Classroom Update

Hi! I hope everyone had a great week! It was a great week in 5F, take a minute to read about what we have been doing in our classroom.

In reading we continued with MCAS prep. This week we focused on fiction text. Students read selections from the books Ida B and Moon Over Manifest and answered questions on both of these texts. New to MCAS this year, the open response questions have been replace with essay questions. Students learned how the new essay questions are different from the open response questions of the past. In the new essay questions students will be comparing two or more texts and students are expected to write an essay that is several paragraphs long. Students learned the structure of a literary essay. Students answered an essay question that compared how the narrator's point of view influenced how events in both selections were told. Also to help the students get ready for MCAS, Mrs. Kidder taught the students about the different tools that are available to them on the new computer based MCAS test. Students learned how to bookmark questions they want to go back and review, how to highlight text, how to change the font and background color to make the text easier to read, and several others.

On Friday in reading we did our first argument protocol.  Students listened to the story A Chair for my Mother and chose a position. Students could take the position that Rosa was fortunate of that Rosa was unfortunate. As students listened to the story they took notes, writing down evidence from the story that supported their position. Students then debated with a student who had the opposite position. In their debate students stated their claim, gave evidence from the text to support their claim, and rebutted what their debate partner said. It was a great success and the students really enjoyed it.

In writing we started our non-fiction unit. For this unit students will be writing about a topic within westward expansion. To start the unit we reviewed the characteristics of good non-fiction by looking through non-fiction books and listing the characteristics of non-fiction text. We also looked at samples of student writing to find those characteristics of good non-fiction writing. This upcoming week students will pick their topic and begin their research.

In math we continued our module on multiplying fractions. Students worked in groups to solve a real world problem involving multiplying a fraction by a fraction. Students solved a problem about two different neighborhoods building playgrounds and building a blacktop as part of their playground. Students needed to find out if one neighborhood would have a larger blacktop than the other. Groups used different strategies to solve the problem.

In Social Studies we are continuing with our westward expansion unit. This week we learned about the different groups of people who settled in the west, such as the Mormons, Chinese immigrants, the forty-niners, and the pioneers who came west on the Oregon trail. The students also learned about some of the groups of people who were already living in the west, such as the Nez Perce and the Mexicanos. Students also did a gallery walk of some of the advertisements encouraging people to move west. Students paid attention to what they ads were selling (usually land) and the persuasive words the ads used to make moving west attractive.

In read aloud we started a new book, The Theif of Always. This is an amzing fantasy book. This is in preparation of our next unit in reading, a fantasty book club unit. We will be starting this new unit in two weeks. I am very excited about this unit!