Week of February 24- This week students will be demonstrating their knowledge of our guided reading books and their ability to support their inferences with evidence from the text. This is a great opportunity to show all the hard work they have put in with the guided reading the last month. We will write on Monday, Tuesday is career day, Wednesday will be revision and editing. Our "Celebration of Academic Excellence" will occur on Friday of this week. We will celebrate our 106 average growth in lexile to date this year (two years growth in one half a year).
Week of February 17- On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will have our final guided reading meetings. Students will be given their constructed response writing questions on Wednesday. Each group will have two questions to choose from. On Thursday and Friday, students will be completed graphic organizers to prepare for the writing assignment. Homework on Wednesday will be to determine which question will be answered. This will allow for two full class periods to complete the pre-writing before actually writing the assignment on Monday and Wednesday of next week.
Week of February 10- Students will continue to meet in guided reading groups and to read their self-selected reading books. Students will self-assess their work for the final two guided reading meetings. This will encourage responsibility and awareness of how to assess work.
Week of February 3- Students will continue to meet in guided reading groups and to read their self-selected reading books. Students will self-assess their work for the final two guided reading meetings. This will encourage responsibility and awareness of how to assess work.
Week of January 27- Students will meet in guided reading groups. We will review the questions from meeting 1 and discuss broad ideas and specific details from each reading section. Assessments of this work will be summative. On Friday we will take word wall quiz 3, also a summative assessment.
Week of January 20- Students will meet in groups and receive their initial reading assignment. They will be reading the first quarter of the book and answering questions in their guided reading folders. The results for the Reading Inventory were strong. The average score for the class was 1153, which is a 106 point growth this year. Expected growth for the full year is 40, our class goal is 160. Since this is our second round of guided reading, meeting participation, reading completion and note preparation will be summative assessments this time. The class will also be presented with a new list of 10 word wall words. All re-do work must be completely finished by this Friday for inclusion in the third quarter grades. As always, I am happy to continue working with any student who would like to continue to pursue mastery of a target, irrespective of the impact on the grade.
Week of January 13- On Monday we will be taking our mid-year reading assessment. On Tuesday we will visit the library and make selections for our second guided reading unit (historical fiction/personal narrative). On Wednesday the book will be distributed to students, on Thursday we will make guided reading folders and on Friday we will review the expectations for guided reading behavior.
Week of January 6- We will be wrapping up our unit on grammar looking at punctuation of phrases and clauses. On Friday we will be concluding the unit with our summative assessment.
Week of December 16- This week we will be studying phrases and clauses paying special attention to dependent and independent clauses.
Week of December 9- This week we will review nouns and verbs in preparation for our unit on phrases and clauses.
Week of December 2- We will wrap up the mystery writing on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday will be independent reading time. On Thursday we will spend time studying our word wall list and then complete a formative assessment. Friday will be our celebration of academic excellence.
Week of November 25- On Monday and Tuesday, students will be working on their mystery short stories. Wednesday through Friday is Thanksgiving break.
Week of November 18- We had great results on the RI, reaching our mid-year goal early. We ended the week with our two day end of the mystery book writing assignment. On Monday of this week I will be collecting the guided reading novels. Students who were absent for one of the days of the writing may use this as make up time while the rest of the class reads. On Tuesday we will visit the library for the annual book sale. Wednesday will be dedicated to word wall list 2. On Thursday we will start a creative writing mystery project. This will continue through Friday and into next week.
Week of November 11- The week will start with the end of the first quarter RI. On Tuesday we will start our short guided reading reading writing. Wednesday we will visit the library and Thursday we will wrap up the short writing assignment.
Week of November 4- This week we will be working to complete our guided reading mystery novels. We will also have a summative assessment on the characteristics/terms related to the mystery genre.
Week of October 28- All grades have been posted for the summative guided reading meeting. Most students did a great job. For the most part, lower scores were a result of missing or incomplete assignments. It wold be a great idea for students who did not get a B or better on this work to re-do the work. Students will have until the end of the week to complete the re-do process. As always, I am available every day at lunch for additional support or help.
Week of October 21- Week 2 of the guided reading groups. For our second meeting, I will be using the note preparation as an opportunity for a summative assessment. Students should be answering the questions for each reading section using evidence from the text to support their claims. By the end of the week, we will be about halfway through each book. Students are assigned a book to take home in case they are unable to finish the work in class.
Week of October 14- This week we will be meeting in guided reading groups. Students will be reading the first quarter of their books and responding to written questions. They will bring their responses to our meeting to support their conversation around the text.
Week of October 7- We will be fully engaged in the mystery guided reading unit this week. On Monday, we will review the mystery terms. These will take the place of our word wall work for the next couple of weeks. On Tuesday guided reading books will be distributed. Wednesday will be a review of the behavioral expectations for guided reading. On Thursday students will receive their initial assignments for the guided reading book. Friday will be time to work on those assignments, and meet with me as needed, before next week's meetings.
Week of September 30- This week will see our first two summative assessments. On Tuesday students will complete an assessment on how to summarize a text using the SWBS method (Somebody, Wanted, But, So). On Wednesday we will have our first word wall quiz for the year. By Thursday students will have received feedback on this work and I will review the process for re-doing any assignments where the target was not met. On Friday I will review the titles for the book and ask the students to indicate which book they would prefer to be placed in.
Week of September 23- Ths week we will dive fully into our independent reading unit. We will work on the target "I can write an objective summary" and begin to introduce story elements . This will prepare students for a deeper analysis of texts as we launch into the mystery unit. We will also begin word wall study in earnest this week with a formative assessment on the first word wall list.
Week of September 16- The goals this week are to finalize our classroom expectations. These are essentially our "classroom rules". Involving the students in this process takes a few extra class periods, but it gives us a chance to dive in deeply to the concept of respect and helps set us up for learning for the rest of the year. With the basis set for a commitment to respect and creating a positive learning environment, we will move forward with an independent reading unit. Independent reading forms the basis for our balanced literary guided reading format. The main goal over the next couple of weeks is to make sure students know our practices and routines and what needs to happen for independent reading to be valuable. After a couple of weeks I will add the guided reading groups to this format.
Week of September 9- This week we will continue to tick off the start of year required assessments. Much more importantly, we will continue to work through establishing our class expectations working through the lens of respect. Near the end of the week, we will begin to work in our independent reading unit.
Week of September 2- Welcome back! This first week will be about re-acclimating (great vocabulary word!) to the school. Basically, we are getting our feet back underneath us (figurative language!). We'll be attending a library orientation, reviewing the syllabus, and spending a couple of days on an activity on how to make sure we have a respectful classroom culture.
A Note on Learning: Learning is not completed when an assignment is turned in. Almost every assignment can (and should) be re-worked if a student did not achieve the learning target (4/4) for a particular assignment. Simply complete the re-do request form and talk to me to set up a re-do schedule. A note on absences: When a student is absent and an assignment is missed, that assignment is listed as a "0" with a note in powerschool that the student was absent. The work should be turned in and it will receive full credit. Recording a "0" is intended to highlight the need to complete the missing work. A Note Regarding Homework: The majority of the work from ELA should be completed in class. However, as students work to develop strong study skills, they should be working on improving their reading and writing every week night. This should first consist of completing any work not done in class, followed by word wall study, review of already completed work that has not been turned in and finally independent reading.
Week of 5.22- This week we will be focusing on writing about the book Witness. Students will be given an opportunity to write about the book in a way they choose. This is a chance to show that they can independently think critically about the book and also support their claims with evidence. We will write on Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday we will got the media center. Monday is our "Celebration of Excellence" to acknowledge the great growth in reading scores we have seen this year. Friday I will assign books for our next guided reading unit.
Week of 5.15- M-Step testing will wrap this week with testing on Tuesday and Wednesday. The students did a great job of rising to the challenge of the state testing. Many students worked three plus hours on the ELA test. Their pride in their work and school shone through. This week we will be reading a book called "Witness". It is a story of a small town's response to the KKK's attempts to spread their message. The book is written as a hybrid of a verse novel and a play. Students will select parts to read. We will read the book aloud as a class. Our goal will be to finish the book this week and write a brief response essay early next week.
Week of 5.08- M-Step testing will begin this week. On Monday, we will look at the tools on the test and make sure everyone is relaxed and calm when the test comes along. Our work all year (and in previous years) has prepared us to do well. We will also begin reading Witness, a verse novel written in a semi-play format. This will allow students to take on the role of certain characters and read aloud. This is a "fun" way to experience the book. This will be a light week in regard to the amount of ELA work as I will most likely only see each class two or three times this week.
Week of 5.01- This week will focus on clauses and phrases. The focus will be on identifying subordinating and independent clauses in order to support proper punctuation. We will use videos, lectures, class work, work sheets and discussion to accomplish this.
Week of 4.10- This week will be focused on wrapping up our study of academic language words. These are words that are often seen in "academic" situations. Although educators often assume students know these words, often the students have only a partial understanding. They are the "mortar" words that act to hold the "bricks" steady in the "wall of knowledge".
Week of 4.03- Spring Break
Week of 3.27- This week we will complete the research based persuasive essay. Students will write the counter point and refute it, they will add the bibliography and be sure to properly cite their sources. We will also be finishing up the Academic Language unit.
Week of 3.20- Over the next two weeks we will write the research based persuasive essay in a step by step process. Each day will include an overview lesson and an opportunity for students to work on their paper. It is very important that students keep up with the work on a day to day basis. I will be providing feedback on the papers as we move through the work. Week of 3.13- This week we will be spending time learning the research tools that are available to the students through the media center. We will then spend two days conducting research on out topics and a day examining an exemplar persuasive essay. This will lead us into writing a persuasive essay over the next two weeks.
Week of 3.06- This week we will be building on our grammar work. We started with nouns and verbs and will be moving to subject and predicate (Monday). On Thursday we will add conjunctions. Tuesday will feature word wall work on twenty new words. There will be no class on Wednesday due to career day. On Friday we will visit the library to select books.
Week of 2.27- This week will be focused on writing the guided reading response essays. Monday will be a second full day dedicated to organizing and pre-writing using the organizers. Tuesday and Wednesday will be dedicated to writing the papers. This is an in-class assignment. Students should be able to demonstrate the ability to complete this work in the time allocated.
Week of 2.20- The focus this week is on the all important target "I can cite textual evidence that strongly supports my inferences". This will be assessed in a two page essay on the guided reading books we have been completing. This week we will spend Wednesday and Thursday preparing to write the essay. On Tuesday we will play "word wall basketball" to prepare for Friday's mid-year word wall quiz covering all the words we have had thus far this year.
Week of 2.13- This is the final week of our guided reading. Our major target for the unit is "I can cite textual evidence that supports my inferences." Within this context we are further focusing on symbolism.
This week is also the kick off our "Word Wall Basketball" tournament, a fun and engaging way to review our word wall words. The mid-year review quiz will be Friday, February 24.
Week of 02.06- This is the penultimate week reading our personal narrative books. By the end of next week we will begin our "critical analysis" of the books we are reading. It is very important that students take full and complete notes and explain their answers to questions in writing. These notes will be used to support the final writing assessment for the guided reading books.
Week of 01.30- We are approaching the mid-point of our personal narrative guided reading unit. The main focus for this unit is symbolism. We are working on being clear in our writing and describing symbolism by providing a background and clear explanation of the thinking behind the symbol. This week will end with a word wall quiz.
Week of 1.23- We will be continuing our work in guided reading. We will also have our final words for the first word wall "story" (Humaliens). Students should also be keeping an eye on the upcoming word wall assessment where they will be responsible for showing their knowledge of all the word wall words we have had this year. The quarter comes to an end on Friday. Any re-dos or missing assignments will need to be taken care of by then.
Week of 01.16- This will be an abbreviated week. No-school on Monday or Tuesday. On Wednesday students will make their word wall folders. Wednesday and Thursday will also be the initial reading group meetings for our historical fiction guided reading unit. Friday will be our word wall quiz.
Week of 01.09- This week we will continue to study nouns and verbs while also spending time on our word wall list. Some time will be dedicated to silent independent reading in specific preparation for the mid-year reading inventory assessment.
Week of 01.02- Break
Week of 12.26- Break
Week of 12.19 This week we will be stepping into grammar. This will include a review of nouns and verbs, subjects and predicates, and what makes a complete sentence. This will set the basis for our work on phrases and clauses later in the year. We will be visiting the library on Monday with a plan to get enough books to last three weeks. Thursday will be word wall quiz 5. Break begins at the end of the day Thursday.
Week of 12.12 Monday will be the fourth word wall quiz. Studetns will also prepare for a persuasive essay drawn from the students work in science class on the "Nile Carp". Students will be writing the essay on Tuesday. The skills we focused on last week in regards to assessing their work and preparing for an essay will be very helpful. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we will work on writing a personal narrative. We will conclude this project next week.
Week of 12. 05 On Monday we will be looking at examples of persuassive essays and using the rubric to score these essays. This will get students ready to begin writing their own persuassive essays. On Tuesday, students will be given the entire class period to write a rough draft of their essay while using the rubric. Wednesday students will practice both self-assessment and peer-assessment. On Thursday we will take a word wall pre-quiz and on Friday we will begin preparation for next week's work on writing about a topic from Science class. Re-do work for the mystery writing essay is due on Friday. Students will indicate that they have completed their re-work and would like it to be re-graded by turning in the completed re-do request form.
Week of 11.28 On Monday of this week we will visit the library and read the selected books. On Tuesday, we will study word wall list #4. On Wednesday and Thursday we will prep for a quick presuassive essay by diving into the idea of a "mandatory service year". We will view some videos of people who have served, we will read two selections on the pros and cons of service, and then we will have class discussions around the idea. On Friday, we will do pre-writing through a number of class discussions.
Week of 11.21 This week is an abbreviated week. On Monday, students will study the next set of word wall words. Tuesday will be silent in class reading. There is no school on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Week of 11.14 This week we will be working on creating a short mystery story. Students will be randomly assigned a mystery, a culprit and a red herring and will create a mystery story around these elements. We will conclude the week with students reading their mystery stories for the class.
Week of 11.06 We are starting a new quarter this week. Last week, we finished our guided reading meetings and we will be moving into writing our final assessment of our reading. Students will be writing a summary, analysis and they will examine the mystery elements found in their books. We started preparing on Thursday of last week and we will continue through Monday. After election day on Tuesday, we will write in class on Wednesday and Thursday. The assessment is designed to be completed in class, however students may work at home if they decide that would help them keep up. We will end the week, and our mystery unit, with a fun "mystery" project. Week of 10.31 On Monday and Tuesday we will be conducting our final guided reading group for the mystery novels. Also, the mystery self selected reading "Elements of a Mystery" worksheet is due. Students will be using this sheet and their guided reading notes to prepare a paper comparing the elements of each book. Wednesday and Thursday will be dedicated to preparing for this work. Friday will be the end of quarter "SRI" assessment. As the quarter is coming to an end, any re-do work that students would like to be counted on the first quarter grades needs to be completed by Friday, therefore the re-do requests must be turned in to me by Tuesday.
Week of 10.24 The goal this week is to finish our guided reading mystery novels as well as the mystery self selected reading books. Next week, we will move into a major writing assignment based on these books. Students will be encouraged to use their notes on the paper, so it is important that notes are prepared well for each meeting. The self selected mystery book "element analysis sheet" is due Friday. Scores for the quizzes from Friday (word wall quiz and mystery elements quiz) will be posted on Monday. Please take a look at these scores. If your student did not earn the score they wanted, please request a re-do. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns. Week of 10.17 This week we will be focused on reading our two mystery novels, both the guided reading novel and the self selected mystery novel. Students will be meeting with me on multiple occasions in small groups as well as documenting their reading on the self-selected novel. On Friday, students will complete two quizzes, word wall list 3 and the mystery terms quiz. These grades will be "turned on". The fifth group meeting grades will also be "turned on". The date of the fifth meeting for students will vary depending on their group.
Week of 10.10 We are continuing with guided reading meetings. We are reading mystery books in guided reading groups and students are reading mystery books they have selected from the media center (or elsewhere). The overall focus of guided reading will be on supporting claims or inferences with evidence from the text. Other work will be designed to support the goal of developing this important skill. Students have been given a "worksheet" to support their analysis of their self selected reading book. This will serve as an important resource when they write their final paper for the mystery unit. This will be complete over the next two weeks as they work through their self-selected reading book. This week will end with two pre-quizzes, word wall list 3 and mystery terms. Grades will be entered for these quizzes, but they will not be turned on. The final quizzes will be given next Friday. Any score less than a 4 will indicate the student still has some work to do. All re-do work for Word Wall list 1 and 2 must be completed by Friday, October 14.
Week of 10.03 We are well into guided reading. Students will meet with me once or twice a week with their groups. Students will receive a written assignment to support each reading assignment. They will be given extensive time in class to complete the assigned work, however they do have a book assigned to them so that they can take it home as needed to complete work. Students will participate in small group meeting and will be encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas regarding each reading section they complete. Word wall quiz grades were posted on Friday. The make up quiz day is a week from Friday (Oct 14). Students should be checking power school regularly to keep up with grades and feed-back, not only in this class but in all their classes.
Week of 09.26 This week we will step into our mystery guided reading unit. Students will be placed in small groups where they will come together to discuss their mystery guided reading book. We will have a word wall pre-quiz on Monday and a final quiz on Thursday. Students will be reading both guided reading (mystery) books and a book they select themselves. We will also be visiting the library this week.
Week of 09.19 This week will begin with a pre-assessment on "talking to the text" to measure a students' understanding of both a fiction and non-fiction text. We will then write a brief response paper examining character traits, before ending the week by with a lesson on writing brief summaries. We will also continue to acquire new word wall words. We will end the week by taking a look at the elements of the mystery genre.
Week of 09.12 This week we will be continuing to focus on being "ready to learn". We will also be focusing on introducing the practices of the reading workshop. Students will read and work from a self-selected reading book. On Friday we will be taking the start of the year standardized reading assessment. We will be reviewing the reading strategy of connections and also examining character traits and continuing to add to our "word wall" list.
Week of 09.05 This week will be focused on getting students settled in. The main focus for ELA will be learning to start class "ready to learn". We will review expectations for the class, the assessment philosophy and creating a respectful classroom. The work that will be used to accomplish these goals will be a list one of our word wall list. We will practice these words and there will be a "pre-quiz" on Tuesday, the 14th.