Literacy News
Mrs. Watts
What are we learning this week.....
Focus Skills that our lessons and assessment will be centered around:
-summarizing
-text structure: sequence
-prefixes & suffixes
-Genre: narrative nonfiction
This week in 6th grade literacy we will be learning about summarizing informational text when reading. Students will learn that finding and understanding key details is important as they read. Summarizing helps a student focus on main ideas in order to remember them later. One type of text structure is sequence. It is the way that the author organizes ideas in a selection. Sequence refers to a series of steps or events placed in time order. Students will be reading and learning the characteristics of a narrative nonfiction. Narrative nonfiction tells about real people, places, and events. Narrative nonfiction uses story form to describe true experiences and sequences of real events. Students will be learning about the meanings of common prefixes and suffixes and how they can help them figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
-summarizing
-text structure: sequence
-prefixes & suffixes
-Genre: narrative nonfiction
Essential Question: What can people accomplish by working together?
This week in 6th grade literacy we will be learning about summarizing informational text when reading. Students will learn that finding and understanding key details is important as they read. Summarizing helps a student focus on main ideas in order to remember them later. One type of text structure is sequence. It is the way that the author organizes ideas in a selection. Sequence refers to a series of steps or events placed in time order. Students will be reading and learning the characteristics of a narrative nonfiction. Narrative nonfiction tells about real people, places, and events. Narrative nonfiction uses story form to describe true experiences and sequences of real events. Students will be learning about the meanings of common prefixes and suffixes and how they can help them figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
It is important to celebrate success! Levi Mathes is shining bright!
Parts of Speech
Students in grade 6 have been working very hard on being able to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in sentences. They are making great strides in this area. We watched some old favorites of mine from Saturday AM cartoons. Maybe some of these will bring back some memories for you. It has been fun to hear students singing about adverbs in the classroom.
Verbs Schoolhouse Rock
Grammar Rock "Nouns"
Schoolhouse Rock: Grammar - Unpack Your Adjectives Music Video
Schoolhouse Rock Adverbs
Reading at Home is Important! Time to celebrate student success!
Garrett Lamb
Garrett has earned 158.8 points so far this year! Way to go Garrett!
Gracee Chandler
Gracee has earned 158.3 points so far this year! Keep up the awesome work Gracee!
READ
This is what we are all about!
Quarter 3 AR Goals
It is important to read at home. All students have AR goals for Quarter 3. We ask students to read for 20 minutes each night at home. I appreciate all of your support!I
Quarter 3 goals are due on March 18. I meet with students each week to discuss their progress. They all know their goals and have plans to drive them to success. The key is reading at home.
Quarter 3 goals are due on March 18. I meet with students each week to discuss their progress. They all know their goals and have plans to drive them to success. The key is reading at home.
Spelling
Students receive their spelling list on Monday. They cut the words out and sort them. The students do a variety of sorts during the week. There are several different lists - students work on the list that their pretest indicated was an area that needed to be strengthened. The students have a list that is to go home each Monday so that they can practice at home during the week. A final test is given on Friday. This approach to spelling is individualized with the goal that students will learn spelling patterns that will help them as they read and write. Ask your child to share their list with you :-)
Livia is sorting her spelling words. Spelling list come home every Monday.
"Overall, reading fluency is important because (a) improving reading fluency is necessary to improve reading comprehension, and (b) fluent readers are more likely to choose to read. Also worth noting, an extensive amount of research shows that a student's scores on reading fluency assessments help teachers to predict that student's likelihood of success on other meaningful measures of reading, such as comprehensive assessments of reading comprehension."
Klay & Garrett
Students...
Carlie & Katie
focusing...
Zach & Josiah
on fluency!
Rita Pierson Video
The students and I watched this video together. I want them to remember each day to never give up, to strive to succeed, and to remember the teachers at NM are here to be their champions!
Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion
Update on our favorite guy, Kid President: This was taken from his facebook page.
9 hrs ยท
Update: Robby is out of surgery & resting in recovery. Thank you for the outpouring of love and support. It's been a long, tough day and yet you've overwhelmed us with an avalanche of love. Our family is forever grateful. Thank you all so much. Wow.
We all enjoyed Valentine's Day together on the 11th.
Anthony showcasing just how much 6th graders love a little snack!
Snack TIme!! #eatlunch@12:30
Thank you for helping me provide a snack for each student each day. All donations of cereal and baggies help keep the students fueled. Your contributions of cereal are very much appreciated and helpful.
Student of the Week, Ethan Fogle!
Ethan is fun loving member of our class. He loves to play basketball & baseball. Ethan loves his dog, Pip. Ethan likes to read mystery books. His favorite subject in school is Math.
This Week's Vocabulary Words
Room 312 is all about reading!
Addie reading from her AR book.
My Family: Pictured below: Roman, Megan, Samuel & Tressa
My family is a big part of who I am as an educator. Above is a picture from State Speech Contest. Samuel was a member of reader's theater. Reader's theater received a number 1 rating at state speech this year! Our family is growing and changing. Mark and I have 3 children; Megan, Tressa and Samuel, and a very soon to be son-in-law Roman. Our oldest daughter Megan is a first year teacher at Center Point Urbana Intermediate School where she teaches 5th grade. Our Tressa is a sophomore at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, she is an elementary education major. Our youngest, Samuel is a junior at North Mahaska. Our future son-in-law Roman Meyers is a Cornell College graduate and he works at the Mt. Vernon bank. He and Megan will be married on June 4, 2016. I love meeting and getting to know your families and thought you might like to see and know a bit more about mine. I believe firmly that a strong home/school connection makes for the greatest gains in a child's education. It is a sincerely pleasure working with all of you.