McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

update for the week of November 2, 2015

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, November 9th - Reading logs due / Conferences / Internet Research Prep (Writing Workshop homework) due for those who chose that / swimming

Tuesday, November 10th - Study link due / Newspaper and Chorus after school / Survey/Interview Prep (Writing Workshop homework) due for those who chose that / Book Fair Family Night 5:30-7:30pm

Wednesday, November 11th - Veterans Day No School

Thursday, November 12th -  Spelling due / Color Guard 3:00-4:00pm

Friday, November 13th - Home link due

Please help your child be prepared for each swim class.  Your child’s swim bag should include: swim cap for hair longer than 3 inches, swim suit, goggles, towel, hair brush or comb.  

Academic Updates:

Reading

This week, students focused on the reading skill of envisioning.  Earlier this week, the Begleys brought home a graded envisioning page (a white activity with a green feedback sheet stapled to it).  The McFarlands will have theirs early next week; I haven’t graded them yet.  As you can tell, we are working toward more formal reading responses to give readers instruction and practice with using written words to explain their thinking.  Next week, we will again focus on envisioning, and you’ll see that the responses will be more writing-based.  

    When possible, I share with students the grading tool, what it looks like, and what is on it, so they know in advance how their work will be assessed.  We find that this can motivate many students to plan and revise their work to meet 4th grade expectations, and we find that a grade of “partially meets” or “does not meet” can motivate students to increase the quality of their work the next time.

    We are also using our class read aloud, Journey, to follow big ideas in a text.  Now, we are a little more than halfway through the book, so we are anticipating the turning point.  This is when something happens to motivate a change in the character, a change usually being that s/he learns or realizes something.  I’m encouraging readers to pay attention to the possibility of a turning point in their own books, thinking about changes in their characters.  This is definitely “big picture” thinking, and it’s hard!  Most 4th-grade readers can recall details about the plot of a story quite well, and this shift to following the character’s internal story is different, higher-level thinking.

Writing Workshop

Writers got a great start on a new essay, this one about a thesis statement of their own choosing.  Your writer brought home writing homework over the weekend to prepare for survey, interview, and research work on Monday and Tuesday.  Students can choose to complete one or the other, or both.  Please help your child set aside 15-20 minutes or so this weekend to complete this work.

    After reviewing this assignment in detail with both writing classes, I can see where I could make the work clearer on the two sheets.  When you and your child are reviewing the assignment and have the sheet(s) in front of you, check out these (hopefully) helpful details:

• All writers need to choose one kind of evidence to prepare for: survey, interview, statistic, or quote.  That means that all writers have some writing homework this weekend.  Your child may have brought home a purple sheet or a green sheet, or s/he may have chosen to bring both home.
• Instruction and time to work on this evidence will happen in class Monday and Tuesday.  The homework is the preparation that needs to be done, so the in-class work can go smoothly.
• Writers may choose to prepare for more than one of these kinds of evidence.
• The purple sheet has space to write the prep work for a survey on the front and/or an interview on the back.  That work is due on Tuesday.  There is more space than is needed, in case writers choose to do more than one survey question.
• The green sheet is for the prep work for researching a statistic or a quote.  Writers do not have to do both, but they can if they want.
• Writers may choose to research a quote or statistic at home at home this weekend, with the help of their parents.  Or, they can do it in class on Monday.  They do need to write the supporting idea they’re considering, just so there’s a bit of a plan in place for that in-class research.

Math

This week students worked on converting units of time to smaller units of time and solved time related number stories. In addition, students were introduced to the concept of multiplicative comparisons.

Spelling

This week students reviewed compound words.  We also brainstormed words the fit the patterns for long /a/.  Finally, we worked on the suffix -ed.  Students sorted word cards based on what sound the /ed/ made (t, d, or id).  

Theme

This week we traveled to the New World!  On Monday, we learned about the Lost Colony of Roanoke and analyzed the decisions made that led to its failure.  On Tuesday, we started to explore the colony of Jamestown.  We looked at the hardships colonists would have to survive on the trip across the Atlantic.  Over the next several days students explored many resources (online simulation, books, videos) to learn about the struggles of the early settlers.  Students are asking many great questions (Why did the Native Americans surround James Fort?  What is Yellow Fever?) which we are posting to the Wonder Wall.  I’ve been assigning student “researchers” to look up the answers as we go.  It’s my goal to inspire kids to be self-directed learners this year when they have questions so that they can see that they can seek out knowledge themselves.