Dr. Johnson's Reading Blog

One of the things that differentiates 4th grade from 5th grade will be sending home tests the students take. While I'm not a fan of test giving (or test taking), students need to develop an awareness that as they enter middle school, tests will be used to evaluate and grade them on a regular basis. When I grade tests, there are a number of things I do: 1) I go over the test answers and provide as much feedback with students as possible. I also go over test answers in case I made a mistake and incorrectly marked an answer wrong or correct. I make mistakes too and am well aware of this! 2) Students add up their points to see if they match the number of points I gave. If not I adjust. 3) I have students calculate their own percentages of how much they got correct. Then they compare the percentage with the South Carolina grading scale. 4) I asked students to reflect on why they did or did not do well. The typical response was "I could have participated more" ...

I wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow night is Opening Picnic from 6:30 to about 8:00. The first hour of Opening Picnic is all about the picnic and reacquainting with friends. 5th grade is responsible for bringing paper products such as plates and napkins. After the picnic, you are welcomed to stop by the classroom and have your child give you a brief tour. Not much has changed but your child may be excited about sharing something with you. I will also be in class talking with everyone. I have a brief slideshow that points out some of the differences between 4th grade and 5th grade that I will be emphasizing. If you are unable to make it, I will post the slide show for you to see. Also, don't forget that next Thursday, September 24th is a half day / early release. See everyone tomorrow!

I hope everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend. As a note, I have updated the class calendar. You can access the calendar on the right side of the blog. I have added some new dates including dates for our 5th grade trip to Camp Kanuga. I have also added our Twitter feed on the right side of the blog. We use Twitter to keep in contact with the citizen science community, the maker  community, and we post things we make during explorations. There is also a link to follow us on Twitter if you are interested. Each week we slowly get back into the thick of things. We have begun our latest DBQ on the Reconstruction Period. You will be seeing these DBQs at home since I will be asking students to work on some of it at home for homework. At the same time, in social studies, we finished collecting information on the Reconstruction Period and are focusing on synthesizing this information. In math, we are taking a slower, yet more direct view of problem solving and this seems to be working...

We had an enjoyable yet, busy first week. Much of our time was getting ready for our first 5th Grade Gathering. Our class decided to spend our gathering time talking about the CFI's Rights and Responsibilities and our school-wide expectations, which we felt fell under those Rights and Responsibilities. Students decided to discuss recess expectations, gathering expectations, carpool expectations, and general expectations. They wanted to discuss these expectations because they felt if everyone was in the same boat concerning these expectations, then this school-wide unity will help contribute to an enjoyable and learning-filled school year. I have uploaded the video we created. But our time has not been all gathering . Our time has also been spent on getting used to our new schedule and getting back into the routine of things. For instance, some students and I made a hologram , and this week we should have our citizen science projects chosen. We have also jumped head first into s...

Welcome back 5th grade families! It's sounds a bit funny but it's something I look forward to getting used to. Here are some reminders for tomorrow. 1. Drop off will be normal time (7:35 or later). If you have any supplies feel free to drop them off in the classroom. I will be in the gathering area hanging out with the students but you are free to drop them off. 2. Our class does not have to worry about safety patrol until the second quarter. 3. Our first Friday learning celebration is next week - Friday, August 28. Since we are the first gathering, we will be spending most of the time discussing safety patrol rules, CFI rights and responsibilities, gathering expectations, etc. 4. We also have a new MAT. His name is Mr. Smith. He will introduce himself to the students tomorrow. I have had some parents ask if there are other supplies they can get for the class that is not on the district supply list. We can alway use MORE pencils (you've seen my bucket of...

Since Friday is our last day before the Christmas Break, I have allowed students to plan the day however they want. While many wanted recess for 6 hours, they came to realize that wasn't possible. You would think they wanted to watch movies but they didn't. Here is our schedule for the day: 8:00 - 8:45 Explorations 8:45 - 9:00 Sharing 9:00 - 10:00 Simulation (Exploration Simulation) 10:00 - 10:50 Videos (Popcorn/pretzels - small snacks) 10:50 - 11:30 Lunch 11:30 - 12:00 Fun Science Stuff (Students are planning and taking care of supplies) 12:00 - 12:30 Reading / Writing 12:30 - 1:15 Recess 1:15 - 1:30 Clean Up 1:30 - 2:20 Special Areas 2:20 - 2:50 Gathering We are not sure what the videos entail from 10:00 to 10:50, but I have a collection of small videos they would like to watch from a website called GoNoodle and my YouTube page, especially the Rube Goldberg videos. They would also like to have quick and easy snacks during this time. They mentioned pop...

In honor of all the different things we have been learning, we decided our thought for the week would be . . .