Welcome to English Language Arts

1. Welcome to English Language Arts Cheryl Wright Resource Teacher

2. A Little about me: • Grew up in Columbus, Ohio and attended The Ohio State University where I received my degree in Special Education • 20 years experience teaching special education in Ohio, New York, Connecticut, and Arizona • 9th year at Altadena • Previous experience includes: • Public traditional and charter schools, hospital day school, private sector • Preschool, 6-12th grade • All disability categories • Highly qualified to teach 6th grade English Language Arts and Math • Co teach 6th grade classes: two math and one ELA

3. Language Arts • Students need: • 2 composition notebooks • Yellow, green, pink, and blue highlighters • Pencils, pens, etc. from team supply list

4. Class Components • Grammar, test prep questions, journals • Spelling/vocabulary • Reading Skills- read it, understand it, think it through and make applications • Writing Skills- sentence structure, paragraphing, the writing process, use of tools(technology, graphic organizers, thinking maps) • Reading decoding and fluency

5. Individualized instruction • Focus on individual IEP goals integrating content from across subject areas • Learning Journal to track and reflect on: • IEP goals • 6th grade ELA standards • Personal SMART goals

6. Preparing for the future • Common Core State Standards/ ELA • Clear and consistent standards for teachers, students, and parents • Relevant, real world skills to prepare for college and careers • Be prepared to compete in the global economy • “I Can” statements, learning goals, check understanding • AZ MERIT in the spring

7. Reading Skills • Lexile • Difficulty of the text is considered • www.lexile.com(6th gr. 850-1050 and 7th gr. 950-1075) • Informational Text* • Major basis of reading material across the core subjects • Literary Text • Genres, structure of stories, real-life connections, and perceptions

8. Common core reading • Key Ideas and Details • Read closely—cite specific textual evidence; make logical inferences • Determine theme and analyze development; summarize • Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact • Craft and Structure • Technical, connotative and figurative meaning • Analyze structure • Point of view and purpose • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • Integrate and evaluate content • Delineate and evaluate claims • Analyze two or more texts

9. Reading • Reading will be more connected with written responses • Defending answers by citing the author/author’s purpose • Using Shared Inquiry Method, an active and collaborative search for answers to questions of meaning about a text. It is a research-supported method of learning that promotes deeper thinking through reading, discussion, and writing. It always involves interpretive questions (questions that have more than one answer that can be supported by the text), close reading, collaboration, and reflective and critical thinking. • Making arguments based on informational reading • Close Reading Strategies: a careful and purposeful re-reading of the text to search for purpose, structure, words, ideas, and flow of the text. • Using annotation (highlighting, underlining, circling, writing in the margins, etc.) to help make connections

10. COMMON CORE WRITING • Text Types and Purposes • Support claims using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. • Informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately • Narratives to develop real or imagined experiences • Production and Distribution of Writing • Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task • Develop and strengthen writing • Use technology to produce/publish • Research to Build and Present Knowledge • Conduct short and long research projects • Gather relevant information from multiple sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each and avoid plagiarism • Draw evidence from texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

11. Writing Skills • Written Responses to reading text • Journals, notes, short responses • Writing Applications • Argumentative/Opinion • Narrative • Expository/Informational • Literary Responses 6 + 1 Trait of Writing will be used along with scales and rubrics to score teach and score writing.

12. Organization of text • Students will use the “stoplight” method to highlight information in a text. • They will use the same method to structure their writing. • Green- topic/concluding sentence • Yellow- main ideas/points • Red(Pink)- examples, evidence

13. Typical Homework- YES, expect it. May include: • Reading Log • Re-read classroom stories • Spelling/vocabulary practice • Grammar practice • Unfinished class work (???) • Occasional time for research/writing if doing a project

14. Grading • Please use the Parent Vue Portal on Kyrene web site to check grade and work completion status. Usually updated weekly. • Practice(20%): classwork, learning journal, homework • Assessments(80%): Larger assignments such as projects, reader’s response, research, creative writing work, tests and quizzes

15. Website- • Cheryl Wright(not the team link) • agenda, homework, links to worksheets and websites • The best way to contact me is through email cwright@kyrene.org • 480-541-6117 • Thanks for coming!