Welcome to Curriculum Night

1. Welcome to Curriculum Night 3rd Grade Mrs. Cooper 2014-2015

2. Classroom Management • Monthly Behavior Contract- please look at it nightly, and sign it monthly. • Students start each day with 5 “pillars”. • Students receive one warning, and then pillars are taken for breaking any of our class promises. • Warnings are not given for severe infractions. • Not bringing homework= loss of 2 pillars. • Students who have kept 4 or more pillars per day may participate in grade-level recess. • Students who keep 20 or more pillars per week participate in Success Club on Friday.

3. Homework Presented weekly, but with daily due dates. Students need to read 15minutes nightly except for Thursday night! • *Mon. night (due Tues.): Word Problem/ Computation / Spelling (activity from menu) • *Tues. night (due Wed.): Word Problem/ Computation / Spelling (activity from menu) • *Wed. night (due Thurs): Word Problem / Computation / Spelling (activity from menu) • *Thurs. Night (due Fri.): Reading Comprehension Sheet with questions in place of nightly reading / Word Problem / Computation / Spelling (activity from menu) • Once weekly, students are expected to complete an activity off the math menu. This can be either a simple fact recall practice or one of the various math games we will learn this year. • We are in “Training” right now in terms of Homework expectations: Schematic representations, written explanations and justifications, underlining passages to support answers, complete sentences, quality handwriting. Once students are more comfortable with the expectations, homework will not be accepted until standards are met.

4. Curriculum • Using the Common Core Standards in Reading, Language Arts, and Math in 3rd Grade • http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/common-core-state-standards

5. Highlights of What We Will Learn • Reading: More of an emphasis on Non-Fiction Text and its many forms. Many reading elements integrated thematically around a weekly piece of foundational text from new reading adoption. • Math: MULTIPLICATION, problem solving, logic are highlights this year. • Science and Social Studies: Integrated and embedded within the Language Arts time- Rocks, Plants, Light and Sound, Government, Explorers, Famous Americans.

6. A Method to the Madness: Structures and Strategies of Rm. 29 • Math: emphasis on problem solving, schematic representation, writing and justifying our reasoning, critiquing and analyzing the logic of others. Introduction of multiple strategies or processes for computation methods. • Reading: Daily 5 structure. Constantly setting and evaluating personal reading goals on CAFÉ strategies. Emphasis on comprehension. Later in the semester: Formal Note Taking! • Writing: formal 5 paragraph essays with introductions, conclusions, main ideas and details: for all forms of writing. Use of the “Idea Closet” graphic organizer.

7. Changes from 2nd to 3rd • STATE testing in spring- Reading (with writing embedded) and Math. • Official grades on the report card in Math, Reading, Writing, Science and Social Studies. Grades will be presented in a percentage form and can be checked on line on Infinite Campus. • Emphasis on Rubrics and Scales in Learning

8. Conferences • Mark your Calendars! • August 27th(afternoon only) • August 28th (afternoon and evening) Sharing of data and goal setting for the year.

9. Thank you for Coming to Curriculum Night!