A Peek at my Week {Revolutionary War Role Plays, Point of View}

I know...I'm a day late to the party! Our ELA state tests were last week and after THAT, I felt like I needed to reside permanently in bed this weekend. I could have easily done that since my lovely husband passed strep throat to me (as well as my six year old daughter!).
We are already feeling better because we called in that antibiotic on Saturday as soon as I knew. It was nice that we didn't have to go to the doctor since someone in the household already had it. So, yet again, I'm having a bad week of blogging.:(
However, I took pictures on Friday with the intent of linking up with my sweet friend, Jennifer, from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly linky: 

I teach three ELA blocks a day and today was a pretty easy day as we finished up our novel, Can't You Make Them Behave King George? by Jean Fritz and took a test. 

Then the reading teacher and I conferenced with the students to set new Accelerated Point Goals for the last ten weeks of the year (YAY!) while they were at Daily 5 centers. 

We learned about first and third person point of view last week. I forgot to take individual pictures of a student notebook (I'll try to update this tomorrow) but here are some shots from my APPR binder of point of view notes. The interactive notebook chart is from Nicole Shelby's Reading Interactive Notebook.

 This is a point of view lesson from Readworks.

You can also see more about point of view in the lesson I shared here last year.

This week, we are using these Primary Sources of Famous People in American History found here at Rosen Publishing or here at Amazon. I have a collection on loan and had eleven different choices of people from the American Revolution. I have 15 or 16 students per section, so a few students in each class had to choose the same personality.

 The books are about a third grade reading level and my students could read them in about 15 minutes. I love that even my lower readers were engaged and many students raised their hands to have me come over so they could tell me a neat fact they learned. "Did you know Alexander Hamilton" was in a real life duel?" Tomorrow, they will take an AR test on their book. 

 Large print with colorful pictures

Last year, I had students research their Revolutionary War figure online, but I think I am going to like using these books better as a source. They have more than enough information that the students will need and it is at their level (or below). Next, I will have students write about their figure in the second person "You are Crispus Attucks." Here is a sample below and click here for the resource I used.

I will place students in groups and give them a "role" to play by handing them an essay written in second person. The group will then have the task of creating a script for a role play based on their Revolutionary War figures. We will work on this Tuesday and Wednesday and groups will present their role plays on Thursday. I will be out Wednesday grading ELA state tests regionally (not my own kids but grading probably one written response question ALL day from students ALL over the county!...yeah, NOT fun!). I will be sure to blog about the role plays soon and let you know how it goes this year!

Friday we have a 1/2 day with students in the morning and teacher's in-service in the afternoon. In the morning, we are having our ELA test is over "celebration" by watching Frozen and enjoying a cold treat! Students are also allowed to wear their pajamas to school (they cheered when they heard that!).

THEN...It is spring break for me until we go back on April 22nd!!! Wahoo! Four more days!

See you tomorrow for Tried It Tuesday! :)