Weekly Assignments
March 25-29
Let's review informational writing! Plan, write, revise, and edit a 3 paragraph essay about earthquakes. You should use information from the article linked below and background knowledge from your science class to complete your outline and essay!
Focus on using at least two transtion words and two specific examples from the text in each paragraph.
March 11-15
This week, students are finishing their essays. They will be given an option to retake the test if they are unhappy with their grades.
Then, we will learn about advertising and write persuasive paragraphs that market a product we design in groups!
March 4 - 8
This week, we are using the RISE benchmarks to write an argumentative essay that will be graded!
February 26 - March 1
This week, our prompt is "Should schools have the power to ban books that are deemed inappropriate or dangerous for kids?
February 19-23
We are writing the animal defense essay we outlined yesterday!
February 12-16
We are starting a new essay this week! This week, we will be writing a 4 paragraph essay that answers the question in the image below. It's silly, but the purpose of it is to introduce us to conducting research to find supporting evidence for our thesis.
Use the links below to find data on the animals that you choose! Find details and facts that would persuade your reader that those animals are the best choice to defind you!
February 5-9
We are learning transition words and doing activities that help us practice professional/academic voice.
Links to transition word quiz!
January 29-February 2
We are revising and editing the essays we started last week!
January 22-26
This week, students will be outlining and writing their first argumentative essay! Theere are two prompts to choose from:
What animal makes the best pet?
Should schools have vending machines?
January 15-19
We read an example essay and annotated it to learn about the organization of an argumentative essay. We highlighted the thesis, the three arguments, and the rebuttle. Additionally, we found the authors supporting examples and wrote them on an outline.
January 8-12
This week, students will be taking a pretest for our new unit on argumentative writing. The pretest will be done through RISE. After we get our results, we will graph the pretest data and set goals for our post-test scores!
January 1-5
We have writing class on Wednesday and Thursday! We'll be writing summary paragraphs and playing a spelling game using our new sound wall.
December 18-22
Students have the option this week to retake a RISE writing test to raise their grade or continue working on the essay or story of choice that they started last week!
We have writing class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week.
December 11-15
When you finish your RISE essay...
Finish your Flashlight 360 benchmark (access through Clever)
Outline and write an essay about whatever you already know a lot about! You can use your background knowledge of any subject you are interested in: Minecraft, soccer, the drama happening in your friend group, etc.
or
Outline and write a narrative story in which the setting is winter!
Click on the links to the assignments to get started and get suggestions!
December 4-8
We are working on our first graded essay. The topic of this essay is the same as when students took a pretest. This essay is done through the RISE system. Students will have one week to finish this essay!
November 27-December 1
We are revising/editing our Pueblo Revolt essay, practicing one more introduction and conclusion paragraph, then starting a graded essay on caves using the RISE benchmarks.
After our pretest, we set growth goals for this assessment! A good goal was to move our score up by 2 points and a great goal was to move it up by 3 points. This is our least week to practice before we test again!
November 20-24
Monday, we are finishing the first draft of our informational essay! There is no writing class Tuesday and school is out for the rest of the week.
November 13-17
We are starting our first informational essay. We read and annotated a text about the Pueblo Revolt and started our first draft! Click below for a link to the Google Classroom and more details about the assignment.
November 6-10
Monday: Graph pretest data and set goals for the quarter
Tuesday: Talk about outline structure and find the main idea in an informational text
Wednesday: Use outline to write an informational paragraph (click on the links below!)
Thursday: Read the text independently and find another main idea and outline the supporting details. Write an additional paragraph on your own using the same link as yesterday!
October 30-November 3
We are starting our informational writing unit. Students will spend the week writing an informative essay using the RISE benchmarks. We will take the same test at the end of the quarter for a grade.
October 23-27
This week, we are learning about the suspense genre and what makes mystery or scary stories so enticing. We'll be analyzing scary stories and using descriptive detail and foreshadowing to make our own suspenseful paragraph!
Not all students are fond of scary stories, so mystery will be a genre option so that everyone can feel comfortable and meet learning expectations. All scary stories still need to follow school guidelines in terms of appropriate material for an elementary classroom.
October 16-20
Monday: no school!
Tuesday: Today, we will talk about rhyme schemes in music and analyze the lyrics of two popular songs.
Wednesday: Special Guest! Portland musician Nicholas James will be doing a lyric writing workshop with all of 5th grade from 9:30am to 10:30am in the gym.
Thursday: Continuing our music exploration week, students will find impressive lyrics from their favorite songs and share them with the class here for analysis. All lyrics require approval before being shared.
October 9-13
It's the last week of the quarter!! Wednesday will be a short day and there is no school on Thursday, Friday, or the following Monday (5 day weekend)!
Monday: last chance to finish realistic fiction stories and submit for grading.
Tuesday: cursive writing
Wednesday: Short day! Students will have a shortened writing class with their entire homeroom class.
October 2-6
This week, we will write the realistic fiction story that we outlined last week!
Monday: dialogue lesson and start first draft
Tuesday: finish first draft
Wednesday: revise first draft
Thursday: edit revised draft
Completed stories will be published and graded on Monday, Oct. 9th!
September 25-29
Monday: We will edit and publish our adventure stories! A completion assignment will be added to Focus.
Tuesday: We will take the Flashlight360 benchmark.
Wednesday: We will start a new story! This story will be graded in Focus. Outlines will be due the following Monday.
Thursday: No class due to field trip to Hale Center Theater
September 18-21
We are learning about the final steps of the writing process: revising, editing, and publishing. Students will revise their stories to ensure that the content and organization make sense and that things in the story are described. Then, they will receive a printed copy of their revised draft that they will edit (check punctuation, grammar, and other convensions). Finally, they will publish their work by sharing a copy with someone else!
September 11-14
This week, students will complete the first draft of their adventure story. On Wednesday, they will learn about the revision step in the writing process and spend the remaining days revising their story to include more descriptive details.
Ms. Howell will be out of town starting Wednesday. A substitute will be teaching her lesson plans on Wednesday and Thursday.
September 5-7
We are writing our first story! After reviewing story elements and learning about the writing process, we will brainstorm, outline, and write first drafts of an adventure story.
August 28-31
This week, students will explore the class website and learn how to create a Google Doc to turn in future assignments. In addition, we will continue learning cursive lettering.
There is no school Friday and Thursday is a short day!
Welcome Week August 16-18
This week, students will meet the teacher, tour the classroom, and learn about the class! They will be asked to think about an assignment that will be started next week, but no formal homework will be given.