Ms. McMillan
October 24, 2016
Today your student received the Genre Bingo assignment for the 2nd nine weeks. I have attached the letter that went home to be reviewed and signed by you and your student. Please read the letter and discuss it with your student. We reviewed the assignment in class today, so they should be able to answer your questions. (Sorry for the typos. I didn’t catch them until all 67 had been printed J ) I have also attached a copy of the new bingo sheet. During the first nine weeks, I was very lenient on book levels and Achieve 3000 articles, this will not be the same moving forward. There are specific topics for the Achieve 3000 articles, and there are specific book topics too. I will not change out the bingo selections either, so your student needs to make sure to choose bingo’s that have a minimum of 4 fiction and 4 non-fiction choices. I have asked that your student review the bingo sheet and be prepared with their choices, no later than Wednesday of this week. I don’t need the book selections, just the bingo lines.
Also, your student was given their Lexile reading level today. All of the Achieve 3000 articles your student completes, are already on their assigned level. When choosing books via Lexile, please use the level written on your students bingo sheet. They do not have their most current AR level yet, but that test will be taken tomorrow. When the test is complete, your student will have the reading range written at the top of their bingo sheet. Please make sure books that are chosen fall within this reading range. The orange folders will be given to your student with the new summary pages tomorrow. This folder needs to be with your student at all times. I will check in with them weekly, and I will have specific due dates for this assignment. Rather than having the entire project due at the end of the nine weeks, I will have them turn in 2 at time. The first due date has not been decided, but you will be notified asap.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Spelling, Vocabulary and WOD (Word of the Day)
At the beginning of every week, your student will take a spelling pre-test. If they pass the spelling test, they do not need to complete spelling homework. If they did not, they will then need to practice the words they missed. They will then take the spelling assessment at the end of the week. All students will take the vocabulary and WOD assessments. These words are sent home at the beginning of each week. Vocabulary flash cards are due every Tuesday. Your student is responsible for homework throughout the week as well.
Genre Bingo
Genre bingo will be the way we track your students reading in 4th grade. Each student has a minimum of 8 books to read each nine weeks. If your student chooses to read more books, great! I encourage them to read as much as they would like. :) To keep track of what your student is reading, as well as what they are comprehending as they are reading, your student will need to follow the assigned bingo sheet and home learning pages. Each book your student reads will need to be recorded on one of the home learning pages in their orange folder. There are examples of each of the pages in the front of the folder. At the top of each page the label will either be literary (fiction) or informational (non-fiction). Each student should complete a minimum of 4 literary and 4 informational entries. The home learning pages ask your student to focus on specific reading skills instead of writing a summary for each book. I would like the kids to bring their folders and bingo sheets to and from school each day so I can randomly check on their progress. Please let me know if you have any questions about this assignment.