Language Arts: We are fine tuning some skills that we learned throughout the year. These are some skills that still give many students trouble from time to time. They include figurative language, context clues, and root words/affixes. I've developed 5 stations that are allowing students to work on these skills this week while sharing ideas with their peers. It's often learned better when kids get to talk to each other about what they are learning. I'm checking in with all of these groups as well as pulling some small groups to go over some test taking strategies in their areas of need in reading. On Mondays I'm sending a STAAR like reading assignment home. This week it is due Thursday. While I really want the kids to work independently, feel free to check in on them. I have a few kiddos who are not showing any strategies and guessing incorrectly on questions. They all have the necessary tools to locate information in a text and answer questions accurately. We are also going to be looking at perspective writing. Some of this will be serious and based on Texas History and some will be more fun and creative like writing from the point of view of a pencil.
Social Studies: We are learning about Texas as a frontier and how the the state got involved in the Civil War.