Inferring with pictures

Inferring doesn't always have to be done with books, it can be done with pictures too. Today, I showed the students a few pictures and asked them what they could infer using the clues in the pictures and their schema (background knowledge). Their answers were quite insightful and thought-provoking. Then I had the students get together in groups and make inferences using this picture. What can you infer is happening here?

Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the United States, we discussed the importance of his life.

During the 1950's, Dr. King was the leader of the civil rights movement for racial equality. He participated in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and many other peaceful demonstrations that protested the unfair treatment of African-Americans. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. 

Commemorating the life of a tremendously important leader, the United States celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day each year in January, the month in which he was born. Even though we don't celebrate a national holiday for Dr. King here in Canada, he is still important to us as well. His message serves as a reminder to everyone that racism and discrimination has no place in our society and in order for it to be stopped, we need to be a part of the change.  

Article on Martin Luther King Jr. 

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/martin-luther-king-jr/

Martin Luther King Jr. story read by LeVar Burton 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC-RyrakaQM

Spartacat!

We had an amazing visit with Spartacat! He brought us a pizza party, Kyle Turris bobble heads and tickets to an upcoming Binghamton Senators game at the Canadian Tire Centre. He also signed autographs and played a game of hangman with us. Most importantly, he told us how important reading is for our future. We are going to continue to track our reading minutes and maybe we will get another chance to have a party with Sparty!

Parents, check out the link to the Read to Succeed program here: http://sensatschool.com/lisonspourreussir

Inferring

To introduce inferring, I started with a lesson involving the contents of a ridiculously large bag I lug back and forth to school every day. To begin, I showed the students my bag and began to pull out its contents. I explained that they were going to make assumptions about me based on what was inside the bag. 

I divided them into groups of two and they had to decide what they could conclude about me based on the items. 

Here is a summary of what they came up with. 

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break. 

Today, we discussed our goals for 2016. Below is one of my favourite quotes and, as one of my students pointed out, it's actually incorrect because 2016 is a leap year! So we actually have 366 days to write an amazing book. 

We tried to make our goals meaningful and realistic. We discussed strategies on how we are going to achieve these goals.