Thursday, October 11th

Reminders and Announcements 

• Mid Term Progress Reports Home Today
• Please send a water bottle to school with your student.  We no longer have fountains in the classroom and the kids get thirsty after recess.  The line at the fountain in the hall is long.

Reading

Focus Standards

•  RL.5.2 - Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
• RL.5.1 - Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

We are continuing to identify key events in our narrative reading and explain the importance of those events by showing how they help us understand the characters, plot, or theme.  Reading Groups are now reading novels or anthologies.  As we read, we are practicing note taking skills to assist us in our comprehension and discussions.  

Writing

Focus Standards

• W.5.3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• W.5.10 - Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Monday through Thursday we are continuing to work on our narrative writing.  Next week we will continue to work on bringing out the heart of the story and bringing forth the story arc.

On Fridays we are writing to respond to reading.  The point of response writing is to help students learn how to communicate and support their thougths about their reading and to proficiently respond to a given prompt.  Some weeks we will write a traditional response paragraph or mini essay.  Other weeks we will respond more creatively.  Tomorrow we will try Black Out Poetry for the first time as a creative way to bring out a message or theme.

Thursday, October 4th

Reminders and Announcements 

• Tomorrow, Friday, October 5th - Mid Term and 2 Hour Early Dismissal
• Friday, October 12 - Mobile Dentist at SRES

If you missed picture day, don't worry.  All children's pictures were taken and you can order copies with this link:  Online Picture Order

Reading 

Focus Standards

• RL.5.1 - Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RL.5.2 - Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

We will be working with these two standards using novels in small group in addition to our class novel.  Mrs. Johnson's homeroom is working with the novel The Crossover by Kwame Alexander and Ms. Anzick's homeroom is working with Wonder.  We are focusing on understanding how to identify key events and why those events are so important using Sign Posts (see last week's blog for more on this).  As students are ready, we will also be looking at analyzing character and theme as well as author's craft.  For a look at author's craft see the reference below.

A look at Authors Craft with Kwame Alexander

Writing 

Focus Standard
W.5.5 - With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

This week we will approach another bend in our writing as we look at finding the heart of the story, the message or theme they want to share with their readers.  Our lessons will focus on how to develop a personal narrative that reads like a story and engages the reader by bringing them into the story.  You can take a look at your student's work by asking them to show you their working document.  At this point, we are NOT deleting anything.  While we may choose to start over, further down the document, as part of the revision process, I want students to keep all writing to refer back to for good parts or essential ideas.

Math Helpers

Some of you have requested references for the strategies we use to teach multiplication and division in math.  The Unit newsletters have helpful links, however, I have included two videos below that may help as well.

Box Method Multiplication

Area Method for Division

Thursday, September 27th

Reminders and Announcements 

• Wednesday, October 3rd - Picture Day
• Friday, October 5th - Mid Term and 2 Hour Early Dismissal
• Friday, October 12 - Mobile Dentist at SRES

Reading 

Focus Standard

• RL.5.10   By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

We will wrap up our studies of informational text for this quarter Friday the 28th and move on to literary text for the remainder of the quarter.  The students are refining thier ability to identify the  main idea of small chunks of text in order to get an overall understanding of the main idea for an entire piece.  We will continue to practice chunking text and taking notes to help with comprehension of informational text in Science classes.  As we move into Literary text, we will be working on understanding the signposts that show up in literary text and how they help with comprehension.  Click the resource to check out this handy reference for Literary Signposts:  PDF Resource.

Writing

Focus Standards

W.5.5 - With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

W.5.3.d - Text Types and Purposes: Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

W.5.3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

We will strengthen our skills as storytellers by working with writing partners.  Over the next week, we will work on both giving productive feedback and revising based on feedback.  If you are interested in seeing your student's writing or following their progress, you can have them log into Chrome and show you their work in Google Drive.  Note that we are still in the process of gathering ideas and revising for content.  We will be learning how to edit for grammar, punctuation, and capitalization as we get closer to publishing later in this writing unit.

Thursday, September 20th

Announcements/Reminders 

• Thursday, September 20th - Fluency Scores in Thursday Folder
• Friday, September 21st - Look for Graded Assignments in Homework Folder
• Wednesday, October 3rd - Picture Day
• Friday, October 5th - Mid Term and 2 Hour Early Dismissal

My number:  240-236-1513  My email:  melissa.anzick@fcps.org

Remind your student that homework is due on Fridays, unless otherwise announced.  For reading, they should continue to use the menu provided to choose an activity that will demonstrate their comprehension of the reading they did each night.  I have directed students to choose a different activity each night during the week.  They may start fresh the following week from the same menu.  Most students had their homework ready to turn in last week!  We are off to a good start.  A few are still struggling with this.  Please check with your student to make sure they are managing their assignments.  This week they had homework on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Explanation of Fluency Scores (click heading for overview)
You will see three scores sent home today on your Thursday Folder comment sheet:

1. Accuracy is taken as a percentage of correct words read divided by total words read.  Accurate reading is important, if students are able to read with 95% accuracy or better, they will be able to interpret the author's message.  Students with accuracy below 95% will need support to improve.
2. Words/Min is a measurement of your child's pace as they read.  We count the number of correct words read in one minute to get this rate.  Frederick County likes to see 5th graders reading around 121 words correctly per minute at this point in the year.  Expression and emphasis sometimes slow a reader down and that is okay.  If your child is reading within 10 words of the goal, I would not be too concerned.  Students who are more than 10 words away from the goal/benchmark, will be getting fluency practice added into their instruction.
3. Retell is a quick way for me to see how much your child understood about the text after a first reading.  Scores range from 1 to 5.  A socre of 1 indicates that the students was unable to recall anything significant from the text.  A score of 5 indicates a strong understanding of the text and includes a statement of the main idea along with a robust set of details quoted from the text in a logical order.  A score of 4 or 5 is proficient.  Students who are scoring a 1 or 2 will recieve extra instruction to improve their comprehension.  Students with a 3 will improve with regular comprehension instruction.

If you have questions about your child's fluency scores, please contact me.  

Reading 

Standards of Focus:

• Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

We will continue to work on strategies for comprehending informational text.  This Google Slide Presentation demonstrates the strategies we are using.  We have used Sketch in Chunks and will be moving on with Shrink a Text, and Read Cover Retell.  These simple strategies help students break down lengthy and more complicated text into understandable parts; next, they can use their understanding of the parts to identify the main idea of the whole article or text.

Writing

Standards of Focus:

• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
• Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

We will continue working on our personal narrative writing skills.  This week we started looking at techniques for raising the level of our narrative writing.  We will continue to explore ways to bring our writing up to the expectations of 5th grade by using the county rubric to evaluate our current writing and set goals in areas that we need to improve.   I will use student work, published authors, and my own writing to model techniques to write a meaningful story that invites the reader inside.

Thursday, September 13th

Reminders and Announcements 

• Link for Back to School Night  - Click Here
• Friday, September 14th - Reading Homework Due
• Wednesday, September 19th - School Closed
• Friday, October 5th - Mid Term and 2 Hour Early Dismissal

I just want to take a moment to tell you how much I am enjoying teaching your children.  They are a pleasure.  Now for housekeeping...  On Thursdays you should get the regular Thursday Folder from your homeroom teacher and a comment sheet from your child's co teacher.  Please check each carefully.  Also, please note, my phone will be up and running by Monday and my class extension has changed.  My school phone number is 240-236-1513.

Reading 

Focus Standards:

• RI.5.1 - Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RI.5.2 - Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

We have been working on strategies to help us prepare before we read informational text.  We have also been working on chunking text and summarizing our understandings along the way.  We will continue to add strategies to our reading tool belts next week.

I am also meeting with students to check reading fluency and basic comprehension.  You can look for those results by Friday next week.  I will send them in the Homework Folder.

Writing

Focus Standards:

• W.5.3.d - Text Types and Purposes: Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
• W.5.3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

We have been working on drafts of personal stories.  Our focus has been on ideas during this phase of the writing process.  We have been trying to raise our writing to the next level by adding descriptive language and dialogue to bring the reading into the story.  We will continue to work on techniques that help us really engage our audience during next week's writing lesson and practice as well.

Monday, June 11th

Our Final Week...

5th Grade S'more with all the news for our last week!  Click Here

This week will be full of celebrations and learning.  I am so proud of the growth that each of your children has made.  It has been a wonderful year!  

Please  read the 5th Grade S'more for great summer activities and places to visit.   I hope you have a safe, happy holiday.

My best wishes and love to you all!

Missy Anzick

Friday, June 1st

Announcements and Reminders 

• Tuesday, June 5th - Field Day
• Wednesday, June 6th - TJMS Visit (Permission Slip in Thursday Folder)
• Tuesday, June 12th - 5th Grade Success Celebration Ceremony 9:30-11:00
• Friday, June 15th - 5th Grade End of Year Party
• Friday, June 15th - 2 Hour Early Dismissal and Last Day of School

Please plan on attending our Success Celebration; it will be a special day with music, inspirational words, and recognition of accomplishments.

Also, thank you to all you wonderful parents who have volunteered to help with or donate to our 5th Grade End of Year Party!!  

Math 

Next week in math we will take Global Scholar to assess our progress overall this year.  We will also use an Escape Classroom to review skills taught.  Finally, students will use coordinate points to plot points for their own original design.

Writing 

We will have an author celebration to share our memoirs (by choice) with the class next week.  We will also work on creating invitations and our personal slides for the 5th Grade Success Celebration.

Reading 

Students will have an opportunity to share their Blood on the River final projects.  We will begin choosing short stories and plan ways to share them/present them to some children in the younger grades.

Social Studies

We will look at the development and foundations of our American government, particularly the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.