Higher Thinking

A big part of our fourth grade year is working on higher thinking and digging deep for answers. We begin working on this by doing the Weekly Readers on a regular basis with extended questions. The past couple of weeks, I have been working with my class on not just giving the quick off the top of your head answer but actually digging deep for the answers and finding prove for the answer choices. This week's Friday Folder will include last week's Weekly Reader. Many of the grades are not what we would want to see from these students. There were many that did not meet that passing standard that should have. A great majority of these students were finished with the Weekly Reader very quickly and although, I stressed to them how afraid I was that they had done them too quickly, they would not go back and read through and prove the answers. I discussed this with them when I gave the graded papers back to them to file for the Friday Folders. I ask that parents encourage your child to find the proof for the answer and really dig into the story. They have the opportunity to correct the assignment for a higher grade. It is very important that we work on deeper thinking in preparation for the spring TAKS test.