ELA

Our reading goals for 

September and the beginning of October will include:

• Composing independent reading lives
•  analyzing reading histories and using what we learn to inform our choices
• reflecting on skills and strategies to develop an "identity" as a reader

• Understanding and complying with reading routines and expectations
• reading is a skill that requires practice -- every day both in and out of school
• students can only build stamina if they are reading level-appropriate books for longer stretches of time
•  students can only learn about themselves as readers if they log their reading daily

• Reading Graphic Novels
• becoming acquainted with the graphic novel format
• text features
• understanding how to read a graphic novel -- how is it similar/different than reading prose?

• Following Characters into Meaning. 
• Continuing to practice and maintain the skills acquired in our first unit
• Learning to work in reading partnerships -- Partner Reading Worksheet
• Approaching the study of character with empathy
• Approaching texts as researchers
• gleaning facts and insights about characters that they carry away from the text
• synthesizing information into evidence-based theories
• talking about and sharing these theories with others
• Reading Log Rubric

November & December:

• Tackling Text Complexity in Non-fiction
• Determining main idea
• Vocabulary in complex texts
• Thinking about structure
• Learning from sources
• Coming to texts as experts
• Synthesizing across subtopics
• Critically reading texts and topics

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The Writer's Workshop

We start the year by teaching children some of the biggest lessons they'll ever learn. First and most important, we teach them that their lives and their thoughts are worth writing about. We help children realize that the small moments of their lives can be compelling stories, and we help them feel committed to capturing the truth of their experiences in words.

-- Lucy Calkins

This year we will be focusing on several different writing units:

• Personal Narrative
• Personal Essay
• Explanatory/Informational Writing
• Literary Essay