Week 12 Announcements (October 27-31)

Parents,

Many of you may have been wondering why a lot of graded work has not been sent home over the recent weeks. I apologize for not communicating clearly about this. Beginning this week, students will only bring home graded work home if it is below a 70%. If the student scores below a 60%, it will be required as a REDO grade. If you would like to have blank copies of what we are reviewing in class each week, please reach out to me and I can send home a packet. Please know that any time I hand out something in class, we review and discuss it the same day so that students can see what the correct answer is and why.

 Reading

Last week we talked mostly about making inferences while we read. Towards the end of the week, we transitioned into Main Idea in fiction (which is what we will be covering this week). This is how we discussed it.

 

Main Idea can be found by asking these two questions:

• What is the text or story is mostly or mainly about?
• What is the author trying to tell or show the reader?

In order to draw conclusions about main idea, students have to find supporting details. Supporting details are the Most Important details in a story. Oftentimes, when discussing a story, students pull out the small details. We want them to look at the big picture by combining important events and details of a story. If you’re watching TV, reading a book, or listening to a song, be sure to ask your student, “What is main idea?” and “What do you think the main idea is in this ?”

 Writing

 

Last week we published our stories of a time we got in trouble. This week, we are going to look at how STAAR scores papers. STAAR scores papers on a 1-4 scale, with 1 being the lowest grade and 4 being the highest. This week we will review good student samples and talk about “must haves” in our writing. One day this week, as part of writing on demand, students will write a fictional scary story!

 

WRITING CONVENTIONS:

 

Last week we covered simple and compound sentences. We will continue creating compound sentences and move into dependent/independent clauses.

Sight Words

 

As writers, it is important to describe in detail when something is happening. With that in mind, we plan on introducing adverbs to help enhance the actions of stories! An adverb helps to describe how an action is being done. For example: Shelby finished her homework quickly! Remember parents that we will have to spell and use our sight words correctly in a sentence.

 

swiftly

nervously

politely

anxiously

reluctantly

loosely

courageously

recklessly

violently

Tutoring

 Parents, beginning this week, I will host tutoring sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays ONLY from 3:45pm to 4:45pm. I will only be allowed to have 4 students on each day, so I will contact students’ parents in regards to tutoring. If you are interested in tutoring, please contact me. I will no longer host tutoring sessions in the mornings, but if your student arrives before 7:15am, he or she can come up to the room to work on reading, writing, or any homework.

Bridging the Gap

 Like always, parents, if you ever need anything, please do not hesitate to call or text me at 214-517-3793. Remember to follow what’s happening on twitter @goingplaces303. Also, we have a classroom blog. Student work, updates and other info will be posted at http://goingplaceslife-school.blogspot.com.  

 

Staying in the Loop

 

Parents, please remember to join the remind101 group by texting @4b2n to (319) 774-3341.