Weekly Updates: Marathon Edition

NEWS/EVENTS

It was wonderful to meet with many of you for Parent Teacher Conferences this past week! Please feel free to email me with any follow up questions, and I promise I will respond as quickly as possible.

If I did not give you a green envelope prior to the start of conferences, please check your child's communication folder today. The green envelope contains the school survey- it is so important that these are completed! Please double check your child's folder and fill this out for our school. The participation is what matters most- it is essential we get your feedback as a community!

• This Friday is the Third Grade Science Fair! Please be should to read the email I forwarded from Mr. Bender about specifics for the day!
• The State ELA exams are taking place on Tuesday March 28th, Wednesday March 29th, and Thursday March 30th. As the dates get closer I will send out a separate email to discuss "day of" plans.
• The state Math Exams are Tuesday May 2, Wednesday May 3, and Thursday May 4th.
• TOMORROW SCHOOL IS CLOSED DUE TO THE FORECASTED BLIZZARD! This official announcement was shared over NYCDOE's twitter account. I discussed the idea of students planning their own reading marathon across genres if they can't get outside tomorrow!

CURRICULUM

Reading: A week and a half ago we officially started "marathon training" for the upcoming state exams. Our philosophy behind this training (aka prep in disguise) is that all year long the work we have been doing has prepared us- we are simply transferring what we have learned to a testing structure. For the month leading up to the test we are approaching training with the lens of 4 different bends:

1. Literary texts (1 week)- Narratives, Fiction
2. Narrative Nonfiction (1 week)- Biographies and other forms 
3. Informational Texts (1 week)
4. Mixed Genre (1 week)- Folk Tales, Poems, Plays, etc

The major focus across each bend is setting up expectations within genres and understanding how texts seem to go as they dive in and read. I have attached a chart so you can reference the work we are doing in class! On Fridays we are hosting "Marathon Long Run Days" when our focus is on building stamina over an extended period of time, but across different genres and texts. On these Fridays students are encouraged to come in wearing comfortable clothes with a wide variety of texts. During each of these bends students will be pulled for small group work based on their areas of need. For example, some students will receive strategy work with how to approach a multiple choice question, while others might get support road-mapping or marking up a text. I will be using data from previous assessments as well as current student  to determine what each student needs support in. 

Each week we start off we a shared experience (together as a class), and each day there is a slow release (day two is with a partner, day three is independent but then checked by a partner...then the last day they work independently). Students are getting a lot of exposure to different texts and question types in class. 

During conferences I have discussed specific areas for students to focus on during reading and writing. Please use my suggestions to plan any additional practice for your child! Email me if you have any questions!

Writing: Our writing marathon prep is also split into several bends to approach the "writing about reading" that is required on the state exams.

1.  Short Response (1.5 weeks)
2. Introduction to Extended Response (1 week)
3. Raising the Level of Extended Response (1.5 weeks)

Throughout week one students learned to analyze questions and consider "What is this Question Asking Me to Do?" After marking up the question and reading it carefully with a partner, students FIRST conduct an oral rehearsal, then plan their work using boxes and bullets. Within the boxes and bullets structure students answer the question in the box, and lift two details from the text to support their work. Finally, students write their response. Students will be pulled for extra support based on different needs discovered from previous assessments. Minilessons during this bend involved helping the kids understand the difference between a strong verses weak detail, how to answer a question, and how to use a checklist to double check their work.

This week we are starting to get familiarized with Extended Responses, which are very much like baby literary essays in disguise! This structure is not new to the kids- it is just being used in a way that involves answering a question rather than developing their own theories about a text. We will spend a day or two breaking extended responses into smaller, more manageable parts (the bullets), and then continuing to practice with an oral rehearsal before planning.

Math: This week we are officially launching our next math unit of the year- fractions. Throughout this unit students will be learning how to find equivalent fractions, compare and order fractions, and use number lines to plot, order, and compare fractions. Students will also solve a wide range of real world problems using fractions. We will start math marathon training in the upcoming week. If I gave suggestions for areas of practice for the exams during our conferences, please use those areas as a place to review.

Social Studies: Last week we finished our work with Empatico after studying a Weather Hazard with a group, developing a solution prototype, and presenting our ideas to a partner school in Arkansas! The kids had a great experience with this work! Our next unit is Folk Tales- we will explore this new genre in parallel to marathon training, and will learn how Folk Tales allow us to better understand the culture, land, economy, and history of a region around the world.