I hope you all had a fabulous summer! I am so excited to begin the school year. All of the students will be setting up their binders, writer's notebooks, and learning about some key projects that will be ongoing throughout the school year.
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Dear 4th Grade Students and Parents:
I hope you all had a relaxing Spring Break with family and friends! We are down to the last quarter of school! It is hard to believe that it is 4th quarter already! Soon the students will be our school leaders in the 5th grade! The next unit we will starting will be our research and presentation unit. The students will be completing an independent study based on their the research question they have developed in class. This unit will start of with some inquiry based "rapid research" where the students come up with research question ideas, select the strongest they have developed, research using technology, and present in 15 minutes! We will be talking about determining credible resources, ways to strengthen the presentation of facts by creating strong categories with topic sentences, and ways to enhance our final writings using visuals such as photographs and charts with captions. The students will also be looking at domain specific vocabulary words for topics by reading short scientific texts. They will be creating a short word bank/glossary of domain specific words for their topic that they are researching for their independent study. This is always an exciting final writing project that can be challenging yet a valuable and vital experience! We will be presenting our projects to the class in various ways- "tv shows", powerpoint presentations, and other creative ways! As a reminder, the book tweets for 4th quarter are due on May 29th. Please click here for a reminder letter of the requirements. Book tweets which do not follow the directions and contain all the requirements will NOT be scored. The students will be taking a spelling test on Flocabulary Unit 12 this Friday! We will take a vocabulary test on the words the following Friday. Click here to study your spelling words. We will be studying our next "root word" in our root word study and take a quiz on Friday. This week's root is "inter" . Click here to practice the words. Finally- we are almost finished with our transition to "book blogs" from reading logs! The Tigers and Redhawks have a book blog entry due this Thursday! Tigers Book Blog Redhawks Book Blog The Bearcats are completing a transition to book blogs reading log this week that can be found here. This will be taking the place of reading logs for the rest of the year! The students are doing a fantastic job with using their online discussion skills! This is a great life skill that they are working on and with each blog entry they are getting stronger! For a look at the rules for the Book Blog Assignment please click here. This is an exciting week as we begin our research unit! Have a great week! GO REDS!!!! Mrs. Dooley This is a busy week for us in the 4th grade! We will be taking our last of the mid year PARCC tests. Wednesday is the Language Arts test at 9 AM. There are two sessions of testing that day. They focus on nonfiction and then writing standards. Please be sure to get a great night sleep and to eat breakfast!
After our test, we will be finishing up some work to end the quarter! 4th quarter is just around the corner! We will be completing a writer's workshop with our book reviews. The students have been busy studying characteristics of strong reviews such as word choice, transitions, "hooking" the reader, and clear introduction and conclusions. We will be completing revision stations and peer editing this week. The students will also be reflecting on their learning and showing me evidence of their learning through their completed writing during conferences. All book tweets were due on March 16th. Almost all of the students turned them in! The ones turned in were awesome! The students are really understanding the importance of word choice, summarizing, and persuasive techniques in a limited space. This is very high level thinking! The project will continue next quarter and due dates will be set shortly for 4th quarter. The Tigers class has begun looking at the writer's craft of blogging! We have started a book blog in lieu of reading logs. Their first book blog entry is due on March 25th. We discussed that a strong book blog entry will be at least two paragraphs- one summary and one reflective thinking. This is the first time we have done blogs in the 4th grade, so it is a learning process for us all! Blog writing is everywhere on the internet and learning to be a part of an online dlialogue is an imporant communication skill for our students. After this trial run, I hope to expand book blogging to all classes! Click here to see the Tiger's Book Blog. There will be a spelling test over Unit 11 flocabulary words on Friday. This will be the last spelling grade of 3rd quarter. Click here to practice on spelling city. That's all for now! Please email me if you have any questions! Mrs. Dooley Dear 4th Grade Parents and Students:
This week we have two big state assessments. The students will be taking their AIR Social Studies test on Monday March 9th. Wednesday March 11th, the students will be taking the Math PARCC test. Our Language Arts PARCC test has been rescheduled for March 18th. Until then, we will be working on our Book Reviews in class! The students studied what makes a strong review. We also talked about how important it is to be able to not only write a strong review but be able to analyze and evaluate other reviews to assess their validity. The students talked about how reviews are all over the place in their lives. We will be writing our reviews in class this week. We also will be making book commercials! You can see previews of commercials from previous years here! On Friday, we have a reading log due. Reading logs will look a bit different 4th quarter! We will be "blogging" about our reading! More to come on that later! The students will take Unit 10 Flocabulary test on Friday. The video for this unit can be found here. They were all given their flocabulary practice packets on Friday. They are to be completed by THURSDAY. Students can practice their words here! Finally- Book Tweets are due on March 16th! The students have been doing a fantastic job! I am so impressed with their hard work and how great they turning out as the students revise and work to make them persuasive, letting their "voice" shine through. Remember, they need to be approved first using the yellow book tweet paper. Click here for the rough draft approval sheet. Then, once approved, they can be revised with suggestions from our conference, and written on final copy book tweet paper. Click here to get the final draft paper. Dear 4th Grade Parents and Students:
I have received quite a few questions regarding reading logs and other assignment due dates and would like to clarify for everyone :-) Due to state testing beginning this Wednesday and our week off of school due to weather this past week, the next reading log will be due on March 6th. Also due on March 6th, is the completion of the book selected for our book review project. This timeline cannot be adjusted as we have to complete this writing publication before 3rd quarter ends. The book selection slip went home February 9th and was due on February 17th. Most students had returned their slips, however ALL students who have not yet, must turn in their slips by TUESDAY February 24th to help ensure that they are on track for completion of this in class writing. You can click here to get a copy of the book choice letter/slip here. The book MUST be fiction for this project and a chapter book in your child's reading level. It can be one that they are already working on reading! Although there will be no assigned reading log, the book review book must be completely read by March 6th. 3rd Quarter book tweets are due on March 16th. Each student is responsible for completing 4 book reviews. Click here to see the requirements for book tweets. Click here to print a copy of the book tweet tracking sheet for first draft approval. Once the students get their first draft checked by me, I will give them final copy paper! Our next spelling test will be on March 6th. Our vocabulary test for the words will be on March 13th. Click here to practice the spelling words on Spelling City. Click here to practice the vocabulary words on quizlet.com MOST IMPORTANTLY- Our English Language Arts PARCC test is on February 25th and part 2 is on March 5th. An email and a remind.com notice went out a few days ago. If you have not done so already, please complete the following form by clicking here. It contains important reminders in regards to the PARCC test. Please feel free to email me with any questions! I hope everyone enjoyed the extra time with their families are that you are all staying warm and safe! Have a great weekend! Mrs. Dooley Dear Parents and 4th Graders:
Now that Terra Novas are completed, we can get down to business these last few classes before our first Language Arts PARCC test on February 25th! We will be switching over our review from Nonfiction standards to the Fiction Standards this week! Students will be looking at the online PARCC practice assessment for both Math and Language Arts during SPARKS time for the next week. In order to continue preparing for our very first PARCC test, we will be taking a week off from spelling and vocabulary. We will resume again the week of February 23rd. We do have our vocabulary test over Flocabulary Unit 9 this THURSDAY! All students will be bringing home a Book Review Book Choice letter that will need to be returned by February 17th. Click here to print another copy of the letter. I encourage the students to simply pick a book they are reading for book tweets or reading logs. I will be out of the building at the Ohio Technology conference in Columbus Wednesday and Thursday this week. I get to present this year while I'm there and I've very excited about it! I will miss the students while I'm gone, but am excited to bring back so many new technology ideas to our building and district. Have a great short week! And enjoy the upcoming four day weekend! Mrs. Dooley 4th Grade Students and Parents:
This is Terra Nova testing week! We will be taking Terra Nova tests on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Please be sure to get a great night sleep and eat a good breakfast! We will continue to practice analyzing nonfiction in LA class in preparation for the PARCC and to review what we have learned so far this year. We will be working on completing a "Success Map" to help us reach our goal of "I can analyze nonfiction texts." We will have "rest stops" along the way to help make sure we have mastered key skills to reach our goal. The students will be answering the following questions:
This will put the students in "driver seat" of their learning! We start Flocabulary Unit 9 this week. We will take a spelling test on February 6th and a vocabulary test on February 12th (a THURSDAY due to the inservice day on Friday). Since the students enjoyed studying their last set of vocabulary words on the quizlet.com website (with the games and flashcards) I have made study sets for each of our remaining flocabulary lessons this year. They are all linked on our Schoology.com page. Unit 9 is linked here. Click here to study the spelling words on Spellingcity.com Reading logs are due Friday. Students who are trying to pace themselves with their book tweets should be completing one next week to ensure that they complete the four that are due later this quarter! Have a great weekend and do a "snow dance" while you watch the Super Bowl on Sunday! Mrs. Dooley Dear 4th Graders and Parents:
This week we will continue our work with first hand and second hand accounts. We will also be practicing first person and third person narration. We will be moving away from historical texts and continuing our practice with technical texts. We will look at graphic sources and text structures as review with these to continue our work in preparing for the PARCC. The students will be taking a nonfiction assessment during their first blocked class this week. We will be practicing the roots tri and quad. Students can practice our words and application of these roots by clicking here. Test will be on Friday. Our test will be on Friday for our testing vocabulary words. The students all have a large page of vocabulary squares that we have been working on completing in class. Finally, we will continue to practice our progressive verb tense. Our quiz will be next Monday. Reading logs will be due on Friday Keep working on book tweets! Have a great week! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! Well, we made it half way through the year already! It's hard to believe that as each day passes the students are closer to being 5th graders.
This week we will be starting our review for our first of several PARCC tests on February 25th. We will be reviewing all standards taught so far this year. In addition to this, we will also be learning key strategies to help us show what we know on the state test using the computer, since this is the first year the tests are all digital. This week, we will be looking at historical fiction! We will be investigating what are the differences that a text reveals to the reader if it is written as a firsthand account versus a secondhand account. We will also be practicing summarizing and looking at domain specific vocabulary words. Another big skill we will begin to really focus on this week is the written response in an essay form. We will be practicing at least one a week using google docs to write our responses. In grammar we will be practicing progressive verb tense over the next two weeks. Finally- there will not be a spelling test over the vocabulary words this week. The vocabulary words for flocabulary are all testing vocabulary words. We will be studying 2-3 of these each day to help us understand what they mean if they are present in a question so that we understand what we are being asked to do. This test will be on Friday January 30th. There will be a reading log due on January 23rd. Please remind students that this type of thinking while we are reading is vital to helping them grow as readers! Book Tweets- CLICK HERE FOR THE PARENT LETTER regarding 3rd Quarter Book Tweets! For third quarter, the students will be responsible for completing 4 book tweets (due to the heavy test load). However, the students will need to put forth their best effort in order to earn full credit. We will be talking about word choice and how with using "Twitter" in the real world, you are confined to the number of characters to really get your point across. We will look at example book tweets and write a few in class to practice. Each student will be given a "Book Tweet Tracking Sheet". On this sheet, the students will keep track of the book they have chosen to read, they will write their "first draft" of their tweet that they have tested using the online character counter. This tracking sheet will need to be approved BEFORE the student completes their final draft of their book tweet using the tweet papers. This type of consolidated writing will help the students be aware of their word choice and voice in their writing to help get their point across, both of which are vital pieces to continue to practice as we develop as writers. The book tweet paper for this quarter (as it has changed from the previous two quarters) and the book tweet tracking sheet can be found under the language arts links page and are also linked here: tracking sheet book tweet template. All students will have this in their binders as well. Have a wonderful week! Mrs. Dooley |
Language Arts
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Welcome to
4th Grade
Language Arts!
My name is Mrs. Dooley and I am very excited to be your Language Arts teacher! This will be a spot for you to find out about what we are working on in class! Be sure to check back often!