Carole Pinkwasser 6C

 Grew up in New York and went to Brooklyn College where I received my B.A. in Education  Received my Masters in Education from NAU in 1994  My husband and I moved to Arizona in 1979  Have two grown children, my son is married and I have a 3 year old granddaughter  Did two years of substitute teaching in KSD  Taught 6 years in a preschool in Tempe  Taught Kindergarten in Mesa for 9 years  Taught ELA at Akimel A-al for 13 years  Have taught social studies but for the last 10 years I have only taught 6 th grade ELA, which I love

 Grammar, test prep questions, journals  Spelling/vocabulary practice- weekly Wednesday to Wednesday, test each week; will change next quarter however  Reading Skills- read it, understand it, think it through  Writing Skills- sentence structure, paragraphing  Students are expected to hand write drafts AND edit/revise their own work. Adult help will come after the student process.

 Common Core State Standards/ ELA Clear and consistent standards for teachers, students, and parents Relevant, real world skills to prepare for college and careers Be prepared to compete in the global economy “I Can” statements, learning goals, check understanding PARCC in 2015

 Lexile  Difficulty of the text is considered  (6 th gr and 7 th gr )  Informational Text*  Major basis of reading material across the core subjects  Literary Text  Genres, structure of stories, real-life connections, and perceptions

 Reading will be more connected with written responses  Defending answers by citing the author/author’s purpose  Making arguments based on informational readings  Making connections to the importance of the story or text; to do this, students will practice Close Reading.  Close Reading Strategies: a careful and purposeful re- reading of the text to search for purpose, structure, words, ideas, and flow of the text.  Using annotation (highlighting, underlining, circling, writing in the margins, etc.) to help make connections

 Written Responses to reading text  Journals, notes, short responses  Writing Applications  Argumentative/Opinion  Narrative  Expository/Informational  Literary Responses Trait of Writing will be used along with scales and rubrics to score teach and score writing.

 Students will use the “stoplight” method to highlight information in a text.  They will use the same method to structure their writing.  Green- topic/concluding sentence  Yellow- main ideas/points  Red- examples, evidence

 Read each night ( minutes)answer questions on Book Log  Reread classroom stories,  Spelling/vocabulary practice (10 mins.) -Due each Wednesday  Grammar practice (10 mins.)  Unfinished class work (???)  Occasional time for research/writing if doing a project

 Please use the Parent Vue Portal on Kyrene web site to check grade and work completion status. Usually updated weekly.  Student receive daily grades for class work and homework. This includes “walk-ins”.  Larger assignments such as projects, reader’s response, research, creative writing work will receive more points than daily work.  Grading: 20 percent class work and homework and 80% quizzes, projects, assessments

 STEM Activities  Skits, plays, performances  Commercials/Advertising  School Spelling Bee  Word games/Brainteasers  Friendly competitions in class  Greek Mythology

Class website- resources and handouts Team website- homework The best way to contact me is through Thanks for coming!

 Placed if scored at or above the 97 th percentile on national norms in one or more of three areas- verbal(language), quantitative(math), and nonverbal(spatial) reasoning.  Students should maintain a “B” or better average to stay in class. Will set up a parent meeting to discuss if an issue or problem occurs.

 Vocabulary program-Classical Latin & Greek roots  Introduction to Shakespeare  Above grade level stories (Literature book, novels)  Higher levels of comparing/contrasting  Challenge the views of the author and discrepancy between texts(literary analysis)  Higher level speaking skills(multi-media)  Kyrene website (Programs & Services-Gifted Programs)-organizations, resources, activities, and gifted web links