ELA
Overview: In ELA we will be doing many different units that will include class novels, discussions around the central ideas of our novels, as well as several writing pieces . Our units will include an introduction to the Reader's and Writer's notebook, a Realistic Fiction Unit, a Folktale Unit, a Memoir Unit and a Persuasive Unit. Many of our units are cross curricular with our World Geography topics, which helps to create a more meaningful learning experience.
Unit Overview (first two): To start the year off, we launched our grade wide "Mission One Million" reading mission. We all pledged to do our best to try to read more. With the help of our nightly Reader's notebook, we hope to have some success in the completion of this "mission". We also will be refreshing our memory on the writing process, with our focus being on elaborating our reasons and finding supporting evidence from the text. With this we will learn to create our own graphic organizers that will apply to all writing genres.
We will also take a look at plot elements and apply the elements to stories in our Literature books. This will lead up to our class novel, The Revealers, where we will read, look at vocabulary and discuss key points from the novel. Our culminating activity for this unit will be our personal narratives we write, just like the character Rose, in The Revealers.
After finishing the Revealers, we will take a look at various stories from our texts, comparing themes, author's purpose and character' s viewpoints. We will also be tying in various writing activities with our World novel, Lost Boy, Lost Girl.
Reader's Notebooks:
Students will be reading each night for 30 minutes and writing in a Reader's notebook. Students will receive a schedule/calendar each trimester stating what they will be writing about in their Reader's notebooks. The schedule is also posted on our team calendar.
The schedule typically looks like this:
Monday - Summary Night
Tuesday - Character/Scene Sketch
Wednesday - Wonder Night
Friday - Hand in Reader's notebook to be checked for completion when required.
***Additional homework assignments will be posted daily on my homework board. All students are required to write down their daily homework in their agendas. Long term projects, tests/quizzes and reader's notebook will be posted on our team calendar.