Honors Information Night Mrs. Ells Perry. Curriculum Same indicators as regular 4 th grade –Found on MDK12.org Honors differentiation occurs through extending.

Honors Information NightMrs. Ells Perry

Curriculum• Same indicators as regular 4th grade

– Found on MDK12.org

• Honors differentiation occurs through extending indicators, applying critical thinking skills or applying indicators to upper level, more advanced text on the students’ reading levels. This is quite rigorous!

• Honors pulls from the same resources as the general education classroom and may include:– StoryWorks! - Houghton Mifflin Anthology– All Write Books - English Books/Workbooks– Articles - Reader’s Handbooks– Short Stories - Literature Circle Novels– Teacher Created / Team Created Materials

CCPS Grading Policy

Grading Scale

• 90-100% = A

• 80-89% = B

• 70-79% = C

• 60-69% = D

• Below 60% = E

Grades are calculated on cumulative weighted percentage.

ProductGrades

70%

ProcessGrades

30%

Grade Calculation

Reading: Other Resources

Award WinningNovels

Access to supplement Resources

Lets Talk Homework• Reading Homework

– Homework is recorded on the homework board. Students are expected to write homework exactly as it is written.

– Homework may have an online component to it. Let me know as soon as possible if you do not have internet access so that I can modify your child’s assignment OR schedule them time on a computer here at school to fulfill assignments.

– Reading Projects will ALWAYS have in class work session days where students come to class to work on their projects. Students decide when they want these work sessions. Students must come to class with all their materials and should conference with me at that time to ensure that they are completing project requirements.

Lets Talk Homework• Independent Reading Homework

– When reading is assigned as homework, students will record their minutes in their homework log along with the title of the book and genre. Parents are to sign homework logs each night to verify students have fulfilled their assigned reading. I will randomly check homework logs to check to see if students are up to date and parent signatures are present.

– Assigned reading times vary depending on the amount of other homework, but honors students should be reading self selected books on their own time. Independent reading is assigned for homework 2 – 4 times a week.

– While reading independently selected books, students may be asked to write a 3 sentence summary of nightly reading. (i.e.: read for 18 min. and write a 3 sentence summary of what you read). These summaries are recorded in the calendar packet that I will provide students.

Lets Talk Homework• Spelling, Grammar, Usage, & Mechanics Homework

– Some weeks you will see more spelling homework, other weeks you will see more language homework.

– Approx. 15 minutes nightly.– If students have choice in homework (such as aTic-

Tac-Toe Spelling Chart) please work with your child to ensure they pick out activities that they can accomplish during the week. Remember, they only need to complete 3 activities in a row over the entire week (not 3 a day)! Some activities are more labor intensive then others – so this is a great opportunity to help your child with time management.

– CCPS is refocusing on G.U.M.S.!

Lets Talk Homework• Yikes! This is harder homework than last year!

– That’s okay! We’re doing lots of thinking homework in fourth grade honors math and reading. Math students have their green books. Reading students have THINKING questions and more complex text.

– If it gets too time consuming, have your child jot a quick note to me. It’s more important that they THINK about the work and questions and be ready to DISCUSS them in class the next day. Whether it’s coming up with character traits and text support, or identifying main ideas in more complex text, your child is going to have his/her own areas of strengths and weaknesses. Some night’s homework may seem easy, other nights it might seem really tough. Don’t let your child get bogged down. Do what you can, jot a note, and your child will earn credit if effort is made to TRY!

Lets Talk Homework: Band/Strings• Band and Strings students miss class time each

week.• Students are pulled for 30 minutes (add travel time –

approximately 35 min.) and are expected to make up worked missed.

• Remember, for each minute of a task with teacher support, it may take a student 2 – 4 minutes to do independently on their own. (Taking out materials, figuring out directions, etc…)

• Students may make up work at catch up or at home – depending on the nature of the work.

• So, if your child has band on a particular day, they may have a significant amount of independent work to make up at home or at recess in addition to their nightly homework load.

Grading• I assess frequently.• Do not expect your child to master everything the

first time!! Honors is more challenging! • Normally, I return assignments in Tuesday Folders

PRIOR to entering into Gradebook. • I use the comment field in Gradebook to make

notes such as points deducted for lateness, grades below a 50%, student strength/weakness, etc… this information does NOT show up when you get emailed reports, you have to check online to see these specific teacher comments.

• This specific feedback allows parents to get more a more accurate picture of the student’s overall performance.

So How can I Help My Child?

• Review work that comes home with your child for homework and assignments in Tuesday Folders.

• READ! READ! READ! With your child and talk about the books in depth.

• Become familiar with the state expectations of fourth graders – I encourage you to explore the fourth grade curriculum indicators at MDK12.org. This is the guiding document for teachers, and the explanations/lesson seeds can help you when you do “book talks” with your child. Remember, your child might be reading a more advanced novel or text, but we’re still working with 4th grade indicators in honors!

So How can I Help My Child?

• Visit the class blog weekly (minimum)– HESPERRY.BLOGSPOT.COM

• Have your child review posted Power Points on the blog.

• Have your child play games on the blog (monitor they’re use to ensure they are playing with skills that are a challenge for them (i.e.: identifying adverbs (more difficult) vs. identifying nouns (more easy)).

• Updates on long term assignments are found on the CURRICULUM UPDATES page of the blog.

So What’s Expected of 4th Grade Students?

• There is a jump in the regular education curriculum for students new to 4th grade. Third grade focuses on learning to read, whereas 4th grade focuses on reading to learn.

• Click here for an example 4th

grade article and lesson ideas from MDK12.org• There is an expectation for students not only to

JUSTIFY their answer, but to EXTEND beyond it. This isn’t just an honors expectation.

Lets take a look at what that means and why sometimes an answer might seem complete, but

does not earn full credit.

So What’s Expected of 4th Grade Students?

• Most of the time, the BCR rubric is the standard teachers use to grade written responses. While a question might be worth 1 or 2 points (not three) the general rubric can still be used to rate student’s responses to award full, partial, or no credit to comprehension questions.

• So lets take a look at a sample BCR using the same article for author’s tone, but use it to assess another 4th grade indicator – main idea.

So What’s Expected of 4th Grade Students?

BCR

Read the article ‘Why is It So Hard to Get Ketchup out of the Bottle?’ and answer the following question. (article is found at the end of the .pdf file)

What other title would show the main idea of this article? Explain how your title would show the main idea. In your response, use information from the article that supports your explanation.

Sample Response #1

Another title would be Kechup Problems because this article is all about someone at a restrent getting kechup out of a bottle.

Score:

1/3 (Roughly a 50%)

Reasoning: This student answered the question with a minimal understanding of the text. The article really is about special solutions called thixotropic solutions. It also has little in the way of text support (direct or paraphrased).

Sample Response #2I think a good titel would be Mixed Up Solutions

because it says that ketchup is sometimes is a liquid and sometimes is more like a solid. Then it talks about other things like it, like quicksand and drilling mud that is also liquid or solid. These things are even in our own body’s to help protect are bones.

Score: 2/3 (roughly 80-85%)Reasoning: This student does a great job of coming up with a

logical answer and using paraphrased text support to support their reasoning. However, it’s missing the clarification and extension piece specifically, bringing the text support back to explain your answer. To bring this up to a three the student needs to explain how their text support shows something being “mixed up.” They’re really close!!

Sample Response #3

Score: 3/3 (100%)

Reasoning: Answer is fully explained with lots of detailed (but paraphrased) text support. Additionally, they use information to clarify their reasoning – specifically explaining their word choice of odd. This fully demonstrates their upper level thinking.

Ketchup - One Odd Thixotrpic would be my title. First, because it talks about how ketchup is hard to get out. It’s both like solids and liquids. These solutions are called Thxotropics. Lots of things are thixotopics, like quicksand, elbow fluid, and yogurt and margarin. Things that are odd don’t act like normal everyday things. Ketchup doesn’t act like a normal solid or liquid, so it’s weird and odd. The article tells me mostly about all kinds of Thixtoopics, but it starts and ends with Ketchup, which makes me think it’s the Main Idea.

If you think that’s a lot…

• … your right, it is. The demands of the fourth grade curriculum is quite rigorous.

• In honors, students apply these same kinds of skills to either: 1.) a higher level text at their reading level, or 2.) delve deeper into a grade level text to arrive at higher order thinking skills.

• These expectations are translated into students being trained to always justify and explain their thinking when answering most comprehension questions done in school/for homework. If students do not earn full credit, students can earn 1pt, 1.5pts, or even 1.8pts to a 2 point question.