6th Grade Language Arts – Mrs. Dear & Mrs. Edgerton

This week we learned a variety of story devices that authors use when they write to keep us interested. Another thing we discussed were character traits, how writers help us understand a story by describing the characters through their speech, thoughts, the effects on others, their actions and finally, the way they look. The acronym we taught the students to help them remember these character traits is called S.T.E.A.L.

This coming up week, we will start reading a new story called, “Eleven.” We will learn about point of view or the view the author uses to tell their story. We will also learn what a theme of a story is and how figurative language helps make the story more interesting.

We have a late start Wednesday, October 17th, 2018.

Don’t forget to read every night for 20-30 minutes.

Mrs. Dear & Mrs. Edgerton

 

This past week we read a science fictional story called, “All Summer in a Day.” It is a futuristic civilization that takes place on Venus where it rains for seven years straight. The kids learned seven new vocabulary words related to the story and took a quiz on them on Friday.  They also learned to apply plot elements to the story. Friday was our first Flex Friday schedule this extra time helps students to be more successful in whatever area they might need extra support.

We will not have Flex Friday this coming up Friday because it is a half day on October 12th.

This coming up week, we will learn about story devices, character traits and point of view. 

Make sure your child is reading 20-30 minutes every night.

Mrs. Dear & Mrs. Edgerton

 

We will have a quiz on the following 8 words on Friday from the story we read in our Literature book called  “All Summer in a Day.”

Apparatus – a device or set of equipment used for a specific purpose
Vital – absolutely necessary or important; essential.
Surge– Sudden push forward in a violent way
Slackening – to slow down or lessen
Resilient – flexible and springy
Savor – to take great pleasure
Frail – weak and delicate
tumultuous – in a wild disorderly way

Make sure you study. Maybe you can make flash cards with a picture to help you better understand them.

Mrs. Dear/Mrs. Edgerton                                                    

This last week of September we learned a lot about the plot of a story and the four different types of internal/external conflicts. Ask your student what they are. We looked at a variety of examples of the different types which helped to better understand each type.  We wrapped up the week looking at how an author uses good describing words to create the setting of a story giving us clues that help us visualize and make connections to a particular setting. We even created our own settings and had students try to guess where the setting was.

Next week, on Tuesday, we will be going to the library to either recheck out our current books, if we are not done, or get a new good fit chapter book. We have also started conferring with the students about their books making sure they are good fit books and discussing their books with them.

We would like the students to complete as many books as they can this year. They should be reading every night for 20-30 minutes with their good fit books.

This is a guaranteed way to raise their reading scores. 

 

Students should be setting goals for themselves  in each of their classes aiming to improve their grades and scores throughout the year. It would be a good idea to discuss with them what goals they have set and how they plan to accomplish them.

Mrs. Dear & Mrs. Edgerton

 

 

     

     This week we learned the FIVE parts of a plot in a story. Ask your students to tell you what they are. We read a story called, “The School Play” to help us apply what we learned about plot.

      In addition, we learned how to annotate a text, which is basically a way to talk to the text so that we can better understand what we are reading.  Most of the students have completed their NWEA testing in all areas, math, science, reading and language arts. Please ask your child to see their scores on their “My learning Plan” located in the back of their planner. In the front of the planner, on page 6, is the conversion sheet so you can see what their score is equivalent to for grade level. 

     This coming up week, we will start learning about the conflict of a story. We will also begin learning how to fill out metacognitive Reading logs in class following our SSR (Silent Sustained Reading). 

     Everyone should be reading every night for 20-30 minutes. This will help increase the student’s reading level.

Mrs. Dear & Mrs. Edgerton

 

First of all, Mrs. Edgerton and I would like to say thank you for all of the parents who came to see us at open house on Wednesday evening. We enjoyed meeting and chatting with each and every one of you. We love our newest Vikings as we are getting to know them. 

****** Conferences will be held two nights, November 12th and 14th in the evening. (More info. to come)

We had a great week of learning this week.  First, we learned what metacognition means.  It is a way that we think about our thinking, where we step back and look inside our brains to understand how we think.  Then, we discuss and share with our classmates how they think.   We share with the group then we reflect on what we learned.

We also learned about the framework of how we will learn to become better readers. It is called Reading Apprenticeship. We will teach the students strategies they can use to become better readers and writers by using four domains: personal, social,  cognitive and knowledge building. Mrs. Edgerton even taught the students how to sign each of those domains.   Ask your child to show you. We also took the Reading NWEA test this week. The students should have their scores written in their planners on the back page called, ” My learning plan.”  There is also a conversion sheet to convert their scores to a grade level on page 6 of the planners. For 6th grade, students should be at a level 218 to be at grade level. The students should have a goal set as to where they want to be the next time we take the NWEA in the winter around the beginning of January.  In addition to all of that, they learned story elements.  There are five elements your child should know.

Coming up next week,  we have a late start day on Wednesday, Sept. 19th,  2018. So the students come to school an hour later.  They should be at school by 8:50 a.m.

Also, next Tuesday, Sept 18th, 2018, Smith is hosting a Family Skate Night/IceCream Social at the Lincoln Park Skating Center on Southfield Rd. It is from 6-8 p.m.  Admission is $8 and includes roller skate rental and an ice cream sundae! All Smith families are welcome. Hope to see you all there.

Lastly, next week we will learn how to annotate, or talk to the text, and learn about plot, conflict, and point of view of a story, more in-depth.

Don’t forget to read at home for 20-30 minutes every night.   It will help your NWEA reading scores go up.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Dear& Mrs. Edgerton

 

 

 

Summer Learning: Reading

Book Talk:

Choose one of your favorite books read over the summer.

1. Tell us the title and author of the book.
2. Show us the cover (if you do not have the book, ask teacher to project on board).
3. Tell us what the book is about.
4. Read a favorite passage and explain why it is memorable.  Prepare ahead of time by using a sticky note to find your passage during your talk.  If you don’t have the book with you, prepare ahead of time by typing or writing out your favorite part, noting the page number.
5. Evaluate what is good/bad about the book using some specific details about plot, description, suspense, character, theme, language, etc.
6. Make an audience recommendation.  How would your “rate” this book and who would most likely read the book?
7. Show a visual aid and explain
   •  Create one visual representation from one of the books read this summer – a collage of  images from the book (characters, setting, theme, symbolism used in the story, etc.)  Do not use a single picture (such as the cover) downloaded from the internet.

1. • Place visual representation on an 8 ½ x 11 sheet using the whole sheet mounted on colored construction paper.  If you prefer to make a collage on a slide from Google slide, make sure this is prepare ahead of time so your teacher is able to project on promethean board.  
   • Place the title of book, author, your name and class hour on the bottom right.

 

Book Talk from Summer Reading List	Evaluation	1 points
	Favorite Passage	1 point
	Visual—a collage of images from the book (characters, setting, theme, symbolism used in the story, etc.)	2 points
	Book Summary	1 point
	Recommendation	1 points
	Total for book talk	6 points
Total Points		12 points

 

We had a great week this past week. We are getting to know each and every student better. We took a reading interest survey,  a pretest on story elements to see what we know and what we need to teach too. We also started learning about how to be better readers using a variety of strategies and also how we will become a community of learners using reading apprenticeship. 

This week is a busy week!

Monday:  Summer Book Talk is Due!

Monday & Tuesday – Math NWEA

Wednesday & Thursday – Reading NWEA

Wednesday evening – open house from 6-7:30 p.m. 

Friday – Half day dismissal is at 11:05 a,m.

In addition, we will start learning elements of a story and start reading our first story from our literature book called, “The School Play.”

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Dear, Mrs. Edgerton & Mr. Kisskalt

 

 

 

Mrs. Edgerton, Mr. Kisskilt and I had a great first week of school with all of our  new 6th graders. We went over a lot of rules, procedures, and expectations for our classroom. Since Mrs. Edgerton is ASL certified (American Sign Language), she has taught us a lot of  signs for a variety of rules using whole brain Strategies. We also read a book that was written by a former teacher at Smith. Huda Essa. She taught use the importance of learning each other’s name and also how we should be proud of our name.  We also started using our class scoreboard to earn points and compete against other hours for make good choices and following the rules of our classroom.

This coming up week, we will start learning  how to become better readers by acquiring strategies that will help propel us to work in groups so that we can teach and learn through our peers, this is called Reading Apprenticeship. In addition, we will start to set up our Interactive Notebook  in our composition notebooks to help guide us in our learning of parts of narrative stories, including plot and theme, along with point of view and eventually how to write our own Narrative story.

We cannot wait to get to know your child better and learn the way they learn so that we can help each and every student grow throughout the year.

Mrs. Edgerton Mrs. Dear &  Mr. KissKalt

 

 

We would like to say welcome to all of our newest Vikings to Smith,

We are really looking forward to meeting each and every one of you and getting to know all of you.

This year will be a great year of learning, discovery growing, motivating, encouraging and having fun too.

We cannot wait to get started.  We are looking forward to a great year.

Mrs. Dear and Mrs. Edgerton

 

In addition, until December, we will have the wonderful opportunity of having a student teacher joining us his name is Mr. Kisskalt and he comes to us from Wayne State University.