This week in class, we are starting our first official unit.  The topic of this unit is Social Justice.  Information  pertaining to this unit can be found on my syllabus link.  As a class, we will read the text entitled, Inside Out and Back Again. Then students will have the opportunity to choose from several  titles in the classroom to read independently. 

 

This week we continued our reading of Inside Out and Back Again. We also completed the Fall NWEA benchmark testing. 

 

This week we continued our reading of Inside Out and Back Again.  We discussed symbols and how  powerful they are in writing. Our grammar focus this week was possessive nouns.  Lastly, we started to work on our next small research based writing piece.  Students will examine the difference between a refugee and an immigrant as this will tie into the book that we are currently reading.  Research will be provided by the teacher and an introductory overview of plagiarism, in-text citations and a works cited page will be explored. 

 

This  week we began our second writing piece. This piece will be based on research. Students will review note-taking strategies as well as practice how to avoid plagiarism.  We will also finish the book inside Out and Back Again this week. 

 

This week in  class, students self-selected their books for the remainder of the unit.  Students will continue reading for a varity of purposes while practicing what good readers do.  Students also turned in their first research-based writing piece this week.

 

Week of 10/24  

 

Students continue to read every day in class as  well as each night for homework.  We will begin work on our next mini-research-based writing piece  this week. Students will use the notes they took while gathering background knowledge to construct  this next short writing piece. We will also begin our study of  verbs this week.  

 

 

This  week we will continue our social justice unit and every student will have a one-on-one reading conference with the teacher on their reading. 

 

 

This is a short week, but we will be preparing for our end of the unit test during the two days of school. Students will recieve an outline to complete to prepare for their test. This outline will count for 10 points of their overall test grade.  In class, we will discuss a strategy for how to create an effective thematic statements.  A Powerpoint presentation will be used to guide our instruction and it will be posted in Classroom so that students can reference it  as they prepare for their test.  

 

 

This week we will finish up our Social Justice unit and we will begin our Personal Narrative Unit. Since unit 2 has a writing focus, students  will be asked to choose an independent novel of their own to read both in class  and  outside of class for homework. 

 

 

This week is a short week, but we still have a lot to do. We will continue to evaluate a  mentor text to learn about and identify elements of a personal narrative. We will also continue to study differnt homophones and their functions. 

 

 

Welcome back!! This week we will begin drafting our personal narratives. Students will also be reading self- selected books of their choice each day in class and every night for homework. 

 

This week we will finish up drafting our personal narratives.  We will also continue to practice  our weekly edits and build on our vocabulary by adding to our class word wall. 

 

 

This week we will revise and edit our personal narratives. Students will create title pages and final copies of their writing.  Students should have their independent novels completed by 12/12 & 12/13. On Monday and Tuesday, they will receive a choice board assessment to complete on the book they have just finished. Towards the end of the week, we will get ready to jump into our third unit which will focus on non-fiction reading. 

 

 

This week, we will continue getting ready  for  our non-fiction reading unit. We will do some immersion activities. Our grammar focus will be clauses.  We will begin and start choosing books for the unit after the winter break. 

 

Welcome back!!!  Happy New Year!  This week we will jump right back into our non-fiction unit. Students will be reading every  day in class for 30-45 minutes and self-selecting books on various topics from the book cart.  We will also be focusing on conjunctions and sentence variety.  Lastly, our vocabulary and editing practice will continue weekly. 

 

 

This week we will continue our study of sentence types.  We will also learn a new strategy for when we are reading non-fiction.  Our weekly edits and words of the week will also continue to help us hone our editing and vocabulary skills. 

 

 

This week will continue with our non-fiction reading unit. We will have our cumulative quiz on clauses, sentence types and conjuctions and we will begin the winter MAP assessment.  Students will work on an adjective self study packet as well.

 

This week in class we are wrapping up our non-fiction unit.  We are also continuing our study of adjectives.  MAP testing Day 2 will be on Tuesday and Wednesday for those students who need more time OR for those students who were absent. 

 

This week in class we are going to explore effective  public speaking while preparing presentations on a non-fiction topic of our choice.  Students will use the books they read during the non-fiction unit to determine their own personal topic.  We will also have an end of the unit notebook check.  Students will continue to expand their vocabulary and also practice their revising and editing skills. 

 

This week in class we will finish up any oral presentations that need to be completed. We will then prepare to go into the library to research by reviewing and practicing research skills we have already covered (in-text citations, works cited pages, etc.)  Students will also be introduced to databases and  how to evaluate a  website. 

 

 

 

This week in class we will be in the library on Monday and Tuesday gathering sources on our research topics. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will be back in the classroom engaging in independent reading, our Word of the Week, and that the sources have been gathered and accounted for correctly.  

 

We will be in the library on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Students will print their sources while we are in the library for the second day. The remainder of the  week we will be back in the  classroom to begin the note-taking process. 

 

This week we will begin the note-taking process. After note-taking,  students will begin drafting their presentations on paper.  Each student will conference with the teacher after completing their draft. After their conferences, students will begin creating their presentations on Google Slides.  Students will also continue  accumulating more vocabulary words and practicing their editing skills during their weekly edits. 

 

This week we will finish up the drafting process for the research presentations. Students will conference with the teacher 2 times to get feedback during the drafting process. Students will also be introduced to  the  last vocabulary word of  the trimester.  We will wrap up our study of commas in a final weekly edit which will be collected and graded. 

 

This week students will take their second word wall quiz of the year. It will include vocabulary from trimesters 1 & 2.  We will also review what makes and effective presentation and  students will practice their presentations in class.  Final presentations will take place during class o n 3/15, 3/16, 3/17 and 3/21. 

 

 

This week we began unit 5 which will focus on argumentative writing. We will use models, activities and other things to learn about the different parts of an argument. Our grammar focus this week will be adverbs while still enhancing our vocabulary with words of the week. We will also continue to practice our editing skills while working on an argumentative essay. 

 

This week we will continue our work on argumentative writing.  Our grammar focus continues to be adverbs and students will take an open note take-home quiz on Quia.  We are also continuing to enhance our vocabulary and practice our editing skills while working on an argumentative essay.