Dear Families,
This week we will have our final week of MAP testing. Students have been tested on reading and math and this week they'll be tested on language arts skills. The first week we were a little nervous but I noticed on Friday students were much more positive and confident in their abilities. At the end of the day we fill in "tweets" and a lot of them wrote that they thought they did well or that they "rocked the test". We will give the MAP assessment again in January and then in the spring. This will be very helpful to Ms. Fischer and I as the test will give us immediate results and data on students. We will look at this data as well as what we notice in class and on the reading street tests and determine which areas students need additional focus in. The purpose of this test is to track student growth, regardless of abilities, rather than just placing them in a percentile.
I sent home the Scholastic Book Order Forms last week and haven't gotten any back so I will push back the due date until Friday, October 23rd if anyone would still like to order. A few other things to keep in mind this week are:
We have finished up our first science unit on plants. Our test will be on Wednesday and then we will begin our first Social Studies unit on Pilgrims & Wampanoags. This is one of my favorite units! Students love learning more about Pilgrims & Wampanoags and there are a lot of great books and resources to help us learn about this.
This week we have vocabulary homework and students will have a vocabulary test then next week we will have spelling. Even though students won't be tested on them, they are still learning new spelling words in class. We generally switch off every other week being vocabulary or spelling, but sometimes if there's a shorter week we might do spelling again rather than the vocabulary as it can be tough fitting all of our Reading Street materials in while also thoroughly teaching 10 new vocabulary words.
I've noticed on tests recently that students have been skipping a question or even entire pages. Some students have done this on every test so far and some once or twice, but I told them I will no longer allow them to go back and fill in the answer, I will simply mark it wrong. On Friday I reminded them to take their time and make sure they have an answer on each question, so we'll see how they did. This might seem extreme, but I've seen this happen each year I've taught and usually once I start marking answers they skip wrong, students catch on quickly to double-check. I also will take 5 points off if they don't write their name on a test. This gets to be a big issue on sheets or tests where students just fill in bubbles for their answers because though I usually know whose handwriting is whose, I certainly can't tell their bubble answers apart.
We are having a great year so far! Students have really settled in to their routines and seem to know my expectations though we still need reminders here and there. :)
Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. I am going to post on this blog periodically and keep the website updated in lieu of printing and sending home a weekly newsletter. What I did last year was I made a list of parent emails and I would just email updates rather than send home a letter each week.
Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Hockey
This week we will have our final week of MAP testing. Students have been tested on reading and math and this week they'll be tested on language arts skills. The first week we were a little nervous but I noticed on Friday students were much more positive and confident in their abilities. At the end of the day we fill in "tweets" and a lot of them wrote that they thought they did well or that they "rocked the test". We will give the MAP assessment again in January and then in the spring. This will be very helpful to Ms. Fischer and I as the test will give us immediate results and data on students. We will look at this data as well as what we notice in class and on the reading street tests and determine which areas students need additional focus in. The purpose of this test is to track student growth, regardless of abilities, rather than just placing them in a percentile.
I sent home the Scholastic Book Order Forms last week and haven't gotten any back so I will push back the due date until Friday, October 23rd if anyone would still like to order. A few other things to keep in mind this week are:
- Progress reports went home on Friday- please sign and return
- Please send in tin whistle money- $12
- Lunch forms due as soon as you can.
- Keep sending in box tops, we're doing terrific! :)
- Science test on Wednesday
- School Halloween Party- Saturday, October 24th.
- Halloween Walk- Friday, October 30th at 10:45am
We have finished up our first science unit on plants. Our test will be on Wednesday and then we will begin our first Social Studies unit on Pilgrims & Wampanoags. This is one of my favorite units! Students love learning more about Pilgrims & Wampanoags and there are a lot of great books and resources to help us learn about this.
This week we have vocabulary homework and students will have a vocabulary test then next week we will have spelling. Even though students won't be tested on them, they are still learning new spelling words in class. We generally switch off every other week being vocabulary or spelling, but sometimes if there's a shorter week we might do spelling again rather than the vocabulary as it can be tough fitting all of our Reading Street materials in while also thoroughly teaching 10 new vocabulary words.
I've noticed on tests recently that students have been skipping a question or even entire pages. Some students have done this on every test so far and some once or twice, but I told them I will no longer allow them to go back and fill in the answer, I will simply mark it wrong. On Friday I reminded them to take their time and make sure they have an answer on each question, so we'll see how they did. This might seem extreme, but I've seen this happen each year I've taught and usually once I start marking answers they skip wrong, students catch on quickly to double-check. I also will take 5 points off if they don't write their name on a test. This gets to be a big issue on sheets or tests where students just fill in bubbles for their answers because though I usually know whose handwriting is whose, I certainly can't tell their bubble answers apart.
We are having a great year so far! Students have really settled in to their routines and seem to know my expectations though we still need reminders here and there. :)
Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. I am going to post on this blog periodically and keep the website updated in lieu of printing and sending home a weekly newsletter. What I did last year was I made a list of parent emails and I would just email updates rather than send home a letter each week.
Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Hockey