Paw Prints Newsletter
Unit Overview
Central Idea: The style and structure of leadership affect the way decisions are made.
Key concepts: Form, Function, connection
Related concepts: structure, role, government systems
Lines of Inquiry:
- What makes a leader
- How decisions are made
- Different structures and styles of leadership
Our Learning So Far!
UOI/Language Arts/Social Studies
Assalam-Alaikum Parents,
This is the second newsletter for our current UOI, "How We Organize Ourselves".
Students have been busy in inquiry and activities to explore the central idea listed above. They have been exploring the key concepts of form, function, and connection and through the lines of inquiry.
ELA/Social Studies
Students have worked on the following:
- The Daily 5 Strategies of Read-to-Self, Read-to-Someone, Work on Writing and Listen to Read. More details on Daily 5 is linked below.
- Using the CAFE strategies of Check for Understanding and summarizing the text.
- Determining the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text.
- Writing informatively to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
- Use context clues to determine the meaning of a word or phrase.
- Identifying a primary or secondary source.
- discussing the qualities of leadership and consider what qualities are most important for an effective leader.
- identify the characteristics of a boss and a leader and discuss these characteristics in regards to what makes a great leader.
- reflected on their own leadership qualities and indicated where they fall within a ranking of each quality.
- identified various leadership qualities within video clips and discussed if the leaders are effective.
Next week, students will continue working on the summative assessment. Students will work on revising, editing, proofreading and publishing their informational paragraphs.
Daily 5 & Parent Pipelines
Our year is off to a great start and I am excited to share what the children will be working on during our literacy block this year.
The Daily Five is a way of structuring the reading block so every student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. These research-based tasks are ones that will have the biggest impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as help foster children who love to read and write. Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write independently while I provide focused, intense instruction to individuals and small groups of students.
When it is up and running smoothly, students will be engaged in the Daily Five, which are comprised of:
- Read to Self
- Work on Writing
- Read to Someone
- Listen to Reading
- Word Work
There are very specific behavior expectations that go with each Daily 5 component. We have been spending our first weeks working intensely on building our reading and writing stamina, learning the behaviors of the Daily 5 and fostering our classroom community.
One thing you’ll notice that may be a change for you is a direct decrease in the number of worksheets your child brings home. While worksheets keep students busy, they don’t really result in the high level of learning I want for your child. Instead, your child will be taught to select “Good Fit Books” or books they can read, understand and are interested in, which they will read during Daily 5. They will be spending most of their time actually reading, which research supports as the number one way to improve reading. I anticipate the motivation and enjoyment of reading will skyrocket when this gift of choosing their own books is accompanied by extended practice and specific reading instruction for each individual child.
Research shows that good readers use a variety of strategies when successfully reading and comprehending a selection of text. I feel it is not only important to teach these strategies, but to post them as a reference for readers in the classroom. Our classroom has a Literacy CAFE Menu posted that contains strategies good readers use when reading. In class, we compared our Literacy CAFE Menu to a menu at a restaurant. We discussed how the food we order at a restaurant depends on the time of day, how hungry we are, and what we like to eat. This compares to our classroom CAFE menu because as readers we use the strategies we need at the time to help us successfully read and comprehend text.
CAFE is an acronym that stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding vocabulary. These become our goals and the strategies we use to be successful with our goals are posted below them. Each child has goals and strategies specific to his/her individual needs and therefore will get the direct instruction needed to move forward and become a successful reader.
As your child declares his/her goal and works on various strategies, I will be sending home a Parent Pipeline. The Parent Pipeline is a letter informing you of the strategy your child is working on and it provides suggestions for assisting your child at home. Please find a link to the Parent Pipeline below. I will link these Parent Pipelines throughout the year and invite you to support your child in his/her quest to become a better reader.
Check for Understanding
https://www.thedailycafe.com/legacy/public/file/Parent+Pipeline+%7E+Check+for+Understanding.pdfMath
5th Grade
Students have been working on Module 1 Place Value and Decimal Fractions, specifically the following standards:
- Reason concretely and pictorially using place value understanding to relate adjacent base ten units from millions to thousandths.
- Reason abstractly using place value understanding to relate adjacent base ten units from millions to thousandths.
- Use exponents to name place value units and explain patterns in the placement of the decimal point.
- Use exponents to denote powers of 10 with application to metric conversions.
- Name decimal fractions in expanded, unit, and word forms by applying place value reasoning.
- Compare decimal fractions to the thousandths using like units to express comparisons with >, <, =.
- Round a given decimal to any place using place value understanding and the vertical number line.
- Add and subtract decimals using place value strategies and relate those strategies to a written method.
The following links to Engage newsletters will give you some further insight into the type of math we have been working on.
Topic A: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bze4eU0rInwwTTl1MlM1dDRydTA/view
Topic B: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bze4eU0rInwwYktlU01oLXJiUXM/view
Topic C: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bze4eU0rInwwTVVLeU9SeTlvUlE/view
Topic D: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bze4eU0rInwwWUVSOFVubDhWQnc/view
6th Grade
Students have continued working on Module 1: Ratios and Unit Rates. In this module, students became familiar with:
- ratio language (how to describe ratios) and notation (how to write ratios, e.g., 3:2 or 7 to 15).
- how to identify equivalent ratios (e.g., 1:2, 2:4 and 4:8)
- how to solve problems with ratio values.
- how to represent equivalent ratios in various ways using ratio tables and tape diagrams.
During the remaining weeks of this unit, students will learn:
- how to represent equivalent ratios using double number line diagrams, equations, and graphs on coordinate planes.
- to study the additive and multiplicative patterns of the ratios presented in ratio tables.
For sample problems on the above and for tips on how to help at home, please read the attached "Parent Tips" sheets below:
Arabic, Quran, Islamic Studies (AQI)
Students showed their independence when they discovered the qualities of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from the Qur'an and Sunnah, and also the qualities of his friends. Students learned how to describe their qualities using the Arabic language based on the words they found in the Qur'an.
My 5th and 6th grades students are showing Enthusiasm while working on the Qur'an and they will be done reading the first Juzaa from the MUSHAF soon. They are working on the memorization based on their group levels.
Describing their qualities in Arabic.
Work-on-writing with a partner.
Presenting what they wrote.
Visual Arts
Summative
For our first summative task of the year, students are creating an informative article regarding a historical leader. Each student chose a leader from history they were interested in to research. Students will use their research to present their knowledge in the form of 3 paragraphs presenting the person’s importance in history, leadership style this person best embodies and the impact the leader has had on history.
More details on the summative can be found on ManageBac.
Subject specific summatives in math are specific to grade level and can be found on ManageBac. ELA subject-specific summatives can also be found on ManageBac.
IB Learner Profile Passports
- Khadija Sattar
- Tasnem Ahmad
- Asiya Khan
- Samha Khan
- Fatima Omer
- Amina Alimu
- Amina Walcott
- Hanan Jazouli
The LP attribute for October is Inquirer.
Please encourage your child to keep track of their passports and fill it in regularly.
IB describes Inquirer as:
"We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life".
Completed passports are due on Tuesday, October 31, 2017.
Technology
- Device use: It is important for students to bring in devices to school on a regular basis as explained during Back to School Night. Laptops are preferred, but Ipads are also an alternative. If your child uses an Ipad, please check to see if the Ipad needs an update or has memory. Some students have been having issues accessing certain websites, or getting access to some materials.
- Tarbiyah Academy email accounts: Students should be using their new TA email addresses to communicate with teachers. Please remind your child to use their account and not personal accounts.
- Some sites we use on a regular basis.
- https://newsela.com
- https://www.vocabulary.com
- https://www.getepic.com
- https://www.zearn.org
- https://www.prodigygame.com/Play/
- https://www.khanacademy.org
If your child uses an IPad for school, some of these sites have been glitchy on Safari. Using the app reduces this issue. Please check these sites with your child and, if possible, please download the app.
Jazakallah Khair
Upcoming Events
Tarbiyah Family Night Out
Sunday, Oct 8, 2017, 04:00 PM
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Old Dobbin Lane, Columbia, MD, United States
Girls in Politics Camp United Nations
Saturday, Oct 21, 2017, 08:00 AM
525 New Jersey Avenue Northwest, Washington D.C., DC 20001, United States
Mrs. Abbasi's 5th/6th Grade Class @ Tarbiyah Academy
Email: sabbasi@tarbiyahacademy.org
Website: www.tarbiyahacademy.com
Location: 6785 Business Pkwy, Elkridge, MD, United States
Phone: 1-844-827-2492