Mini Lessons

Our Daily Language was perfect for several mini lessons this morning! After using our editing marks to edit the following sentences and labeling the type of sentences (both declarative), we took the opportunity to develop some other grammar ideas.

First, Ms. Leom talked about quotation marks. According to her, quotation marks are speech bubbles that don't fit on a line in a novel, so writers "cut out" pieces of the speech bubble and place them before the first word someone says and after the punctuation mark of the last word they say. There is also a comma that represents the speech bubble itself. It made a lot of sense. Soon, she will have us USE quotation marks, and add to our understanding.

Next, she had a lesson about how when we write lists, we often write them vertically, or up and down. That doesn't work in a novel either, so writers will list names horizontally, going across, and use commas in between names. Without the commas, Jordan might be called "Jordan Grace Tyson Seth" - the student with four names!

We also learned that when writing in a list, you only use "and" before the last item in your list. If you used "and" between everything on your list, you would wear it out, and the reader/listener would get bored and stop listening.

Our last lesson was the "mint lesson". Ms. Leom had a BIG bag of spearmint Lifesavers. She opened it and put one in her mouth! Then she kept talking! Talk about rude!! As a class, we talked about when you have something, you should share it first (and not speak with something in your mouth). She talked about manners ("thank you" if you wanted one and "no thank you" if you don't want one), then passed them out. It turns out that serving yourself last is important in writing too! When you are talking about a group of people, and you are a part of that group, you should always name yourself last. This year, this idea is called the "mint lesson".

All of these are mini lessons. They are learning opportunities that open up and develop on the spot with little or no formal plan. They are important to our fourth grade learning and fit in the standards. These mini lessons, four lessons, within ten minutes out of our morning are difficult to "reteach" or send home when students are absent. Our entire day is filled with these opportunities. How they develop with one group may take more effort to share with the second class, but matter.

Just another mini lesson shared in our blog. :)