Week of August 28th

 I am so excited for this week because it will be our first week of having our normal routine of a four-day week (that isn't the first week of school). :) The first week of school is always a little extra crazy and not much routine. This week we will really be working on cementing those expectations of how our class works. 

ELA:

This week in ELA (English Language Arts) we are going to be working on our novel study on Stone Fox. We will also be practicing different grammar rules and starting our Interactive Reading Journal. 

We will have a Morning Warm Up quiz and spelling test (List B) on Thursday. These happen on the last day of every week. 

Math:

This week in math we will be starting off with Lesson 1-3. I had originally planned to get to that on Friday of last week, but my students needed extra time on other things so I adjusted that. :) I try really hard to plan a week in advance, but I also am flexible when students are working hard but need extra time on a skill or lesson. 

We will have our Math 4 Today quiz on Thursday of this week. These also happen on the last day of every week. 

Test Retakes:

It is part of our policy at Vision Charter to allow students to study and retake any test that they score below a 70% on. I allow my class to retake any quizzes that they score below a 70% on as well. If your student scores below a 70% I will put a stamp at the top that says "You may student and retake this! Let me know when you are ready. :)" It is your student's responsibility to let me know that they have studied and want to retake a test or quiz. Students have one week to do that. So any test or quiz that was failed last week, can be taken any time this week. But after Thursday of this week, they don't have that option anymore. Because of this, I try REALLY hard to grade those and send them home on Thursday so that they have the weekend to study what they did wrong to be able to retake it. 

Please note that as per the policy, the highest score that a student can get on a retake is 85%. So even if they get higher than that, it will only go in the grade book as an 85%. 

I also want to reassure you that it is really common for students to not do well the first several weeks on these quizzes. Most often that is because they are making simple errors or aren't paying attention to all of the directions. For the first couple of months, I read them to my class as a whole group to really point out certain things to pay attention to. After those first few weeks, students can raise their hand if they need help reading a question, but I usually let them try on their own first. 

IXL Math Homework:

I told my class last week and I am pretty sure I mentioned to parents as well that homework for last week will be given full credit if I see that students have attempted to do it since we were still learning how to get to the correct place. I may do that for this week as well, I will watch and see how students are doing. :)

Students are required to do 80 minutes a week. That goes in my grade book as a possible 8 points. So if a student does 76 minutes, it will go in my grade book as 7.6. I base that time on what is marked as active minutes on IXL which I discussed in the video I sent out last week. I am going to link that video to my virtual class and blog so that you can refer back to it if you need to. :)