Foundational Skills
Print Awareness: Demonstrate understanding of print concepts (right/left, top/bottom, return sweep, etc.); Recognize features of a sentence; Recognize that sentences are made up of words, separated by spaces; Recognize and name ending punctuation marks.
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolation; Orally delete syllables in compound words.
Phonics: /w/, /l/, /j/
Fluency: Read text with appropriate expression, rate, and pacing.
Language: Print uppercase and lowercase letters; Write and draw about the text; Identify and use inflectional ending -ed; Identify regular plural nouns with -s.
Reader's Workshop
Unit 4: Reading for Information
Topic 2: Readers See More Than the Text on the Page and
Students will learn to use pictures and context clues to determine the meaning of new vocabulary words related to the topic of the text. Teachers should encourage students to use these new, fancy words to teach others about their topic. Students should also be encouraged to use the pictures to better help them understand the words and what is happening in the text.
Topic 3: Readers Can Compare and Contrast
In this final topic, students will learn that nonfiction readers read multiple books on a topic and find patterns in these books to organize information. They will also compare and contrast information read in their texts.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 4: How-To Books
Topics 2: Using Mentor Texts to Revise and Write How-To Books
Students will study mentor texts and use techniques they notice such as writing in the "you" voice to continue writing their How-To books. Many simple How-To texts to use as mentor texts can be found on RAZ Kids.
Topic 3: Keeping Readers in Mind
Students should be encouraged to visualize the steps they take and use precise, descriptive words to tell the actions they would take step-by-step, as well as comparisons to make their writing as clear as possible. Students can also be encouraged to add tips, tricks, and warnings for their readers.
Topic 4: Giving How-To Books as Gifts
As students wrap up their How-To collections, they should make simple revisions and edits to polish up their writing using the informational writing checklist. Students will then publish their writing. Clips is a great tool on your iPads to use for digital publishing.
Foundational Skills
Print Awareness: Recognize punctuation and its meaning; Recognize distinguishing features of a sentence; Analyze rhyming patterns; Identify how line breaks and rhyming creates rhythm.
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme categorization, Phoneme isolation; Add and substitute syllables in compound words.
Phonics: long /o/ vowel teams, long /e/ vowel teams, and long /i/ vowel teams
Fluency: Read orally to build fluency; Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Language: Alphabetize words; Analyze poet's word choice and craft; Identify base words; Use prefixes un- and re-.
Reader's Workshop
Unit 4: Readers Get to Know Characters
Topic 3: Reader Use Storytelling Voices and Act Like Directors
Students will be working in reading clubs and "stepping into the shoes" of their favorite characters as they practice reading stories with expression. Students should pay close attention to the characters gestures and facial expressions as they act out stories. This topic is an excellent opportunity for students to participate in Reader's Theaters as well. They should also learn to pay attention to key words (shouted, whispered, etc.) and punctuation marks to read with expression. Finally students are noticing how the character in their stories act and feel, as well as what they are thinking.
Topic 4: Readers Perform, Talk and Think About Books
In this final topic, students will form new reading clubs. They will draw on what they have learned in this unit to find patterns with how characters act, as well as problems that happen over and over, again and again throughout a series of books. Students will work on observing how character's feelings can change. They will also compare and contrast books with similar characters.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 4: Nonfiction Chapter Books
Topic 3: Writing Chapter Books with Greater Independence
In the final topic of this unit, students will be writing chapter books with increased speed and independence. Students will take what they have learned and set goals to write new, more detailed chapter books. Students will learn new ways to research their topics such as studying photographs and asking questions. Teachers will also encourage students to use nonfiction text features such as bold words and labels. Students will use their informational writing checklist to make revisions and edits as they
Foundational Skills
Phonological Awareness: Blend and Segment; Phoneme Addition, Deletion, and Substitution
Phonics: Silent Letters (wr, kn, gn); Inflectional Endings (Drop Final -e, Double Final Consonant); Related Root Words
Fluency: Build Automaticity; Read texts with appropriate speed, accuracy, and rate.
Language:
- Compound Words; Inflectional Endings; and Root/Base Words
- Mentor Sentences: Adverbs
Reader's Workshop
Unit 5: Getting to Know Characters in Series Book Clubs
Topic 2: Finding Out How Series Go: Noticing Patterns & Predicting
Students will take note of predictable patterns in plots, character traits, and text structures and will ask themselves "What about this makes me think it is important?" They will look at how problems and solutions unfold and will use the patterns they observed to predict what will happen next.
Topic 3: Introduce Book Clubs
As students meet with their book clubs, they will be discussing characters and their traits, as well as major events in the story. Students should be paying close attention to how a character's point of view affects how he or she handles situations. They should also be looking for disruptions in previously observed patterns and figuring out why the character changed or acted unusually.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 5: Writing About Reading
Topic 2: Raising the Level of Our Letter Writing
As students make a plan for their second opinion writing letter, they will be reading over parts of the favorite picture books they are writing about, paying close attention to little details in the text. These details can grow their writing and help provide pieces of evidence to support their opinions. Teachers should share mentor texts and point out craft moves used by authors to encourage students to try these moves in their own writing.
Topic 3: Writing Nominations and Awarding Favorite Books
As students finish this unit, it is important to discuss real awards books can receive. Students can then generate lists of awards they would create for favorite books and characters. Students can write a nomination, making certain their opinion clearly explains why the book or character deserves the award. Students should understand that as nomination writers they need to include specific details, including quotations, and that they should make comparisons that support their opinion to persuade their readers.
Each reading and writing unit has both a pre and post assessment.
Reading
The new Option B pre-assessment for Unit 3 is now available, and the post-assessment will be soon. Option B takes the questions from an all long-answer format to formats used in NWEA and MAP testing. Option B also allows for an electronic function that self-grades and gives students immediate feedback. You can find the Option B pre- and post-tests:
- On Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the grade level folder→in the ELA folder→in the Reading Units of Study folder→in the Unit 3 folder.
The original pre and post-tests are also an option. Our curriculum teams have revised the TCRWP (spirals) pre and post assessments to match our Missouri Priority Standards. Do not use the pre- and post-assessments on Heinemann. You can find our revised assessments in two places:
- On Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the grade level folder→in the ELA folder→in the Reading Units of Study folder→in the Unit 3 folder.
- Linked in the curriculum by unit
Writing
On-Demands and student materials can be found on Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the grade level folder→in the ELA folder→in the Writing Units of Study folder.
MO LEAP Blocks is a resource from the state that also has assessments created for ELA
Reader's Workshop
Unit 3: Character Studies. In this quarter-long unit, students started Topic 1 in January by Getting to Know Characters as a Friend. In Topic 2 Following a Character’s Journey students will continue to focus on characters but will do the rest of this unit's work in book clubs. In this topic students learn the habits and work of book clubs. Students will come to see their book clubs as a source of added support--developing and refining ideas in the company of others.
The priority standards in this Literature unit focus on:
- Reading, inferring, and drawing conclusions using fiction texts including poetry and drama to
- Summarize and sequence the events/plot and explain how past events impact future events
- Describe the personality traits of characters from their thoughts, words, and actions
- Describe the interaction of characters, including relationships and how they change
- Explain cause and effect relationships
- Distinguish your own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters
Writer's Workshop
Unit 3: Changing the World. This quarter-long unit focuses on using students' opinions to persuade others for good. Students started Topic 1 Launching Work on Persuasive Speeches in January, writing persuasive speeches. In Topic 2 Raising the Level of Persuasive Writing, students are given the opportunity to work for an extended amount of time on one piece, taking it through the writing process. They will gather facts and details and work to organize these. Students will "write long" about their topics, categorize the evidence they collect, and decide which evidence belongs in their speeches.
The priority standards in this Opinion Writing unit focus on:
- Writing opinion texts that
- Introduce a topic or text being studied, using connected sentences.
- State an opinion or establish a position and provide reasons for the opinion/position
- Use specific and accurate words that are related to the topic, audience, and purpose.
- Use transitions to connect opinion and reason.
- Provide clear evidence of a beginning, middle, and concluding statement or paragraph.
3rd Grade Word and Language Study
Word and Language Study Scope and Sequence
Word and Language Study Standards and Resources
Word and Language Study Daily/Weekly Routines
Reader's Workshop
Unit 3: Reading History. This quarter-long unit continues the study of events leading up to the American Revolution that students focused on in social studies second quarter. This unit also complements the Bringing History to Life writing unit. Students started Topic 1 Reading History in January. As they move into Topic 2 Preparing for Debate, students will research to prepare to debate the question of independence from Great Britain considering multiple points of view to develop a strong argument. This unit culminates with a debate, offering the perfect opportunity to use AVID's Philosophical Chairs.
The priority standards in this Informational Nonfiction unit are:
- Analyze, make inferences, and draw conclusions about persuasive text
- Use evidence from the text to explain the author’s purpose; and support the analysis.
- Explain how an author uses language to present information to influence what the reader thinks or does.
- Use multiple text features to locate information and gain an overview of the contents of the text
- Read, infer and draw conclusions using text structures.
- Explain explicit and implicit relationships among ideas in texts
Writer's Workshop
Unit 3: Bringing History to Life. In this quarter-long informational writing unit, students will review what they know about writing a basic, boxes-and-bullets information text, and then they’ll draw on this to write two information chapters, starting with one on the more accessible and general topic, “All About the American Revolution” and then progressing to one on a more focused topic. Students started Topic 1, Information Books, in January. In Topic 2, Writing with Greater Independence, students will write their second chapter on a subtopic of their choice. As students write this chapter, they will learn that text features can help to underscore the main message of a piece of writing, as can a writer’s thoughtful decisions about the kinds of vocabulary words to include.
The priority standards in this Information Writing unit focus on:
- Writing information texts that:
- Introduce a topic in an introductory paragraph
- Develop the topic into supporting paragraphs from sources, using topic sentences with facts, details, examples, and quotations
- Use specific, relevant, and accurate words that are suited to the topic, audience, and purpose
- Contain information using student’s original language except when using direct quotations from a source
- Use transitions to connect categories of information
- Use text structures when useful
- Create a concluding paragraph related to the information
- Applying a research process is also a priority standard.
4th Grade Word and Language Study
Don't forget about the Word and Language Study documents available to use for planning and instruction. These are linked here and also in Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the 4th grade folder→in the Curriculum Planning Documents folder→in the ELA Documents folder.
Word and Language Study Scope and Sequence
Word and Language Study Standards and Resources
Word and Language Study Daily/Weekly Routines
Reader's Workshop
Unit 3: Argument and Advocacy: Researching Debatable Issues. In this quarter-long unit students compare ideas, information, and perspectives. Students analyze each of these positions and ultimately form their own thoughtful viewpoint on an issue.
Students started Topic 1 Launching into Investigating Issues in January. In Topic 2 Raising the Level of Research, students will develop deeper questions and new ideas on their issue, and they will engage in more complicated conversations. By the end of the topic, the debates you hear should be deeply informed and nuanced, showing students’ firm grasp of the complexity of the issues they have been studying. Taking sides on an issue with reasons and evidence is the perfect opportunity to use AVID's Philosophical Chairs.
The priority standards in this Informational Nonfiction unit are:
- Read, infer and draw conclusions using literary techniques
- Evaluate if the author’s purpose was achieved, identify reasons for the decision, and provide evidence to support the claim
- Using reasoning to determine the logic of an author's conclusion, providing text evidence
- Read, infer and draw conclusions using text structures
- Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 3: The Research-Based Argument Essay. Students started Topic 1 of this quarter-long unit in January, Establishing and Supporting Positions. In Topic 2, Building Powerful Arguments, students will return to their research to think about possible note-taking systems that will work best, while also looking at their research with a more critical eye. As they draft they will consider which evidence to use to bolster their claim, determine flaws in their own logic and revise to make sound arguments.
The priority standards in this Opinion Writing unit focus on:
- Writing opinion texts that
- introduce a topic, using an introductory paragraph that clearly supports the writer's purpose
- State an opinion and provide relevant reasons for the opinion supported by multiple facts and details
- Use specific and accurate words that are related to the topic, audience, and purpose
- Contain information using student’s original language except when using direct quotations from a source
- Reference the name of the author(s) or name of the source used for details or facts included in the text
- Use transition to connect opinion and reason
- Organize the supporting details/reasons into introductory, supporting and concluding paragraph
5th Grade Word and Language Study
Don't forget about the Word and Language Study documents available to use for planning and instruction. These are linked here and also in Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the 5th grade folder→in the Curriculum Planning Documents folder→in the ELA Documents folder.
Word and Language Study Scope and Sequence
Word and Language Study Standards and Resources
Word and Language Study Daily/Weekly Routines