Weekly Update from Mr. Lucy, Friday, October 14th.

Dear Families,

     MAP (Measure of Academic Progress)  The MAP reading tests were completed on Monday and Tuesday. Some students asked, "did I pass?" I responded that the standard for the fall sixth grade reading MAP test is 212. What that means to me is that a sixth grade scoring at that level or higher will probably be successful or at standard on the Spring MSP test. Wow! I explained to the students that I want them to grow each year. If they scored below 212, I will work with them to build fluency and comprehension through the year. Most students below standard are already in my Extended Learning Group during seventh period. I posted the student scores on Zangle (for information only). The scores do not influence semester grades. If you have further questions, call or write me an email.

     Home Reading Our second Home Reading Assignment was due today and a third went home today.  I have a few observations. Firstly, this is an opportunity for students to practice getting work done thoroughly and on time. Students that failed to complete the assignment fully were asked to stay in during lunch. Next, the questions associated with the reading activity are not difficult.  I expect the questions to be answered in complete sentences, neatly. Also, I want the students to read the passages to a family member, preferably an adult. It gives you a chance to hear your child read aloud. You will become aware of their sight vocabulary, fluency, and their word attack skills.  In addtion, I want the passages to be read to be understood. Note if your child is attentive to puntuation. Do they pause or come to a full stop? Do they recognize and appropriately attend to question marks, exclamation marks, and so on? Finally, I prefer that the books that students choose to read contain more text than pictures. And I encourage them to read books that will build vocabulary.

     Social Studies Most students have located a place on earth to establish a created civilization. We have discussed the importance of water in their decision. We have discussed natural barriers such as mountains, deserts and bodies of water in the formation of a civilization. Some students want to establish a civilization on an island. The Greeks had hundreds of city states forming their civilization. But they also needed more than the mountainous islands to support their people so they established settlements across the Meditarranean and Black Seas.

     Writing  The first revised draft of "Wendall and Floyd's New Adventure" is due Tuesday. They are reviewing their first draft in terms of organization and sentence fluency. A good story needs a hook, a detailed series of events and a satisfying close. Organizaton. And sentence fluency is important. We have discussed those features that make a piece of writing sound good when read aloud. Varying sentence length and sentence beginnings can help. I introduced a useful program on our Windows 7 machines called Audacity. I want students to record themselves reading their story aloud. When they play it back, they become aware the sentence fluency (smoothness) of the written piece. We are using Audacity in Extended Reading to help build reading fluency as well.

     Reading Workshop Our second reading response (letter) was due today. The focus again was on summarizing. The students are expected to retell story elements accurately. An extended response includes interactions between story elements (how the problem affects the characters or how setting changes the problem for example.)