Language Arts

**Because literacy is extremely important to success in school, students should be reading AT LEAST 30 minutes each night and logging their reading minutes onto Biblionasium.com.  (I have invited parents to connect to this site by email)

JANUARY, 2019

NARRATIVE WRITING:  Because of NWEA testing, this is a great time to begin our graphic novels.  This is always a student favorite.  We have begun with our blueprints, coming up with a draft of the story.  They are learning about the visual elements of graphic novels.  Students will be selecting pages to write and illustrate their novels.  Some fun writing during the NWEA testing weeks!

READING:  I have introduced the historical fiction assignment on Google Classroom the first day after our holiday break.  As students are reading their novels, they may complete various parts of the assignment.  We are also working on finding the theme in literature.  There is a section of the assignment that focuses on this.  This assignment is due by the end of the week.

DECEMBER, 2019

INFORMATIONAL WRITING:  We are writing informational papers on the Columbian Exchange.  Students have been learning about the Columbian Exchange in Social Studies.  They organized their information into a paper with headings, and introduction and conclusion to demonstrate what they have learned.

READING: Students have been assigned a historical fiction book at their reading level.  They should be paying attention to elements of the book that show the book is historical fiction.  After the break, they will be working on an assignment related to their novel on Google Classroom.  Read! Read! Read!

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER, 2019

OPINION WRITING:  We have been writing opinion papers on the topic “Are plastics good or bad for our world?”  Students viewed several videos and read articles on this topic.  We discussed both the good and the bad.  Even though we all agreed that plastics are a huge problem, many started to see the good uses and need in our society.  Elements we focused on were a fact-based lead, strong thesis statement, 3 body paragraphs with topic sentences, use of transition words and phrases, evidence to support reasons for our opinions, and a conclusion to leave the reader thinking.  We also worked on revising and editing techniques and used peer editing before publishing our final papers.  Students designed their cover pages.  Please view our bulletin board in the fifth grade hallway to take a look at their work.

SEPTEMBER, 2019

NARRATIVE WRITING: For our first writing assignment, students will be composing a personal narrative about something that happened in their lives.  It is their choice what they write about.  It may be something exciting, scary, disappointing or something else.  I will be looking for some key elements:  use of the blueprint for planning, organization (introduction, body, conclusion), and a good lead.  We will also be learning how sensory details, dialogue, figurative language and transitional phrases can strengthen our narrative writing.  We will be composing the narrative pieces in the classroom.

READING:  This year, we are using a new resource for reading.  Each student will have a Ready Common Core reading workbook.  Our first unit will focus on finding key ideas and details in informational text.  You can support student learning at home by having them read informational articles or books and discussing what the main idea is (some may have more than one) and also asking which details support the main idea(s).

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