We are making progress with our Argumentation unit. So far we can identify and make claims and support with evidence. Today we practiced analyzing a paragraph for fact and opinion statements. Tomorrow we will practice more with fact and opinions.

Homework

• Read 20 minutes and write one response in reading log (need 5 total for full points)

Upcoming

• Parent teachers conferences Monday October 24th and Wednesday October 26th. Conferences are student-led so your student needs to attend with you!

All grades will be updated and final by 8 pm tonight. Report cards can be picked up at conferences.

The marking period ends tomorrow! Some students took it upon themselves to retake their quizzes already! Others need to do so by tomorrow in order to bring their grades up! Please check Parent Connect for their Quiz 1 grade. If they got an 85% or below, they are able to retake it tomorrow.

Make up times are 7:30 am – 7:55am or 11:05am-12:15 pm, I cannot offer lunch time due to the fact that the students have a half day tomorrow.

If these times do not work for pick up or drop off please email me.

Missing assignments are official zero scores tomorrow. There is one reading log still remaining on my “No Name” clip board.

Homework

• One-Pager Summer Reading (this is a summative score and will significantly drop a student’s grade if not turned in)
• Reading Log due tomorrow (cannot accept late work)

Update:  If confused by Reading Log “Incomplete” grades I fixed the mistake! (The grade book was counting “Incomplete Assignments” as a zero grade! I am very sorry for this!) In order for me to mark an assignment “Incomplete”, something is either not done fully or not done following the directions. Students need to turn in 5 responses with 2-3 complete sentences and a parent signature to earn the full 10 points. If there is no parent signature they lose a point as well.

Dear Parents,

If you are an AOL email user, please be aware that you may not receive email notifications due to AOL policies. We are working to resolve this issue with AOL.

Thank you for your patience while we work with AOL to make sure you get classroom notifications from your teacher.

Sincerely,

Technology Department

The first marking period ends Friday, October 14th (which is also a half day). All missing assignments must be turned in by then. Students will have a quiz tomorrow on text features and author’s purpose. They may use their Reading ISN to study and will be given review time beforehand.

To earn credit for their Summer Reading, they will choose one of the novels they read and create a “One-Pager”. An example is posted below!

Homework:

• Read for 20 minutes and fill out Reading Log
• One-Pager due Friday! This is a Summative Assessment grade!
• All missing assignments must be turned in by Friday, you can check grades on Student Connect/Parent Connect

The past two days, we have been working on Author’s Purpose. We created a P.I.E. foldable (P – persuade, I – inform, E – entertain) in our Reading notebooks and took notes, then practiced finding Author’s Purpose with our Article of the Week. During Writer’s Workshop, we began learning about Argumentative writing and it’s purpose. We practice writing an argumentative paragraph where we wrote a claim and provided 3 reasons for our position, with examples to explain them thoroughly. Some students did not finish this in class and were told to finish it over the weekend and bring it back on Monday so we can be ready to learn more about argumentation then.

Homework

• Reading log (20 minutes of reading, then response on log)
• Finish Argumentative paragraph if you did not finish in class
• Do something fun!

Friendly Reminder that we are going to the library tomorrow. Students should bring back all library books whether they are finished with them or not. If they want to continue reading their current library book they may renew the book with our librarian. Please ensure that planners get sent to school with your student every day. We use these in all classes daily and they will need it to check out books in the library as well! Thank you for your support!

Today we reviewed “Work on Writing” and generated some writing ideas of our own. We practiced building our writing stamina as well. I was fortunate enough to read some of their work and they were so creative! I can’t wait to engage in the writing process with my classes so we can strengthen our writing skills and expand our vocabulary!

Reading log is due Friday. In order to get full points, the students must have 5 TOTAL RESPONSES. Many reading logs were turned in incomplete for the last round (grades will be updated by Friday). I am counting it as a “practice” and will take it out of 5 points instead of 10 points for that week only. All reading logs from this point on need to have 5 total responses. Rule of thumb: for every 20 minutes of reading, they should take a break and respond on their reading log. 

Book order should arrive tomorrow! I can’t wait for the students to enjoy their new books (and the many I purchased for our classroom library) during their Daily 5 time!

Reminder that their reading log is due on Friday. Every week they need to read for at least 100 minutes (average of 20 minutes, 5 nights a week). They need to response to what they are reading on their log (5 responses, need to choose different kind every day). Please make sure your student isn’t just summarizing what they are reading. There are 8 response choices on their reading log with more being adding along with sentence stems for next week. Parent/guardian signature on the bottom please!

Scholastic book order is being sent out tomorrow at the end of the day for those of you anxiously waiting for your books!

Fall testing is over! Make up tests will be given throughout the week and all tests should be complete by Friday. We will be closely tracking our reading and writing goals this year and you may look in your student’s planner for their Fall scores (blue page 9). The district considers a score of 218 6th grade level for the NWEA Map Reading Assessment, goals will be written in their planner once we begin our individual conferences during Daily 5 time.

Today, our 6th graders began their Language Arts NWEA Map tests with the Language test. Tomorrow, they will finish the Language test and begin the Reading test, finishing on Wednesday in class. Please ensure your student gets enough sleep and eats breakfast in the morning so they can do their best! You will be able to see their scores in their planners on page 9 in the blue pages.

Reminder:  Picture Day is TOMORROW! 6th graders are scheduled to take their pictures during their 1st period

If you are interested in putting a Scholastic order in, I will be submitting the order on Thursday. You can also order online with my class code:  N8M2H   Orders usually arrive in 5-7 days and shipping is always free!

Today we put together our Interactive Student Notebooks (ISN) for Reading and Writing. The students will use these for Daily 5 choices as well as in class activities. It will be the perfect tool to help them become organized as well as use for studying. Anything we don’t put into our notebooks (reading logs, weekly informational articles, bell ringers, etc.) will go into our binders. We will put our binders together tomorrow so please make sure your student has a 3-ring binder and at least 5 divider tabs for tomorrow!

Open House is tomorrow! I look forward to meeting each and every one of you!

Open House Schedule for 6th grade is as follows:

6:00-6:45pm  Auditorium w/ all 6th grade teachers

6:55pm-7:30 Classroom visits (you will have about 10 minutes per core classroom)

We encourage you to follow your student’s schedule and visit all of their teachers during this time! See you all there!

Today we went over our class expectations and brainstormed the expectations the students had for their peers using the 3B’s (Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Respectful). I went over the 3 essential expectations I have for them which are:

1. Advocate for yourself (ask questions when you don’t understand, approach the teacher with any problems, etc.) We will discuss this further at Open House next week.
2. Respect yourself and your peers (distracting others hinders their learning and the learning of their peers, never giving up because you might not know something at first, etc.)
3. No student left behind (our language arts community is a family and we help each other, ask for help, ask others if they need help, be inclusive)

The students brainstormed in small groups what it means to them when a class room is safe, responsible and respectful (what does it feel like? look like? sound like?).  We came together at the end of class to share our ideas and compile a “Class Agreement”. Once we agreed on our expectations of each other, I took a picture of it and will create a written agreement they will sign and I will put up in the class. It was important that we took the time to do this so the students feel included in our class expectations and have agreed to hold themselves and other students accountable. Their ideas and expectations blew me away and I can’t wait to put these up in my room! I will update with pictures soon!

Reminder:  Code of conduct form (back page only), Concussion form, and Weapons form are due Tuesday, September 13! If your student hasn’t turned these in yet they are to give them to their advisory teacher tomorrow or next Tuesday please!

While subscribing to this blog is really important to keep communication open and consistent between both parents and teachers, I am also sending home information on how to sign up for my Remind101 communication. Remind 101 is a texting service (or you can download the app) where I can send reminders straight to your phone without you having to open up your email. This is just one more way we can be consistent with due dates or other reminders. Both parents and students can sign up for this free and safe service by simply following the directions which can be found in the Class Information section. This is entirely optional for both parents and students. Expect to get at least one message from me through this service per week. Again, if  you have limited texting there is an app you can download. If you do not have a smartphone, receiving a text is unfortunately the only option and I will do my best to limit the amounts of texts per week. If neither of these are appropriate for you, please check my blog regularly and information will be posted here as well!

*Unfortunately both parents and students will not be able to text me back through this app. If you have any questions or need to get ahold of me please email me directly. If you do not receive a reply within 24 hours, please send the email again because it may have been filtered out and I apologize for the inconvenience. My classroom number is also located on my welcome letter!

We had a great first day of school! The 6th graders seemed to get a hang of following their schedules by the end of the day. In my class, the students learned about their language arts teacher and we played a getting to know you game called “Me too!” where the students got to see who shared their likes, hobbies, summer vacation activities, etc. We had a lot of fun getting to know each other in a fun way! This week will be full of learning 6th grade routines and getting to know you activities. We will dive into setting up our reading and writing notebooks next week!

Students will be getting their syllabus and class information from me tomorrow so please look out for that in their backpacks.

Additionally, lockers will be given to the students this week through their advisory teacher. All backpacks and cellphones need to remain in your students locker throughout the day. I will allow my students to store their notebooks in their portfolio folders to help them be prepared for each class.  More information on this will be found in the “Class Information” sheet that is coming home tomorrow.

This is going to be a great school year and I can’t wait for the first full day with the students tomorrow!