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Mr. Etheredge asks students to bring home and back to school just one journal and a one-inch binder. In the binder is their agenda book, pencil pouch, and some loose-leaf paper. Instructions for HW below:
EXTRA CREDIT Special Project: HARRIET TUBMAN-UNDERGROUND RAILROAD QUILT PROJECT
-- DUE MARCH 6, FRIDAY
INSTRUCTIONS SENT HOME -- STUDENTS GIVEN CHANCE AND ASSIGNED TO RESEARCH AND DO A ROUGH DRAFT IN THEIR HW JOURNALS IN CLASS.
Test Tuesday, Feb. 18 -- astronomy words: words in HW journals and agenda books, and:
- Note: Capitalization WILL be graded
- reentry, Uranus, Earth, astronaut, Mars, Venus, eclipse, Mercury, satellite, Pluto, Saturn, asteroid, Neptune, Jupiter, astronomer, weightlessness, Voyager, constellation, propellant, atmosphere
Great Idea for next week (Feb. 21): Astronomy and Cosmology
Instructions for “Great Ideas”/Current Events/Spelling/Reading Homework Cycle
1). We do some spelling activities in the students' homework journals. They study these words as homework at night. The spelling tests are every Monday. Spelling lists are in agenda book and journal. We do other word studies such as Latin roots, Common Core terms, and vocabulary, and also some grammar.
(Some games and activities for our spelling lists are on SpellingCity.com! You'll see my list on there, and if you go to the bottom of the list and work your way up, you'll see the most current one. The web address is:
https://www.SpellingCity.com/users/HHTeacher
2). Students should be doing Self-Selected Sustained Silent Reading for at least 20 minutes per day. Please make a note once a week in your HW journal about what you are reading.
3). Students in Mr. Etheredge's class also do daily paragraphs based on the "103 Great Ideas" -- and current events. Each week we focus on a “Great Idea.” Students find a current events article based on the Idea for the week that is brought into class Friday for discussion. The article can be from a newspaper, magazine, or Web; a paragraph based on notes on a TV or radio show, or notes of an interview with an adult. Good children-friendly news websites: dogonews.com, scholasticnews.com, and timeforkids.com.
Rubric for grading Great Ideas HW: Please note their Great Ideas homework should be in:
1) paragraph format, 2) have a date, 3) have a title, 4) have proper punctuation, 5) have proper capitalization, 6) be at least 5 to 10 sentences, 7) have a topic sentence, 8) have detail and support sentences, 9) have a conclusion sentence, 10) have a citation to a source for evidence.
(What I mean by "citation to a source" is the following: Under Common Core, and on the PARCC tests, we are emphasizing that the kids MUST go to the text for evidence to support their statements, and tell where you found it ("cite their source"). For example, on Mondays, please tell me from which dictionary or encyclopedia you got your definition; on Tuesdays, tell me the book to which you are connecting the Idea; on Wednesdays, a citation would be great, but you can skip it since you are stating your opinion; on Thursdays, tell me the title of the article in which you are analyzing change. Please state your evidence! :-)
Here is the weekly cycle of assignments for the Great Ideas homework:
Night One (Monday): Students are assigned a “Great Idea.” That night in their journal they write a paragraph to define the meanings of the Idea. Students may get their research from a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, Web, or even interview with an adult. Students begin looking for a current events article that relates to this idea. Include two questions you have. These questions form the basis for some of our discussions: they should be open-ended, open for interpretation, wondering-type questions.
Night Two (Tuesday): Students write a paragraph to make a connection of the Great Idea to something they are reading -- where, when, why, how do you see this Great Idea in this text? Why is this Great Idea important in this story or article? How can you relate this Great Idea to this text?
Night Three (Wednesday): Students write a persuasive paragraph. Convince us how to make the world have more of, or less of ... the Great Idea. Explain how we can get there. Is this Great Idea better or worse for the world? Make an argument. Sometimes take the contrarian point of view. For example, if the Great Idea is War and Peace, of course you can argue we need more Peace, and how to get it. But someone could argue we need War at times. State an opinion and support it with details and reasons!
Night Four (Thursday): Our overarching Great Idea for the Year in TAG 4th language arts is “Change.” On Day Four, students write a paragraph explaining how their current events article represents Change. Change is everywhere and is linked to time; factors of change can be positive or negative, natural or human-made, and perceived as orderly or random. Explain how change is shown in your article!
Day Five (Friday morning): Bring to class the article you found, or your summary of a current events story. You will discuss your articles in Socratic Seminar-style conversations in your learning groups. Note: You don't have to understand your whole article, but be sure to understand at least a few things about the article. Maybe discuss it with a parent or guardian. In discussion, do not read the article to your group -- be able to paraphrase the article you chose, summarize and quote it, explain why it relates to the Idea. Don’t be afraid to think "outside the box" on your article -- don’t always just pick the first result from Google! :-)
To summarize, nightly homework for Mr. E's 4th Grade TAG language arts and social studies class includes:
1) Do Current Events/Great Ideas activity for that day in your HW journal
2) Study spelling and other word studies in your HW journal for the test (usually every Monday)
3) Do Self-Selected Sustained Reading (silent or aloud) for at least 20 minutes
4) Work on any long-term projects that have been assigned
Note: At the beginning of the year, be patient with yourself to learn our homework cycle! After you get the “hang of it,” you will enjoy applying these “Great Ideas”!
Note: If the kids finish their classwork early, they can work on the Great Ideas HW in class. Also, some kids like to do all the cycle at once -- maybe on the weekends -- and that is fine!
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