This week in Language Arts: We are working on our conclusions for our expository as well as all revising techniques and editing strategies. Final copies for this expository will be due this Friday. The students are given plenty of time in class. Should your child be falling behind, I may send it home with him/her to continue working at home. In addition, our mini lessons include they're/there/their (I gave a pretest Monday), homophones (we will be compiling a list of the pairs that we know), and spelling with the -le pattern at the end of the word.
Students are finishing up station work this week. You may see some grades lower than you expect. This is due to NOT following directions at the station. I'm really cracking down on this. After multiple reminders and examples, I told the students that I would not remind them as they turn in the work if they are missing something. It's a natural consequence. This week's focus is back to informational non-fiction which could cover any topic, including biographies. This is not a new TEK. What WILL be new is understanding how to read 2 passages about the same topic and answer questions that compare the two. We will begin by doing this together as I model. FYI... When I model, I mark my passages up. Your students should be doing the same. It's been proven to result in higher scores on assignments and tests, as students are able to immediately prove their answers and KNOW they are correct. It eliminates guessing.
Any free time this week will be dedicated to working on an independent study on Civil Rights (people and events.) The students are accessing MyOn and NewsELA to read designated books and articles I have selected.
In Social Studies, part of the time will be focused around the independent study. Other times we will begin to learn about the Mission system in Texas, which were the first land holds for the Spanish in Texas.
Don't forget that your child should be reading EVERY night for at least 20 minutes. Writing warm up homework (2 pages) is due every Friday.