Dear families,
This post pertains to 5th graders who have me as their TAG reading teacher first block in the mornings.
We are reading nonfiction books right now. We are sharing a few *excellent* books written by Jim Murphy: Blizzard, A Young Patriot, and The Great Fire – all narrative nonfiction accounts of some major events in US history.
Students have completed one of the books and have written summaries independently and collaboratively, and just today they began their second of the three books. I have shared a document with them on Google Classroom that is a template for taking notes, although some students said they would prefer to write notes on post-its, which is also fine. I am asking them this time to succinctly state the main idea of each chapter in one sentence, as well as to find and define 5 new words in each chapter. These books are a treasure trove of amazing new vocabulary for the students, so I am sure they will find many more than 5 words! I have attached a Word document version of the note-taking template I created (meant to be filled out online) for your information.
I am asking students to read over the weekends, but only about 25 pages for the entire weekend – per the ACPS reading policy that students read every day, including over the weekend. I know your lives are busy, though, so we are working flexibly around busy travel schedules!
I encourage you to look at the book with your child and discuss the main events – these books are written at a high level and they are challenging for the students!
As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. Thank you for your continued support!