BYDS Students Gear Up for Young Authors' Day

While Young Authors' Day is still a couple of months off-Tuesday, April 17, to be precise [below is a selection of authors who have been booked for BYDS]-our writing program is stepping up in all our classes as students are learning many angles of authorship.  Some recent examples include some persuasive writing, research writing, short stories, personal narratives, and then there is an important type of writing we call "Text to Self," which is an approach drawn from  our Columbia University Readers and Writings Workshop curriculum.

The learning theory behind Text to Self is that prior knowledge (including experiences and emotions) is a major factor in students being able to comprehend what they read. Research also shows that students who are explicitly taught and use strategies that activate prior knowledge comprehend better than students who don't. The way it works is this: when a student reads a book, he/she will make connections to one's own experience. These connections can be drawn from the characters, the setting, the situation or conflict, the atmosphere, the mood-from any number of literary elements.

First Grade teacher Alexis Saperstein, for example, has posters in her classroom that list the many connections students are making.  After students make several connections, it is time to write about that.  One-to-one conferences then follow the draft writing phase, and this is where students gain confidence, gain a sense of their own authorship, and of course learn ways to expand and improve.

All of our students will have a number of writing samples over the course of the year-these are typically maintained in a student writing folder. When Young Authors' Day finally arrives, the students are intimately connected to the writing process, and the experience of being exposed to accomplished, professional writers becomes much more valuable and meaningful.

Here's a Young Authors' Day Primer

Look who's coming to BYDS!

Here are just three mini-bios of the many writers who will be coming to Beth Yeshurun Day School on April 17 for Young Authors' Day:

Mary Ann Rodman, from Alphretta, Georgia, has devoted most of her professional life to being a children's librarian. Her book, My Best Friend (2005) won the prestigious Charlotte Zolotow Award given to the author of the best picture book text.  Soon followed First Grade Stinks (2006), Yankee Girl (2006), Jimmy's Stars (2008), Surprise Group (2009), and A Tree for Emmy (2009).

Lincoln Peirce (pronounced "purse") lives in Portland, Maine, is a cartoonist-writer and the creator of the comic strip Big Nate, which appears in over 200 newspapers. Mr. Peirce has been creating characters since he was in the sixth grade-just like his character Nate Wright, who is eleven years old, and the all time record holder for detentions in school history. In addition to being a cartoonist, Mr. Peirce is currently working on animation and licensing projects as well as several animated pilots for the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

Adam Gidwitz, from Brooklyn, New York, likes to tell stories to children, particularly fairy tales, and then will weave stories of the writer's life in his responses to the questions posed by the children in the audience. Mr. Gidwitz teaches part time in addition to authoring his children's books. About his writing, Mr. Gidwitz says he hopes it will have the same impact as his teaching-which is to lead children to a deeper, more emotionally connected and integrated understanding of the world.

Yom Limmud Anti-Bullying Play

on Sunday at 2pm in Reiches Hall

Looking for something to do this Sunday with the kids?

A Yom Limmud special theater experience suitable for BYDS students will present an anti-bullying message to kids-performed by the actors of Houston's Dionysus Theater.

Dionysis is a theater group composed of individuals with and without disabilities, and their play, at 2pm on Sunday, in Reiches Hall, will be "True Confessions of a Bully,"   This is a wonderful opportunity for BYDS students to see this play right here on campus.  

Please send this in: 

February:

Monday, 20th: Presidents' Day NO BYDS/EDC/ASA

Tuesday, 21st: Spirit Dress Day

Wednesday, 22nd: Report Card Day-Free Dress Day

Thursday, 23rd: Celebrate Texas Day- Texas Wear

Friday, 24th: 3rd Grade Rosh Codesh, 8:00 in Freedman-Levit, Break in Stein Hall

Monday, February 27th: Grand Friends Day- ES 8:30am in Freedman Levit, EC 10:30 (CLICK FOR SCHEDULE),
Dress Uniform Required

Tuesday, 28th: Spirit Dress Day

BYDS Calendar Updates:

• 1st Grade Siddur Celebration has been rescheduled from Tuesday, March 13th to Thursday, March 15th.
• 'Young Authors' Day' has been rescheduled from Wednesday, April 18^th to Tuesday, April 17^th. 
•  Maccabi has been rescheduled from Friday, May 11^th to Friday, May 4^th
•  Friday, May 4^th  ,  Maccabi,  EC 11:30 dismissal, ES 12:00 dismissal, No EDC/ASA
• Friday, May 11^th , will be a regular school day.

Mazel Tov to Lydia and Benjamin Musher,

Talia Musher (Pre-K), and Avi Musher (2's) - on the birth

of Noah Ilan Musher on February 8, 2012.   

Tfillot

Yasher Koach to all students who lead the Tfillot this past week:

Chazzanim/Chazzaniot: Maya Zehavi, Avery Rubenstein, Peter Berry, Noah Berry, Sam Rosen, Harvey Gibbs

Torah readers:   Blake Myers, Alex Meltzer, Julia Leibman

Aliyot:Abbie Kleban, Mayah Pazgal, Daniel Johary

Gabbaim : Eliana Roisman, Jacob Trachtenberg

Kabbalat Shabbat

Yasher Koach to our Kabbalat Shabbat leaders this Friday:

Aria Jochnau, Sophie Kalmin, Ethan Katz, Judith Roisman, Alexa Schwartz

Mensch of the Week

Many of the students presented high values of kindness and entered to the Mensch Box: Josh Romero, Joshua Kaminsky, Spencer(2), Emma (2), Hayley Selzer, Zoe Tuchshnieder, Carolyn Kessler, Ella Trubek, Elizabeth Katz, Billy Berry, Brady Dow, Marisa Loev, Stevie Nates, Taya Kol
  

The winners of last week are:

Ryan Peleg- after school he found a notebook that another student left in the Reiches and returned it to her teacher

Sophie Sorkin- being a supportive friend to a friend who needed help

Cassidy Rubenstein- brought Mrs. B's walkie talkie to her carpool many days

Tzedakah

·         Thanks for the wonderful participation this past week. 100% Tzedakah was collected by 16 out of 16 classes grades K-5!

·         Thanks to Macarena Garfinkel and Moi Camhi for coordinating this weeks' project. 

Grandparents' Day

Click Here for Schedule

 CALL TO PARENTS

We need a copy of the Thanksgiving Broadway Program that the Elementary Kids did. Please contact, Robyn Burck at rburck@bethyeshurun.org if you have one that you can share.

Thank you in advance.