In education, there are several coined phrases that often confuse parents, students, and even teachers who are familiar with them. Therefore, in order to decrease some of that confusion, I’ll briefly explain some phrases you might hear this year. “ILA” stands for “Integrated Language Arts,” which focuses on “Balanced LiteracyTeaching” (“BLT”). Aside from all the jargon, this basically means that our language arts program consists of reading, writing, and spelling, with a major emphasis on reading and writing.
In 4th grade, students start making a transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Thus, comprehension is the key in 4th grade! Although we use a reading series from the McGraw-Hill publishing company to guide our reading instruction, we do work with novels (chapter books, trade books, etc.) and other outside sources as well in addition to "Guided Reading" (matching students with books at or near their current reading levels and abilities). Furthermore, we work with “6-Traits,” which focuses on working with one writing trait (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions) at a time. Currently, many area schools are using this program as well!
As for spelling, students will take a weekly (If for some reason there wouldn’t be a spelling test for that particular week due to a short week, etc., this would be noted in the assignment notebook!) pretest on Monday, which will consist of 20-25 words. If students spell ALL the words correctly on the pretest, they WON’T have to take the final test on Friday.
Past Projects & Things to Watch For
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Project (Unit, Lesson, Activity, etc.)
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Description
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Picture Book Writing
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Throughout the year, we will look at various children’s picture books. These picture books will “spark” students’ creative energies, and thus, will be used as prompts for a couple major writing assignments that we do.
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Monthly Memories
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Once each month has passed, we brainstorm as a class some of the major events that took place in school during that particular month. Thereafter, students engage in some more prewriting before they start working on their final draft of their “Monthly Memory.” |
African American
History Projects
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During the end of January and for much of February, we take a closer look at African American History and Heritage. Not only do students learn more about great African Americans, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and their culture, but they also gain a great understanding and appreciation of all ethnic groups through intense research. This past year, students created PowerPoint Presentations to share their research!
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Classroom Newspaper Project
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In conjunction with “Newspapers In Education (N.I.E.),” and “Read Across America,” we spend time analyzing how and why newspapers are constructed. Last year’s class named their classroom newspaper The Chronicles of Jaenke! Wait to see what this year’s class selects for a name!
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Poetry Presentations
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This past year, we spent a week looking at different forms of poetry as well as various authors of poetry. Additionally, we discussed how poetry often appeals to the soul much like music does. Students then broke into groups of 3-5 students in which, they selected a poem that they performed for the entire class! These presentations were enjoyable and educational because they provided a great opportunity for students to show their creative sides as well as to see whom the real “characters” in class were!
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Fairytales & Folktales
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During the second part of the year, we spent sometime looking at numerous fairytales and folktales. In preparation for this study, we analyzed old childhood favorites, such as The Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, and so forth. Furthermore, we then compared and contrasted how similar, yet different versions of these stories evolved from other parts of the world. For example, this past year, we completed a unit on comparing and contrasting different versions of Cinderella from around the world. We also do a “Reader’s Theater” project with The Fox and the Guinea Pig.
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Novels/Literature Circles
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As mentioned earlier, we sometimes take a break from our basal reading series by working on other projects and reading short novels, chapter books, etc. For instance, this past year, we formed “literature circles,” in which, students chose to readFrindle by Andrew Clements or Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. In addition to reading, students engaged in journaling activities and discussions that were facilitated by teachers and tutors.
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Little House
in the Big Woods
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This past year our class spent a few weeks taking a look at the classic Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, who lived in Pepin, Wisconsin for part of her life. In addition to reading the book, students were also involved with numerous activities, such as decorating the room to look like a cabin-style home.
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