This Friday, the narrative comic strips that demonstrate the students understanding of the five parts of a narrative (introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution) must be completed and turned in, along with the graphic organizer and their rough draft. I have informed the students that "I forgot it" is not an acceptable excuse and grades will be lowered for students handing their work in late.If you have time Thursday night, you may want to ask your student if their comic strip is ready and in their back pack - Some of the students are having a lot of fun with this, and are developing a better sense of the structure of a narrative - without using many words. I have told them that I expect to be able to identify each of the five panels in their comic strip as one of the five parts mentioned above. If they follow the format given they should have a neat little story in a very condensed version.
Thank you families for keeping me posted on Scootpad issues at home. Starting next week, I will try reducing the number of words on the test to see if this helps the students complete the practice tests before the internet gremlins take hold. Please email me at [email protected] if you child is having Scootpad issues at home and I will make arrangements for that child to use a computer or ipad at school, Thank you all again for keeping me posted on issues. Scootpad should be a fun way for the students to practice commonly misspelled words and I appreciate your patience and feedback.
This week we are starting homework in an on-line program called ScootPad. The program is in use in several other classrooms and allows a student to do certain assignments and practice on-line. Some of our students used this program in third grade and are familiar with many of the activities already. As your child uses ScootPad, opportunities will arise for parents to purchase "Premium Services". Please be aware that none of the assignments given to students will require the purchase of any "premium service". To start, we are using ScootPad to practice commonly misspelled words. After students log on, they will click on the launch button in the orange square marked "spelling." The Reading Practice and the Math Practice are not required When they launch the spelling, they will be taken to a page where they can take a practice test. They will then press the arrow that says "Listen", and a robot voice will tell them a word and then give them a sentence using that word. If they click on the box in the right hand column ("Spell the Word") they can type the word into the box. When they get to the end of the list, they will click the "Submit" button. they will then see all of the words. The words they spelled correctly will be in green. Words that were spelled incorrectly will be shown in red and crossed out. The correct spelling will appear next to it. The students are being asked to try the spelling practice two more times for the assignment (a total of 3 times this week.) I have extended the deadline until Monday to give students the opportunity to utilize the weekend, if that is better for them. If they would like additional practice activities - (these do not count toward the 3 practice test total) The students can click on any of the four "Learn" activities in the gray bar on the left side of the page: Cards, Teach Me, Scramble and Fill In. these activities can be very helpful in helping the students practice the words with which they are having trouble as well as reinforce the correct spelling of the words they already know. Once students have completed the practice test three times, they can click the summary button at the bottom of the results page and they will see a summary screen: This will show all of their results - and the "Status". If the status is "complete" then the students will be able to access the games of "Puzzle" and "Hangman".
As with any new activity, we are working out kinks, as they come to our attention. Because we are still in a learning curve with this program, I have revised the practices from five to three this week. Students who are not having problems with the program will be encouraged to complete the three practice "tests". Grades for at least this assignment will be completely based on participation, meaning if they can at least log on and take the first practice test by Monday, they will receive a passing grade. Students who do not have access to the internet at home, or who might have spotty internet, requiring them to constantly restart the practice tests, will be given first priority to use laptops and iPads to complete the work during non-instructional class time. I have told the students the following: If are having trouble at home with ScootPad just try it twice, and make a mental note of the problem you were having, and we will discuss it in class. When the students share experiences, quite often a classmate had the same problem,and can offer a solution that worked for them. I do NOT want students spending and hour or more at home getting frustrated with it. It is supposed to be some fun activities to get them to practice spelling commonly misspelled words, so again, if it's not working well for you at home, stop. Students who do not have access to the internet at home and students that are having problems with Scootpad at home are given the opportunity to use the iPads & laptops in school to access the program. If your student is having problems with connectivity or the program itself, please jot down the problem, so we can discuss it as a class the next day. Keep tuning into this blog for updates! Thank you for all of your patience and support, and do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions. Ms. K We are continuing to work on our "All about Me" magazines this week. Students are jotting down questions to discuss with their families in the Writing section of their binder, so you might want to ask them if they wrote any questions down. Tomorrow they will take a few moments to review their Beaufort Scale homework from Science class. The instruction given was that the written response was to be done in complete sentences, using proper capitalization and punctuation. I will be taking a writing grade based on their responses and so I will give them Thursday night to revise their papers before turning them in on Friday. The only points that I will be grading for writing will be punctuation, capitalization and complete sentences. They should have a solid base in these areas from third grade. As the year goes on, we will continue to add additional criteria to our writing grades.
In our writing class, we are working on piece called "All About Me" in a magazine format. There are quite a few areas of the magazine that your student may want to discuss with you. Today, some students chose to take notes in the Writing section of their binders with questions they wanted to discuss at home among family members. All of the writing will be done in class and the notes are only meant to remind them to have the discussion. Some of the questions may include:
What does my name mean? Who was I named after? Where is our family originally from? I have explained to the students that because we are all different and come from different backgrounds, our answers will not all be the same. Some families reach back generations and identify with one heritage. Some families embrace many different components to their heritage and some families might not have a focused idea how to describe their heritage is and are creating it right now. The focus is not on right or wrong answers, but on how we are all so different yet so valuable. We have had some insightful discussions and your children are impressing me every day :-) You children may also be asking you for information about family or friends, as one section of the magazine is about someone that they consider to be a hero. I am touched by the pride they show in those folks that have served in the armed forces and in human service fields. We have so many heros walking among us. The students have been told that they will be writing about their friends and about their families. There is a space in the magazine for a picture of their friends and a picture of their family. Students have been told that they can bring a photograph from home,if one is available or they can choose to draw a picture in the provided space. The photograph is NOT mandatory, sometimes we see more in a picture that a child draws, than we will in a photograph, so either option is fine. We will continue working on this piece for several days, as we want the students to take their time and put thought into each aspect of their writing. |
Ms. KnightFourth Grade Teacher, Leonardtown Elementary School Archives
February 2014
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