WELCOME TO BACK-TO-SCHOOL NIGHT Advanced Plus Reading

STUDY SKILLS and TIME MANAGEMENT The students will integrate study skills and time management into their daily work by: o Using the daily planner to record homework. o Using the monthly calendar in the planner to record when assignments are due. o Using the calendar to record test dates. o Using the calendar to plan study sessions.

QUALITY WORK HABITS The students will incorporate high quality work, which includes neat handwriting, into their daily written work by: o Using the recommended pencil grip. o Carefully practicing handwriting in their homeroom and for homework, making sure to form the letters correctly. o Routinely setting up papers as directed. o Responding in complete sentences.

First Last # Advanced + Reading Date Title Paragraph 1 Paragraph 2 Paragraph 3 Paragraph 4 Paragraph 5

BASIC READING SKILLS o Read all directions carefully. o Answer questions as directed and in sentences. o Copy words carefully. Avoid spelling errors. o Always use correct punctuation and capitalization. o Turn in completed work by Friday to be an ‘early bird’ and ‘get the (gummy) worm’ the following week. o Do high quality work to earn the reward: careless or untidy work does not qualify.

JUNIOR GREAT BOOKS The Five Guidelines for Shared Inquiry Discussion Read the story carefully before participating in the discussion. Discuss only the story everyone has read. Support ideas with evidence from the story. Listen to other participants and respond to them directly. Expect the leader to only ask questions. Written Work – Questions are interpretive. Give thoughtful answers. – Explain answer choices. – Neatness does count. – Work not finished in class becomes homework, due the following day. – JGB Vocabulary and Morphographs will be make up the Spelling/Vocabulary grade.

SPELLING THROUGH MORPHOGRAPHS A morphograph is defined as the smallest unit of identifiable meaning in written English. Morphographs either keep the same spelling in different words or change in predictable ways. e.g. ‘gress’ is spelled the same in regressive as it is in progress. Run to runner follows the doubling rule.

EXAMPLES OF MORPHOGRAPHS The 12 morphographs: able re arm claim er ing cover ed dis order un ness can combine to spell more than 75 words and are part of hundreds more.

SELECTION and STRAGEGY The morphographs taught in Spelling Through Morphographs were selected based on: – Frequency of occurrence in student writing – Usefulness in generating new words The strategy of Spelling Through Morphographs is to – Introduce new morphographs, rules, and principles – Integrate any new material with that already taught – Continuously review everything taught

Scoring System

Finding Books in Accelerated Reader Log on to arbookfind.com Type in the book title or author in Quick Search to find Book Level and Points. Enter the information onto your Student Reading Log and begin reading.

ACCELERATED READER EXPECTATIONS o Read every night for minutes. o At a minimum, read the targeted number of AR points per trimester. o Complete the Student Reading Log daily. o Log in to Home Connect on the Serra Catholic website with your parents to share your progress.

How Point Values of Books Are Determined in Accelerated Reader In Accelerated Reader, point values of books are based on length (word count) and text difficulty (book level). Most picture books, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, are half-point books. Most short chapter books are worth 5 to 10 points. Longer, complex novels are worth considerably more points —Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina has a point value of 69. The formula used to determine Accelerated Reader point values is: – [(10 + Book Level) ÷ 10] x [Word Count ÷ 10,000] – The raw value is rounded to the nearest whole number (except for the bottom of the scale, where the minimum number rounded to is 0.5). For example, Anna Karenina’s book level is 9.6 and the word count is 349,736. Thus the point value is calculated as [( ) ÷ 10] x [349,736 ÷ 10,000] = [1.96] x [ ] = , which is rounded to 69 points.

Points Earned Are a Measure of Reading Practice After a student takes a Reading Practice Quiz, s/he earns points based on the book’s point value and how well s/he did on the quiz. In this way, points are a measure of reading practice— a summary of quantity, quality, and difficulty. Reading Practice Quizzes have 5, 10, or 20 questions, depending on the length of the book. The cutoff for earning points on a 5- or 10-question quiz is 60 percent correct. The cutoff for a 20-question quiz is 70 percent. – For example, a student who takes a 5-question quiz on a book worth 1 point will earn: 1 point for 5 correct (100 percent) 0.8 point for 4 correct (80 percent) 0.6 point for 3 correct (60 percent) 0 points for 2 correct or fewer – A student who reads a longer book at a higher book level and takes a 10-question quiz on a book worth 5 points will earn: 5 points for 10 correct (100 percent) 4.5 points for 9 correct (90 percent) 4 points for 8 correct (80 percent) 3.5 points for 7 correct (70 percent) 3 points for 6 correct (60 percent) 0 points for 5 correct or fewer

Storybook Writing On the lab computers, each student will write and illustrate his/her own book during the year.