Notes & Reminders...
1) Students in my ELA class receive a homework grade for completing their Independent Reading. Along with reading a set number of books (2 per month or 300 pages), each student must complete a brief report for each book read.
UPDATE: By now, students should have read, and completed mini-reports for, at least 8 books (or 2250 pages).
Students can improve this grade by "catching up" before the end of the marking period. Some class time is given each week to silent read. They must come to class with a silent reading book or leave it in the room.
2) All students must read two Teen Biz articles per week and complete the multiple choice questions and thought questions that accompany them. Teen Biz may be used at home, but students are only allowed to send 2 e-mails per article or log-in. Please monitor your child's use of this excellent reading comprehension program to insure that your child is getting full use of it and not just using the e-mail function. The URL address for Teenbiz is www.teenbiz3000.com.
3) The NYS ELA exam will be given on April 26th - April 28th. Please consider these dates when making your spring break vacation plans.
Current Units
We are currently reading short informative non-fiction selections. In writing, we have been practicing the trait of "voice" and are learning to apply it to persuasive writing pieces.
Two pieces that are due Friday are a persuasive letter and a persuasive essay. We have been working on these in class. Feel free to ask your 6th grader about them!
We do not have any new words. However, the next Wordmasters Challenge will be held on Thursday, 2/11 in my room. Please help your child prepare for this event! Ice cream is at stake!!
WordMasters Challenge #2 is here! Students in 6th grade will be learning the following words for this contest:
brouhaha
compile
lofty
stockpile
relinquish
boorish
melee
decry
porous
sage
hone
prudent
cache
amass
conservative
lout
sully
vulnerable
miff
cede
productive
flak
molder
susceptible
upshot
Ask your child which word he or she is responsible for.
WordMasters is an alalogy-solving contest. The contest will challenge students to use the words in the list above in logical pairs that will look like this:
AMBITIONS : GRAND :: GOALS: (a. productive / b. radiant / c. conservative / d. lofty / e. fertile)
Our contest will take place the week of February 8th!
Mrs. Cappello's challenge - anyone in my ELA class who makes it to the top 15 out of the entire 6th grade gets lunch and ice cream on me! If 5 or more students do, I'll treat them to pizza!
Spelling
Test Friday, 2/12/10
about
around
avoid
awkward
cause
enough
haunted
moist
naughty
royal
Your 6th grader has 4 activities that need to be completed prior to the test. They include: writing each word 3x each, writing each word 1 x with the wrong hand, scrambling the words and trading with someone to unscramble; and writing each word 1 time in marker (or colored pencil or crayon)/alternating colors. The activities count for 50% of the grade.
On Thursday, the 4th, we took the 2009 ELA test as a practice session. Students become familiar with the format, types of questions, and get to see how they are progressing at this point. Part 1 has been scored. This is a multiple choice test that evaluates reading comprehension. Please ask your child how he/she did on it. I was very pleased overall with the results! Part II will be discussed in class as we examine exemplar samples and make comparisons between them and our own answers.
