Welcome to Open House October 5, 2015!

Students gather in the cafeteria in the mornings Students unpack their backpacks During period 3 we have snack. Students follow their schedule which is different for each student. Period 9 includes math lab, LA workshop, Digital Citizenship, and Ensemble.

Our goals for the Language Arts curriculum are to balance reading and writing instruction. We will look at texts as readers and as writers.

Our classroom is a community. In our community, we have rules to help us get along and respect each other.

Field Trip (CT State House May) Crafts Special Ideas/Projects

Health – 3 rd trimester on B and C days Science – 5x/week P.E. – 2x/week Art – 2x/week Music – 1x/week Ensemble – 1x/week Chorus Band Orchestra

Assigned Daily Mrs. Dobransky Reading Writing Ms. Lanna Math Social Studies Total amount of homework shouldn’t exceed 1.5 hours. If this is not the case, please contact me. Projects are not part of homework time. Neatness counts Homework should be turned in on time.

Our goals for the Language Arts curriculum are to balance reading and writing instruction. The four skill areas listed below are used to promote best practices. 1. Process 2. Genre 3. Strategy 4. Conventions

Process - Building reading and writing stamina Genre – Narrative, Informational, Opinion, Traditional Literature, Poetry Strategy – Activating background knowledge, visualization, determining importance, inferring, interpretation, monitoring for meaning, Using “fix up” strategies, summarizing Conventions – Word attack/word solving skills, reading punctuation, fluency, vocabulary, and phrasing

Works of literature are taught using metacognition reading strategies. Students read books at the appropriate reading level, participate in book clubs, and participate in Reading Workshop. Small group instruction occurs at this time.

Reading Writing The Reading Workshop Living in the Notebook: Making Thinking Visible:Slice of Life Stories Living in the Readers’ Notebook Thinking Beyond the Text:The Expository Essay Analyzing Theme and Symbolism (Informational, Opinion) to Interpret Fiction Interpreting Poetry Waxing Poetic: (Independent reading) Falling in Love with Language

ReadingWriting Reading Informational Texts:Crafting Informational Texts: Tackling ComplexityAbout Topics of Personal Interest (Informational) Reading Historical FictionWriting Historical Fiction (Narrative, Informational, Research)

ReadingWriting Fan Reading: Making Our Voices Heard: Themed Book Clubs byEditorial/Op Ed Writing Genre, Topic, or Author Greek MythologyReflecting on Our Favorites Multimedia Presentations

Non-fiction Informational Texts Historical Fiction Fantasy Poetry

Students use a Writer’s Notebook to: discover explore and examine ideas build fluency aid thinking draw upon memory and make connections

Writer’s Workshop Launching the Writer’s Workshop Living in the Notebook: Slice of Life Stories Expository Writing Using Nonfiction Notebooks to Craft Informational Texts Writing Historical Fiction Poetry Nonfiction Editorial Writing Writing Short Stories

Word Study Grammar Sentence Types Spelling strategies Editing Revising

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