Sage Literacy Lounge

Hello, all, and welcome back after a gorgeous vacation filled with snow and sunshine. This week the Sage class will wrap up some loose ends from prior to the break and begin a new unit. We will take the first couple of days to finish procedure writings and score them using the State of VT rubric. Then we will review text patterns by making posters to hang in the Sage room during research as a comprehension resource. This will be our final learning activity for non-fiction text patterns.

Then we move back to fiction and a study of author's purpose and author's craft. Students will learn why writers write and how they change their style based on the purpose and audience. We will also learn about what literary devices, or writing tools, author's use to create their works. Specifically, students will study imagery, simile, metaphor, foreshadowing, and personification. As usual, we will come at our literature study from the perspecitives of readers and writers. When students have become familiar and friendly with author's purpose and craft (hopefully after about a week), we will apply our new knowledge in literature circles.

Literature circles will begin a bit differently this time, as students will not be offered a choice in reading material. All students will be reading The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm, a Vermont author, in small groups. You may have heard of this story. It was published a few years ago and deals directly with the issue of bullying and harassment that often rears up in adolescent years. It is my goal that this round of literature circles reaches children on a social-emotional level, as well as cognitive, and helps prepare them to be assertive in the face of conflict.

From the back cover: "I really like this book. It really wakes people up and sends a message to use your voice and don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. -Ashley, age 12, Plainfield, Vermont"