third grade, too

The suggested district curriculum materials for my middle levels (grades four through eight) of Language Arts do not address all of the District’s Reading Standards within those levels. [How/Why a district could strongly urge the use of a curriculum that does not meet most of the required Reading Standards,  I will never fully understand.] To address this discrepancy, I have elected to supplement the curriculum by doing a novel study on The Bridge to Terabithia. My novel study is being implemented on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I do not get reprimanded for straying from the curriculum.

I chose the book because #1. We had the novel set on site #2. The Bridge to Terabithia is positioned somewhere in the median of all my students' ability levels.  #3. Although there is the occasional use of the word “damn,” it does not contain questionably inappropriate content. #4. My curriculum coach has taught this book in the past, and had oodles of reference materials, lessons, and graphic organizers she was willing to share. I picked and chose what I wanted to use and put together these cutesy booklets, for each student, of everything we are going to be doing for the entire novel study (minus the tests). Working with the younger kids is fun because they appreciate when their materials are awesomely cheesy (campy).

As a parent and a fellow teacher, I was asked if I would also include Dena’ina School’s third grader in on my novel study. There are concerns for her because her Reading/Writing scores have slipped since the beginning of the school year. Since ALL of my students scores have improved drastically, working with me is hoped to improve this student’s scores as well. Of course, I obliged. I am flattered, actually. My ego aside, I also feel it will be beneficial for all my students having this youngling as an addition to our learning environment. My students' ability range is so assorted. On one end, I have an eleventh grader reading on a fourth grade level; and on the other end, I have a fifth grader reading at an eleventh grade level.

I now teach third grade, too. Which means, from 8:30-10:30 am every morning, I teach Language Arts to all of the students in Dena’ina School, except one. Thus far, this new situation has been great, and my third grader is a pleasure to have in class. I believe she also has a sense of pride in being able to do the same work as “the big kids.” Every day, she asks me how long she will be able to stay in my room.

Her enthusiasm is contagious; she is always eager to contribute to our book discussions. Her fluency is not dreadful, and she falls somewhere in the middle for the group read-aloud, only stumbling over tricky vocabulary once in awhile. I put up a Word Wall, and do new vocabulary activities to prepare my students for each new chapter, and any potentially difficult words they may encounter. Ideally, struggling students are also using the booklets I made to prep for their lessons.

Her grammar is excellent. During our last, whole-group, morning, warm-up, grammar activity, she corrected my high school students’ use of alot, instead of a lot. I could not help but beam a wide shit-eating grin. Being corrected by a third grader has a much greater impact than anything your teacher will ever say.