Hello,

Grades are completely updated including the two tests the students have taken.  Grades will not change much tomorrow because the only thing we have due is our Reading Log.  Please make sure your child gets this signed tonight.  I will be offering test retakes for the Elements of a Story test we took today.  The retake will be offered Monday before school or Tuesday after school.  Please have your child make an appointment with me if they have decided to retake a test.  As a reminder, students must have no missing work in order to retake a test.  Also, I take the second score regardless of what the first one was.  This is a team policy for all of your child’s core subjects.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great evening!

In LA today the student took their vocabulary tests. At this point, I have graded and recorded everything I have been given. If something is missing, the end of the marking period is Friday. Tomorrow is our test on Elements of a Story, if students forgot to get their interactive notebooks to study with, then they will have a challenge this evening.

Have a great night!

Today was a library day in Language Arts.  The students were given time to go to the library and select good fit books.  All students should be reading these books at home twenty minutes a night, five nights a week.  Reading Logs are due on Fridays with a parent signature on them showing that students are reading at home.  We began the peer editing process on our personal narratives today as well.  We will be peer editing all week and final drafts will be due on Monday.  While peer editing today, we focused on conventions and word choice.  We discussed what this means before we began editing.  Lastly, we continued our discussion on the pyramid of action.  Students defined each component in their own words and continued the application of these terms by reading the story, “The School Play,” and identifying the corresponding parts of the pyramid of action. The end of the marking period is this Friday.  Please make sure students are staying on top of their grade.

Homework: Vocab. Test TOMORROW: STUDY! Interactive Notebook Check TOMORROW: BE PREPARED! Read Good Fit Book for 20 minutes

Looking forward: Elements of a Story Test: Thursday, Reading Log: Friday, Success Starters: Friday Personal Narrative Final Draft: Monday

Have a great evening!

All late work for Language Arts was due today.  I have updated grades based upon what I have been given.  The only grade that I have not posted is the grade for the personal narrative essay.  I will have this posted by Monday night.  This coming week, I will be grading Interactive Notebooks, the vocabulary test, and the elements of a story test.  The students have known about these all week and have been assigned to read and study over the break.  Today we organized our Interactive Notebooks, continued our discussion on the Pyramid of Action, and started reading the story, “The School Play.”  We will finish reading this on Tuesday.  Tuesday is also our library day.

Have a wonderful break and catch up on studying!

Today the students were NWEA testing.  We focused on reading in Language Arts today.

Homework: Read for 20 minutes.

Announcements:

1. All late work is due Thursday.

2. Reading Log is due Thursday.

3. 2 Personal Narrative Rough Drafts are due Tuesday.

4. Vocabulary Test Wednesday, October 8th.

5. Interactive Notebook Check Wednesday, October 8th.

Elements of a Story Test Thursday, October 9th.

Have a great evening!

In Language Arts today, we reviewed the elements of a story.  We discussed the difference between a protagonist and an antagonist.  We also reviewed setting, plot, and conflict in a story.  We will dig deeper into plot tomorrow.  We also continued to work on our personal narratives.  We talked about building a story up to the climax and how to explode that moment in our writing.  We discussed how our readers should feel when this moment comes in a story and what we can do as writers to make our stories appear this way.  The students were given time to work on this with their own rough drafts.  Lastly, we played a game to help us review some of our vocabulary words.

Announcements:

1. All late work is due by this Thursday, October 2nd.

2. Reading Logs are due on Thursday, October 2nd.

3. Two Personal Narrative Rough Drafts are due on Tuesday, October 7th.

4. Our Vocabulary Test will be Wednesday, October 8th.

5. Interactive Notebook Check on Wednesday, October, 8th.

I conferenced with each student about their grade and what they can do to make sure the end of this first marking period is a successful one.  Please ask your students about this tonight and continue to check on parent connect.

We have made it through another Monday! 🙂

In Language Arts today the students continued to focus on creating a personal narrative.  We discussed the importance of sequential order when writing events.  We also discussed how the reader should feel before the climax  in a story comes.  The students will be expected to complete two rough drafts (unedited) by October 7th when we return from break.  If this is not done by next Thursday, it is homework over the break.

Our first vocabulary test is scheduled for Wednesday, October 8th.  At this point, the student should have study materials in their interactive notebooks.  The words have also been posted to the blog.  We finished creating our study materials in class today.

Lastly, we continued our work with elements of a story.  The students were given time to read a children’s book of their choice with a partner.  They then identified the elements of a story with that partner.

The end of the first marking period is October 10th.  With the four day weekend coming up, this will be here before we know it.  Please make sure your child is getting their work completed.  I will not be accepting late work for this marking period after October 8th.

Homework: One hour of Moby Max in the grammar section.

Have a wonderful weekend! 🙂

During the first part of our day, the students finished building their Word Wall.  They looked up the definition and synonyms for their vocabulary term.  They also identified how to correctly use the word in a sentence and created a corresponding picture.  Each person played a different role in the group in order to complete the task.  These roles will rotate as the school year goes on.  When they were done, each group presented their word(s) to the class.  I have attached a picture of the word wall to this blog post.

When the word wall was complete, we discussed what it means to write a personal narrative.  We discussed that this is a story we tell about ourselves.  We also looked at how to come up with specific topics that focus on one moment.  The students were given time to generate a list of potential topics.  Upon completing this, I modeled how to write an introduction to a personal narrative.  Students were also given BME charts to practice this skill on a topic of their choice tomorrow.

Homework: Read for 20 minutes and Success Starters are due Friday. As long as your child was not absent, they should have eight

Have a great evening!

For the past two days in LA, the students have been focusing on reviewing Daily 5.  Yesterday the students discussed what their jobs are while they are working on their writing and working with words.  We also discussed the role of the teacher during this time.  We practiced doing word work by identifying words we do not know in the story, “Eleven,” found in our textbooks.  The students worked together to create a class list of all of the interesting words and the words they did not know.  Tomorrow they will build our first Word Wall.  I will take pictures of it and post it to the blog when it is completed.

Today the students went to the library.  Before they went, we discussed how we select Good Fit Books through the IPICK acronym.  Upon returning from the library, the students were given time to practice read to self.  We also built up or CAFE board for Daily 5.  We discussed that our goal for this year is to master as many Daily 5 strategies as we can between now and the end of the year.  We will begin identifying individual goals tomorrow.

Progress Reports went home today.  Please ask your child if they got one.  If students have a C- or lower in any of their core classes, they will receive and individual grade report from that class.  If your child did not bring home a progress report, this means that they have a C or better in 6th Grade LA.  At this point, the grades on student connect have been updated.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns.  If your child received a progress report, you do not need to sign and return it.  It is yours to keep.  Grades are constantly changing in this class.  Please make sure you are checking parent connect so we can work together to help your child be successful this year.

Have a fantastic evening!

-Ms. Traylor