The Kitchen Sink for the Week of 1/28/13

Readers’ Workshop

Look for the FCAT practice test in your students’ Monday Mail folder (coming home this Tuesday).  Please be sure to carefully read the purple information sheet attached to the test. 

We are continuing our in depth look at text features.  Understanding these features is essential to understanding nonfiction texts.  We are working to define each feature, as well as understand the purpose of each feature.  For instance, a heading is a noticeable title at the top of a portion of text and is used to introduce the main idea of the section.

 

Writers’ Workshop

We will finish up our work with the paragraph builders early in the week.  The rest of the week will be spent organizing and setting up the Fun Facts, Timeline, and Glossary sections.  Drafting will be the next step.  The more thought your child has put into building their paragraphs with complete sentences on the templates, the easier this will be for them.  Do you know what stage they are working on in their report?  Do you know who it's about?  Take a moment to chat with them about their progress.  They are very proud of their work!

Skills Block

Our spelling homework & test will be based on list 14.  We will be having a vocabulary quiz next week.

Getting a Hand With Paragraph Building

This week we discussed how to build a paragraph in a report.  We learned that paragraphs follow a structure, which starts with a main idea and is followed by supporting, relevant details.  We borrowed some hand prints from Readers' Workshop to make our work easier.  We looked over our notes, focused our thoughts on the most important bits and set to work.  We created a main idea sentence in the palm of each hand.  Then we included supporting detail sentences on each finger.  Our goal was to have each detail match the main idea, or topic of the paragraph, as indicated on the palm.  By Friday, Early Life and Education or Training (our first two chapters) should have been completed.  We will spend next week creating the third chapter, Awards and Achievements, before working through the Timeline, Fun Facts, and Glossary sections.    How are your paragraphs coming along?  Compare your work to these two examples:

Example 1:

Example 2:

We Can "Hand"le the Main Idea!

We have been working to identify the main idea of nonfiction texts.  To organize the information and our ideas, we used a graphic organizer.  Students were given a nonfiction passage and worked in groups to identify the main idea (palm of the hand) and the supporting details (fingers).  Many students noticed immediately that often, the first sentence is a summary of the main point.  We refer to this as the "topic sentence."  Take a look at the passages and students' effort to "Map the Text" on the hand prints!

The octopus has a body unlike any other animal.  Its body, called the mantle, is soft and shaped like a bag.  The octopus can squeeze itself into a very small space because it has no bones in its body.  Its eight rubbery arms are attached to its head near its mouth.  The octopus’s arms are covered with suckers.  These suckers help the octopus grab and taste things.  The octopus can see very far distances, but it cannot hear anything at all.

The amazing octopus has many ways to defend itself from predators. When an octopus wants to move quickly to escape a predator, it can shoot water out of its siphon and push itself backwards.  This is called jet propulsion.  Using this technique, octopuses can travel many miles.  An octopus can also protect itself by squirting ink at a predator, causing it to become blind and lose its sense of smell temporarily.  This makes it difficult for a predator to track the octopus.  The octopus can also change its colors to blend in to its surroundings.  And if a predator manages to grab an octopus by the arm, the octopus has more than one trick up its sleeve.  It can break off its arm, swim away, and then grow a new one.

The amazing octopus is also a predator.  It hunts mainly at night.  It has a varied diet, including snails, fish, turtles, and even other octopuses.  An octopus catches its prey by grabbing with its arms.  To kill it, the octopus bites it with its tough beak and injects it with a poison that paralyzes it.  Only one type of octopus, the Australian blue-ringed octopus, can kill a human with its poison.

The Kitchen Sink Special Edition 1/14/13

What is FCAT?

The acronym FCAT stands for Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. All public school students are required to take this statewide assessment program. The purpose is to determine a student’s proficiency in meeting grade level standards in Reading and Math.  Third grade students take FCAT Reading & Math.

When is FCAT?

     FCAT administration varies according to grade level. The 3^rd grade schedule is:

Monday, April 15^th:  Reading Session 1

Tuesday, April 16^th:  Reading Session 2

Wednesday, April 17^th:  Math Session 1

Thursday, April 18^th:  Math Session 2

April 19 – April 26^th  :  Make-Up Testing

Daily Administration

FCAT will be administered to students by their homeroom teachers. Students will be given a morning snack and encouraged to use the restroom before testing begins, between 9:15 – 9:20 am. At that point, there will be NO movement in the building. Therefore, if a student is tardy, they must sit in the front office until all testing is complete. Students who are tardy will have to participate in make-up testing, which is not ideal. Generally, students perform best when the assessment is administered by their teacher in their classroom.   

What Happens If My Child is Sick During FCAT?

Make-up times and days are built into the testing schedule for students who are sick. Make-ups, though not ideal, offer a better opportunity for students than taking a test while they are sick. Make-ups are done in the afternoons on testing days and in the days that follow the FCAT.  

Reading FCAT

The FCAT Reading is administered in two days with a 70-minute session each day. There will be a total of 7 passages. Each passage has between 100-700 words with the average being 500 words per passage. 60% of the text will be literary and the other 40% will be informational texts. Students will answer multiple choice questions on each passage. In all, there are approximately 50-55 questions on FCAT Reading. 

Unanswered questions will be marked wrong.

Questions are broken down into the following categories:

·         Vocabulary: 15-25%;

·         Reading Application: 25-35%; 

·         Literary Analysis: 25-35%;

·         Informational Text & Research Process: 15-25%.  

Mathematics

The FCAT Math is administered in two days with a 70- minute session each day. There will be about 50-55 questions. Forty-four of the questions will count toward your child’s FCAT Math Performance score. The other questions will be field tested questions, which will be used and counted on future FCAT tests.  Unanswered questions will be marked wrong. 

There are three categories of questions on FCAT Math:

·                       ·         Operations, Problems, and Statistics: 50%;

                         ·         Geometry & Measurement: 20%;

                         ·         Fractions: 30%. 

How is FCAT Scored?

Students will receive a scale score between 140-260, which will be a baseline score. As your child takes the FCAT in later grades, you will be able to compare their scale score across grade levels. They will also receive a content area score, which provides the actual number of raw score points earned out of the number of points possible for each reporting category. Students will receive an achievement level, too, ranging from Level 1 to Level 5. To be considered on grade level, students must achieve Level 3 or higher.  To promote to 4^th grade, students must earn both passing grades on their report cards and a Level 2 or better in Reading.  If report card grades are passing, but a student earns a Level 1 in FCAT Reading, they will not be promoted to 4^th grade.

Third grade scores generally come in by the end of the year. Score reports will be put in your child’s last report card, if available.

The Kitchen Sink for the Week of 1/7/13

Readers’ Workshop

This week we will begin our unit on nonfiction texts.  We will first study expository texts, working to identify “just right” books.  Often, with nonfiction texts, students choose books that are too difficult and end up only looking at the pictures.  Our job as readers is to identify books we can read and understand!  This is a reading resolution many of our students set for themselves in the New Year.  Ask your child about their reading resolution!

Please note that Reading Responses have resumed with the normal schedule.

Writers’ Workshop

Today was the deadline for having chosen a book for the biography report.  Students were taken to the media center to make final selections, after they were given the opportunity to choose from over 60 biographies in the classroom.  The rest of the week will be dedicated to note taking.  If students use their class time wisely, they should not need to take any notes at home.  Students will take their notes in a purple booklet with headings, designed to help them keep their notes organized.  The booklet will be used for in class note taking this week and most of next, so please remind your child to keep it in their purple writing folder so they are always prepared.

Skills Block

Spelling homework and test will be based on List 13.