New Homework Expectations

Dear Parents,

I have just spent several hours correcting last week's homework and there are several things I have noticed. Every year I find myself overloaded with homework. We have tried sending home different homework packets and scoring them in different ways, but I always spend more time scoring then the students spend actually doing the work. My husband gets very lonely on the weekends. =)

First, homework is important to your child's academic growth. The homework we provide helps them practice the skills we are learning in class and it gives me a chance to see who understands the concepts and who need more instruction. For this reason, I want to honor the time the students put into the work and review everything they do. Unfortunately, with 25 students and 4 double-sided homework sheets it can be a very time consuming job. So, in order to make the homework worth the students' time, and mine, I am going to implement a new Homework Policy:

READING:
1. It is of the utmost importance that students read at least 30 minutes an night for at least 5 nights a week.
2. The books should be at their "just right" level. The students have taken a STAR reading test that gives them an A.R. reading level. They should be reading books in the A.R. range. As I've state before, reading just right books is the best way to improve their reading skills.
3. The reading logs must be filled in correctly. One of the targets we have in fourth grade is to write the titles of books correctly. This means, the each word in the title is capitalized (except for small words such as: a, an, is...) and the title is underlined. The title needs to be written out each day. The students need to write the page number for the page they start their reading on and the page number of the page they stop on. They need to write the correct amount of time they spent reading. I see a lot of 41,41,41,41...it makes me wonder sometimes.The reading log should be signed and dated by a parent or guardian.
4. They should take at least one A.R. test a week. These tests help me track how much they are reading, what level they are reading, and whether they comprehend what they read. It is a good way for me to check on their progress.
5. This week, I will be showing the students different "reading response" activities that they will need to complete once a month. They will be able to choose their own project, book, and when they do it.
6. I am working on a web site that will post reading activities they can do at home or at school. I will let you know when their first assignments are available online.

The reading log rubric and scoring will remain the same and the due date will be every Monday.

MATH:
I have really noticed a lot of students are not writing the math, or how they solved the problems, on their homework. I need to see the work to understand how they are completing the work. This is important whether they get the answer or not. It let's me know if they understand the concepts or where they are misunderstanding. Also, students are not labeling their work. This is very important at the fourth grade level. Money needs to have the $ sign in front of it, if the answer is 6 muffins then the word "muffin" must be written after the number otherwise it is a "naked" number and I will not know what the 6 stands for. For these reasons, my non-negotiable math expectations are as follows:
1. Students must do the math work on the homework sheets to "prove" how they found their answer.
2. All answers must and most work, must be labeled or it is incorrect.

IN GENERAL:
1. All homework must have a name on it or it will go into the "red box" and will not be graded. After Winter Break it will go into the "recycle box."
2. All writing, including math and reading responses, must have all the convention non-negotiable completed correctly. Each child has a copy in his or her homework folder, silent reading spiral, and in their composition book.

3 out of the 4 nights students will receive one of the following scores:
0=The homework was not turned in or very little was completed
1=More then half was completed but some was left undone or had many errors
2=The work was complete and all expectations were met.

1 day out of the 4 students will receive one of the following scores (according to the homework rubric in their homework folder:
A score of 1,2,3, or 4,for Accuracy
A score of 1,2,3, or 4 for Neatness
A score of 1,2,3, or 4 for Completeness

I hope the new homework policy helps me and the students do our best on the homework.
Thanks you for your understanding with the changes.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jagla

Oct. 5 through Oct. 16

During English Literacy, we are working on the writing process. So far, we have read several stories about "Special Places." These books include: All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan & paintings by Mike Wimmer, Let's Go Home: the wonderful things about a house by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin, Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran & illustrated by Barbara Cooney, and A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood & illustrated by Dan Anderson.

Next we brainstormed a list of places that are special to us and chose one place to write about. Before we decided on our special place we discussed the difference between writing watermelon stories, slices of watermelons, and seed stories, ask your child about it. We then drew a "map" of our special place. This is another way to brainstorm and helps us think of details about the setting and things we do in our special place. After that, we used an Alphabet Taxonomy to think of the things we see, smell, taste, touch, feel, and do in our special place. An Alphabet Taxonomy is a graphic organizer that has each letter of the alphabet on a line. We think of as many things as we can, about our special place, that begins with each letter. As I told the students, the Alphabet Taxonomy may not be the best way to brainstorm for each person-it's definitely not my favorite. But we are trying it out and if it works for some students they may use it as a brainstorming tool whenever they want. It doesn't really help me very often, but I was amazed at how many things I was able to brainstorm for my special place and Cass came up with over 200 words on his.

Next week, we are going to look at different authors and their styles of writing-specifically looking at how they describe settings. We will create a "mountain plan" of personal narrative, this helps us to organize our writing before we start. Then we are off to the races with our own writing! We will write a "seed" story about one thing we have done in our special place, making sure we really describe the setting and the actions in detail.

I can't wait to see what the students write about!

The Bravest Knight

The Bravest Knight is a wonderful book with beautiful illustrations about a young squire. We read it to learn about squires to go along with our Royalty of the week. As we read, there was a dragon whining and we decided to make our own classroom dragon. The students named it Spike. Spike is on the hallway wall and represents behaviors we do not want to have in our classroom such as bullying, whining, being disrespectful or mean. When ever we say, "Don't be a Spike" we know we need to change our attitude.

My Bookshelf

Several of the books on my bookshelf, to the right, are books we have read in class.
"That's Good, That's Bad" is a wonderful book that contains a pattern the students love to repeat as I read. There are also many onomatopoeia, words that sound like a natural noise such as the word "moo" sounds like a cow mooing. The word "splat" sounds like something falling on the ground. The students enjoyed saying the words aloud with me and soon we will brainstorm as many onomatopoeia as we can so we may add them in our own writing.Click Clack Cows that Type also contains onomatopoeias.