Curriculum:

Language Arts

This year I will be using Collaborative Literacy. I will also be using Core Novels & StoryWorks Magazine.

The district purchased a new curriculum for reading and writing called Collaborative Literacy. Besides helping your child become a skilled reader and writer in academic content, Collaborative Literacy incorporates social development as they become a community of learners.

There are two programs: Making Meaning and Being a Writer

Making Meaning:

-build their reading comprehension

-learn key comprehension strategies to help them understand what they read including;

analyzing the text structure,

making inferences,

determining important ideas, and synthesizing

-Students will be practicing these skills during IDR (Individualized Daily Reading) while conferring with their teacher about what they are reading, reteach of skills, or scaffolding further.

-The first two units are about building a community of readers:

students talk about what they are reading,

why they like it, and

the social skill of really listening and being present.

Be a Writer:

-Builds on their writing skills

-Students hear and discuss:

Good writing

Different types of writing genres

-Learn the process of writing, from idea to publishing their piece of writing

-The first unit focuses on the social aspect of writing:

Respectfully listening to others thinking

Sharing ideas of one’s thoughts

Showing appreciation for others journey in writing as well as the writing itself

CORE NOVELS: The fourth grade uses novels selected by Las Virgenes Unified School District. We create curriculum aligned with Common Core standards and the novel to give students lessons that have depth, novelty, and clarity. The following are some of the novels being read (aloud or as a class) for the 2017-2018 school year will be:

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Mr. Blue Jeans

By the Great Horn Spoon

Individualized Daily Reading (IDR)

Research has consistently shown what common sense suggests: the more students read, the better readers they become (Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding 1988; Taylor, Frye, and Maruyama 1990). The practice that independent reading provides is critical if students are to consolidate and strengthen the reading comprehension skills and strategies they are learning. The independent strategy practice lessons give students valuable practice in using these skills and strategies independently, but more independent practice is needed if the students are to become truly proficient at comprehending text. To meet this need, students will have a Individualized Daily Reading (IDR) strand.

INDEPENDENT READING IN GRADE 4

During Individualized Daily Reading in grade 4, the students spend up to 30 minutes a day reading books independently at their appropriate reading levels. Students learn the procedures for IDR and how to identify books that are at the appropriate level for them. They also learn procedures for using the classroom library and begin tracking the books they are reading.

READING APPROPRIATELY LEVELED TEXTS

For IDR to succeed, the students must be reading books that they can comprehend and read fluently with few miscues (accuracy errors). Early in the year, you can match students to books by informally assessing their reading abilities. A technique for evaluating the appropriateness of a book is to use the “five-finger rule.” As a student reads a page aloud, count any words he or she does not know. More than five unknown words on a page usually indicates that the book is too difficult. When your students become familiar with the five-finger rule, you can encourage them to use the technique on their own, making the students responsible for checking the appropriateness of the books they choose for IDR.It is very important for students to build reading fluency as a foundation for comprehension. If you have students who are reading far below grade level, make sure they have time every day to practice reading decodable texts, and check in with them regularly to monitor their rate and accuracy.

The Lexile® Framework for Reading

This leveling system uses a sophisticated formula to determine text difficulty, which it represents as a Lexile score that is used to rank the text on a graded scale. Developers of this framework (MetaMetrics, Inc.) have created a database of thousands of Lexiled texts, plus software that allows teachers to search, sort, and view information about each text. For more information, visit The Lexile Framework for Reading website (lexile.com)

StoryWorks

We also use the Scholastic produced literary magazine, StoryWorks. This magazine uses nonfiction, poetry, literature, and online media. It is an excellent resource students can access at home as well as school

Social Studies

Social Studies Weekly

Instead of traditional textbooks, fourth grade will have Project Based Assignments and read Social Studies Weekly. SSW is a weekly newspaper written for California history and state standards.

Writing

Writer's Workshop is a writing program aimed at giving students the experience of the true author's process. Students build stamina, work on craft, and also learn what it is to self-inspire. All fourth graders will work on narrative, opinion, and informational pieces through out the school year.

Mathematics

Go Math & Think Central

The LVUSD adopted math curriculum is Go Math. This is a Common Core aligned curriculum, and strongly digital. All students have an account with Go Math's online text: Think Central. This website allows students to work on homework, review lessons, and even take tests and quizzes using a device. Students will be expected to use Think Central for the majority of their homework assignments. They will also be taking almost all quizzes and tests online. Students are still expected to show all their mathematical thinking on paper, and will turn in their test work at the end of all assessments.

Science

All science curriculum for fourth and fifth grade is taught by our district science teacher.

Technology:

Students will complete much of their work on their Acers. It is imperative that students charge their computers nightly. Completed work will not be printed out. Your child will always have access to their work on their Google Classroom. Most of this work will be graded online and will not be sent home in the students Communication Folder. Ask your child to share the work that they complete online.

California Mission Links

http://factcards.califa.org/mis/mismenu.html

http://californiamissionsfoundation.org/the-california-missions/

http://californias-missions.org/

http://www.missionscalifornia.com/