Welcome to English Language Arts

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Welcome to English Language Arts
Carole Pinkwasser 6C
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A Little about me

• Grew up in New York and went to Brooklyn College
  where I received my B.A. in Education
• Received my Masters in Education from NAU in 1994
• My husband and I moved to Arizona in 1979
• Have two grown children, my son is married and we
  have a 5 year old granddaughter
• This is my 3rd year at Altadena
• Previously, taught ELA at Akimel A-al for 13
  years
• Before that, taught Kindergarten in Mesa for 9
  years
• Also taught 6 years in a preschool in Tempe
• Highly qualified to teach English Language Arts
  and World History

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English Language Arts

• Please have a 3 section spiral notebook just for
  ELA
• Grammar, test prep questions, journals
• Spelling/vocabulary practice- weekly Wednesday to
  Wednesday, test each week
• Reading Skills- read it, understand it,
  think it through
• Writing Skills- sentence structure, paragraphing
• Students are expected to hand write drafts AND
  edit/revise their own work. Adult help will come
  after the student process.

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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

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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

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Common core reading

• Key Ideas and Details
• Read closelycite 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

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Reading

• Reading will be more connected with written
  responses
• Defending answers by citing the author/authors
  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

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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

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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.

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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- examples, evidence

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Typical Homework- YES, expect it.

• Read each night (20-30 minutes)answer questions
  on Reading Log
• Re-read classroom stories,
• Spelling/vocabulary practice (10 mins.)
• -Due each Wednesday
• Grammar practice (10 mins.)
• Unfinished class work (???)
• Occasional time for research/writing if doing a
  project

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Grading

• Please use the Parent Vue Portal on Kyrene web
  site to check grade and work completion status.
  Usually updated weekly.
• Student receive daily grades for class work and
  homework. This includes walk-ins.
• Larger assignments such as projects, readers
  response, research, creative writing work will
  receive more points than daily work.
• Grading 80 quizzes, projects, assessments
• 20 classwork and homework

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Other fun stuff

• Skits, plays, performances
• School Spelling Bee
• Word games/Brainteasers
• Friendly competitions in class

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Class website- resources and handouts Team
website- homework The best way to contact me is
through email cpinkw_at_kyrene.org 480-541-6102
Thanks for coming!
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advanced language Arts

• Placed if scored at or above the 97th percentile
  on national norms in one or more of three
  areas-verbal(language), quantitative(math), and
  nonverbal(spatial) reasoning.
• Students should maintain a B or better average
  to stay in class. Will set up a parent meeting
  to discuss if an issue or problem occurs.

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Ala-how is it Different?

• Vocabulary program-Classical Latin Greek roots
• Introduction to Shakespeare
• Above grade level stories (Literature book,
  novels)
• Higher levels of comparing/contrasting
• Challenge the views of the author and discrepancy
  between texts(literary analysis)
• Higher level speaking skills(multi-media)
• Kyrene website (Programs Services-Gifted
  Programs)-organizations, resources, activities,
  and gifted web links