The Week at a Glance
Week of May 20, 2024
This week, students will present their biography projects and share some of their poems aloud to the class.
Week of May 13, 2024
This week, we will move into a poetry unit. Students will learn about the various elements that are often included in poetry. We will also look at different types of figurative language that can be used in poems. Students will then be writing various types of poems including an acrostic, cinquain, haiku, limerick, and diamante.
Week of May 6, 2024
This week, students will begin working on their biography digital book project. They will select a biography or autobiography of their choice if they haven’t done so already. They will be reading the book in class and completing the assigned slides. Students will present the information on their chosen person when all steps of the project are completed.
Week of April 29, 2024
This week, we will move into autobiographies and biographies. We will study the features that make them up. We will read the biography “When Marian Sang” from our Reading Street Series. We will discuss the story together and complete several comprehension activities to check student understanding.
Week of April 22, 2024
This week, we will continue our literature circles/book clubs. Students will continue reading the assigned chapters and completing tasks as assigned.
Week of April 15, 2024
This week, we will continue our literature circles/book clubs. Students will continue reading the assigned chapters and completing tasks as assigned.
Week of April 8, 2024
This week, we will begin book clubs. Students will be provided training on how to properly act during our book club meetings. We will complete some practice exercises during the training. We will then discuss the format and schedule of our book clubs. Then, we will begin our scheduled reading activities for the book clubs.
Week of March 25, 2024
This week, we will be finishing up our March Madness Book Battle. We will be doing round three and round four. Students will also have time to complete their Reading Plus Assignments. Students will also be given time to read their AR books to attempt to reach the goal of 80 AR points to earn the reward trip at the end of the year.
Week of March 18, 2024
This week, we will be taking the English Language Arts tests for our state IAR testing. Please make sure your student eats a good breakfast, attends school, and gets plenty of sleep. We will also complete our March Madness Book Battle Activities during classroom instruction time.
Week of March 11, 2024
This week, we will finish reading our nonfiction novel titled I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters. We will read it as a class and in small groups. We will apply all of the nonfiction elements that we have studied thus far to this novel. Students will be able to answer comprehension questions, learn new vocabulary, and study various text structures and text features.
Week of March 4, 2024
This week, we will continue reading our nonfiction novel titled I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters. We will read it as a class and in small groups. We will apply all of the nonfiction elements that we have studied thus far to this novel. Students will be able to answer comprehension questions, learn new vocabulary, and study various text structures and text features.
Week of February 26, 2024
This week, we will begin our nonfiction novel titled I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters. We will read it as a class and in small groups. We will apply all of the nonfiction elements that we have studied thus far to this novel. Students will be able to answer comprehension questions, learn new vocabulary, and study various text structures and text features.
Week of February 19, 2024
This week, we will read the nonfiction text titled “Gold” from our Reading Street series. We will apply the information we learned this week about main idea in order to find the main idea of the entire text and subsections. We will also use our text features to help us identify the main idea.
Week of February 12, 2024
This week, we will cover how to find the main idea of a nonfiction text. We will look at the difference between a topic and a main idea. We will also discuss how the supporting details should support the main idea. Then, we will look at various nonfiction texts, and I will model the steps to find the main idea. Students will then complete the same process in groups and individually.
Week of February 5, 2024
This week, we will finish up one more activity with text features. Then, students will present their January book in a bag project. They will explain the scene on the bag as well as give us the summary of the book. Students will also explain the five items they put in their bag and the reason and rationale of how it connects to their book.
Week of January 29, 2024
This week, we will continue our nonfiction unit and our focus on text features. We will complete a whole group activity with a passage from the science textbook. We will once again gain practice identifying the text feature and noting how it helps us as readers. Students will also go on a text feature hunt searching for the various text features in the provided nonfiction texts to help them identify and locate them. Students will also complete text features Scoot activity to check their understanding.
Week of January 22, 2024
This week, we will continue our nonfiction unit. We will study the various text features that can be present in nonfiction texts. Students will learn what they entail, see examples, and understand how the specific text features help readers. We will complete a whole group activity with a passage from the science textbook. We will once again gain practice identifying the text feature and noting how it helps us as readers. Students will also go on a text feature hunt searching for the various text features in social studies and science textbooks to help them identify and locate them.
Week of January 15, 2024
This week, we will continue our nonfiction unit. Students will finish up their text structure scavenger hunt and poster. Then, students will complete additional text structure activities with partners and independently.
Week of January 8, 2024
This week, we will begin our nonfiction unit. We will begin this unit by looking at the different text structures that non-fiction texts can use. We will take notes over these text structures using a flip book. Then, students will complete a text structure scavenger hunt using the information that they have learned.
Week of December 18, 2023
This week, we will continue watching the movie Bridge to Terabithia, and we will compare and contrast it to the book. Students will be able to discuss their findings with the class.
Week of December 11, 2023
This week, we will finish our novel study of the book Bridge to Terabithia. We will read chapters twelve and thirteen of the book. We will focus on how all the events came full circle to complete the story. We will also discuss the theme of the story and the textual evidence that supports the theme. Towards the end of the week, we will begin watching the movie, and we will compare and contrast it to the book.
Week of December 4, 2023
This week, we will continue our novel study with the book Bridge to Terabithia. We will read chapters ten and eleven of the book. We will focus on the character's feelings as well as mood, theme, and symbols. We will focus on vocabulary specific to each chapter as well as summarization.
Week of November 27, 2023
This week, we will continue our novel study with the book Bridge to Terabithia. We will read chapters eight and nine of the book. We will focus on the character's feelings as well as mood, theme, and symbols. We will focus on vocabulary specific to each chapter as well as summarization.
Week of November 20, 2023
This week, we will continue our novel study with the book Bridge to Terabithia. We will read chapter seven of the book. We will focus on the character's feelings as well as the alliterations that the author uses to convey feelings. We will focus on vocabulary specific to each chapter as well as summarization.
Week of November 13, 2023
This week, we will continue our novel study with the book Bridge to Terabithia. We will then begin reading chapters five and six of the book. We will focus on how the characters’ traits impact the plot of the story. We will focus on vocabulary specific to each chapter as well as characters and summarization.
Week of November 6, 2023
This week, we will continue our novel study with the book Bridge to Terabithia. We will then begin reading chapters three and four of the book. We will make predictions and adjust our predictions as needed. We will focus on vocabulary specific to each chapter as well as characters and summarization.
Week of October 30, 2023
This week, we will begin our novel study with the book Bridge to Terabithia. We will make predictions before reading the book based off of the title, illustrations, and summary on the back cover. We will then begin reading chapters one and two of the book. We will focus on vocabulary specific to each chapter as well as characters and figurative language.
Week of October 23, 2023
This week, we will continue learning about theme. We will see how the changes that characters go through can help us find theme. Students will also be given a mentor text, and groups will work together to find the theme of the story. Students will also complete an independent theme assessment towards the end of the week.
Week of October 16, 2023
This week, students will continue applying the four types of conflicts to given passages or scenarios. Once again, they will have to highlight clue words and phases and identify which conflict is present in the given passage. We will also begin studying the story element of theme. Students will learn what theme is and what it is not. We will read several mentor texts to help students gain practice identifying the theme of a story. We will end the week with First Chapter Friday, and students will have time to read independently.
Week of October 9, 2023
This week, we will finish working on the skill of summarizing pieces of fiction texts. Students will complete an independent assessment using the SWBST strategy. Then, we will move into learning about the different types of conflict in literature. Students will learn the different types include character versus character, character versus self, character versus nature, and character versus society. We will practice identifying types of conflict as a whole class, in small groups, and independently. We will end the week with First Chapter Friday, and students will have time to read independently.
Week of October 2, 2023
This week, we will work on the skill of summarizing pieces of fiction texts. Students will learn the SWBST strategy and be able to apply it to a variety of texts. We will practice this strategy as a whole class, in small groups, and independently. We will end the week with First Chapter Friday, and students will have time to read independently.
Week of September 25, 2023
This week, we will continue working on character traits. Students will apply what we have learned about characters to the short story titled “Mother Fletcher’s Gift.” Students will have a quiz over the story at the end of the week. We will end the week with First Chapter Friday, and students will have time to read independently.
Week of September 18, 2023
This week, we will be talking about character traits. We will discuss the difference between physical traits and personality traits. We will also discuss how some texts have direct characterizations while others have indirect characterization. Students will gain practice by reading several different passages and books to help identify the character’s traits that are present in the passage or story. We will end the week with First Chapter Friday, and students will have time to read independently.
Week of September 11, 2023
This week, we will be talking about the strategy of visualizing. We will have a mini lesson about what visualizing entails. We will read various books and passages to practice the skill of creating a mental image in our minds as we read. We will then apply the concepts of setting and visualizing to an excerpt of Old Yeller. We will end the week with First Chapter Friday, and students will have time to read independently.
Week of September 4, 2023
This week, we will be finishing up plot and discussing how the setting impacts a story. We will review the four parts that make up the setting, and we will apply it to various mentor texts as a class. Students will go on a Setting Scavenger hunt through several children’s books and find the text evidence that identifies the time, place, and environment of the book. Students will also be assessed independently using a passage that focuses on setting. We will end the week with First Chapter Friday, and students will have time to read independently.
Week of August 28, 2023
This week, we will be discussing the elements of plot. Students will learn the elements of plot and practice identifying them through fairy tales and mentor texts. Students will also work in groups to read a book and identify the elements of plot. They will share their findings with the class.
Week of August 21, 2023
This week, students will learn about good reading habits. This includes how to find a just right book, thinking during reading, and what to do if students need to abandon a book. My classroom library and reading procedures will be discussed as well as taking a trip to the school library.