Ju...Ju...Jumanji!!

Here I am...sitting in front of the computer when I should be tackling my always growing to-do list but instead of attempting to further modify a unit assessment...I'm much more motivated to play around in blog-land. I have a half-hour before the Mister comes home from work and we snuggle in to watch Paranormal Activity 3. Staying up late on a school night...bad form, I know.

Today was a test of teaching flexibility and adjustments. One of my regular paraeducators was out today and unfortunately, my favorite of the two since she supports me during my Reading block and is phenomenal with my kids. Since having started my Chris Van Allsburg author study, I've modified some of my literacy center activities to support this unit and unfortunately, without my regular para support...I had to tweak my centers and later ammend my afternoon lesson. 

Not being familiar with the book Jumanji, my supported-writing center soon revealed that my students were retelling and summarizing wrong/inaccurate events. I realized this was partly due in fault to my own lack of over-planning (in the event of an absence/substitute) and a indicator that my students were still struggling to comprehend the basic story elements of 'Jumanji' as well as being unable to retell the story accurately.

So...this afternoon, I quickly shuffled some things around and dived further into Jumanji and completed a Before/After Reading worksheet I created. We defined instructions and why this word is important in the context of Jumanji looking at the events that unfold when Peter and Judy play the game. I highlighted the importance of reading ALL of the directions, how the word 'and' is crucial in Judy's winning the game, and the use of all capital letters in the game isntructions indicating important details. We took this a step further and analyzed the last two paragraphs identifying what Mrs. Budwing (Danny and Walter's mother) was really saying and the implications of such. With some role-playing and overly dramatic gesturing on my behalf, we made predictions about the future of Danny and Walter. Perhaps they'll leave the jungle for outer space? ;)

I sent my kiddos home with a Story Map worksheet and encouraged them to complete it as best they could. They've been consittently struggling with identifying problem and solution and I'm hoping with repeated practice and more and more examples, they will finally be able to recognize this story element in their future reading.  I am eager to see what information they retained from today's immersion in Jumanji and what may need to be revisited before we dive into Zathura. *fingers crossed*