- Inspiration Mountain School
- E.L.A. Class Homepage
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READING CLASS
Skills are developed in the following areas:
- Building Knowledge & Language through prior knowledge, vocabulary, active listening, and viewing.
- Vocabulary with a specific focus on academic, generative, and vocabulary strategies.
- Reading Workshop practice with multiple genre sources, comprehension tasks at various levels of complexity, response to text, performance task, and communication.
- Foundational skills are developed with decoding, spelling, and fluency practice.
- Assessment learning through formative and performance-based tasks.
WRITING CLASS
Cursive: We will practice letters, words, and by the end of 4th grade, students will be writing using cursive in paragraph format. We use Cursive as a warm up or "Bell Ringer" to start class. Students will review letter formation and move into using cursive of decoding words, and eventually will be writing in sentences and paragraph form.
Skills are developed in the following areas:
- An emphasis on evidence-based writing with elaboration will be taught and practiced in class.
- Each independent task will have a focal text so that students have samples to build an understanding from as they write.
- Students will develop writing through thinking maps and practice the process of writing through pre-writing, draft, revision, edit, and publishing.
- Students will learn to proofread and share ideas with the following writing (keep in mind NOT all work will be published):
- Narrative
- Informative/Expository
- Opinion/Argumentative
- Informative Letter Writing
- Research Report
- Poetry
Essays will be completed in a writing process and over a course of many weeks. Guidance in class will be provided. There may be times when students may bring home their writing. Writing can be rigorous for some students and time management will build as the year unfolds. If writing needs to be finished at home beyond due dates, students will be exempt from their daily homework in order to complete their writing process.
Library
In fourth grade, we will go to the bi-weekly. Our librarian allows 4th graders to select 3 books. My typical request is that the student selects 1 fiction, 1 non-fiction, and 1 choice book. After diagnostic testing is completed, students should select books in their Lexile range.
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- If a parent is unsure of the book and their students' ability, a rule of thumb is to have the student read 1 page aloud. If your student stumbles on many words, it's too difficult. If they have a few errors, it is perfect!
- Their Choice book can be at any level as long as they are able to read this book freely.
READING Homework
Students will be required to read nightly! Monday – Thursday, students will use a book at their ability level for 30 minutes. Students will be taught how to use our 4th grade Annotation logs. These logs will become the homework that goes with their nightly reading after we have learned how to use them.
*Homework for Reading class should not exceed 35 minutes after the annotations logs begin to go home.
Assessment:
Weekly Assessments: Typically, students will have a weekly assessment to go with the skills taught in class.
Retakes: We will be working on students taking an independent role in retaking tests based on a score of C or below. We encourage students to ask for a retake, complete some basic re-teaching with their teacher, and then complete the assessment with a better understanding of the material. It is our purpose to have learners take responsibility for their own learning. Reteach and Retake can be organized by simply asking their teacher for a retake form, the student will take the form home stapled to their test in question, get parent approval, and fill out the form to be returned. All retakes must be completed within 10 days of the initial test. This process can be completed during R.T.I.
Diagnostic Assessments: At the start of the school year, mid-year, and at the end of the year, students will be assessed to determine their Lexile level using multiple indicators to determine students' strengths and weaknesses in reading skills.
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- Screeners: HMH Reading Inventory, DIBELS, & Phonic Screener Instrument will be utilized as needed.
- Lexile: Students will be given their Lexile and a goal will be made to work toward continued growth. Students will use the Lexile number range to select books at the library and/or at home.
- Screeners: HMH Reading Inventory, DIBELS, & Phonic Screener Instrument will be utilized as needed.
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Reading & Writing
Response to Inquiry: In fourth grade, we require students to elaborate when writing in response to questions. We begin with basic sentence writing and move into a more in-depth and clear way of writing. This year students will learn how to write a R.A.C.E. written response in both Reading and Writing classes.
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- R.A.C.E. response is where the student restates the question, answers the question, cites text evidence to support their answer, and explains their response thoroughly.
- Students will be guided through this process and by the end of the school year should be able to complete written responses using this strategy.
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AZ Dept of Education 4th Grade Standards