As we close in on our MCAS dates of March 26th and 27th, we will be reviewing topics during a “MCAS Boot Camp.”  Today students are completing a small packet to review grammar and punctuation concepts like capitalization, comma use, and pronoun use.  We will be going over the packet in class tomorrow, so it is important that students complete this assignment tonight in order to maximize the learning that can be accomplished during their class time tomorrow.

Tomorrow night, a second homework packet will allow them to review and practice with the skills of identifying 1) author’s purpose, 2) a story’s theme and 3) a poem’s mood or tone.  Again, it is important that their practice is completed each night so that we can address any difficulties that the students had in class.

Friday we will begin to review the myth and folktale genre.

Next week, we will review fiction story elements such as character, setting, and plot, and we will review strategies for organizing ideas before tackling open response items.

This “boot camp” will hopefully provide students with a burst of confidence before they tackle MCAS on Thursday and Friday.  Please help your students by ensuring that they get a good night’s sleep both Wednesday and Thursday nights and that they eat a breakfast that will sustain them through what can be long morning testing hours.  Thank you for your support in this!  Once next week is over we will be able to get back into the fun stuff- great literature and some hands on projects!  🙂

This week, we will finish reading the historical fiction novel, the Watsons go to Birmingham.  We will compare this story to a non-fiction book, Leon’s Story, which tells the experience of an African-American boy growing up in the south during the 1950s and 1960s.  We will also be viewing clips of the documentary 4 Little Girls which documents this time in history, as well as the movie version of the Watsons novel.

Students will be tested on their Leon’s Story vocabulary next Thursday.  In preparation they should be writing a story using all of their vocabulary words and then replacing the words with “pickle” so that the partner they work with on Friday will be able to practice using context clues to place the correct vocabulary words back into the story.

Coming up in the next few weeks, we will be finishing our preparations for MCAS exams.  Students will be able to analyze their practice work over the course of the year to look for patterns of where they are making their mistakes.  Then they will be able to receive additional instruction/practice in those areas so that they can go into the assessment full of confidence.  Please remind students that MCAS is only a snapshot of two days of their sixth grade experience.  While they should take it seriously and do their best, they should know that those numbers that come back do not define them.  I have seen great growth in all of them and know that their achievements cannot be measured by that test.  I’m looking forward to March 28th when that is behind us and we can really have some fun with some great books.  🙂