March 17, 2017
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Happy St Patrick’s Day!
Writing Performance Task
Next week we will take a break from our animal reports in writing to work together on a “writing performance task.” We will be building on our skills in writing informative nonfiction to learn about renewable energy and write about it. This is a weeklong unit that is part of our Being A Writer program. It is intended to help students understand standardized test-taking better and develop strategies for reading articles and writing about them. Students will get to show what they know about writing and learn new skills to write a clear, well organized informational essay. This will hopefully help build their confidence for the English Language Arts MCAS in April.
MCAS
This week we finished a tutorial on how to take the MCAS on the computer. Students got to see and practice with different tools that the computer program has. For example, there is a ruler they will use during the math section. Students will need to be comfortable dragging and dropping objects for the test. If you use a computer with your child at home, this would be a great thing to practice. There are also handy tools on the test such as an answer eliminator which can help students on a multiple choice question by putting a red x on choices that they know are not possible. Next week, we will practice on Tuesday afternoon with Ms. Rebello to make sure that the computers all work. After that, we will do a few more practice tests so that students are comfortable with the format of the test, know how to show what they know on the test, and understand how the different types of questions work.
Math
Today we took a quiz to check in on what students understand about fractions. Next week we will look at fractions on a number line. Practice fractions at home with baking projects, cutting projects, and other activities with everyday objects.
Public Library
We missed our public library day this week because of the snow day. If you accrue any fines because of this, they will be forgiven. We will be returning to the library this Tuesday, March 21 and every other week after that.
Yours truly,
Jessica Harwood