Questions to ask your student:
Reading We continued our read-aloud of Flora & Ulysses this week, and students finished up reading their fantasy novels of choice. They began working on the culminating project of this unit, creating a food truck and menu that reflects their book. You can find the description and rubric for this project under the 'Reading Resources' tab. Writing Students wrapped up their newspaper articles, which are due on Tuesday, March 10th. They worked hard to highlight all of the fascinating things happening here at SK with concise, clear expository writing.
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Questions to ask your student this week:
Reading Students had time to read their fantasy novels on Monday. We also reviewed the requirements for our literary food truck festival, this unit's culminating project. You can find the rubric and project description under 'Reading Resources'. Writing Students worked on their newspaper contributions. We will be finishing these up next week, and then interested students will have a chance to turn it into a newspaper using Canva. Questions to ask your student this week:
Reading This week students continued reading their fantasy novels of choice. We talked about symbols and how they are often present in fantasy novels. We ended the week by introducing the culminating project for this unit, a Literary Food Truck Festival. You can find links to the project description and rubric under the 'Reading Resources' tab. Writing Students completed a 'pitch sheet', where they pitched three possible contributions to our student newspaper and explained why they would be topics our student population would be interested in. They then chose a topic and started writing it. Some students are choosing to include interviews with teachers and/or students, so we went over how to prepare for an interview and came up with questions ahead of time. These students also practiced how to write an email to a teacher asking to set up an interview time. Most students are choosing to work with a partner, and they'll be completing the first draft of their article next week. We're hoping to have an edition of the paper published in March! This week we continued reading fantasy books of choice, and practicing writing as journalists. Questions to ask your child:
Reading Students continued reading their fantasy novels of choice. On Wednesday we looked at how authors often present characters in one way, and then give readers new information so that gradually our perception of the character changes. We looked at how the movie Home Alone does this with the character of "Old Man Marley", and then students looked for complex characters in their own novels. We also continued our read aloud novel, Flora & Ulysses. Here is the second section of ELA cheesing it up and posing with their fantasy novels: Writing
Students practiced identifying and using complete and complex sentences. On Tuesday they chose a topic about Summers-Knoll and planned out an expository newspaper article. Topics included the composting program, the futsol team, and the Spinning Dot play production. In the next few weeks students will practice writing an editorial, and begin planning out the first issue of our school paper. Questions to ask your child this week:
Reading We started our fantasy unit this week. Students learned what makes a book fantasy, and we talked about the different subgenres within fantasy, and why it is such a popular genre with young people. I began reading Flora & Ulysses out loud, and students chose their own fantasy book to read. Writing We began a new unit focused on journalism and expository writing this week. Students learned about the different types of journalism, and how a news article is structured. They looked at an example on NEWSELA, a news site for young people. Later in the unit students will create their own newspaper for Summers-Knoll. Questions To Ask Your Child This Week
Reading: Students are wrapping up their second round of literature circles. They met in their groups on Friday to discuss what they've read, and either finished the book or set a goal to finish the book next week. We'll be starting our next unit soon, where students will choose a book within the fantasy genre to read. We'll be focusing on setting and plot structure as they read. Writing: We'll be starting our next big writing project, on expository writing, next week. During this interim week, students worked on a short creative writing piece and completed a grammar lesson on complete sentences vs. sentence fragments. We had a great week in ELA to start off the new year! I was really impressed with how quickly everyone jumped back into our routine.
Questions to Ask This Week
Reading Students continued reading their second book in literature circles. They met in their groups on Friday to set a new page goal for next week and distribute group roles for their next discussion. Writing Students finished their personal narratives on Thursday. The rubric for the assignment is here. They should be able to access them at home, so feel free to ask them to share with you. Reading:
This week, students got their new literature circle book assignments. Many students chose to take their books home over the break. We will have our first discussions on these books when we return in January. Writing: Students peer-reviewed their personal narratives with a partner. The peer review worksheet they used can be found here. They will be working on a final draft of their narrative when we return. I wish everyone a restful break, and I will see you in 2020! This week was incredibly productive! I was really impressed by how seriously everyone worked on both their literature circle one-pager and personal narrative. Reading Students met in their literature circles to finish their one-pagers on their books. Here are some photos of them finishing up on Friday: Writing
Students spent Tuesday and Thursday writing the first draft of their personal narrative. You can find the rubric for that assignment here. They will be peer reviewing with a partner next week, with the goal of having a final draft ready to publish before break. Questions to ask your child this week:
Reading Students began creating one-pagers for their literature circle books. They are working in groups to show the theme, setting, characters, and one important quote from their books. You can head over to the "Reading Resources" tab for more information on one-pagers. Writing On Tuesday students completed two planning documents for their personal narratives. On Thursday they used all of their planning to begin their rough draft. All of the planning documents and the personal narrative rubric are available under the "Writing Resources" tab. |
AuthorLauren Yavor teaches ELA with a reader's and writer's workshop format to SK 5th and 6th graders. Archives
March 2020
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