Category Archives: TAG Writing 4/5

TAG and 5th Writing: Big news!

Dear parents,

this post relates to all students who have me as their writing teacher, TAG 4th/5th AND 5th grade writing 4th block.

As of today, students have just been introduced to and have logged in for the first time to their very own learning blog! They are beginning to customize their blogs by changing the theme. As the rest of the year progresses (and into next year, for 4th graders) they will be able to use their blog as a public place to post their writing and reflections of their learning.

You can find your child’s blog by going to this website and finding your child’s name along the right hand side. Their name links to their blog!

I encourage you to have your child show you how to log in to their blog and what they anticipate using it for. Please, as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

TAG 4/5 Writing Update

Dear families,

this post relates to the 2nd block 4th/5th grade TAG Writing class.

This week students are beginning to build drafts of their research essays. Due to scheduling constraints, for the weeks of April 11-15 and 18-22 our class time will be used for math review to help all students prepare for their math SOL tests. This means that we will be pausing on our research projects for those two weeks. Please encourage your child to continue writing on his/her own for those two weeks. More info and ideas will be forthcoming at the end of the week.

Ms. Brannigan came today, and she has given the students a few assignments that will be due on Tuesday, April 26, and they are described below.

  1. Create 7 Wordles, one for each of the terms below.
    1. There should be a wordle for each of: subject, predicate, noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, preposition
    2. Each wordle should have:
      1. A definition for that term, with each word separated by hyphens (-)
      2. 15-20 examples of that term
  2. Write 6 sentences from your reading each week.
    1. I will provide students a template that they can use to write the sentences from their reading (they don’t have it yet but I’ll give it to them tomorrow)
    2. Separate and label the subject and predicate in each sentence
    3. Identify the part of speech that each word in the sentence is (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection)

She also asked the students to think about a grammar story that she’ll have them write after the 26th. Students will be writing a story using the different parts of speech as the “characters”, so she has asked the students to start brainstorming for the theme they would like to use for their stories.

Thank you for all your support! As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Exciting Writing Opportunities

Hi families,

This post is for any and all of my students!

There are a few writing opportunities of which I have recently been made aware that I have been meaning to share with you. I apologize for not sending this out much sooner!

  • ACPS poetry contest! Students are encouraged to participate in the ACPS poetry contest – they may write a poem in any form, but may only write on one side of the page that they use. Students should turn submissions in to me by Wednesday, March 16
  • Northern VA Writing Project Saturday Workshops: There have been a few that I neglected to write to you about in time, but there is one coming up on Saturday, April 2 at the GMU Fairfax Campus. 9:00a-1:00p; $70 for new students, $65 for returning. More info/register online
  •  Northern VA Writing Project Summer Institute: July 11-22 (M-F only), 9:00a-1:00 p at GMU Fairfax Campus. Application deadline March 30. More info/apply online

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks to Ms. Sangare for the heads-up about the Northern VA Writing Project events!

TAG Writing 4/5 Update

Dear families,

This post relates to the mixed 4th/5th grade TAG writing class.

We have been busy in our TAG writing class! Students are…

  • working on their creative writing projects, which are now due on March 14. Our rubric is attached (here: WritingIndependentProjectsRubric). Please discuss the rubric with your child.
  • beginning the process of research for a research-based article. They have just been exposed to Google Keep as a way to organize the information they are gathering.  Please have them show you the features of Google Keep!
  • learning how to identify the parts of sentences and parts of speech
  • receiving their persuasive writing back scored this week – please ask your child to show you when they receive their scored essay.

In the past 3 weeks or so on Mondays students have been working with Ms. Brannigan, our visiting TAG teacher, to learn how to identify subject and predicate and the basic parts of speech. We have investigated a few parts of speech in more depth, including nouns, verbs (action vs. linking), and prepositions.

This week, for their grammar work, students are asked to complete several learning tasks:

  1. Read both of the packets given by Ms. Brannigan (one is just a reference about types of pronouns, and the other contains sentences 5-10, on which they have assignments to do).
  2. Try to memorize 2 types of pronouns: subject pronouns and object pronouns
  3. On each sentence in the packet with sentences 5-10:
    1. First line: define the bold word from the sentence
    2. Second line: write all the nouns AND pronouns. Write what type of pronoun each is.
    3. Third line: write the subject and the predicate of the sentence
    4. Fourth line: write all the verbs from the sentence

I’ll work with the students a bit in class throughout the week to clarify their assignments and re-teach the types of pronouns; but by Monday, March 7, they should have sentences 5-10 finished and ready to turn in.

 

TAG 4/5 Writing Update

Dear families,

this update is in regards to the combined 4th/5th grade second block TAG Writing class.

We have embarked on our persuasive writing unit! Please ask your child what topic and thesis they have chosen for their persuasive essays – we have some very passionate persuaders in class! We are just now in the planning phase – students have figured out their thesis and their three reasons why, and they have been working on gathering evidence that illustrates each reason. We have discussed what makes compelling evidence – that in some cases it’s facts and statistics but in other cases it’s personal stories. We have practiced being discriminating researchers on the Internet, using AAA (Appearance, Author, Accuracy) to determine if a website will have useful information. In the next week, we will finish our planning and begin the drafting process.

Students have a Greek and Latin roots packet that they have until Wednesday, January 20 to complete activities C, D, E and F in; we won’t have our class on Tuesday as the 5th graders will be going to Winkler that day. On Wednesday the 20th, we will also have our test on that unit (Unit 6 – Time and Place, the roots chron, temp, loc).

Students are also self-directing their own creative writing projects, some of which are collaborative. I am so impressed with the level of thinking and creativity that they are putting into these projects! We only have one day each week in class (Fridays) to dedicate to the projects, and I have asked students to spend about an hour a week outside of our Friday time to work on them as well. I hope you will talk to your child about the project they are creating – I think you will be impressed!

As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns!

Update: 4th/5th TAG Writing

Dear families,

this post is for families of students in my combined 4th/5th grade TAG writing block.

We have just finished (and students have received their grades for) our long endeavor of writing essays about our beliefs. Please ask your child to show you his/her essay and grades! I will print and send home paper copies in January, but for now you can see it all online!

This week, students began planning for and embarking on extended creative writing projects, beginning by experimenting with genre, form, and topic. I hope you will talk about your child’s creative writing project with him/her, and encourage him or her to work on it over the vacation to continue flexing those creative writing muscles. Of course, I am not requiring any student to work on that project over the holiday – only if they want to!

When we return in January, we will begin our next writing unit – persuasive essays! At that point, creative projects will become work that they will pick up when they finish with their assigned class work, and at home at some points if they want. I am asking that students try to spend about an hour per week on their creative writing projects, whether in spare time at school or at home.

We have been working on typing.com and the BBC’s website Dance Mat Typing to become more efficient at typing, for 2-3 days per week as a warm-up in class. Students are beginning to really see improvements in their typing speed at this point! They may want to practice once or twice at home over break as well.

We will continue with our Greek and Latin roots vocabulary in lieu of spelling for a few weeks when we return, and later on in January or at the beginning of February we will begin diving into some more explicit grammar instruction, for students to start to develop an understanding of the parts of sentences.

For now, I hope you all have a warm and restful holiday break, full of the joy of your loved ones and your favorite foods!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

TAG Writing 4/5 Update

Dear families,

This post pertains to students who have me as their TAG Writing teacher second block in the mixed 4th and 5th grade class.

We have had a busy week back, revising and re-drafting our This I Believe Essays! Today we co-created the rubric that we (students and teacher) are going to use to evaluate students’ final products. I have attached the rubric for your perusal. Unfortunately, we had a fire drill right in the middle of our work and 4th graders had to leave just afterward for a performance, so their input into the creation of the rubric was sadly limited!

I am asking students to finish and turn in a final version of their This I Believe essays by next Wednesday, December 9, including their rubric which they will have filled out to evaluate their work.

In addition, on Monday, December 7, we will have our next vocabulary test. This time it will be a fill-in-the-blank test with a word bank. I have attached this week’s packet just in case you need an extra copy for studying over the weekend! The packet is due completed on Monday as well.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Greek Latin Roots Unit 3

ThisIBelieveI-CanStatements

TAG 4/5 Writing Update

Dear families,

it has been a while since my last post – apologies for the long radio silence!

In our 4th/5th grade TAG Writing class, we finished up realistic fiction stories that we wrote by hand just in time to receive our shiny new Chromebooks! Now, almost everything that we are doing in class is online through Google Classroom and the students’ Google Drive accounts. I encourage you to ask your child to show you their Drive account and our class’s Google Classroom page; that is where all of our work is!

We have begun a new writing unit on personal essays. I have challenged the students to create a statement that is a guiding philosophy for their lives, inspired by the structure of the “This I Believe” essay series, which airs on All Things Considered on NPR. I hope you will ask your child to share his/her This I Believe statement with you and talk about the basis of this belief.  Students are drafting their essays with mini-stories and examples to illustrate their belief, and they are practicing using the literary tools of narrative authors such as varied sentence lengths and figurative language.

In the last two weeks, we have moved to a new unit in our spelling program. Instead of just studying how to spell the words on their lists, the students have received new packets of words with Greek and Latin roots organized thematically that they are learning the meanings of, and learning how to use. Our tests are on Mondays when Ms. Brannigan is with us; we are taking a break from this until we return from Thanksgiving break though, so our next test won’t be until Monday, December 7.

Ms. Brannigan has been working with the students to introduce them to Latin so they can start to make connections between Latin and English words. Students are even learning how to use analogies to analyze word meanings and connections.

Presently, we are in the midst of NaNoWriMo, but I know that few students have really had the chance to work on the challenge. I am offering my support one day a week in class, but our time is unfortunately quite limited for it. I hope to have our own novel writing challenge like this again in class later this year, so if your child didn’t get the chance to participate this time, there may be another opportunity later on this year. Stay tuned!

Thanks for all your support and as always, please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions.