Hello and welcome to our fifth grade English Language Arts blog. I am excited to say that throughout the year I will be letting students put some of their writing pieces on our class blog. So, don't forget to check and see if your child has posted their writing.

I am sending a newsletter home this week so that you can become familiar with my class. With this newsletter, I will be sending home I Can statements that will inform you as parents what your child will be learning for the next several weeks. Be sure to ask your child daily/weekly what they are learning. 

We do have a classroom library and would appreciate any books that you would like to donate so that your children can check out books from my classroom as well as the school library. I have already told the students that I do not use AR points for a grade in my class. I have noticed that several students enjoy reading, and I hope to encourage more students to become FANS of reading.

Please let me know if you ever have any questions or concerns about your child. I adore your children and will treat them like my own. I am excited to teach this class since most of the students were in kindergarten when I was a kindergarten teacher. I hope they enjoy their last year here at Highland!!!

Learning Targets 

I can determine reading strategies (ask questions, make connections, take notes, make inferences, visualize, re-read) that will help me comprehend (understand) difficult texts.

I can explain how chapters, scenes, and stanza fit together to form stories, dramas, or poems.

I can use various strategies (context clues, root words, affixes) to determine the meaning of words and phrases.

I can use my analysis of word structure to help me decode unfamiliar multi-syllabic words.

I can self-correct misread or misunderstood words using context clues.

I can define and identify various forms of figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia).

I can between literal language (it means exactly what it says) and figurative language (sometimes what you say is not exactly what you mean).

I can use concrete words and phrases as well as sensory details (descriptive words and phrases that appeal to the senses) to appeal to the reader.

I can use the writing process (prewrite, draft, revise, edit, and publish) to help me become a better writer.

I can use proper keyboarding skills (type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting) to compose and prepare my writing for publication.

I can write for a variety of reasons (to inform, to describe, to persuade, to entertain).

*These are our I can statements for the next2-3 weeks.

 

 

 Upcoming Projects

 

We are working on an autobiographical poem at school to learn the writing process.  We have completed the prewriting stage and are now on the drafting stage.