Language Arts
Almost all of the reading that occurs in fifth and sixth grade will be relevant to our social studies content. Students will read a variety of texts in several different groupings. They will respond to text through class and group discussions, written responses (questions and essays), journaling and literature circle work. Students are expected to read 150 minutes per week at home, hopefully spreading that out over 5 days or so.
For writing this year, students will be focusing on narrative, informative (report), opinion (5th), and argument (6th). What we are working on will depend what else is being discussed in the classroom.
Students are reading historical fiction novels to accompany our social studies units. They will take part in weekly Literature Circle discussions. The various Literature Circle Jobs include Discussion Director, Summarizer, Connector, Illustrator, Vocabulary Enricher, Literary Luminary, and Investigator.
All students are working within the Wordly Wise vocabulary program. This program focuses on vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and critical thinking. At the beginning of each lesson students will use a dictionary and pronunciation key to become familiar with the word list for the week. Throughout the lesson students will work with synonyms and antonyms, multiple meaning words, and homophones. They will also use word parts to determine meaning (prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots). Students will complete each lesson over a two week period of time. Sections A through C will be assigned the first week, and sections D and E the second week. Work will be assigned on Monday and will need to be completed by Thursday. Students will have some time to work on the lesson in class, but the majority of this work is to be done at home. There will be a test at the end of each lesson (every other Friday).
Students can utilize the Wordly Wise Web Site for additional practice.
www.wordlywise3000.com
Click on students, then choose the book level, and then choose the lesson.