After some serious SSR, we continued our reading of Speak. We added to our list of signs that something is going wrong with our main character, Melinda. We found the following:
-Melinda is pushed in the hallways
-Melinda's books are pushed out of her arms
-Melinda continues to self-mutilate
-Melinda's parents are almost absent (no communication)
After reading, we each drew a Words Rock! vocabulary word out of the purple felt bag. You needed to take your word and create an operational definition of your word. This means that you could consult the dictionary if necessary, but otherwise the definition you write on your card would be in your own words. Also, you needed to provide an example of this term that relates to the book or to your life. For instance, if I had the word "exist", I could relate this word to the book by saying that Melinda does not feel like she exists sometimes because her parents and old friends do not pay any attention to her.
We're going to do some more work with these cards as we read the book. We're also going to add more vocabulary words to our Words Rock! collection as we go.
We were also lucky enough to have a special guest visitor in today's class, Ms. Petroska, who's going to be doing her practicum teaching with us. Welcome, Ms. Petroska!
