Welcome to Room 19!

1. Welcome to Room 19! Ms. Gritzmacher September 2013

2. About me

3. I believe learning begins once a community is built. • Expectations of class, students, and teacher • Caring members and teacher • Responsibility • Individual roles within the community • Students take ownership of their own education • Once a safe space is built, students will be able to: • Take risks within the classroom • Enjoy learning by using their curiosity and critical thinking skills.

4. I am committed to... • Fostering the love of livelong learning in each student. • Bringing fun and student interest into curriculum • Encouraging curiosity and critical thinking. • Asking deeper questions and bringing in real world connections • Instilling the importance of responsibility as a fifth grade student and community member inside and outside of school. • Classroom responsibilities, assignment notebooks, etc. • Building strong students academically, socially, and emotionally. • I will make sure that my lessons reach each child through differentiation • Reinforce the importance of community in a learning environment • I will ensure that my students feel safe and comfortable in room 19

5. Developing Responsibility • What do I expect of each child? • Follow social contract/expectations • Use the assignment notebook properly • Completed work that is on time • Bring necessary materials to and from school and to and from other classrooms • Ask questions • Taking responsibility of own education- communicating what he or she needs

6. Communication • Assignment Notebooks: • Students are responsible for filling these out every day • Good preparation for 6th grade • Cumberland Website— • Wfbschools.com Cumberland  5th Grade Home • Available by phone or email • Kara.gritzmacher@wfbschools.com (on website) • 414-963-3943 x2019 • Weekly Newsletter via email and Hard Copy • All teachers are included in this newsletter

7. Communication • Each student will receive graded work on a timely basis • Parents are to sign and return graded work • This will keep you updated on student progress and to stay in communication with myself.

8. The Fifth Grade Team Ms. O’Leary, Ms. McCormick, Mr. Moore, Ms. Castleberry, and Ms. Gritzmacher

9. Team Philosophy • Common planning time • Sharing of ideas • Problem Solving/Brainstorming • Similar goals— • Success of all of our students • Meeting the Common Core Standards • Instilling the importance of responsibility • Preparation for 6th grade

10. ELA CurriculumCommon Core State Standards • English Language Arts: Reading • Anthology Stories (Scott Foresman) • Vocabulary and Comprehension • Novel Reading/Independent Book • Response journals • Engaged reading (independent, group, guided) • Collaboration and discussion with peers • Work with Mosaic comprehension strategies • Various genres

11. ELA CurriculumCommon Core State Standards • Reading • Our objective is to build strong skills and strategies • Reading Comprehension • Identifying theme, defending thinking with evidence from text • Making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining importance, synthesizing • Central Skills • Point of view, author’s purpose, author’s viewpoint, cause and effect, character, plot, compare and contrast, vocabulary development

12. Assessments for Reading • Comprehension Test- Multiple Choice and Short-Answer • Beginning-of-Year and End-of-Year Assessments and Unit Assessments • Anthology Stories- Read in school, reread at school or home, selection test • Assessment of Written Responses/Response Journals • Fluency—Assessed up to 4 times a year. Words correct read per minute using grade-level passages that student has not seen before

13. ELA CurriculumCommon Core State Standards • Language Arts • Three Longer Writing Pieces • Completed in school, one per trimester • Personal Narrative, Informational Writing: Compare and Contrast, and Opinion: Persuasive • Other Writing Pieces • Ongoing shorter pieces of writing • Business letters, responses in Science, Social Studies, and Life Skills. • Reader’s Response Journals

14. ELA CurriculumCommon Core State Standards • Skill Focus • Generating ideas, elaborating ideas, vivid word choice, descriptive language, interesting/effective introductions, satisfying conclusions, purposeful paragraphs, transitions, and editing • Grammar Focus • Complete sentences—subject and predicate, run-on sentences • Subject-verb agreement, commas, punctuation in dialogue, apostrophes/possessive nouns

15. Math CurriculumCommon Core State Standards • Math Expressions by Houghton Mifflin • “Supports the Common Core State Standards by covering select concepts for deeper mastery...” • “Research-based, proven to be effective in raising student achievement...” • “Offers new ways to teach and learn mathematics through exploration, modeling and discussion...”

16. Math CurriculumCommon Core State Standards • Students will be able to... • Construct a deeper understanding of math skills • Defend and communicate understanding using words, numbers, symbols (written and spoken) • Continue to build critical thinking skills • Strengthen fluency with math facts

17. Math CurriculumCommon Core State Standards • Differentiation • Pretesting to assess and plan for each student’s needs • Frequent, ongoing assessments after each lesson • Computer-based, multi-level practice, challenge questions and intervention resources • Daily homework and remembering workbook • FYI there is no “home textbook” students are to take home activity book if they feel they need it to do their homework.

18. Science Curriculum Next Generation Science Standards • FOSS: Develop Inquiry Skills • Variables: Develop Understanding of a controlled experiment (pendulums, airplanes, lifeboats, catapults) • Food and Nutrition (fat, sugar, acid, citric acid, healthy choices) • Solar Energy (shadow tracking, heating earth materials) • Levers and Pulleys (fulcrum, load, effort) • Science teacher: Ms. O’Leary

19. Science CurriculumNext Generation Science Standards • Science Skills Emphasis • Evidenced-based predictions and conclusions • Inquiry-based/constructivist approach • Science Process Skills (Question, Predict, Design and Conduct Experiments, Data Collection and Analysis, Graphing, Drawing Conclusions, Communication, Classification) • Clearly communicating and documenting each experiment in the Science Notebook

20. Social Studies Curriculum • Emphasis on American History from the early arrivals during the Ice Age, to modern times. • Geography is embedded throughout the text. • Highly collaborative and interactive • Online Access • Eduplace.com/eservices • Karagritzmacher • 123456

21. Standards-Based Grading • Grading –Three point system • 3, 2, 1 Evaluative and Formative Assessment • 3 = Proficient-can apply skill or concept correctly/independently • 2= Developing-making progress towards grade level standard • 1= Beginning-cannot complete task independently/shows little understanding of concept or skill • +, , - Formative Assessment- Feedback purposes for teacher and/ or student + = 3 ,  = 2, - = 1 • Grading is aligned with the standards • Teachers work together to norm our grading practices • Exemplary work is noted through comments • Typically numbered grades indicate that a grade is in the grade book and a check, plus or minus indicates that the grade is for feedback purposes only and not entered in the gradebook

22. Curriculum Overlap • Life Skills • Human Growth and Development • Guidance Lessons

23. Self esteem Life Skills Curriculum • Build social skills • Analyze decision-making strategies • Communicate feelings effectively • Learn harms of tobacco use • Cope with stress • Examine advertising techniques

24. Self esteem Guidance Lessons: Ms. Anstett • Build social skills • Analyze decision-making strategies • Communicate feelings effectively • Conflict resolution • Cope with stress • Career Planning

25. Adolescence and Puberty Human Growth and Development • Self-Esteem • Analyze decision-making strategies • Conception • Male and Female Reproduction Systems • Physical Abuse and Safety • AIDS

26. Miscellaneous • Buddy Classes • Band/Orchestra: • Once a week class lessons, twice a week grade level lessons • Learning Fair in launched in January and presented in March • Student Council: Monthly, lunch and lunch recess meetings • Project Wisdom, weekly • Announcements on character building read by 5th grade students over the PA system • Room Parents:

27. Reminders Make sure information sheets are turned in Field trips Enter through front door and pick up visitor badge. No birthday treats, please.