Madame Hawes' grade 3 English Language Arts

Attendance is an important consideration for student success:

I will be giving homework occasionally and weekly spelling to review. It is very important that students complete homework before the following week in order to be prepared to continue learning. If students are absent on the one day per week that I see them, it has a significant impact on learning and my ability to assess their progress. Your regular French classroom teacher does not share in the instruction or organization of English Language Arts day. 

We generally do not have catch-up time during English days. Important missed work will be left for absent students to be completed at home. Absences from class become particularly challenging when appointments or other recurring activities fall on English day. If this is your situation, or you anticipate an extended absence, please contact me so that we can make a plan together for success. I also completely support keeping children home when they are ill. Check the agenda daily, please.

A bit about English Language Arts for immersion students in grade 3:

I truly believe in the benefits of immersion for language learning. Until grade 3, French literacy has needed to be at the forefront of your student's Language Arts learning. Now, in grade 3, we introduce English! The district understands that students will need some time to read or write at the same level that grade 3 English school students do. The BC provincial curriculum for all grade 3 English Language Arts is intended to guide what is taught. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/english-language-arts/3/core . French immersion students tend to need direct focus on phonics, decoding skills, and English word construction patterns for reading and writing accuracy. With exposure, and the added ease of learning in their first language, they generally do very well to catch up. The grade 3 year is possibly where the greatest range of abilities is present, because it is their first formal English learning. Some students will be reading chapter books, and some will need time and explicit lessons to learn sounds. I do my very best to meet students where they are at, and to support this range of learners. I encourage students to read aloud to a competent reader at home in English. Short, regular reading of materials that interest the student are best. At this stage, a joy of reading FAR outweighs the amount and fluency. Please connect if your student is feeling burdened! I would love to offer suggestions.

Click below for links to class overviews. The class overview is a living document and needs to be flexible to accomodate needs as I get to know my students. I do my best to set out with a well thought out approach, and I may edit the document time to time to be a responsive educator.