Reading - Trade books, non fiction texts, and books of all different literary genres along with Guided Reading groups will be the main focus of the reading program. I will use The Super Six Reading Strategies along with graphic organizers and workbook related skills. Weekly vocabulary test with definitions, unit tests, class work and graphic organizers will make up the reading grade. The main focus of the reading program will be to teach word study skills, reading vocabulary, literary comprehension, informational comprehension, functional comprehension and fluency. Math - Math lessons will consist of daily morning meetings where calendar skills, even and odd numbers, days of the week, money, telling time, and tally marks will be taught and reinforced. Daily math lessons will consist of daily word problems, gathering data and recording information in our math notebooks, and a daily lesson that scaffolds learning from a previous lesson. Spelling - Spelling tests will be given each Thursday. Spelling words will be made up of sight words, words with phonetic patterns that correlate to our weekly objectives. Homework will consist of spelling activites and strategies that will reinforce the weekly objectives being taught. English - Grammar lessons will be taught and applied through daily writing, daily oral language, daily paragraph editing, and supplemented with Houghton Mifflin English. We will focus on the parts of speech, subject-verb agreement, capitalization and punctuation, using possessives, forming letters legibly, spacing appropriately when writing, letter writing and penmanship. English grades will come from tests given at the end of each unit or at the end of each skill being taught, DOL and DPE quizzes, and through usage/application of specific skills in writing. Phonics - Phonics will be taught from the Open Court series. This program provides explicit, daily phonics instruction, letter sound relationships, blending, segmenting, phonics rules and patterns, reading decodable texts, word meaning and structure, sight words, and dictation. I will also supplement, Phonics Lessons by Gay Su Pinnell & Irene C. Fountas. This resource book provides hands-on games and activities for the students to apply phonics skill being taught. The mastery of these skills will be reflected through daily writing and class work. Grades may be taken from dictation, spelling tests, and class work activities. Writing Workshop - Our writing program will concentrate on the steps of the writing process, paragraph writing, the genres of writing - persuasive, informative, narrative, and expressive, and personal stories and journal writing. We will integrate Social Science and Reading into our writing activities. Students will keep a Writer's Notebook for weekly writing. Social Sciences - Social Sciences will cover many topics throughout the year. In science we will cover the units physical, life, earth and space science. We will teach these by using the book, Harcourt Science and by incorporating AMSTI science kits. These kits will provide hands-on activities, as well as using the scientific method of keeping science journals. Social Studies will include learning about our nation and the different people and places of the world. These units will be taught through the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies textbook and teacher created units. Grades for these units will be taken from tests, class work, science journals, and participation. |