Hello Parents and Students,

As you know, we are beginning RTI this week. Students brought home the name of their RTI teacher on Friday, stapled to their spelling test, so as not to be misplaced. RTI is scheduled Monday -Thursday, from 9:15-10:10 and is the time teachers will give targeted reading instruction. However, be assured that the kids will be doing plenty of reading during other times throughout the day, and will have ample opportunities to practice the skills and strategies introduced during RTI. The team meets weekly to develop our RTI lesson plans. The focus for the first 3 weeks of RTI is non-fiction text structures. We'll be using Reflections, and additional non-fiction materials, to identify the comparison and cause/effect structures.  We will also be studying how maps and charts are used to convey the writer's message. It should be interesting and challenging!

We are also starting a new chapter in Social Studies. This chapter is about Native Americans in California, and shows the various ways different groups utilized the natural resources within the 4 California regions.

In math, the focus is on applying all the concepts addressed in this first module, and tackling some story problems. The problems are multi-step, and it's expected that kids will work slowly and carefully; first analyzing the problem and estimating the solution using rounding and a tape diagram, then going back and finding an exact answer using the standard algorithm and computation, and finally assessing their answer for reasonableness by comparing it with their estimate. The kids are sometimes daunted by all these steps, so please continue to encourage them by pointing out how "real" these math problems are. In adult life, we are constantly estimating, and then comparing our exact figures against our estimates, and then recalculating if the two aren't close-ish!  The rounding and tape module step are also an additional time for the kids to rehearse their approach to a given problem. I've posted a Lesson 16 Show Me, and will be working on a Lesson 17 one as well.

Finally, I've located an online resource for nonfiction articles called Newsela. In order to enroll, kids need our class code, which is IWAHG. When they sign up, they can receive news articles written at a 4th grade Lexile level, and sometimes follow-up quizzes. I'd be happy to see this reading noted on students' reading logs.

Take care, and have a great week,
Carroll Mayer