Reading

Week of March 9th

The Armor Agents are finishing on the current planet this week. This planet is a central hub of the universe and aliens from all of the previous planets are found here. The agents are amazed to see all of the races interacting together. This planet we will be focusing on the similarities and differences between the different genres and comparing across texts. This unit we will also be focusing on all of the previous skills we have learned this year. We will also be working with paired passages this unit.

This week to practice our comparative skills, the Armor Agents will be comparing different argumentative texts and poetry. We will also be reviewing all of our comparative skills. We have a boss battle Thursday, March 12. There will be a couple of practice passages on google classroom.

Book Club Is Up and Running!

This round of book club will be historical fiction books. Students officially get their next book club book Monday. Students will be asked to have their reading done and record their thinking of the book. They will create a chart in the book club section of their 3-subject notebook. On one the left side of the notebook they will put text evidence. On the right side, they will record their own thinking. Students will organize their thinking using a depth and complexity icon.

On top of their notes students will be asked to do research once a week about their historical topics. This will help us to practice our across genres skills and comparing. Students will be asked to share their research in group once a week.

Book Club work will be due on Tuesdays and Friday. I have told students they need to have it because their group is depending on them. If book club is not done, students will be sent to study hall.

Week of March 2nd

The Armor Agents are moving on to a new planet this week. This planet is a central hub of the universe and aliens from all of the previous planets are found here. The agents are amazed to see all of the races interacting together. This planet we will be focusing on the similarities and differences between the different genres and comparing across texts. This unit we will also be focusing on all of the previous skills we have learned this year. We will also be working with paired passages this unit.

This week to practice our comparative skills, the Armor Agents will be comparing different non-fiction texts. Additionally, students will be comparing nonfiction and fiction passages and nonfiction and poetry. Finally, we will be working on comparing different fictional texts looking specifically at how different passages can have a similar theme.

Book Club Is Starting!

Book Club work will be due on Tuesdays and Friday. I have told students they need to have it because their group is depending on them. If book club is not done, students will be sent to study hall.

Week of February 24th

This week to help practice our comparative skills, the Armor Agents will be comparing pictures and paragraphs. We will also be reviewing our dictionary skills.

Week of February 17th

The Armor Agents have a short week this week. They will be finish on Planet Tonnie Scorpian Toxify. On this planet, students will be exploring and delving into Non-Fiction Texts. Students will be asked to identify and tell the purpose of text structure, and text features. Identify the main idea and supporting details, use context clues and dictionary skills, infer about non-fiction texts and summarize nonfiction texts.

This week, the agents will be focusing on reviewing all of their skills for their Boss Battle on Friday, February 21st. In class, students will do a online Boss Battle Prep with a partner. Additionally, there will be a couple of optional at home missions to help them study.

In library this week, all students need to continue to check out a non-fiction book to use in on an in-class assignment this week.

Week of February 10th

The Armor Agents will be continuing on Planet Tonnie Scorpian Toxify. On this planet, students will be exploring and delving into Non-Fiction Texts. Students will be asked to identify and tell the purpose of text structure, and text features. Identify the main idea and supporting details, use context clues and dictionary skills, infer about non-fiction texts and summarize nonfiction texts.

This week, the agents will be focusing on using main idea and details to summarize non-fiction texts. This skill will build on what students learned about and worked on the last two weeks. Then students will practice their inferencing skills over non-fiction texts. We will be reviewing the task cards they were assigned last week as well as be given some more opportunities to practice this skill.

In library this week, all students need to continue to check out a non-fiction book to use in on an in-class assignment this week.

ARMOR Agents will have their next boss battle on February 21st.

Week of February 3rd

The Armor Agents will be continuing on Planet. In this planet, students will be exploring and delving into Non-Fiction Texts. Students will be asked to identify and tell the purpose of text structure, and text features. Identify the main idea and supporting details, use context clues and dictionary skills, infer about non-fiction texts and summarize nonfiction texts.

This week, the agents will be focusing on a large array of skills without their commanding officer. I will be out the entire week of February 3rd. Students have been left a menu of 9 different activities that will ask them to really use everything they know about nonfiction texts and context clue/dictionary skills. These assignments are below

In library this week, all students need to continue to check out a non-fiction book to use in on an in-class assignment this week and next week.

Week of February 3rd Checklist

Week of January 27th

The Armor Agents will be moving on to their newest planet. In this planet, students will be exploring and delving into Non-Fiction Texts. Students will be asked to identify and tell the purpose of text structure, and text features. Identify the main idea and supporting details, use context clues and dictionary skills, infer about non-fiction texts and summarize nonfiction texts.

This week, we will be focusing on the different types of text structures for non-fiction texts. We will talk about strategies of how to identify them and the key words students can use to help them. Additionally we will be talking about the Boxes and Bullets strategy to identify Main Idea. To end the week, we will be talking about the purpose of text features and how they can help us learn new information beyond the words.

In library this week, all students need to check out a non-fiction book to use in on an in-class assignment next week.

Week of January 20th

This week the Armor Agents will be finishing their expeditions on Planet Globe. Planet Globe is a planet full of dramatic performances. On this planet, agents will focus on the genre of drama. For drama we will be review many of the same skills we covered on Planet LVT. These skills will include: plot, theme, summary, inferencing, and context clues. This week we will be focusing on theme in Drama and reviewing for our Boss Battle.

On Friday (1/24) students will have a Drama Assessment. This boss battle will consist of 2 passages just like our previous boss battles. Students can study using the materials on Google Classroom. They will be listed as optional missions.

Week of January 13th

This week the Armor Agents will be continuing their expeditions on Planet Globe. Planet Globe is a planet full of dramatic performances. On this planet, agents will focus on the genre of drama. For drama we will be review many of the same skills we covered on Planet LVT. These skills will include: plot, theme, summary, inferencing, and context clues. This week we will be focusing on inferencing and summarizing. Students will read through scripts and work to summarize the scripts. Summaries will include somebody, wanted, but, so, then.

On Thursday (1/16) students will have a Drama Vocabulary Quiz. There is a Drama quizlet students can be studying for this quiz. It can be found here. The link is also on Google Classroom.

Tomorrow (1/14) students will have their Reading STAAR Interim. This is replacing the STAAR Ready this year. It will take place on the computer and will really narrow in on the students level. This test should not be as long as actual STAAR. I have told students they can bring the snacks they do like a normal school day but we are not doing any mints, or gum for this test. Please DO NOT have your students study for this Interim. We will be using the data from this test to see where students are, what skills need to be reviewed more thoroughly and what we need to focus on as we move into the STAAR testing season.

Week of December 9th

This week the Armor Agents will be finishing up their battle for the planet Teeny Torpidity. For this planet, we will be closely linking reading and writing.

Week of December 2nd

This week the ARMOR Agents will be continuing the battle on to a new planet Teeny Torpidity. This planet will be focusing on Poetry. This poetry unit will closely link reading and writing.

We will be starting a PBL project with the driving question "How can I use poetry to express my identity? Students will be reading poetry and using it as mentor texts as they go about writing their own poetry to express their identity. As we read through the poems we will be analyzing the poetry for theme, speaker, rhythm, rhyme, and inferencing with poetry. To analyze the poems we will be using the acronym POETS.

Week of November 18th

This week the ARMOR Agents will be moving on to a new planet Teeny Torpidity. This new planet will be focusing on Poetry. For poetry, we will be talking about figurative language, and analyzing poetry for theme, speaker, rhythm, rhyme, and inferencing with poetry. This poetry unit will closely link reading and writing. After break we will be starting a PBL project asking students to represent their identity through poetry.

This week, students will be focusing on reviewing the types of figurative language. Students will be reviewing similes, metaphors, alliteration, assonance, personification, hyperbole, and onomatopoeia. Additionally, just like with our other planets students will be creating notecards over the key language students will need to know. These notecards will be posted on quizlet for students to study. They will have a poetry vocabulary quiz on Friday.

Week of November 4th

This week the ARMOR Agents will continue their adventures on planet Lapin Vociferation Terran (LVT). This week we will be focusing on the skills of Inferencing, and Theme. These are two major skills for this planet. You can practice theme at home by reading a fictional book together and discussing what lesson you can learn for the book. For example, in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" the theme is to be honest.

Book Club is also continuing this week. Book Club work will be due on Mondays and Thursdays. I have told students they need to have it because their group is depending on them. If book club is not done, students will be sent to study hall. For Monday they need to have at least 2 thoughts per chapter. For Thursday, they will need to have 3 thoughts per chapter.

Week of October 28th

This week the ARMOR Agents will continue to work on our new planet Lapin Vociferation Terran (LVT). On this planet, students will analyze plots, the relationships characters are in, and conflicts that occur across plots between characters. Students will explain the author's purpose and themes within fiction and describe the language and literary devices used by authors to achieve different purposes.

This week, we will be focused on using what we know about a stories plot to summarize a story. A summary should include Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then. We will be connecting this to our plot diagrams. Somebody- Exposition, Wanted, But- Rising Action, Climax- Climax, Then- Falling Action. We will also be starting inferencing this week. This is an important skill that we will build on all year. Inferencing = Text + Background Knowledge. Finally, On Halloween we will be doing some work with Scary Idioms and Creepy Context Clues.

Book Club has Started!

Students officially got their first book club book last Friday. Students will be asked to have their reading done and record their thinking of the book. They have created a chart in the book club section of their 3-subject notebook. On one side of the notebook they will put text evidence. On the right side, they will record their own thinking. Students will organize their thinking using a depth and complexity icon. Right now, I am asking students record 4 thoughts for each time book club meets. But, for next week we are going to bump it up to 5 thoughts.

Book Club work will be due on Mondays and Thursdays. I have told students they need to have it because their group is depending on them. If book club is not done, students will be sent to study hall.

ACFrOgB1t4G30dh5Dzq_AzCvL-9MPz8ou8hqk3O1gwn5WF0PvZ65pSaeD2z_U8dxw-ilB6TYhZ0W-a1IHZ1JydP1TUc4tZkbrpalv7FYMsZtYeYNSUjyEz__fSA9nQk=.pdf

Week of October 21th

This week the ARMOR Agents will be review Argumentative Texts again. Students unfortunately, didn't defeat the Evil Ganderi on their Boss Battle, so students will be review these skills for a couple more days. On Monday students will go over some of the most missed test questions. On Tuesday, students will be reading through a new argumentative text and identifying the claim, argument, and evidence. On Wednesday, on top of library, students will be getting their individual boss battles back and doing corrections. On Thursday, we will be doing a mini-boss-battle to double check and see if we have the necessary skills to move on. Also on Thursday, we should be taking off to our next planet. On this next planet we will be reading fictional texts. Some big skills for this upcoming planet are plot, summary, theme and inferencing. Thursday will be an introduction to Plot Diagrams. On Friday, we will be continuing with plot diagrams and practicing this skill with an Irish Legend.

Week of October 14th

The ARMOR Agents will spend most of the week working on finalizing their writing this week. We will also be going over the results from the boss battle last week, and reviewing Argumentative Texts.

Week of October 7th

The ARMOR Agents have a Boss Battle (Test) coming up on Thursday, October 10. We will be spending the week reviewing and preparing for our Battle against the Ganderi fleet.

Because reading is a subject that is hard to study for there isn't going to be a review. However, there are a couple of things your child can do to study. We will be going over these in class.

1. Study their quizlet set of the vocabulary that will be on the test. We created these flashcards in class and then uploaded them to quizlet. The link can be found on Google Classroom.

2. Go to NewsELA and read and take the quiz of an Opinion Article.

3. I am re-assigning the Flocabulary Persuasive Language Read and Respond. Students can redo this assignment to practice. If students were not successful the 1st time, I will take the higher grade and put it in the gradebook.

4. I will be assigning some Optional Skills Mission for agents to earn some extra XP. These will review the basic skills that will be on the test but will not have a full reading passage.

Week of September 30th

The ARMOR Agents have been very busy learning all about Argumentative Texts. Last week, we learned about Claims, Arguments and Evidence as well as Counter Claims. Students had to define, give characteristics, and examples of each. Then students worked to find examples of these in different Argumentative Texts. These important skills will be on the upcoming boss battle.

This week, students have been finishing up with Arguments and Evidence. Then we will start talking about Ethos, Logos and Pathos. These are 3 persuasive techniques that authors use to convince us to do something. For these strategies, we will need to not only know what these words mean but also find examples in texts.

Students do have a Boss Battle (Test) coming up next week on Thursday, October 10.

Because reading is a subject that is hard to study for there isn't going to be a review. However, there are a couple of things your child can do to study. We will be going over these in class.

1. Study their quizlet set of the vocabulary that will be on the test. We created these flashcards in class and then uploaded them to quizlet. The link can be found on Google Classroom.

2. Go to NewsELA and read and take the quiz of an Opinion Article.

3. I am reassigning the Flocabulary Persuasive Language Read and Respond. Students can redo this assignment to practice. If students were not successful the 1st time, I will take the higher grade and put it in the gradebook.

4. I will be assigning some Optional Skills Mission for agents to earn some extra XP. These will review the basic skills that will be on the test but will not have a full reading passage.

Week of September 16th

This week the ARMOR Agents will be reviewing some of their nonfiction reading skills before diving into their unit on Argumentative Texts. We will be reviewing 3 skills this week- Fact and Opinion, Main Idea, and Text Features. These important skills will help us to be the most successful in our persuasive reading and writing. Then on Friday, we will be introduced to the language of argumentative text. Reviewing key vocabulary and noticing what that might look like in argumentative texts. Starting next week, you can be reviewing this vocabulary using a class made Quizlet set that will be on Google Classroom.

Week of September 9th

This week the ARMOR Agents will be completing a menu to show off all of their basic training skills. During this time, Ms. Gagliardi will be BAS testing to find each agents reading level. This menu will ask students to read aloud a picture book, write a book review, develop vocabulary, and practice their grammatical patterns.

As a reminder please make sure your child is reading 30 minutes every night. This is the only way to help them grow as a reader. I have also told students that starting this week, they must do their 30 minutes once a week on NewsELA by reading an article and taking the quiz.

Week of September 2nd

This week, the ARMOR Agents will continue their work with partners. Students will be work to coach their partners to be stronger readers. They will be asking each other questions and using prompts to help their partners elaborate on their thoughts.

Additionally, students will work to record their thinking as they read using sticky notes or annotating. In 5th grade we will be using Depth and Complexity to help record our thinking. To do this, students need to be able to identify which icons match their books best. This can be practiced at home if you read with your child. After you finish reading, ask them for an icon that matches their thinking and why.

Week of August 26th

This week, the ARMOR Agents will learn to work together with each other in their reading. Students will be learning how to discuss their reading, read together and coach each other to be better readers. They can practice this at home by talking about their nightly reading with parents, siblings or friends.

Students will also review the Depth and Complexity Icons in class. We will be using these icons all year for many purpose across all subjects. These icons were created to help your students think in deep and complex ways. Students will be practicing discussing about their reading with partners using these icons. They will also be asked to use these icons to annotate their text next week.

Week of August 19th

In the first few weeks of school, it is important to unite students as a community of learners. One way we will be doing this is through a year long game where students are agents of an Astronautical Spy Agency called Armor. This week, students will begin basic training. During basic training, fifth graders will establish routines and procedures, as well as a classroom of mutual respect and sharing. For each routine they learn, classes will earn pieces of their space ship to get to the Armor Space Station. Once they earn all the pieces they will be ready for their first mission (unit).

Alongside putting important routines and procedures into place, students will read, interact with, and listen to a variety of texts. Every night, students should be reading for 30 minutes to help build their reading stamina and grow as readers.

Page updated

Report abuse