Grammar Quiz on these lessons: Wednesday, April 25
Grammar Test: Tuesday, May 1 Singular and Plural Nouns Irregular Plural Nouns Possessive Nouns We also took notes on Context Clues. These are different ways context clues can be presented in order to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.
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After being gone last week, I come back to discover that the students were not behaving well and did not finish the essay that was assigned. The students were allowed to take the sources home to complete the essay at home. Here are the sources:
Source 1 Source 2 Source 3 The prompt: Write an explanatory essay about the culture of the American Indians (Native Americans) and why it was thought that they needed to give up their culture to become part of white society. We are currently working on another explanatory essay in class about the effect that wild animals and humans have on each other. Next week, we are back to writing opinion essays. This week in the Florida Ready books, we also started review poetry (Lesson 19) and dramas (Lesson 20). I strongly encourage the students to take home the Florida Ready books to review the lessons we are working on. It's very fast-paced and challenging. For Grammar this week, we practiced Comparing with Adjectives. I'm also continuing to review Text Structure. The students have a test next week. They need to recognize the signal words. This is crunch time. We have one month left to learn how to write before the FSA Writing Test on March 6th. Monday - Students took the comprehension test and vocabulary quiz for "Hurricanes"
Tuesday - Students took the mid-year inSight test for Reading Plus and wrote vocabulary defInitions for new story: The Life and Times of an Ant. Most students showed improvement since the beginning of the year. YAY! Wednesday - Timed Writing Test. Prompt: Write an essay explaining how different plants and animals adapt to each unique environment. Thursday - Notes on Suffixes: -able and -ible with some practice definitions. We also started reading the story and practiced our vocabulary words using these questions: 1. If you have excess of food in your lunchbox, what do you do? 2. What activities reinforce your friendship with others? 3. What are some storage spaces at school? 4. Why might obstacles occur on a street or highway? Friday - FIELD TRIP!!!!! Potential Test Date - Wednesday, 12/20
**I will attach links to the notes by the end of the week** Kinds of Sentences Subject/Predicate Compound Sentence Complex Sentence Fragments and Run-on Sentences Verbs Adjectives Nouns Subject Pronouns Pronoun and Verb Agreement Quotations Wednesday - Today we answered comprehension questions on "Harvesting Hope". We had discussed the answers yesterday, so this assignment was mainly to practice writing paragraphs with topic sentences, citing evidence, and explaining.
We continued practicing Action Verbs. We also continued planning for the Great Depression essay. We discussed the three questions from yesterday and began organizing the facts into the triple T-chart. Tomorrow, we will finish planning and begin writing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday - We read the story of the week, "Harvesting Hope," which is about how Cesar Chavez helped farm workers earn better pay and better conditions. We also continued practicing Action Verbs. Today, we also started our essay about the Great Depression. Prompt - Write an essay explaining what happened during the Great Depression and how people from different walks of life helped each other. The students read through three sources and started answering the following questions to help them understand the main idea of each source: 1. (Using Source 1) What were some effects of the Great Depression on people's lives? 2. (Using Source 2) Why were Lange's pictures of the migrants more powerful than her other portraits? 3. (Using Source 3) How does the poem illustrate the problem farmers faced during the Great Depression? Tomorrow we are planning the essay with our usual T-Chart, after answering the questions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Monday - we wrote the definitions of the new words. We also took lots of notes. Please review. Conclusion/Idioms Reference Materials (familiarize yourself by looking through a dictionary) Action Verbs We also watched a couple of short video clips introducing us to the essay we're starting tomorrow about The Great Depression and about Cesar Chavez (the story of the week). This week we're learning how to draw (come up) with conclusions and generalizations. We also talked about antonyms. We started a new essay about movie techniques. The sources are in the textbook, but the students are completing their essays in its entirety during class. They are given 45-60 minutes a day to work on them. That's plenty of time considering that the FSA writing test is only 2 hours.
We also continued practicing writing body paragraphs by giving the students written response comprehension questions for the story we're reading in class this week: "Dear Mr. Winston." Every written response (and body paragraph of essays) must begin with a topic sentence, evidence from text, and explanation/elaboration. Here are the questions with a sample answer: 1. Do you think Cara is "truly, genuinely sorry" for bringing the snake in the library? Use text evidence to support your answer. Sample Answer: Cara is not "truly, genuinely sorry" for bringing the snake into the library. The text says on pg. 262 that her parents made her write the apology letter to Mr. Winston. Cara also writes, "there was no way the snake could have escaped if you hadn't opened the box and dropped it on the floor." She blames Mr. Winston for what happened which shows that she is not really sorry. 2. On pg. 266, Cara makes excuses for her behavior. What text evidence can you cite? 3. After reading pg. 271, what conclusion can you draw about how Cara feels about the snake? What text evidence supports your conclusion? We took lots of notes today:
Fact and Opinion Greek and Latin Word Parts Common and Proper Nouns We also continued working on the Spice Essay. I helped the students plan. Here is what we completed together. I also showed them how to use their planning to write a body paragraph. Please review everything every day. Wednesday, October 31, 2017
We took lots of notes today. Please review. We will practice these skills tomorrow. Idioms Subject Pronouns Pronoun and Verb Agreement We also started a new essay today. We are only working on the essay in class. Tuesday, 10/24/17
We took A LOT of notes today. I asked the students to review. Here are the notes: We read most of "Stormalong," the story of the week. Then we continued working on the Jose Limon essay. Most students have finished their introduction and first body paragraph. Tomorrow, our goal is to finish the planning for the last 2 body paragraphs and then to finish the essay. |
Mrs. Wilkie4th grade Reading and Language Arts Teacher. Archives
April 2018
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