January: New year, new studies!

Happy new year! Whether we have started a new decade or not depends on who you talk to, but we have definitely begun a new YEAR. (And your child is still a fifth grader, still attending an elementary school - but just barely!) We now enter the time of the year that I always find the most productive of the year. From now to Spring Break, there are weeks and weeks, largely uninterrupted by holidays or conferences or testing. I  am getting a strong start here in January by rolling up my sleeves and digging into new studies - and new explorations - with my class. Here's a little of what's up:

In Language Arts, I'm teaching students to write argumentatively in the content areas (expecially Science) using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning construct. This is used heavily in middle and high school, so your child is getting a head start! We continue to read nonfiction, deepening our understanding of the genre, strategies for reading it, and connecting to studies in Science and Social Studies. Assessments for Reading nonfiction are completed, but I have not finished the look I must take at final progress. You'll find out how your child is doing on report cards at the end of the month. Before leaving nonfiction, I will have students write informational essays - IF there is still time!

Soon (in a week or so, depending on the snow this week) we will begin a new study of social issues in literature. For this new work, we will be reading literary texts (including realistic fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy - as well as some poetry) and nonfiction texts that will help us develop a background into the authors and the topics they are writing about. This will be good, rigorous analysis work!

In Math, we've begun a short study of volume (measurement), and will soon turn our attention to 2D Geometry - again, for just a week or so. Our studies of the base ten number system, exponential and decimal notation, and algorithms for multiplication and division, went LONG - four months! This change is very welcome! The new units are the most interesting of the year, but go quickly (two months). Because the units are short, there will be a lot of progress tracking with quick quizzes, pre- and post-assessments. The assessments are each also very short, thankfully! A note: Please insist that your child bring home the homework sheet EVERY DAY, FIVE DAYS PER WEEK RIGHT NOW. The math work is important, and it is within reach of all, but it takes practice.

In Science, Ms. Kjome and I will wrap up the last three lessons of our space unit, and I will share cool videos and readings I haven't had time to share during the unit. I must get back to Social Studies, or I would really like to take yet more time to explore topics we only touched on (the moon, black holes, the REST of the solar system...) I appreciate my students' patience as we try out these lessons for the district. I will be gone one day the week after next for a meeting to share their work, then I can begin returning it to students. We will return to Science in the Spring (if not earlier), with a study of life sciences that will connect back to our work in the Earth sciences (the spheres of earth, especially the hydrosphere) last Fall.

In Social Studies, well, that fell apart. The day is short, and no time has remained for history, geography, current events, or civics that I would love to be looking at with students. I hope to get back into this strongly in February. I hope also to begin Health studies for the year - I'm supposed to be one of two building point-persons for the district in implementing new studies at all grade levels, and we haven't even begun yet!

There is a LOT of change in all subjects, and even the ways we assess, track, and support students last year and this year again. It is all quite overwhelming - but exciting, too. We are trying out MANY new things. What I most hope for in the last half of the year (beginning in two weeks!) is to connect with my own students more deeply, to genuinely help each one, individually, in their last year before leaving their first level of schooling. You are getting invites to see middle schools, no doubt; change is coming for these students (27 now!) and that is foremost on my mind.

Again, happy new year!

Jonathon