What We Learned This Week
We concluded the first quarter! Students were challenged to come up with specific goals for each key subject area. I will share these with you during conferences. Students were encouraged to write down achievable and specific goals.
I am very pleased with the class' progress in general. However, the class needs to develop focus, perseverance, and engagement. These are great words for home discussion. The majority of questions missed on this week's end of quarter assessments were the result of not reading questions carefully or rushing, rather than not knowing the content.
Word Study
I conducted the Developmental Spelling Assessment, which I will share with you during our upcoming fall conferences. This detailed assessment identifies specific spelling features such as r-controlled vowels, long vowels (VCe), and doubling.
Reading Workshop
We continued to study character change over time and providing evidence. I assessed students' ability to correctly identify the main idea of a short passage and to differentiate between the main idea and supporting details. I also conducted the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) on all students who were below or close to our first quarter benchmark to look for growth. I am very pleased with students' progress.
Writing Workshop
Students learned the parts of a friendly letter: heading, greeting, opening, closing, and signature. See if your student can demonstrate this for you. Many students are struggling with convention (primarily indenting, capitalizing the first word in a sentence and proper nouns, and ending punctuation). Their content is generally very good. Students published their pen pal letters and we mailed them to London today.
Math Workshop
I reviewed and assessed fact fluency (addition and subtraction) and all of the numeracy and operations and algebraic equations content we have learned thus far this year.
We started multiplication and division fact fluency on Thursday. I am sending home students' addition and subtraction fact fluency assessments today. If your student correctly answered fewer than 23 in the time allowed, they have not mastered their facts and should practice them nightly. I will offer study strategies during fall conferences. Prior to meeting, students should be using the following strategies, which allow them to focus on an "anchor" number that will support their recall:
- zero more
- one more
- two more
- doubles
- near doubles
- sums to ten
- 7s, 8s, and 9s/build tens
Science
We continued to study biotic and abiotic factors as well as plant and animal interdependence. Students should know that plants produce oxygen and food for animals and animals produce carbon dioxide and nutrients for plants.
Important Dates and Reminders
I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.
October 19 - No School Teacher Grading Day
October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
October 29 - UA Trick or Treat Night
October 30 - Halloween Party and Parade
November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3
November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 5 - Picture Retakes
November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
November 19 - Thompson Park Tree Trek (Please let me know if you can chaperon.)
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break
December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break
January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18 - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit
March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day
April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment
May 27 - Last Day of School for Students
No comments:
Post a Comment