Parents, STAAR is fast-approaching and we have a jam packed schedule to prepare your scholar(s).
Each week students will be taking a deep dive into STAAR TEKS, materials, strategies, and tips.
Unit 6, Poetry: Wondrous Words-Jan 11th- Feb 2nd
This unit gives students tools and strategies for approaching poetry, how to read and interpret both formal and free verse poems. This unit routinely encourages and enables students to read texts closely and carefully.
Important Concepts: Figurative language, use of poetic devices such as rhyme, similes, and metaphors.
**Monday, January 17th-NO SCHOOL, MLK Observation**
Unit 7, Geology: This Rock You're Standing On-February 8th-March 3rd
The Big Idea of this unit is that the earth is composed of layers that, through heat and pressure, cause movements that result in geological features above and below the earth’s surface. Tectonic plate theory explains how mountains, volcanoes, and trenches are created on land and under the sea. Information about the rock cycle, weathering, and erosion also explains how the earth is continually changing. This unit explores the relationships between these different geological processes and how they affect the landscape and related environments of the earth.
Important Concepts: Increase vocabulary and syntax aligned with text, study geological processes, similes, informational writing, descriptive paragraph, and literary devices.
**SPRING BREAK- March 14th-18th**
Unit 8, Energy-March 21st-April 8th
In this unit, students will conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. The students will use the knowledge sequence in this unit to: collaboratively analyze texts to identify causes-effect and problem-solution relationships, generate questions and conduct research about energy, write an argumentative essay making their case for a fuel of the future, create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.
Important Concepts: Identify central idea and key details in text, cause/effect, problem/solution, make & defend claim using textual evidence, make inferences, draw conclusions, identify/gather primary and secondary source information, draft, revise, and publish argumentative essays.
**GOOD FRIDAY-April 15th**