ELA update - February 1st
This month was extremely busy in ELA.
Reading - This month's story was "Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude." The skill students worke don this moth was Compare and Contrast. As students read the story , they completed a Venn diagram that dealt with the boy's story and the girl's story. Students worked on a spelling contract, a vocabulary assessment and were assessed with a spellng test and a reading comprehension test. 
Writing - This month students worked on a Compare and Contrast essay that dealt with the two versions of "Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude." Students conferenced with either myelf or Mrs. Speese bwfore writing their final copy.
We also wrote pen pal letters to our pen plas in England this month and anxiously await our responses from the.
Grammar - We completed our unit on Pronouns and student completed a slide show presentation.
Speaking/Listening - Students read their pen pal letters to the class. They also presented their pronoun slide show to the class. We also received our Kindness Book that we published and each student shared their page from the book with the class. 

ELA update - January 1st
Reading - This month's story was "The Power of W.O.W. This story is about a group of young students who find an idea to help raise funds for The Power of WOW program, a bookmobile that visits neighborhoods to provide books to local persons. Our skill in this story was story elements. Students worked on a spelling contract, a vocbaulary contract, and text questions in class. They were assessed with a spelling test and a reading comprehension test. Students also worked in small reading groups to practice story elements in short stories.
Grammar - This month we began work on a pronoun unit. Each daily lesson was assessed with an exit ticket that dealt with that day's lesson.
 Writing - We concluded our paragraph writing unit this month.

ELA Update - December 1st
Reading - This month's story was "How Tia Lola Came to Stay" . This story dealt with a fmily who had to relocate and an aunt who came to visit but ended up staying. Our skill in this story was cause and effect.  Students worked on a spelling contract, a vocbaulary contract, and text questions in class. They were assessed with a spelling test and a reading comprehension test.
Grammar - This month we completed a chapter on nouns. Students created and presented a noun slide show higlighting what they learned about nouns.
Writing - We began a writing unit in which students practice and then apply the 5 steps in the writing process. 
Speaking/Listening - Students completed a listening activity and also presented an oral presentation on "My Favorite . . . "

ELA Update - October 24th
This past month has been busy in ELA. We finished out unit on paragraph writing and students complete a paragraph writing assessment. We began a unit on friendly letter writing and students are in the process of completing their final draft of their friendly letters to ther pen pals in England. We will be excited to receive letters in return from each of their pen pals at St. Albert the Great Primary School in Hertfordshire, England.
In Grammar, we finished a unit on sentences. This included 4 types of sentences, complete and simple subjects and predicate, run-on sentences, and compound sentences. Next week we will begin a gramar unit on nouns. Students completed exit tickets as an assessments for the sentence unit.
In reading, we read "My Brother Martin" written by Martin Luther King's sister. Students learned about his early life, his family and a little about the family's encounters with segregation.  Students completed a spelling contract that dealt with long and short e words, a vocabulary contract using 10 story vocabulary words, 4 writing prompts and a reading packet. Skills from this lesson included finding author's purpose and inferencing. 
 
ELA Update - September 19th
In the past two weeks,  students have been busy.
We set up an ELA copybook and an ELA binder.
We began our study of our first story, "Because of Winn Dixie." Students took a spelling pretest and worked on their spelling contract to practice their words. This unit's words deal with words with short 2 or long 2 sounds. Students will complete their spelling test on Wednesday, September 22nd. They were introduced to 10 new vocabulary words that go along with our story. We will begin each story by listening to it in class. After that I will read the story with 4 or 5 different small groups so we can have in depth discussions. This will be followed by a class read of the story.
In writing, we are finishing a unit on writing a good paragraph. Students will complete an in class assessment this coming week, writing a paragraph following the steps we have worked on in class. They can also use their notes to refresh their memory, if needed, while they are writing their paragraph.  


 

4th grade ELA - Mrs. Tursi

Educational Philosophy - I believe that all students learn best when they are engaged in the learning process. Students need to be responsible for their own success and I will provide the tools they need to succeed. I will present a curriculum that will incorporate each different learning style, as well as make the content relevant to the students' lives. Our class will incorporate hands-on learning, cooperative learning, projects, themes, and individual work that engage and activate students learning.

ELA overview - ELA covers 7 different subjects. This will be taught both separately, at times, or in conjunction with other subject areas. ELA includes, Reading, Writing, Grammar, Vocabulary, Spelling, Speaking and Listening.

Binders - Each student will need to have a binder for ELA this year. Please be sure students bring it to school by Tuesday, September 7th.

Textbooks - We will use two different textbooks this year. We have “Journeys” for reading and Voyages in English. Our “Journeys” series offer us both a hardcover book that will stay in school and an on line version for every student so they never have to bring the book home. Each reading selection has an audio file for students to listen to the story whenever they want to, whether in class or at home.  Each student receive a login and password for the online version of the series as well as for our “IXL” website which allows ELA practice all year long.

Grading - The overall grading for each trimester will be based on all assessments: projects, tests, quizzes, maintenance and journals.

Test/Quizzes: Quizzes will always be given at least a two day notice and tests will be given a one week notice.

Writing - This year we will concentrate on creating perfect paragraphs. After two intoduction and review units, studets will work on two week units each highlighting eiher Narrrative, Expository, or Opinion writing. This will include mini lessons, much writing and an interactive notebooks.

 Any student who is absent on the day something is due whether it be a project or a homework assignment must have it to me by 8AM the next day.  Tests must be made up within three days of the absence.

Homework - Homework is always posted on both my webpage and the white board in my classroom. 

Communication -  Homework will be posted on google classroom. Test and quiz dates will also be posted on google classroom. 

I am looking forward to working with each of your children this year.

Mrs. Leigh Ann Tursi