Welcome
Hello!
I have been teaching 3rd grade for the Dallas School District since 2001! I currently teach Social Studies and ELA, which includes reading, spelling, writing, and grammar. I am are looking forward to an awesome school year!
Subjects
Spelling:
Each week we will be working on a new word list/skill. The words and skill be introduced on Mondays and tests will be on Fridays whenever possible.
Materials needed for class: I will supply the words and any needed sheets
Grammar:
Each week we will be working on a new grammar unit (starting with nouns). The students will be giving sheets to complete and add to their grammar notebooks that will require them to be completing, cutting and gluing some elements. The notebooks will remain in school. I will have a detailed list of the parts of speech as they are presented throughout the school year listed on my website.
Materials needed for class: single subject notebook
Writing:
We will be concentrating on a few different writing styles -- each quarter will be a different style ( The teaching order is not necessarily in the order they appear on this sheet).
narrative
persuasive
informative
Materials needed for class: 2 single subject notebooks and a plastic folder
Reading:
There is also a link labeled "ELA Quarterly Comprehension Skills" on my website that will allow you to see each skill for each quarter.
TDA/RACE
Also, in reading this year we will begin to demonstrate the RACE process to the students as a way to answer an open ended question. RACE will be explained to the students in great detail and the introduction to the process will be done slowly and in small steps. The students already have experience from previous years on how to answer these questions, however, in third grade we begin to really concentrate on the process and what is needed to excel in this area of ELA.
Reading folder (plastic will hold up best)
Some Other Topics
Accelerated Reader (AR)
Accelerated Reader (AR for short) is a computerized reading program designed to motivate, manage, and monitor student literature-based reading. The AR program combines the best children's literature with software that allows teachers to evaluate their students' reading comprehension. This is not a contest or competition. Our goal (number of points needed) for quarter one will be determined at the time we are able to get the program up and running this year. Each quarter the points will increase. Also, starting in the second quarter the students will be picking their own "personal goal" as long as it is more than the minimum points required for the quarter. For example, the minimum goal for quarter one may be 5 points; however, a student may have chosen a higher "personal goal" such as 10 points. If a student chooses a higher "personal goal" and does not obtain their goal by the end of the quarter I will still consider the goal reached as long as he or she has met the lower minimum goal of 5 points for the quarter. So there will be no negative consequences for striving for a higher goal each quarter! The sky is the limit!
Absences & Vacations
Absence due to illness - if your child will be absent for just one day please do not call for homework. I will be able to provide the missing assignments the next school day if necessary. If your child will be absent for two or more consecutive days due to an extended illness please call the school to request a homework slip. If your child is not feeling well enough to complete the homework please Do Not worry! We will work it out in class. Due to my schedule all requests for homework assignments must be made before 10:00 am for the request to be processed that same day. Thank you!!
Vacation - if your family will be going on vacation during the school year, your child may be asked to simply keep a journal of his or her adventures to share with us all when they return so we can see all the fun! This could be just something fun and simply to complete and only if possible.
Thank you all so much!
Thank you,
Mrs. Farrell