Tag Archives: writing

Writing 5 Update

Dear families,

this post relates to my 4th block 5th grade writing class.

Students are busily planning their research paper drafts! They have gathered and organized information with a note-taking technology called Google Keep, and they are currently writing outlines to plan the organization of each of the sections of their research papers.

Due to scheduling constraints, for the weeks of April 11-15 and 18-22 we will have to pause on our writing projects to use our writing time to review some math, so that all students have time to be adequately prepared for their math SOL. During that time, I’ll encourage students to continue writing on their own each day. I’ll be giving them more information and getting back in touch as this week ends.

Presently, we are in the middle of a word study unit, and students are really thinking through the parts of the words and the meanings of the roots that are in them! We have our word study test this Friday, April 8. We will have word study homework today (Monday) and Wednesday, April 6.

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

Update: 5th Grade Writing (4th Block)

Dear families,

this post is for families of students who I have in my 4th block, 5th grade only writing class.

We have just finished with our Real-Fantasy-Real stories! Students have published and shared their work on this new and exciting genre. They have submitted them to me for grading, so please stay tuned to receive their grades after the winter vacation, but for now I encourage you to ask your child to show you his or her writing (it is all accessible on their Google Drive accounts!). They really worked hard at being creative with their stories and their fantasy elements.

After the holiday, we will begin a new unit in persuasive essays, and we will continue with our two different groups of word study/vocabulary practice that will go on for two weeks at a time, with homework about two days each week and tests every other Friday.

In the meantime, I hope you will encourage your child to work on a creative writing endeavor over the vacation to keep those creative muscles growing (but of course, I will not require any student to do that work over the vacation).

I hope you all have a wonderful vacation, full of warmth and the joy of your loved ones and your favorite treats close to you!

 

Updates for writing classes

Dear families,

I think I have been confusing some of you lately when I post about my writing classes, which are on two separate tracks. For now, to ease confusion, I’ll put all my writing classes’ updates into one post. I hope this helps!

TAG Writing (4th and 5th grade, 2nd block): students are finishing their first published stories – realistic fiction. These final drafts are going to be hand-written, and I will score them using the attached rubric. Once all students’ Google Drive accounts are set up, a lot more of their writing will be done within their Drive accounts and final drafts will be typed and printed. Today (Friday) is their last day to finish their stories in class. A few students have received extensions to turn their stories in on Monday, but everyone else is turning theirs in today. From here, we are going to move on to writing personal and then persuasive essays.

In spelling, this class has a list of words with prefixes each week. They have in-class warm-ups and homework Monday through Thursday with these words (please see previous post for more information).

Writing (5th grade only, 4th block): students are in the revising process of their first published story, a realistic fiction story. We are revising by getting rid of boring words (like “said” and “mad”) and replacing them with more literary words; stretching out the detail in the most important parts of the story by showing, not telling; and by finding the theme (lesson) in our stories and making them end so that our character learns the lesson we want to teach readers.  We will be finishing and writing final drafts of these stories next week. I will be using the attached rubric to score each student’s story.  These stories will be written by hand, but once students’ Google Drive accounts are set up, more of the entire writing process will be completed on the computers through their accounts, for future units. Our next unit up is essays – personal and persuasive.

In word study, we started this week and will have tests every two weeks. Most students are in a group that has a word study list including three sections: commonly misspelled words, strong fifth grade vocabulary, and word pattern words.  We are working through each part of the list together in class. I will keep the same three sections all year with different words each two weeks.Students should expect to have word study homework on Tuesdays and Thursdays; tests will be every other Friday. Our first test will be on Friday, October 16. Tests will require students not only to spell words correctly, but also to know their meanings and how to use them in sentences. Please email me if you have any questions!

Writing Unit 1 Realistic Fiction I Can statements

for TAG Writing class: spelling work and other updates

Hi families,

We are lucky enough to have TAG expert Ruth Brannigan working with us on Mondays to extend our students’ learning. She is currently working with our TAG 4/5 writing class on some common prefixes. Tomorrow I will unveil to students their work with their spelling words, which is attached here for your perusal: SPELLING HOMEWORK MENU. Normally spelling work will be homework only, but for this week it will also be students’ warm-up in class as they become accustomed to it.

Please note that spelling tests will be each Monday in class, followed by students receiving new lists. Your child should have the list for this week with him or her each evening. After tomorrow’s class, please encourage your child to complete their one activity from the menu of activities each night; and if you could help them remember to study on Sunday night, that would be most helpful. Since we do not have school this coming Monday, their first test will be on Tuesday, October 13.

In addition, students are working on finishing their first realistic fiction story. Finalized stories will be due on Thursday (10/8) in class for sharing; the rubric can be perused here: Writing Unit 1 Realistic Fiction I Can statements

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Announcements: May 29, 2015

Dear families,

as a reminder, students who are in fifth-grade math will take part 1 of 2 of their Math SOL test on Monday, June 1. The best way to prepare over the weekend is by…

  • getting lots of sleep each night, especially on Sunday night
  • eating healthily and hydrating all weekend, especially with a healthy breakfast (no sugar – not even sugary cereal!) on Monday morning
  • getting lots of outside running around time all weekend

Students in grade 5 math will take part 2 of their math SOL test on Tuesday, June 2. All students taking 6th grade math will take their entire SOL on Tuesday, June 2. All fifth-graders will take their science SOL on Thursday, June 4. Students have lots of note cards for review. Please encourage them to study or even play study games with their science note cards to help them!

Another announcement – ACPS is having a poetry contest and submissions are due to our school’s representative by end of school on Wednesday, June 3. Unfortunately we have not had class time for working on poetry as our writing time has been devoted to science and math review, so I am attaching the guidelines and rubric for you to peruse. Please encourage your child to participate by writing a poem and submitting it to me by Wednesday!

One last announcement – if you have not signed or had your child turn in their end-of-year trip and promotion forms, please do so Monday. We need them for our headcount for the events. Thank you!

poetry contest information 2015

 

Research Update

Hi families,

What a crazy week with this weather! We have used the little time that we have had this week to gather notes for our research topics and begin to organize them. Most students have gathered at least 4 notecards per sub-topic that they are researching, using books and trusted websites (see previous post about trusted websites). Due to our limited time this week, I have given students an extension until Monday if they have not finished their notecards to continue their research over the weekend.

In reading, our original deadline for the books they are reading in small groups was this past Thursday (February 19) but due to the weather I gave students an extension until Monday. Please encourage your child to finish his/her books and thinkmarks and research over the weekend. Like I told them, when we lose time we all have a bit of extra work to do to make up for it, even though the weather is out of our hands.

This coming week, students will be creating Popplets to organize their notecards. Their Popplets will serve as their planning web for their research papers. We will begin drafting our papers on Wednesday of this coming week.

In word study, we are studying prefixes this week and next week. Students are also learning the words immaculate, vigorous, and tamper. Please talk to your child about these words! Students also added their own new words from their reading to their personalized word study lists. I encourage you to talk to your child about the new words he/she is learning in reading!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Research writing rubric

Dear families,

I have attached the rubric I am going to be using to score students’ research projects. I am going to be revealing this to the kids little by little. The parts on the left side are the “big ideas” and the parts on the checklist in the middle are the steps we are taking to get there. This week, we are still in our researching and note-taking phase. Please note that this is a working document on Google Drive, so it may change between now and the end of our unit on March 6.

Please contact me or leave a comment if you have any questions.

Research Writing I-Can Statements

Welcome to our class blog!

Dear families,

Thank you for checking out our class blog. Please be sure to check back regularly to find important class announcements and assignments.

Here is a quick update for you:

We finished our reading unit on fiction this past week with a high combined pass rate of 84% of students passing. Ask your child about his or her reading goal for the upcoming quarter as we just completed reading assessments and students have updated their goals.

Students have shown a lot of creativity writing fantasy short stories involving a hero, a villain and a quest. Most have finished publishing and we will share next week.

In the upcoming weeks, we are starting new reading and writing units in research. We will be teaching and going through the research process to become experts on a topic. Please be chatting with your child about topics they are passionate about and interested in, as we prepare to brainstorm ideas for research projects!