One thing that amazes me this time of year is how students begin to think deeply about their texts. In the beginning of the year many students would share an idea about their independent reading book or our read-aloud book and not back it up with evidence. Now, students are demonstrating that they have reasoning behind their thoughts. Students have been reading picture books of their choice and post-it noting sections of text that show something to them about a character; for example, if a character offers a pair of shoes to someone else, the character is showing generosity. Students are noticing things their characters say and do to come up with ideas about their character’s internal character traits in their independent reading books as well. We have been working on making thesis statements (claims) that need to be backed up with evidence in writing. Students use the post-it notes in their picture books to come up with one idea they want to prove about their character. We also talked about introductory paragraphs and how those introduce the rest of an essay. This has been great SBAC prep! As the week goes on we will be working on our body paragraphs for our essays using three pieces of evidence to support our claim. In math we have been working on representing fractions on a number line. We have also been exploring how fractions can also show more than one whole; for example, if there are 8 fourths, that is equivalent (the same as) 2 wholes. Fractions are a very challenging concept, especially the idea that a fraction is a part of a whole. If there is any opportunity outside of school where something needs to be broken into fractional pieces, talk to your child about how many pieces are in the whole and what fraction is represented. These upcoming few weeks will look different for students because of SBACs. On Monday and Tuesday students will be taking a training test and practice test for the Math portion of the SBAC. The training test will teach them how to use their chromebooks and the various tools available on the computer to help them do their best work. On Thursday and Friday, students will take a practice Reading/Writing Assessment. Again, our students are well prepared and I know they will do their best! Upcoming Dates April 1 and 2 SBAC Math training and practice tests April 4 and 5 Half Days (ending at 11:30) Parent Teacher Conferences SBAC Reading/Writing training and practice test April 9 Part 1 Math SBAC April 11 Part 2 Math SBAC April 16 Part 1 Reading/ Writing SBAC April 17 Part 2 Reading/ Writing SBAC
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December 2018
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