Greetings Families,
I hope you are enjoying your weekend thus far. Here are a few notes in respect to our the year is going thus far and what you can expect in the week to come.
3-5 Curriculum Night
I hope you are enjoying your weekend thus far. Here are a few notes in respect to our the year is going thus far and what you can expect in the week to come.
3-5 Curriculum Night
You are cordially invited to attend our 3rd-5th grade Curriculum Night, taking place on Wednesday, August 29th. The event starts at 6:00 pm in the Arete gymnasium, with opening remarks from Mr. Gillingham, Mrs. Vaughan, and our Specialists. From 6:30 to 7:30, parents will hear from their child's teachers in their classroom.
Due to limited seating, this is a parent-only event. Overflow parking will be available at The Falls Even Center located just east of the school.
Curriculum Night is an important night for fourth grade families. The leap from third to fourth grade is significant. Not only is the curriculum more difficult, the expectations of the students is much greater. What I often here from my former families is that it was in fourth grade that their children learned responsibility in fourth grade. Students have to be responsbile in how they engage the material in class by asking questions when they are confused and by really aiming to process the information for true learning. Students have to be responsible in how they study the curriculum because there is an expectation that they are learning the material to such an extent that much of it is stored in their minds for recall. Students have to be responsible in how they handle the homework load, giving enough effort that it is done well and that skills are being developed but efficient enough that they don't spend more than an hour or so on homework each night.
During Curriculum Night, I will be discussing what this should look like, and the role parent's play in supporting their child. Fourth grade is often a transitional year for parents as well as they learn how much support the children needs and how much freedom to allow their children. One of the scary things for parents is learning to give their children enough freedom to fail. It is similar to letting go of an infant who is just learning to talk. At some point, the parent has to let go of the child's hand and let them walk until they fall. Crying, both in falling and failing, is sometimes inevitable, but it is an important part of the growth development. I will aim to give you encouragement and tools in this season of change.
MAP Testing
On Thursday, your child will take the MAP test (Measures of Academic Performance). This test is simply a diagnostic assessment to help us (teachers) to evaluate a child's current academic performance to best support their academic development. The test will give the child an overall performance grade in reading and math, but it will also give us some detailed information about where the child is in his or her math and reading development. It often indicates learning gaps that the child may have from previous years, which need to be supplemented and corrected before more advanced learning can happen.
This test does not impact the child's grade on the report card. However, this information will be used to inform me if your child needs to attend math tutoring (even if they aren't failing math) or other interventions: BURST (a reading intervention) or Dreambox (a math intervention). We do not make the testing information public to parents except on request. I am happy to meet with anyone who has any questions.
Current Class Performance
I want to briefly touch base on the class's performance with very wide strokes. This is a generalization and should not be understood as applying to the students particularly. Currently, my class is not performing to the level I would have expected. Given their academic success last year on standardized testing like MAP and AzMERIT, I expected my class to be performing at a high level. There are some engagement issues in the classroom, and I and the students are working on resolving the issue of talking during instruction, not focusing on the teacher or content during instruction, and being mentally engaged during the lessons. I think there is also a challenge in respect to the study skills and effort at home in respect to studying. I will address this on Wednesday night at Curriculum Night, but it is something that you should be aware of now. Students who fail to prepare for test and those who do not regularly review their notes are not likely to achieve their individual potential. Your encouragement, both positively and negatively, are needed to develop these regular habits and skills.
Grade Reports
On Friday, I forgot to hand out grade reports. It is my goal to have all of these emailed to you by the end of the day. Please share these with your child. Usually I will only email parents of students with a D or F, but I wanted to let the students know how they are performing and it was my fault that I didn't hand them out.
Lessons
Grammar/Writing: Students will be introduced to personal pronouns and prepositional phrases this week. During each lesson, students will also be reviewing what they have learned up to this point. At the end of week five, students will have a cumulative test on what they have learned up to this point. Here are something you can review with them.
- Review the definition of a sentence. A sentence is a group of words that make a statement, ask a question, express and command, or who emotion.
- Review the five parts of a complete sentence: capital letter, subject, verb, end mark, complete sense.
- Review the four types of sentences: declarative, exclamatory, imperative, interrogative.
- Review the parts of speech.
- A noun names a person, places, thing, or idea.
- A verb is a word that does an action, shows a state of being, links to words together, or helps another verb.
- An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb.
- An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun.
- An article adjective is a special adjective: a, an, and the.
- A pronoun is a special word that can take the place of a noun in a sentence.
- A preposition is a word that connects two other words in a sentence in a special way.
History: Students have completed their study of the first four sections of the Middle Ages unit and will be tested on Wednesday. Students will be assigned the study guide on Monday night and it will be due on Tuesday. On Tuesday night, students may use their 25 minutes of reading time to review for the history test. We will spend some time reviewing on Tuesday as I ensure that students have the correct answers on their study guides, but students will have to study at home to prepare themselves. The next section of study will turn to the Eastern Roman Empire, which became known as the Byzantine Empire and lasted much longer than the Western Roman Empire.
Literature: The students have traveled deep into the mountain with Curdie and have found out that the Goblins are up to no good. We also know that the king is worried about the Princess Irene. This week, students will read chapters 11-14 of The Princess and the Goblin. On Friday, the plan is to read from The Book of Virtues about Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan and the power of their friendship and discuss it together.
Math: Students were introduced to multiples last week and actually completed the chapter on Friday. However, in an effort to make sure their learning is more established, we will review it again on Monday. Students will then take the test on multiples on Tuesday. Students will then be introduced to the order of operations.
I do want to discuss how I will teach the order of operations. The Singapore teacher's guide that I use says that students should not use the mnemonics "PEMDAS" or "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" because it often leads to students making the mistake of thinking that multiplication comes before division or addition before subtraction. However, I will use the "PEMDAS" mnemonic because it is a helpful memorization tool. However, this is how they are expected to write it for the sake of using it effectively.
P
E
MD -->
AS -->
I write it this way to help students understand the order in which they do the problems. Let me explain. When any problem has a parentheses, that is the first thing that must be solved.
Therefore, for the problem (8x4) / 2 x 4 - 1 + 2, the first thing I must do is 8x4, which equal 32. Then I rewrite the problem like this: 32 / 2 x 4 - 1 + 2. Now, where students often make the mistake is by thinking that they need to do multiplication first because it comes first in "PEMDAS." However, the rule is to do all of the multiplication and division problems from left to right. Therefore, the next step is to do 32 / 2, which equal 16. I will now rewrite the problem like this: 16 x 4 - 1 + 2. Since I only have multiplication, subtraction, and addition left, I'll do the multiplication first. 16 x 4 = 64. I will now rewrite the problem like this: 64 - 1 + 2. Again, here is where students are likely to make a mistake. They may be tempted to do addition first because it comes first in "PEMDAS." However, the rule is to go from left to right when adding and subtracting. Therefore, I will do 64 - 1 = 63. I will then rewrite the problem as 63 + 2 and the answer is 65.
Poetry: Almost all students have successfully recited their first poem of fourth grade. For the most part, they did very well. I look forward to their growth in not only memorizing the poems, but in delivering them well. The next poem for memorization is "Afternoon on a Hill," by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Greek and Latin Roots: On Friday, students received the next three Greek and Latin roots. They how have the first ten roots. On Wednesday, the students will take a review check over the first ten. If your child is missing any of the roots cards, you can find a PowerPoint with them here.
Science: During science this week, students will experience two labs in which they determine which kinds of materials are insulators and conductors. Students will learn about Ben Franklin's experiment, that electricity is the flow of electrons, and the role of insulators in making electricity safe.
Spalding: After spending the first few weeks completing the rule pages, students will finally start learning how to spell some words. Going forward, I likely won't put any notes about Spalding unless there is something strange, like a test on Thursday instead of Friday because of no school that day. On normal weeks, Monday through Wednesday will involve learning new words and they will write that day's words twice with rules and markings. On Thursday, students will review all the week's words and will write them for homework with spaces only. The test will be on Friday.
I hope the rest of your weekend is enjoyable. I also hope to see many of you on Wednesday night for Curriculum Night. Please remember that it is a parent only event.
If you have any questions, please email me!
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren