This week in Language Arts...
All students have completed the beginning of year I Station assessment called ISIP. It tests the students to determine their current reading levels including fluency, comprehension, word analysis, and vocabulary. I use this information as well as a short one page reading baseline to get a starting point with your children. They will be tracking their own fluency to watch the improvement. It's always good to know where you are and have a goal in mind. Now that we are completing The First 20 Days of reading and writing (a district expectation for setting up procedures and systems) we will be moving into more of a mini lesson, followed by reading station set up. Students will be challenged at their own reading levels doing some work independently and some in a small group with me. Another district expectations is a portion of the reading class to be designated for independent reading. I use the time to oversee what your children are reading, watch their "reading behaviors" and listen to them read to me one at a time when I can assess fluency and comprehension. We will set personal reading goals this week and record them in our reading spirals.
Reading: Our unit of study this week deals with historical fiction while continuing to focus on character traits, and the 6 points of "Reading is Thinking." (predicting, connections, visualization, questioning, inferring, summarizing) Students will be writing their first reader response letters in class this week as well to reflect on these points within their own independent reading books or an historical fiction book.
Writing: This week students will be writing narratives based on a choice from one of the many "prewritings" we have written/collected since school began. We have built up to this point, working to determine the difference between a "watermelon" story and a "seed" story. Your child should be able to explain the difference. In addition, our grammatical focus this week includes nouns, verbs, nouns/subjects, verbs/predicates, and complete sentences. Our word work focus this week is their/there/they're and to/too/two.
Social Studies: We will be learning about and comparing the 4 main regions of Texas including their animals, plants, and climates. We will analyze maps of Texas to locate major cities and major rivers. We will set up notebooks this week and dive into Texas Studies Weekly newspapers (our current AISD adopted text).
Homework: EACH night students are expected to:
1. Read at least 20 minutes in a "just right" book.
2. Get agendas signed or initialed (the main communication between home and school)
3. Looking for extra practice? Any at-home or on-line practice with nouns, verbs, and capitalization is always appreciated. Try clicking on the Helpful Reading and Writing Sites button at the top of this page.