Effective Effort - Making Hard Work Count!

Lots of Hard Work!

Students have been working very hard in fourth grade!  There has been a lot to work hard on too.  In math, students are learning how to multiply multi-digit numbers and are just starting to learn division.  In addition, they are learning to apply all of this knowledge in word problems.  In reading, students are learning about how characters change in stories and how to write about these changes and include evidence from the text.  In writing, students are learning how to write fictional narratives with action, thought, dialogue, and feeling.  Today they had to begin a new fictional narrative from scratch, showing off all they had learned about writing fictional narratives so far.  In science, we are learning about how crystals form and how to tell the difference between different types of crystals. 

Needless to say, we are learning a lot and working very hard while doing so!  Sometimes students work hard but still find themselves lacking the success they are looking for.  This is where Effective Effort comes in.  Effective Effort is understanding all that goes into hard work.  Sometimes we can work really hard but we are working in the wrong manner.  There are six main elements of Effective Effort that are posted in the photo below.  Research shows that if we specifically teach students these six elements, their achievement will increase.

Today we began learning about these six elements.  Students brainstormed what they thought each of these meant and created posters describing them.  I spent the day pointing out the different elements as they occurred in our classroom and when giving directions, described what the effective effort would look like during the assignment.  As we move forward, students will be doing self-assessments of their effort to increase their self-awareness in this area.  I will also continue to verbalize these elements every opportunity I get.

How Can You Help?

You can help by using the same language at home when your child is doing something that requires a lot of effort.  Whether it be a school assignment, a home project, chores, or athletics anytime you can talk it up will help us in the classroom.  When students hear the same message in more than one place, it makes an enormous difference!

Upcoming Dates
This Friday - Math Vocabulary Quiz (all words previously tested and new ones assigned)
11/26 - 1/2 Day Thanksgiving Break
11/27 - Happy Thanksgiving!
12/5 - Holiday Shoppe 3:30 - 8:00
12/6 - Holiday Shoppe 9:00 - 1:00

Authors

Transformation

Our classroom has had quite a transformation over the past few weeks!  While learning to write fictional narratives, our class has gone from summarizing events to being storytellers that use the same strategies as the published authors we love. 

We have been learning about how most stories follow a story arch where towards the beginning of the story, characters face a problem that gets worse as the story progresses.  Something in the story then occurs to cause the character to learn and change which allows them to solve the problem.  The story ends with the problem getting better.  Students story arched their own story ideas and began developing characters.  We used our knowledge of character traits from our learning during Reader's Workshop to help us come up with realistic characters that have character flaws that add to the problem in the story.

One major focus of this unit has been a push from summarizing the events to making the events come alive through the use of action, dialogue, thinking and feeling.  The picture below shows an example of The Three Billy Goats Gruff story summarized and then rewritten using the strategies mentioned above.  We are learning to show the major events in the story rather than tell about them.  Instead of saying, "the character was angry," students are putting themselves into the shoes of the character and are imagining what they would say, or do to show they were angry. 

How Can You Help?

Writing in this way is still a relatively new concept to students so it is still tricky for some.  You can help by pointing out when an author is using a lot of action, dialogue, thinking or feeling as you are reading together.  Then ask your child how they could do something like it in their own story.  Another way you can help is by playing a "storytelling game" in which you story tell an event from your day with action, dialogue, thinking and feeling and then have your child do the same.  The more experience they have with this the better they are going to get!
 

Happy Storytelling!