Monday, January 25, 2016

Sports Essay Article

Using the article on this page, you need to write a 5 paragraph essay persuading me to believe your opinion on the article’s question. You need to start by answering the question the article asks. Come up with 3 reasons for why you think this way. Make sure that you use an example from the article to back up each of your reasons. Make a graphic organizer, like a web, on the bottom of this page as your pre-write to help you before you write your paper. You must turn in your pre-write, your rough draft which must be edited and revised, and you must type your essay into the computer on Google Drive. You also must submit your essay on My Access. We will have the Chromebooks in class on Fridays for you to type. This essay is due on Friday. We are trying to prepare you to be able to write an essay in 1 or 2 days for our test coming up. This homework will take the place of your spelling homework each week.





Should women compete against men in sports?

This past October, American skiing champion Lindsey Vonn requested permission from the International Ski Federation to compete against men in a downhill competition called the World Cup.
Vonn, who dominates women’s downhill skiing, felt it was time for a new challenge. In 2010, she won the Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing. She has also earned 26 World Cup downhill victories.  Nine of the World Cup wins took place in Lake Louise, Canada, which fans call “Lake Lindsey.”
Vonn is not the only female athlete with the desire to compete against men. Annika Sorenstam played golf against men at the P.G.A. tournament in 2003. Danica Patrick raced to a third-place finish at the Indianapolis 500 in 2009. In 1973, tennis champ Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in a nationally televised match.
Women athletes have come a long way since Title IX, a law that ensures equal funding for male and female sports in schools. Still, sports competitions in which men and women go head-to-head are few and far between. Why is this so? Some argue that even though the skills and strength of female athletes has increased tremendously over the years, men still have a size and strength advantage.
Other critics say that female athletes should focus on women’s sports. They should stop comparing themselves to male athletes. Instead, they should work to promote women’s sports as exciting, competitive events in themselves.
The International Ski Federation rejected Vonn’s request. Its decision was not based on Vonn’s abilities. The Federation simply refused to change the rules. “It’s called the Men’s World Cup and the Ladies’ World Cup,” says Sarah Lewis of the International Ski Federation. “The men race the men’s World Cup and the ladies race the ladies’ World Cup.”
Vonn says she will not give up. “There’s still next year,” she said. “I’m going to keep working hard to make my dream a reality.”
What do you think? Should women be allowed to compete against men in sports? 


January 25-29th

This week in reading we will be reviewing science concepts through texts. We will mostly review rocks and minerals as well as learning some poems to help us remember the water cycle, rock cycle, and the weather. Our 2nd homework essay will start this week. It will be answering the question, should women compete against men in sports? Students will receive the article and a pink rough draft on Monday. This article will be due this Friday. We will read the article in class on Monday and students will be given time to do their pre-write in class as well. Then on Friday we will have the Chromebooks to finish typing and put our essays in My Access. This will be the same process we followed last week. My advise for students to easily complete this essay in one week is to do the 1st side of their rough draft on Monday night, the second side on Tuesday night, edit and revise on Wednesday night, start typing at home on Thursday night, and finish typing and put in My Access on Friday in class.

This week in writing we are going to be doing our last in class opinion essay. We will read an article on the Study of Garbage. Then students will make their web, and type their rough draft. They will edit and revise after they have typed, and then put it in My Access. This is going to be their best practice for the Sage test. It will show them how to write an essay on the computer and edit and revise while it is already typed. Since students will not be handwriting this essay, this should easily be finished in class this week. This essay will be graded as well.

This week in math we will be finishing our measurement unit. We will learn how to convert units of Customary and Metric capacity. We will do word problems, money problems, as well as review. Our test for this unit will be on Friday so students should be bringing home their pre-test to study on Thursday. One problem that I am seeing while we do these conversions, is that students are forgetting how to multiply and divide. We learned those concepts at the beginning of the year. If you can please review these concepts with your student, it will help them in class. We will review these in class as often as we can as well.

This week in social studies we will finish presenting our Genealogy Projects. We will be displaying our maps in the hall so we can see where everyone comes from. Then we will be learning about preserving history and learning about the ancient Native americans who lived here in Utah.

Lastly, we will be finishing our Sage Interim tests this week. Again, these are pre-tests that help us know how students are doing so far this year and what we need to go over more before the end of the year Sage Tests. We took our Math test on Friday, and will take our Reading test this Tuesday as well as the Writing test this Wednesday.


This Week's Homework
Monday:         Reading  
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Sports Essay
                        Math
                             P223 Lesson 12.2

Tuesday:        Reading  
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                              Sports Essay
                        Math
                             P231 Lesson 12.6

Wednesday:   Reading   
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Sports Essay     
                        Math
                            P225 Lesson 12.3

Thursday:       Reading     
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Sports Essay
                        Math
                            P227 Lesson 12.4

Friday:            Reading       
                             Read 20 Mins -Reading Log

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

January 19-22nd

This week in reading we are going to continue reviewing concepts we have learned so far this year. We will focus on reading Fiction passages and understanding them. We will also try to finish our DRA tests this week. So far, everyone is doing wonderfully on these and I'm so proud of them! This Friday, our first essay, Field Trips, is due. We will have Chromebooks in class again and I will show students how to put their typed essay from Google Docs into My Access. Remember, students need to turn in their pre-write/article, edited and revised rough draft, share their Google Doc with me, copy and past the typed essay into My Access, and edit and resubmit it in My Access. Each step is worth 50 points, 200 points all together. As long as they have their essay typed by Friday, we can easily get the My Access side of it done during class time.

This week in writing we are finishing our Junk Food essay. These will be due own Wednesday, January 20th. Students need to type, share with me, and put their essay into My Access. We will have the majority of class writing time to finish these up. Then we will be starting another essay about Genetic Traits. We will be doing this together and focusing on adding more detail to our paper. We will try to make our rough drafts twice as long as they have been.

This week in math we will begin learning about the customary and metric systems. We will learn how to measure and convert length and weight in the customary and metric systems.

This week in social studies we will learn about what happened when Europeans came into to Utah. We will talk about what it was like for the Native Americans who were here and will watch videos on each of the tribes who were here. We will also begin presenting our Genealogy Projects. My class's projects are due this Friday. Mrs. Ditto's class's projects are due next Monday and we will begin presenting their's then.

Lastly, this week we will be taking the Sage interim tests. These tests are just practice for students and they show us what students already know and what they need more instruction on before the end of the year Sage tests. My class will be taking the Math, Reading, and Writing tests. These will provide great data to help me know what your student needs. Please make sure that your student is in class and on time on this week!


This Week's Homework
Tuesday:        Reading  
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                              Field Trip Essay
                        Math
                             P235 Lesson 12.8
                        Social Studies
                            Genealogy Project

Wednesday:   Reading   
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Field Trip Essay     
                        Math
                            P237 Lesson 12.9
                        Social Studies

                            Genealogy Project

Thursday:       Reading     
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Field Trip Essay
                        Math
                            P221 Lesson 12.1
                        Social Studies
                            Genealogy Project

Friday:            Reading       
                             Read 20 Mins -Reading Log
                        Social Studies
                            Genealogy Project

Monday, January 11, 2016

Field Trip Article

Using the article on this page, you need to write a 5 paragraph essay persuading me to believe your opinion on the article’s question. You need to start by answering the question the article asks. Come up with 3 reasons for why you think this way. Make sure that you use an example from the article to back up each of your reasons. Make a graphic organizer, like a web, on the bottom of this page as your pre-write to help you before you write your paper. You must turn in your pre-write, your rough draft which must be edited and revised, and you must type your essay into the computer on Google Drive. You also must submit your essay on My Access. We will have the Chromebooks in class on Fridays for you to type. You have until a week from Friday to complete the first essay, which is 2 weeks. The rest of the essays you will only have 1 week to complete. We are trying to prepare you to be able to write an essay in 1 or 2 days for our test coming up. This homework will take the place of your spelling homework each week.



Should all field trips be educational?

          Let’s say you could choose your class’s next field trip destination. Would you choose a shopping mall or an art museum? Would you prefer an amusement park or a play?
          More teachers are choosing to reward students with field trips to places they think kids enjoy, like the mall or the movies. That means educational field trips to museums and theaters are declining. Jay P. Greene, head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, blames this trend on the pressures of standardized testing. He says teachers want to reward their students for hard work.
          The decline in what Greene calls “culturally-enriching field trips” will hurt disadvantaged kids the most. If schools don’t introduce them to museums and other cultural institutions, they are unlikely to experience them, according to Greene. “Just as we want our kids to be aware of good literature and good science, we want them to be aware of good art and good theater,” Greene told TFK. “Museums take kids out of their narrow worlds and introduce them to new people, places and ideas.”
         Greene points out additional benefits of these “educational field trips.” He did a study of more than 10,000 students who toured an art museum in Arkansas.  The study showed that students acquired critical-thinking skills even on this short field trip. “They became more observant,” Greene explained. “They learned to look closely at art, notice details, and think about what the details mean.”
        A trip to an art museum is the kind of field trip JoAnne Winnick finds valuable. She teaches fifth grade at Clara Barton Elementary, in Anaheim, California. Winnick says field trips should be educational, to promote the sciences or the arts. In her school district, before funding was cut for field trips, fourth graders studied wetlands at nearby Newport Beach. Fifth graders studied chaparral, a dense growth of shrubs, in Modjeska Canyon.
       On these outings, students did hands-on experiments. They hiked and observed nature close-up. Such activities allow students to deepen their understanding of science concepts they would otherwise learn only from books. “We have limited time to teach all the standards,” Winnick told TFK. “To take precious time for reward trips would be most unwise.”

       Annica Lowek is a fifth grade teacher at KIPP Infinity Charter School, in New York City. She argues that even a fun field trip can be turned into an educational experience. “Anytime you leave the building, you’re giving kids a chance to practice what you’re teaching them in school,” she says. “That could be math or science, or it could be simply learning how to behave on the subway.” Lowek’s students have experienced all kinds of field trips. They’ve been on camping trips and to an arcade. Four times a year, they go to a theater in New York City, where they see plays, operas, musicals and puppet shows. “The kids think the shows are super fun,” Lowek told TFK. “But teachers know these are valuable learning experiences.”


Persuasive Writing Homework Checklist

Persuasive Essay Homework Checklist

Instructions:
Using the given article, you need to write a 5 paragraph essay persuading me to believe your opinion on the article’s question. You need to start by answering the question the article asks. Come up with 3 reasons for why you think this way. Make sure that you use an example from the article to back up each of your reasons. Make a graphic organizer, like a web, on the back of the article as your pre-write to help you before you write your paper. You must turn in your pre-write, your rough draft which must be edited and revised, and you must type your essay into the computer. We will have the Chromebooks in class on Fridays for you to type. You have until a week from Friday to complete the first essay, about 2 weeks, and then 1 week for each of the other essays. This will take the place of your spelling homework each week. Each essay is worth 200 points.

To do:
·      Use the article to form your opinion and use at least one thing from the article to support each of your 3 reasons.
·      Fill out the pre-write with ideas from the article and ideas of your own you can use in your essay.
·      Write a rough draft of your essay.
·      Edit and revise your paper for the following things:
o   Make sure your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th paragraphs all begin with a transition word. Ex first, next, then, finally, in conclusion.
o   Make sure that in your introduction and conclusion you have stated your opinion and all 3 of your reasons.
o   Make sure that paragraph 2 only talks about your 1st reason.
o   Make sure that paragraph 3 only talks about your 2nd reason.
o   Make sure that paragraph 4 only talks about your 3rd reason.
o   Make sure all of your words are spelled correctly.
o   Make sure you have complete sentences.
o   Make sure that every sentence begins with a capital and ends with the correct punctuation mark (. ! ?)
o   Do not start sentences with and or but.
o   Do not have any contractions in your essay, (can’t, shouldn’t, won’t, etc . . . )
·      At home or in class you will type your essay into Google Drive and copy it into My Access. Make sure you share it with me!
·      You need to revise your essay on My Access at least once to make it better.

·      You need to turn in your pre-write and your rough draft when you are done typing it into My Access.

January 11-15th

This week in reading we will continue reviewing summaries for the DRA. We will also begin doing DRA testing. Before we test students, we will go over the goal they made after the last DRA so they can make sure they are working on that for this time. Target Time for this week will be practicing Fluency for the DRA as well. This week will start our Persuasive/Opinion Writing Homework. This week's essay is on Field Trips. We will begin this essay in class and give students time to work on their web. We will give out the article with instructions, the rough draft form, and the checklist with instructions to students. I will also post these to my blog. This essay will not be due until next Friday, January 22nd, so that students more time to understand what exactly to do and to ask any questions they have. We will have the Chromebooks in class on this Friday and next Friday so that students can type their paper in class if they need to. If students get their paper typed into Google Docs and shared with me before the due date, I will try to edit their paper on Google Docs and make some notes for them to make their paper better. This is all practice for when students will take their Sage Writing test in a couple of months.

This week in writing we will also be working on Opinion Papers. We are doing a paper on White Lies together which I am heavily helping students on. Then we will start a paper on Junk Food which will be graded and I will give much less help on. The Junk Food paper will be due on January 21st.

This week in math we are taking our equivalent fractions test. Students have been doing great on this in class so I have high hopes for them on this test! Then we will begin our measurement unit. We will focus on converting units of time and finding elapsed time this week and will also learn about benchmark measurements.

This week in social studies we will be learning about different groups of people who came to Utah. We will learn why they came to Utah and how they got here. We will talk about their points of view as well.


This Week's Homework
Monday:         Reading  
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Field Trip Essay
                        Math
                            P121 Lesson 6.5
                        Social Studies
                            Genealogy Project

Tuesday:        Reading  
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                              Field Trip Essay
                        Math
                             P123 Lesson 6.6 
                        Social Studies
                            Genealogy Project

Wednesday:   Reading   
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Field Trip Essay     
                        Math
                            P125 Lesson 6.7
                        Social Studies

                            Genealogy Project

Thursday:       Reading     
                             Read 20 Mins - Reading Log
                             Field Trip Essay
                        Math
                            P127 Lesson 6.8
                        Social Studies
                            Genealogy Project

Friday:            Reading       
                             Read 20 Mins -Reading Log
                             Field Trip Essay
                        Social Studies
                            Genealogy Project