized the narrative by telling who is in the story(characters), when and where it occurs (setting), and what happened (plot). We have used graphic organizers to list elements of the narrative and sequence important events in the story. Mrs. DeYoung uses the summarizing strategy to improve reading comprehension as well as active listening skills.
Fifth graders and students at Lakeview have reviewed how to write an extended response essay. This week they read a passage and answered questions dealing with cause-effect relationships. Mrs. DeYoung reviewed signal words ( because, since, so, the reason, therefore, as a result... etc). often used in cause-effect paragraphs. Students are practicing writing cause-effect statements and short essays using these transition phrases.
