Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Myth Busters: The Lunar Landing A lesson in the Scientific Process
Today we watched an episode of Myth Busters to illustrate the scientific process in action. The Myth Busters used the scientific method multiple times to debunk the idea that the 1969 Lunar Landing was faked. We identified the distinct steps of the scientific process and discussed them.
We will be using this knowledge as we experience the scientific process in the coming weeks. It's Science fair Time! Much more information to come.
We will be using this knowledge as we experience the scientific process in the coming weeks. It's Science fair Time! Much more information to come.
Track-a-Thon T-shirt Design entries Due This Friday
Mrs. Steiner (Track-a-Thon Co-coordinator) would like to remind us:
Just a quick reminder that we are into our second week of Track-a-Thon fundraising--but already fast approaching the t-shirt art contest entry deadline and t-shirt sponsorship deadline: the deadline for both is this Friday, October 3rd at 3:00 p.m.
Help us achieve the goal of $60,000 for the school.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Friday, September 26, 2014
Elements of a Simple Plot Exercise
Now it's time to apply our knowledge to our animal origin project. Take some time this weekend to brainstorm an idea for your origin story. Choose a specific physical characteristic that your animal displays. Now think of a creative story to describe how that animal attained this characteristic. You may use the plot diagram generator to outline the path of your story from problem (exposition) to the resolution when the animal "earns" its characteristic. You will be be drafting the 2 and a half minute story next week. Just brainstorm the plot as a prewriting activity this weekend.
Good Luck
Narrative Writing Introduction
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.3:
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
A narrative is the story (fiction or non-fiction) told and the order in which it is told.
Narrative Writing
What is Narrative?
Often, the word narrative is synonymous with story. A narrative is the story (fiction or non-fiction) told and the order in which it is told. Sometimes, there is a narrator, a character or series of characters, who tell the story. Sometimes, as with most non-fiction, the author himself/herself in the narrator.
You are narrators of your own lives all the time. Something happens in class. You go to lunch; then, you tell the details that are important to you in the order that seems right to you. The story that you tell is a narrative. A reporter who tells a human interest story for the Olympics about an athlete that fought for years to get to the Olympics might emphasize his hardship, the time he had to sleep outside for a week, the eight hours a day that he worked out. The narrative is shaped by details.These details offer clues about the author’s purpose. Clearly, the author who emphasizes the hardships of an Olympic athlete wants to show us that this person overcame adversity to succeed.
Why Write Narrative?
Narrative writing is very important in your day-to-day life. For the rest of your life,you will write texts, e-mails, cover letters, blogs, etc. about your beliefs, your ambitions, information you know, and feelings you have. What could be more important?
Narrative writing in fiction and non-fiction (and even poetry) tells others the stories of our personal experiences and allows us to gain empathy and sympathy about the world around us.
217’s Thoughts on the Narrative:
Told from someone’s perspective: Saniya
Story with a plot, character, settings and events: Cyrus
Told in first, send or third person: Cyrus
Story with someone narrating or telling a story from their point of view: Clara
Story made from the point of view of the author: Elliott
A piece of manuscript that is told in one person’s perspective. Sometimes, a narrative can be told from different perspectives (multiple): Mia
Story that a witness or character is telling a story that happened to them.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Breaking News: Digital Imaging Center Has Been Fully Funded!!!
Get ready 217... Our Digital Imaging Center is on its way! Thanks to this generous group of donors and the Donors Choose Organization, our dream has become a reality. I cannot wait to see what you produce.
Donors Choose... $175 Remaining
We have had an overwhelming show of support with 10 donors choosing to fund our project. If donors use the matching funds promotion, we have less than $175.00 remaining in our bid to be fully funded. The INSPIRE code, which automatically doubles any donation up to $100 is only good through the 28th of September.
We are almost there.
Here's the link to check our progress:
217 Donors Choose Project
We are almost there.
Here's the link to check our progress:
217 Donors Choose Project
Bring an umbrella. There's a brainstorm in the forecast during writing today.Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Animal Research Continued
As we begin to publish our animal research, I would like to introduce you to a new online publishing program called "Smore". It is a free program that allows students to publish their thoughts in digital flyer format. The site allows you to include images, video, hyperlinks and text in an organized and attractive manner. As a class, we will walk through the account sign-up and template creation. Attached is the template for this animal research project. Animal Research Project Template
We will build our templates, navigate the tools and explore the Smore site together. The template contains a guide for information gathering. Your project may look slightly different according to the information available and your own interest. Feel free to customize the project (colors, font, backgrounds, images, etc.). However, please include as much of the original information as you can for each section. This information will help you when we publish the fictional portion of this project. More information on that to follow.
This Animal Research Project is due by Monday, September 29th.
The fictional origin story is due by Friday, October 3rd. (more to come).
You will be given time during language arts in class to complete this assignment.
If you have any questions... please ask.
Good luck and have fun with it!
We will build our templates, navigate the tools and explore the Smore site together. The template contains a guide for information gathering. Your project may look slightly different according to the information available and your own interest. Feel free to customize the project (colors, font, backgrounds, images, etc.). However, please include as much of the original information as you can for each section. This information will help you when we publish the fictional portion of this project. More information on that to follow.
This Animal Research Project is due by Monday, September 29th.
The fictional origin story is due by Friday, October 3rd. (more to come).
You will be given time during language arts in class to complete this assignment.
If you have any questions... please ask.
Good luck and have fun with it!
Animal Research has begun...
Today we began researching our animals online via pre-approved websites. The sites and instructions are available in your email accounts. Below is a copy of that email communication.
Science Kids Animal Facts
In your thought books, I'd like you to brainstorm some ideas about your animal adaptation origination story. Research your animal using the approved animal fact sites attached below. Record your drafts in your Thought books. You will use this information in a later assignment.
Follow these steps:
- Choose an animal with a distinct or interesting characteristic.
- Explain your animal's interesting characteristic and how it is used
- Find and list at least five interesting facts about your animal.
- What does your animal eat?
- Where does it live?
- Try to find information about how this animal has evolved and how the characteristic has helped the animal survive.
- Begin to brainstorm a fictional story about how the animal attained its characteristic.
Science Kids Animal Facts
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Donors Choose Project 60% Funded!
Thank you to all the donors for accelerating the funding for our Digital Imaging Center. We are more than half-way there! Your generosity is astounding.
If you are considering a donation, please remember to enter the code INSPIRE at checkout. This code automatically doubles your donation up to $100 through matching funds. This promotion is good through September 28th. With the INSPIRE code and matching funds we need $300 more to reach our goal.
Here is the link to our proposal:
Capturing the Learning Project
Thanks again for your support.
If you are considering a donation, please remember to enter the code INSPIRE at checkout. This code automatically doubles your donation up to $100 through matching funds. This promotion is good through September 28th. With the INSPIRE code and matching funds we need $300 more to reach our goal.
Here is the link to our proposal:
Capturing the Learning Project
Thanks again for your support.
MAP Testing
The goal for every student in my class is to realize academic and social growth on a personalized and (hopefully) exciting level. In the next couple of days we will have completed the MAP test for reading and math. This information will serve as one metric to help us understand our own learning strengths and needs. I encouraged the students to write down their scores, in order to begin to understand themselves as learners. The results of the MAP will be printed and shared with each student and later, as a point of reference, during parent-teacher conferences at the end of the quarter.
While the MAP is only a one hour snapshot of how a student is doing on one particular day, it can be a useful bit of information when understood in context with other assessments. They are, by no means, the "be all and end all" in terms of assessment. MAP scores can fluctuate due to a number of factors (academic growth is not always a pretty slope). However, if treated with care, they can be very helpful. Let's take a closer look.
Here's a brief description of the MAP Scores and how we may use them to foster growth.
For Reading:
You get an "overall score"; which is an average taken from the scores in each individual reading goal.
The reading goals are Literature, Informational Text and Vocabulary. This is helpful information because the "overall" score gives us a big picture idea of reading level, while the goal scores reveal a more specific look at how you respond to different reading standards. While your overall score may be high, you may also be able to identify where you should be working to improve according to your goal scores. These "Goal Scores" match up with the Common Core Reading "Strands". Knowing this information gives us clues about where we could use more practice.
The MAP also reveals a Lexile Range. "The idea behind The Lexile Framework for Reading is simple: if we know how well a student can read and how hard a specific book is to comprehend, we can predict how well that student will likely understand the book." (Lexile.com).
If we understand a student's reading level, we can match that student's reading activities to text of equal readability level. This practice is an optimum way to increase reading level. Practice at your "instructional" reading level is recommended.
The Lexile range reported on the MAP gives us a range from independent reading level to frustration reading level. The lower end of the range should be the student's independent reading level. These are books that you can read "on your own" with about 95% accuracy. The middle of the range is where I want students studying for instructional purposes. On Newsela, for example, the student can slide the reading level gauge to match their current Lexile Level. For help finding appropriate books, you can go to Lexile.com to find books by title or genre. The more a student reads at their instructional reading level, the more they will grow.
Here is a helpful site for reading practice according to MAP score: MAP for Reading
For Math:
The MAP test for math also reveals an overall score. Again this "overall score" is an average taken from the 4 math goals. The goals are Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number Operations, Measurement and Data, and Geometry. These goals match up well with the "Domains" for the Common Core Standards for Math. Again, it is useful to understand each goal score to help identify how a student responds to different math standards.
Here is a helpful MAP Math site: MAP for Math
Knowing the individual goal scores reveals where each student should be working to improve according to the math standards.
In my classroom, MAP scores are used to help me understand the students as learners progressing on a continuum. Having this information in context with other assessments allows me to personalize their learning experience. I want the students to understand their score. However, I want to remove the idea of "high-stakes testing". In this classroom, it is just a measurement that shows us all the next step. I hope this is useful.
While the MAP is only a one hour snapshot of how a student is doing on one particular day, it can be a useful bit of information when understood in context with other assessments. They are, by no means, the "be all and end all" in terms of assessment. MAP scores can fluctuate due to a number of factors (academic growth is not always a pretty slope). However, if treated with care, they can be very helpful. Let's take a closer look.
Here's a brief description of the MAP Scores and how we may use them to foster growth.
For Reading:
You get an "overall score"; which is an average taken from the scores in each individual reading goal.
The reading goals are Literature, Informational Text and Vocabulary. This is helpful information because the "overall" score gives us a big picture idea of reading level, while the goal scores reveal a more specific look at how you respond to different reading standards. While your overall score may be high, you may also be able to identify where you should be working to improve according to your goal scores. These "Goal Scores" match up with the Common Core Reading "Strands". Knowing this information gives us clues about where we could use more practice.
The MAP also reveals a Lexile Range. "The idea behind The Lexile Framework for Reading is simple: if we know how well a student can read and how hard a specific book is to comprehend, we can predict how well that student will likely understand the book." (Lexile.com).
If we understand a student's reading level, we can match that student's reading activities to text of equal readability level. This practice is an optimum way to increase reading level. Practice at your "instructional" reading level is recommended.
The Lexile range reported on the MAP gives us a range from independent reading level to frustration reading level. The lower end of the range should be the student's independent reading level. These are books that you can read "on your own" with about 95% accuracy. The middle of the range is where I want students studying for instructional purposes. On Newsela, for example, the student can slide the reading level gauge to match their current Lexile Level. For help finding appropriate books, you can go to Lexile.com to find books by title or genre. The more a student reads at their instructional reading level, the more they will grow.
Here is a helpful site for reading practice according to MAP score: MAP for Reading
For Math:
The MAP test for math also reveals an overall score. Again this "overall score" is an average taken from the 4 math goals. The goals are Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number Operations, Measurement and Data, and Geometry. These goals match up well with the "Domains" for the Common Core Standards for Math. Again, it is useful to understand each goal score to help identify how a student responds to different math standards.
Here is a helpful MAP Math site: MAP for Math
Knowing the individual goal scores reveals where each student should be working to improve according to the math standards.
In my classroom, MAP scores are used to help me understand the students as learners progressing on a continuum. Having this information in context with other assessments allows me to personalize their learning experience. I want the students to understand their score. However, I want to remove the idea of "high-stakes testing". In this classroom, it is just a measurement that shows us all the next step. I hope this is useful.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Newsela Homework Tonight
Check your email for the link to tonight's homework. There are two articles assigned. The one about Texas immigrant students has a quiz attached.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Donors Choose Grant
We have been asked as teachers to post grants on Donor's Choose to solicit funding in support of our instructional programming. Donors Choose is non-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide needed funding to public schools. Our class grant is designed to enhance our digital imaging center. You can get details about the project at the link below. Currently, any donation up to $100 will be matched by Donor's Choose in support of the grant. Be sure to enter the code: INSPIRE on the payment page. This promotion lasts for the next seven days. All help would be appreciated. Below, you will find a copy of the form letter Donor's Choose has generated to help explain the promotion.
Thanks for considering a donation.
Subject: Help me build a better classroom
Hi Friends,
I want to make sure my students have the materials they need to succeed, so I just created a request for my classroom at DonorsChoose.org:
Give to my classroom by September 28, 2014 and your donation will be doubled thanks to DonorsChoose.org. Just enter the code INSPIRE on the payment page and you'll be matched dollar for dollar (up to $100).
If you chip in to help my students, you'll get awesome photos and our heartfelt thanks.
Thanks so much,
Fitz
P.S. If you know anyone who may want to help my classroom, please pass this along!
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Friday, September 19, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
My Summer Project Due Tomorrow!
Be prepared to share your presentation with me and a few other students tomorrow. Check your rubric to make sure that you have all of your components and that you have fulfilled all of the requirements. Practice your presentation. I will pull eyeballs for class presentations tomorrow.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
No Red Ink Homework
https://www.noredink.com/login/student
Go to your No Red Ink account. Sign in. Try the assignment on "Capitalization".
No Red Ink First Impressions
Aidan says, "No Red Ink is and awesome grammar site. It helps kids learn grammar. It makes up sentences using your favorite interests. There are lots of humorous sentences. I enjoy it!"
Got Milk? Science Lab Experiment
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Tonight's Homework
Today we introduced pearsonsuccessnet.com. This is the website that contains our digital textbook. On this site you will find the math text, lessons, activities, videos, quizzes and tests. There is even a "parent tab" to check student assignments and progress.
Tonight for homework, please go to pearsonsuccessnet.com, sign on to your account and explore the first topic. Be sure to watch the video opener for lessons 01-00 and 01-01 in Topic 1. Be prepared for a quick discussion.
After you have watched the videos, take some time to explore the site.
Next, please explore the site with a parent. Show them how they can use the site to check math progress.
Envision Math/Pearson
Tonight for homework, please go to pearsonsuccessnet.com, sign on to your account and explore the first topic. Be sure to watch the video opener for lessons 01-00 and 01-01 in Topic 1. Be prepared for a quick discussion.
After you have watched the videos, take some time to explore the site.
Next, please explore the site with a parent. Show them how they can use the site to check math progress.
Envision Math/Pearson
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