Halfway There!!!

Can you believe we are already halfway done with the school year? It seems like it was just yesterday everyone was walking in the classroom and we were having a Jeopardy game on the classroom rules and routines. Then again, looking back at how far everyone has come, I am so proud of the 5J family. We have come a long way. As I stated at the beginning of the year, my number one goal for everyone in 5J is to prepare them for middle school, and we are well on our way there.

Being that we have been so busy in Reading, it is no surprise that we are ahead of schedule. That gives us the opportunity to spend two weeks on a story in the Harcourt Series, and really delve deeper into the focus skills. Last week we started reading William Shakespeare and the Globe, and we will continue working on it next week. While our focus skill deals with fact and opinion, I have a feeling our class has a good grasp on that, so we did some enrichment activities with this story. Besides continuing our work on asking higher-level questions, we also took a good look at what makes a good extended response. It is important to get this stuff down because ISAT’s are right around the corner, and we need to be prepared. Although we have done some extended responses in the past, we spent a lot of time critiquing them this week. The ultimate goal is to get students to the point where they can take twenty minutes to pre-write, and draft their extended response, while making sure theirs includes all the main components. After this week, I think the students have a good grasp on what needs to be in an extended response, so now we will start cutting down the time allowed to complete one.

Although extended response is part of the Reading section of ISAT’s, it also helps us accomplish some of the performance descriptors in the Writing curriculum. Students must be able to state a position and back it up with evidence from the story (or other resources), while including evidence from their own life. Not only is this a good skill for 5th graders, but they will use it in middle school, high school, and everyday life. Along with the skills we practice while writing extended responses, we also have been working on the A,B,C’s & D of Prompt Writing. This is a major part of the ISAT’s that we need to be ready for. We will delve into this even more next week.

As for Social Studies, it has been fun watching the groups prepare for their presentations next week. I have split the class into groups of 2-4 and each group is responsible for one major cause of the American Revolution. They have spent the week researching their topic, creating some sort of presentation (skits, PowerPoints, etc), and practicing. When we get back on Tuesday, each group will present to the class. I can’t wait to see some of the final products. I have some high expectations after seeing some bits and pieces of what they’re planning.

I did want to mention the fact that we did our midyear reading fluency assessment this week. This is a key piece of data that the staff use to track the progress of students. It is also used to help drive instruction, and decide if the methods being used might need to be altered in some way, to better accommodate the students. Not only that, but research shows that measuring a student’s fluency is a good indicator of their overall reading ability. Well I am proud to say that our class performed outstanding on this assessment. As a matter of fact, we averaged an increase of over 23 words per minute! This is amazing considering the fact that the average 5th grader increases their fluency by 1 word every two weeks. That means that we our well above the curve, and whatever we’re doing is working! Keep up the great work everyone! I hope this news helps everyone to have a great long weekend. I will have plenty of time on the road to relish in our success as I drive to Indiana Friday night for another wrestling meet.

Celebrations!!!
-Obviously our CBM fluency scores: We had a number of students go up by 30+ wpm!
-100% on Unit 16 Spelling Test: Kara, Nathan, Victoria, Dominic, Gabby, Hannah F., Arushi, Landon, Cooper, Ally, & Avarie!
-100% on Hattie’s Birthday Box Test: Brenna, Nathan, Avarie, & Hannah F.!
-100% on Grammar Test: Hannah F., Victoria, & Nathan!
-Gymnastics is going well for Kara & Kira!
-Gabby, Julia, & Megan are loving swimming!
-Landon & Lanie have been doing a lot of traveling for hockey!
-Hannah C. have some stuff coming up in dance!
-Nick won a trip to N.Y. to play in a Baku-Con Tournament!