Week 26 Announcements

Parents, we only have 4 weeks until the Writing STAAR! With that in mind, our Reading block will only take up about 30-40 minutes of our day while we spend  more than an hour on writing skills and conventions each day. If something interesting happens when you are with your student, please have them write a narrative about it. If you get into an argument, have them try to persuade you using a Funky E expository format.

Writing:

This week, we will focus on words with silent letters, using apostrophes in position and contractions, as well as including I in a list of people (My mother and I). From this week forward, we will be writing two papers per week in class. The first half of this week, we will spend 2 days writing to the expository prompt: If you could have any class pet, what would it be and why. The narrative prompt for this week will be to write about a time when you were surprised.

Sight Words

Please remember that the sight words for the rest of the year will contain either prefixes or suffixes. This week, students will have sight words with the prefix: un- (which means not). To push your students even further, ask them to identify the ROOT word in the sentence.

Instructions: Please complete the following tasks with each sight word:

• write five times each
• write using stairstep spelling
• write each word in a sentence
• provide the meaning or definition for the word

exit	extend	exceed	explosion
explain	exercise	example	exhale
exclude

Reading

At this point in the year, our students have reviewed every major skill for reading. With the exception of a few mini-lessons from time to time, students will be completing spiral review activities, which means they will be asked to discuss and complete assignments on skills from different genres and texts. Two areas we need to improve upon are poetry and drama. Having students reading and interpreting poetry is huge, as well as being able to identify the role that certain characters play in screenplays and scripts. With the time for Reading being lowered each week, please make sure you are continuing to have students read at home.

Reading Logs

Parents, please make sure that you are checking students’ reading logs. Writing summaries of reading passages is a skill tested on STAAR. Students should write ONLY 4-5 sentences of what they’ve read, including the following important parts: a beginning, middle, end, conflict, and solution (if there is one). Students should only be writing a few sentences. The skill of summarizing is meant to recap what has happened while highlighting only the most important parts.

As always, if you need anything, please do not hesitate to call or text 2145173793

Week 25 Announcements (February 16-20)

Parents, students have worked very hard the last two weeks and taken three very important benchmarks. We only have 5 weeks until the Writing STAAR, which is on March 31st. Having your students writing at home for practice is extremely important.

Writing:

For the past 9 weeks, students have been practicing writing their expository writing. I am very proud of the amount of progress I’ve seen in those 9 weeks. This week, we will review how to write narratives. From this point forward, we will switch back and forth between narrative writing and expository writing, week by week. Students will be asked to write about a time when someone told them they did a good job!

Sight Words

Please remember that the sight words for the rest of the year will contain either prefixes or suffixes. This week, students will have sight words with the prefix: un- (which means not). To push your students even further, ask them to identify the ROOT word in the sentence.

Instructions: Please complete the following tasks with each sight word:

• write five times each
• write using stairstep spelling
• write each word in a sentence
• provide the meaning or definition for the word

unable	unused	unusual	unfriendly
unacceptable	unfair	unattractive	unbalanced
unaware	unfamiliar	unexpected	unlocked

Reading

This week in reading, students will be focusing on Main Idea in fiction. In order to figure out the main idea of a passage, students are asked to think about the conflicts in a story and how the main characters deal with those conflicts. It is important for students to understand why an event is important to the story as a whole.

Reading Logs

Parents, please make sure that you are checking students’ reading logs. Writing summaries of reading passages is a skill tested on STAAR. Students should write ONLY 4-5 sentences of what they’ve read, including the following important parts: a beginning, middle, end, conflict, and solution (if there is one). Students should only be writing a few sentences. The skill of summarizing is meant to recap what has happened while highlighting only the most important parts.

Week 24 Announcements (Writing Benchmark!)

Parents,

Last week students took two very important mock STAAR benchmarks--Math and Reading. This week, students will take the Writing benchmark on Wednesday.

The Week at a Glance!

Monday and Tuesday→ Students will be given the opportunity to track their reading scores from last week and see which skills they need to strengthen. For writing/revising and editing practice, students will review two passages on Revising and Editing, and we will discuss CUPS--a labeling strategy for revising and editing questions. In preparation for this week’s benchmark, talk with your students about the following topics: topic sentences, supporting details, concluding statements (final thought), MINTS, FANBOYS, rules of dialogue, etc. Students should be able to talk with you about each topic.

Wednesday→  Please remind students to only bring their lunch and two sharpened pencils on Wednesday, February 11th.

Thursday→  There will be a substitute in my class because all 4th grade teachers are required to use that day for grading the expository essay portion of the Revising and Editing Test.

Friday→ We will review our missed questions on the Revising and Editing, receive feedback on expository essays and celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Celebration: On Friday, February 13th, we will spend about 20-25 minutes of class celebrating Valentine’s day. Students will have the opportunity to exchange valentine’s cards and candy with other students. Parents (and students) are not required to provide anything for the class, but students are allowed to if they wish.  

We will resume homework as usual on February 16th, 2014.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please text, call or email.

Week 22 Announcements (January 26-30)

Parents, after reading through the announcements, please see the note regarding some added information.

Reading

This past week in Reading, students reviewed cause and effect, fact and opinion, and making inferences. Please encourage your son or daughter to talk about cause/effect relationships and fact vs. opinion in their daily conversation. Any time we can talk about an event and why it happened (cause/effect), students are able to learn more. Also, question them often on if a statement is a fact or an opinion. This week, students will be looking at nonfiction again. They will be asked to compare and contrast two similar passages. Students will also be asked to write appropriate summaries that include parts of the beginning, middle, end and the problem/solution.

Writing

Parents, last week we wrote an expository essay about our favorite activity to do outside. This week, we will write an argumentative expository paper on what the best class pet would be. Also, in conventions, we reviewed compound sentences, so always ask your students if they know how to combine two sentences using a FANBOY. This week, we will review topic sentences, thesis statements, supporting detail, concluding sentences, etc.

Sight Words

By this week, students should be familiar with the expectations. They need to write each word five times each, define each word, use each word in a sentence, and write the sight words using stairstep spelling. From now until STAAR, the sight words will have to do with prefixes, suffixes, and root words.

reapply	reflection	reacted	realized
reminded	reformed	rehydrate	rejection
repair	reschedule	replace	required

Parent-Teacher Conferences

After we take our February Benchmarks (Feb. 4--Reading and Feb. 11--Writing), I will be scheduling conferences with parents based on grades and what we need to do in order to prepare for the STAAR. Remember, if you ever want to meet otherwise, please feel free to call me.

Field Trip Fundraiser!

Parents, in the past 20 days, we’ve raised more than $200.00. People from Texas A&M University are donating surely but slowly, but remember that you and your friends/ family can donate as well. Check it out:

http://www.pledgecents.com/cause/cgpwts/college-visit-texas-am-university

Last Few Notes:

Parents, there are a couple of things that I would like to address regarding students being prepared. I’ve talked with the students about doing what it takes to be successful and what it makes to not make excuses. Please make sure that your son or daughter has writing utensils before coming to school. I only give pencils out every three weeks. Two pencils for three weeks is plenty of time. Also, from now own, when a student says they don’t have anything to write with, I am going to tell them to find a way to solve the problem. Some students decide to take a zero on an assignment rather than ask a friend, use a pen/marker. It is very important that we hold them responsible for their educational success.

Week 21 Announcements (January 21-24)

Reading:

Last week, we focused on three primary skills--making inferences, point of view (the students also know it as first vs. third person), and sequencing. Making inferences is a skill that is HUGE on the STAAR test. There are several making inferences questions throughout the STAARand it asks students to make an educated guess about a situation based on clues given in the text. We will continue to practice it throughout the year. Sequencing, takes a lot of patience, but students know of a solid strategy for how to approach it. This week, we will focus on changes that characters undergo, cause and effect, and fact/opinion. It is very important for students to be able to observe and understand the changes in a character’s behaviors, feelings and thoughts throughout a story. Continue to ask your students during everyday conversation about fact/opinion, cause/effect, sequence, etc.

Writing:

As the Writing STAAR approaches, we will continue to push harder on writing-specific skills. Last week we worked on transitional phrases and rules of dialogue, as well as parts of expository writing as part of the Revising test, such as topic sentences, supporting details, concluding statements (final thoughts). Your students should be able to articulate what these things are when you talk with them.

Sight Words:

This week, our sight words are commonly confused homophones. Knowing the differences between homophones is extremely important for the revising portion of the test. Make sure your student understands the differences.  Homophones  are words that sound the same in speech but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Monday→ write them five times each; Tuesday→ write them using stairstep spelling; Wednesday → define them; Thursday→ write them each in a sentence.

their	they’re	there	hear
here	our	hour	mourning
morning	you’re	your	wait
weight	piece	peace	tail
tale	wear	where

Field Trip Fundraiser

Parents, I know that many of your students have probably been mentioning a lot about the field trip. I will send out more information at a later date, but here are some essentials you probably want to know at this time. The field trip will not occur until AFTER STAAR. Depending on fundraising and a few other factors, it will occur in either late April or early May. The fundraising budget is $4,000.00. I am not asking you or students to help with raising money. There is no obligation to do so. I hope to raise money by reaching out to people I know within the school and community. However, if you would like to donate money, please feel more than willing to do so. If you want to try and get friends and family to donate, you can send them to the Pledgecents donation page where there is a video of your students chanting the classroom motto. If you have any questions about details of the trip, please feel free to shoot me a quick text and I’ll tell you what I have in mind.

Here’s the fundraising webpage: http://www.pledgecents.com/cause/cgpwts/college-visit-texas-am-university

Essay

This week’s Narrative Prompt:

Write about a time when you enjoyed completing an assignment in school.

 

Weekly Announcements (Week 20: January 12-16)

Parents, this is a very exciting time of year, and as STAAR approaches, we are going to be working extremely hard to prepare ourselves for that test. With that in mind, I definitely do not want to press the test as much as I press the skills necessary. Talking too much about STAAR can give students unneeded stress and test anxiety. I’ve seen it first-hand.

Reading

This week, we will work on the following reading strategies: point of view, sequencing, and making inferences. Point of view (or first vs. third person) is a skill that most students are very strong at, so it will be mostly reviewed this week. Sequences (order of events) is a skill most students grasp fairly easily, so this week will be mostly review. Point of View and Sequencing is a skill students can be doing on their own as they read books outside of school. Making inferences (using clues and what we already know to make an educated guess) is a big, very important skill and we’ll be working on it throughout the week.

Writing

This week, students will finish their Expository paper over what their favorite dessert is. When we’ve completed the paper, we will spend the rest of the week talking about topic sentences, supporting detail, and combining sentences as a skill tested on the Writing STAAR.

 A Note on Homework

Parents, please have students staple the sight word homework together. Also, this first week back was to test the water with essay homework. This week it will be taken for a grade. Please see the blog: goingplaceslife-school.blogspot.com if you need to see more detail on how that can be done. And please remember, if students do the sight word homework, they are likely to score a 100% on the quiz each Friday, which significantly boosts their overall class grade.

Field Trip Fundraiser

Parents, I am very excited to announce that this week marks the launch of our fundraiser to raise enough money to take students on a college visit. More information about this trip will come in the near future, but the trip will not take place until May, so our main goal right now is to be raising money. I have started a PledgeCents donor’s page where any person can help donate to the cause. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via text, call or email. I will be selling chips in class if the students would like to buy them. $1 per bag. I will also be doing some heavy footwork with my University because I’m betting once they hear about the trip they will be more than willing to fund it. The trip will be completely optional, but I’m hoping parents are supportive of the trip.

 

Website: http://www.pledgecents.com/cause/cgpwts/college-visit-texas-am-university

Parent Night This THURSDAY!

This Thursday, Life School Oak Cliff Elementary will host a health fair/open house for parent conferences. I believe it begins at 6:00pm, but I will send out more information soon, so stay posted.

 Sight Words!

This week, next week, and the rest of the year, we will be talking about how to transition between ideas in a paper. With that being said, it is very important for students to be able to identify, recognize, understand, and use transitional words and phrases in their own writing.

 

In addition,	Furthermore,	Also,	Besides,
By the way,	Similarly,	For example,	In fact,
In conclusion,	As a result,	Like I said before,	Therefore,

 

Like always, if you have any questions, please feel free to call, text or email. Be sure to follow what’s happening in the classroom at goingplaceslife-school.blogspot.com. Follow on Twitter @goingplaces303.

Mr. Miller

214-517-3793

 

Writing Narratives From Home

Parents,

As you may have noticed from reading the announcements, I have added essay homework for a writing homework grade each week. Our class often discusses why it is important to "raise the rigor" as the year progresses. With that said, it is important for students to increase the volume of writing. Studies show that, of the many practices out there, the volume of writing a student produces is the largest predictor of the quality of their writing. As we continue working on Expository writing in class, we will maintain and increase our strengths with Narratives at home. In this post, I've included several steps of the writing process, as well as student examples of great writing. Like always, please let me know if you have any questions!


Step 1: Brainstorming

In this stage, students are to make a list of potential paper ideas. Then, students make a bubble map of all the details that come to mind about each of those topics. This student has made a bubble map for each of possible ideas: going to Great Wolf Lodge, When her uncle took her to Washington DC to hear the President speak, and when her uncle gave her 20 dollars.

 



Step 1 Continued: Brainstorming

 

 

After choosing a topic, student should create a Five Senses Map, BME outline, and timeline of all the details from the paper topic. Below is an example of student who has decided to brainstorm about going to Great Wolf Lodge.

 

 

 

 

 

STEP 2: Rough Draft

 

After brainstorming, students are to use their brainstorming maps to help form 3 body paragraphs--beginning (or intro), middle, and end (conclusion). The purpose of the rough draft is to get the ideas on paper, and to have a BME structure that is identifiable by indentions at the beginning of each of the three paragraphs. Below is a student's rough draft about a time when they were thankful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steps 3&4: Revising and Editing

 

After writing a rough draft, students are to meet with a partner for Revising and Editing. Revising should be completed first, which is simply going through to see how students can make the paper better--combining sentences, using bigger and better words, adding details to support the paper's main idea, etc. After revising, students are to help one another Edit, which basically looking through the paper for mistakes--misspelled words, punctuation errors, capitalization errors, etc. Students are used to having a friend to help them with this process, but it is VERY IMPORTANT that students learn to both revise and edit for themselves. On STAAR, I highly recommend students taking a break between stages in the writing process. Their papers should look fairly sloppy. See Below.

 

 

 

Step 5: Publishing

 

After meeting with a partner, students should take all feedback from the meeting and create a FINAL draft. This is when students take their take with spelling, writing legibly, and coming up with last minute additions to their papers. Below is an example of a STAAR paper that scored a 3 out of 4. Notice how it focuses on one setting AND one activity.  It also has good details and answers the prompt, which was: Write about a time when someone told you that you did a good job.

 

 

 

In order for students to write at the level they need to be, going through each of the five steps of the writing process is critically important. Because what ends up happening on STAAR is students see the publishing paper and just start writing, which is nothing like what we do in class. They need to practice the entire process in order to be successful.