Middle of the Year Reading Assessments

In addition to teacher observations during small group instruction and student performance throughout the school year, teacher formally evaluate Reading progress 3 times, at the Beginning of the Year (BOY), Middle of the Year (MOY) and End of the Year (EOY).  We are already evaluating student progress for the MOY and will finish before the end of January.  The HISD evaluates using the istation Assessment (ISIP) and all Roberts students are completing this evaluation in Academic Skills Lab this week and next week.  You will receive a letter with information regarding how your child performed and whether or not they are in need of further intervention.  In addition to istation, we use other evaluations here at Roberts as described below. 

There are many evaluation instruments available to teachers to determine student reading levels. Here at Roberts, one of the most valuable tools is a Reading Running Record. This involves listening to a student read, recording errors, time, repetitions and self corrections. Once complete, the teacher and student discuss the student understanding and evaluate comprehension. This gives teachers critical information needed in order to determine current reading skills and level as well as make instructional decisions to be sure each student makes progress toward Reading performance goals.

When determining student reading levels, teachers must consider all aspects of a student's reading, including fluency, phrasing, accuracy and comprehension skills. This determines a student's independent reading level. The Instructional Reading Level will usually be one level higher than the Independent Reading Level. Teachers will plan for additional instruction in accuracy (sight word reading, phonemic processing and knowledge), fluency (speed and phrasing), and/or comprehension (inferencing, summarizing, recalling facts and details, vocabulary etc).

We use 2 instruments at Roberts for Reading Running Records: Fountas and Pinnell and Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). We primarily use the DRA in grades K,1 and 2 and Fountas and Pinnell in grades 4 and 5. In 3rd Grade, we use one or the other depending on the individual's reading level.

As you can see from the information below, students make the most visible progress in the lower grades and there are more opportunities for skill specific development within a level at the higher grades. For example, If you are at a level U in 5th grade, you may not end the year on a W, but work on improving fluency or comprehension on a level V.

Teachers in Grades 3-5 will be evaluating students who were at or below grade level during the BOY assessment or who are on a tier 2 or 3 in istation.  EOY assessments, Reading Goals and progress toward meeting Reading Goals will be evaluated at the end of the year for all students. 

Looking for ways to improve reading fluency and sight words?  These are great power points that have an option for 2 speeds, slow and fast.  You can have your reader practice at home.  If they misread, use the back arrow and fix up before moving on. These may be too difficult for young readers, use these powerpoints for higher level readers (levels 18 and up).



Click here to download High Frequency Words in Phrases Power Points

Tuesday, November 11^th 6:30-7:30

Roberts Parent Literacy Night

Informational meeting and break out sessions

Roberts is hosting a Literacy Night for parents of Kindergarten and 1^st Grade students.  Carol Rivers, Reading Intervention Teacher, and Chase May, Kindergarten Teacher, will hold an informational meeting describing the literacy framework and instructional model at Roberts.  Break out sessions will follow where parents will learn more specific ways to work with readers at home.  Please be sure to RSVP

This is an Adult only event. 

Stamina, Stamina, Stamina

Stamina means that we focus on reading without becoming distracted and without distracting others. Being able to focus, stick with and read for long periods of time takes practice. As students begin reading chapter books, they need stamina to read longer text, maneuver through text and engage in material.

How do we build Reading stamina at Roberts?

During Reading and Language Arts blocks of instruction, teachers build in time for reading to self, reading to someone and listening to reading. During reading to self time, the younger students learn to read a book different ways. They can read the words, read the pictures and retell. Kindergarten and 1st Grade classrooms start with small blocks of time and track how long the class can stay engaged in reading to self. By May, most Kindergarten and 1st grade students are engaged in reading to themselves for close to 20 minute time periods without distractions. About the same amount of time is spent reading to someone and in listening to reading. The students enjoy the challenge of tracking how long they can stay focused on their reading.

Students usually become ready to read chapter books in 2nd or 3rd Grade. Reading to self and reading the words for longer periods of time become critical in building reading skills. It is important for students to pick one book and stick with it the whole time. We work with students on picking books that are just right for them before they begin reading. Sticking with a novel/chapter book until it is completed becomes increasingly important. When students continually switch chapter books, they never truly engage in the book. If a student is choosing books that are too long for them, we encourage starting with short chapter books and build from there.

4th and 5th Grade students build stamina by reading novels at their reading level. Our leveled library is a teacher resource that has a well stocked supply of novels that range in levels and genres. We continue to increase our selection and we are always on the look out for higher level books (X,Y, and Z) that are also age appropriate. It continues to be important for students to read a novel at least 30 minutes a night. Why not a magazine or non-fiction book? This is okay occasionally, but students become more deeply engaged in novels. Novels provide more opportunities to stay focused for long periods of time and therefore build stamina. You may want to find a genre, series or author that your student can connect with and build from there. Finding a place in the house where there are no distractions and having children read at a time of day when they will not fall asleep reading can be a difficult task. I have often found a nice quiet place in the house, established a quiet zone and read alongside my children. It ends up being a time when they ask what I am reading and they tell me about what they are reading which is a relaxed and built in comprehension check in. Every household and family finds a different way that works for them.

2nd Grade Parents

Next week's 2nd Grade spelling focus is on consonant blends. Some students struggle with hearing, reading and spelling consonant blends and often leave out the second letter when writing. If you check out my previous blog, you will see the app, Spelling Magic 2. This particular one focuses on consonant blends. So, if you are looking for a way to help your student, this is one idea. When I work with students, we "stretch" words to hear all the sounds. We use our arm and start on the shoulder and end at the wrist or finger tips(see diagram above).

apps for Early Readers and Spellers (Kindergarten through 2nd Grade)

Are you looking for ipad apps to help your student read and/or spell?

I have some free and fantastic suggestions!

There are a series of apps called Spelling Magic.
Level 1 has students build cvc (consonant vowel consonant) words with short vowel sounds. Level 2 works on consonant blends. Level 3 focuses on multisyllabic words that contain short vowel sounds and Level 4 focuses on the silent e as an introduction to long vowel sounds.

Phonemic awareness is important in the development of early reading skills and strong Phonemic Awareness has been linked to future reading success.Phonemic awareness includes the ability to listen to sounds in a word and blend them to determine the word. Segmenting is the ability to determine each individual sound in a word. If your student struggle with phonemic awareness, the apps Reading Magic 1 and Reading Magic 2 give students experience with these isolated skills.

We will be adding the apps to student ipads here at Roberts. While apps do not take the place of good instruction, it does give students opportunities to practice and improve their skills in a fun and easy way.

A Closer Look at Level 10

A Look at Levels 9-10

A DRA Level 10 is considered a middle of 1st Grade Reading Level. Many of our Robert's Kindergarten students read at level 10 and a majority of our 1st Graders are at least a level 10 by the end of December.

As your student reads levels 9 and 10, you will notice that picture support decreases and that the text becomes more complex. Students use the words more than the pictures when reading at levels 9 and 10. Students will develop flexiblity with long and short vowel sounds, decode 2 and 3 syllable words and begin to read with expression and intonation, paying attention to punctuation.

When will my child be ready to move to levels 11 and 12?

We look students to consistently exhibit some of the following behaviors. Each is followed by some things you can say to help your child with these skills if they are struggling when practicing reading at home:

-Notice punctuation and use it for phrasing

If you notice your child not using punctuation you can say, "Did that sound right?", or, "Read that again and pause at the period".
You can also model correct phrasing for students and have them practice.

-Search for visual cues to read new words

If your child gets stuck on a word, you can ask if they see any parts that they know. If your child misreads the word, you can say, "It could be _____, but look at _____ (the beginning, the end, a part etc).

-Use syntax to predict

Usually students self correct with syntax errors, but if not, here are some prompts you can use:
"You said ___________. Does that make sense?"
"Can you think of a better way to say ______________________(repeat student words)?"
"Would _________ fit there?"

-Move quickly through text

If your child sounds "choppy" or reads text word by word, have your child reread the sentence/section again and then have them "Read it faster".

-Self correct by using multiple sources (picture clues, syntax, word parts, prior knowledge etc.)

"Does that look right? soud right? make sense?" or "There is a tricky part. Can you find it?"

You can also check with your child's teacher to see what other prompts she uses that may be helpful at home.

Sometimes teachers will try students at a higher level to see how the student performs and determine readiness to move up. We are flexible and careful not to celebrate moving up a level because we want students to be okay with changing back down if they are not quite ready or if they come back from a break needing to relearn/solidify skills.

Starting the New School Year

At the start of each school year teachers begin by assessing student reading levels. At Roberts, we use the Developmental Reading Assessment or Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment. These are oportunities for teachers to listen to individual students read and discuss reading with their teacher in order to determine their level of understanding. Teachers use this information to set reading goals with students, group readers together for small group instruction and to monitor progress. Changes in reading levels/skills often occur over the summer, depending on how much students have read. The beginning of the year assessment gives us an opportunity to determine current reading skills and levels in order to plan instruction.

As required by the State of Texas, students in grades Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd Grades, need to be assessed in all aspects of reading development. School districts can use the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) or istation. The Houston Independent School District assesses all Elementary School students using istation. This is an on-line assessment that students take on the computer. We will be starting the Beginning of the Year (BOY) istation assessment next week during Academic Skills Lab. Parents will receive a letter in the Tuesday folder regarding their child's performance by the end of September. This assessment is completed for all students at the beginning of the year, middle of the year and end of the year.

For more information on these assessments and Student goal setting, see the earlier posts on this Blog.

I will be continuing with a deeper look at Reading levels as the beginning of the school year progresses.

A Look at Level Levels 7-8

In contrast to level 6, level 8 narratives move from a repeated series of episodes that repeat to text that has a definite beginning, middle and end. Sentence structure becomes more complex and may include clauses, prepositional phrases and adjectives, and language structure is less repititious. Dialogue becomes longer and a wider range of vocabulary is used in level 8 text.

Strategies Teachers are Looking for on a Level 8

-use meaning to solve new words
-self correct using illustrations, intial sounds, other words that look the same and personal experience
-makes predictions and reads to confirm predictions
-rereads to check, look at clues, and confirm
-makes connections to other text sources

Here are some prompts that may help you help your child practice reading:

"Check the picture"
"Does that make sense?"
"What do you think it might be?"
"Does that look right?"
"How did you know it was _____?"
"Does that match what is happening?"
"Look closer"
"Read it again and see if you are right"

Check with your child's teacher, she may use additional prompts or provide the same prompt with a variation in the language.

Moving from a level 8 to a level 10

We look for a variety of skills to be in place before moving students up in DRA Reading levels. We look for solid skills in Phonics, Vocabulary, Comprehension and Fluency. When ready to move from a level 8 to a level 10, students consistently read at 95% accuracy or higher and consistently read a variety of text while demonstrating the following skills:

Phonics-
longer word decoding
read compound words
read words with long vowel sounds, including vowel pairs (ay, ee, ea...)

Vocabulary-
use new vocabulary
increase reading of high frequency words

Comprehension-
predict and check
rely less on illustrations and more on words
reread to check for meaning
remember and retell
made connections between other text

Fluency-
begin to read in phrases
reading sounds more fluent
use finger pointing only on the more difficult words

Sometimes teachers will try students at a higher level to see how the student performs and determine readiness to move up. We are flexible and careful not to celebrate moving up a level because we want students to be okay with changing back down if they are not quite ready or if they come back from a break needing to relearn/solidify skills.

Reading Levels 4-6

A Look at Levels 4-6Students reading at levels 4-6 begin to move away from finger pointing and start to track words with their eyes. Students who are ready to move from a Reading level 3 to a 4 are recognizing high frequency sight words when in text without a repeated pattern or in isolation. Students use picture clues, initial sounds and ending sounds when reading unfamiliar words. They may also start to look for and/or notice words that look like other words they already know (example: he/we) or look for parts of words that they know (pond). You can expect students to begin sounding out and blending CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words like “cat”.

What to expect to see in text at Reading Levels 4-6
-familiar/easy topics (pets, school etc)
-pictures support the text
-repeated language patterns but with more complex patterns
-simple dialogue
-longer sentences (some may be questions)
-sentences may have prepositional phrases
-some words with common endings (-s, -ing, -ed)
-high frequency words are repeated in varying sentence structures

Some ways that you can help your student at homeStudents who practice reading every night at home make steady progress and here are some ways that you can help your student when they make an error or are “stuck” on a word.

“What letter does it start/end with?”
“If that word was _______, what would you expect the first/middle/last letter to be?”
“Do you know another word that looks like it?”
“Do you know a part in that word?”
“Read it again and see if it sounds right”
“Does it make sense?”
If you are looking for your child to read more fluently, you can model it for them the way it should sound and then have them try. And then they can try a little faster.

Remember to continue to have your student read their level 4, 5, or 6 book at least 2 times each night. Also, ask your student’s teacher what cues they are using in class that are similar to the suggestions above so that you can use them with your child at home.

Enjoy watching your child notice all the parts of words and begin to make connections.

A Look at Levels 1-3 (Developmental Reading Assessment Levels)

Grade Level Equivalency

Levels 1-3 are considered Kindergarten level text. Level 1 is beginning of Kindergarten, Level 2 is the middle and level 3 is the end. We look for students to end Kindergarten on at least a level 3 so that they are ready for First Grade Reading skills acquisition.

Level 1 Books-
Have a repeated pattern on each page with one word that varies from page to page. Readers use the pictures to help determine the word that varies. “Picture walks” of the book prior to reading help set the stage for determining unfamiliar words. Students are working on pointing to each word while he/she is reading that corresponding word. This builds visual tracking and sight word learning. More difficult level 1 books have return sweeps, when the text continues onto a second line.

Level 2 Books-
They are still text with patterns, with the exception of the last page, where one or two words may be different. Also, more than one word may be different from page to page, may include a preposition change as well as another change.

Level 3 Books-A more complex version (a little more variation between pages) of a level 2.
Look for students to know their sight words from levels 1-3 in isolation before they are ready to move to a level 4. Level 4 books will no longer have a repeated pattern.

How to Help Your Child Read-
When students bring a leveled reader home for practice, they have read it at least twice with their teacher. They should read their book at least two more times at home (while pointing to the words) and will then read it one more time in class the next day. When you are listening to your child read, you can wait for them to finish a page before correcting errors. Some of the things you can say are; “Does that make sense?” or “ That word does match the picture and in this book they use the word ________” or, “Look at the first sound” or “Get your mouth ready with the first sound”. You can also ask your child’s teacher about visual or verbal cues she uses. Once your child has fixed the error, have him/her go back and reread the sentence.

Students reading a level 1-3 are still not sounding out words, but may be ready to begin using initial consonant sounds along with the pictures to read unfamiliar words.

Read only on the days you eat!

istation Reading Assessment and Intervention

I would like to let you know about a new Reading assessment tool being used by the district. Parents of 4th and 5th Grade students may have heard about istation last school year, as all 3rd-5th Graders participated in the assessment and some participated in the interventions offered. All students in Grades Kindergarten through 5th Grade will be participating this school year. HISD has chosen the assessment tool within the istation program to assess students in K-2nd and this will replace the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) starting this school year. Third through 5th Graders in the district will continue to participate. In fact, all the students at Roberts have completed the on line assessment over the past 3 weeks.

The assessment and interventions are being used by the district to identify and target students who are struggling to acquire critical Reading skills. All students are monitored for continued progress throughout the year with a beginning(BOY), Middle (MOY), and End (EOY)assessment. Students indicating a need for intervention will be assessed at least once a month.

The areas of Reading that are assessed varies based on grade level. Kindergarteners and some 1st Graders are also learning to work with a touch pad on the laptops and working to negotiate the test. Teachers are working with students to best observe and assess that Reading skills are being determined and sorting out the computer skills from academic skills.


Teachers will evaluate to determine instructional goals for students and use the data to plan for future instruction.
If your child has been targeted for intervention after taking the istation assessment, a letter will be sent home in this coming week's Tuesday Folder. If you have further questions and/or concerns, you can contact your child's teacher or myself.

Happy Reading,
Carol Rivers

Setting Student Reading Goals

In an effort to ensure each and every student continues to make progress, Reading Teachers across the district set student goals each year. Roberts Teachers are meeting with individual students over the next week or two(if they have not done so already) and are setting Reading goals for the current school year. The amount of student input varies based on age and/or grade of students. In determining functional Reading Goals for individual student, the teachers have first evaluated for current reading level.

There are many evaluation instruments available to teachers to determine student reading levels. Here at Roberts, one of the most valuable tools is a Reading Running Record. This involves listening to a student read, recording errors, time, repetitions and self corrections. Once complete, the teacher and student discuss the student understanding and evaluate comprehension. This gives teachers critical information needed in order to determine current reading skills and level as well as make instructional decisions to be sure each student makes progress toward Reading performance goals.

When determining student reading levels, teachers must consider all aspects of a student's reading, including fluency, phrasing, accuracy and comprehension skills. This determines a student's independent reading level. The Instructional Reading Level will usually be one level higher than the Independent Reading Level. Teachers will plan for additional instruction in accuracy (sight word reading, phonemic processing and knowledge), fluency (speed and phrasing), and/or comprehension (inferencing, summarizing, recalling facts and details, vocabulary etc).

We use 2 instruments at Roberts for Reading Running Records: Fountas and Pinnell and Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). We primarily use the DRA in grades K,1 and 2 and Fountas and Pinnell in grades 4 and 5. In 3rd Grade, we use one or the other depending on the individual's reading level.

As you can see from the information below, students make the most visible progress in the lower grades and there are more opportunities for skill specific development within a level at the higher grades. For example, If you are at a level U in 5th grade, you may not end the year on a W, but work on improving fluency or comprehension on a level U or V.

Please look for your student’s Reading Goal Sheet in the Tuesday folder sometime over the next couple of weeks and keep a copy at home. Discussing goals and implementing a plan will be a help you encourage your student to continue on the path to become a great reader.

Reading Assessments at Roberts

Reading Running Records and Your Student's Reading Level

There are many evaluation instruments available to teachers to determine student reading levels. Here at Roberts, one of the most valuable tools is a Reading Running Record. This involves listening to a student read, recording errors, time, repetitions and self corrections. Once complete, the teacher and student discuss the student understanding and evaluate comprehension. This gives teachers critical information needed in order to determine current reading skills and level as well as make instructional decisions to be sure each student makes progress toward Reading performance goals.

When determining student reading levels, teachers must consider all aspects of a student's reading, including fluency, phrasing, accuracy and comprehension skills. This determines a student's independent reading level. The Instructional Reading Level will usually be one level higher than the Independent Reading Level. Teachers will plan for additional instruction in accuracy (sight word reading, phonemic processing and knowledge), fluency (speed and phrasing), and/or comprehension (inferencing, summarizing, recalling facts and details, vocabulary etc).

We use 2 instruments at Roberts for Reading Running Records: Fountas and Pinnell and Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). We primarily use the DRA in grades K,1 and 2 and Fountas and Pinnell in grades 4 and 5. In 3rd Grade, we use one or the other depending on the individual's reading level.

As you can see from the information below, students make the most visible progress in the lower grades and there are more opportunities for skill specific development within a level at the higher grades. For example, If you are at a level U in 5th grade, you may not end the year on a W, but work on improving fluency or comprehension on a level V.

Click here for a larger image

Fluency

Sometimes parents wonder if it is okay for their child to re-read the same book/s.  As parents, we sometimes feel like this may be a waste of time because the child has already read the book in question, they already know what it is about and know exactly what is going to happen.

It is quite common for students to benefit from re-reading books, especially if they are working on becoming increasingly fluent readers.  It helps students remember facts and focus on higher levels of comprehension and understanding.

What is fluency? 
Fluency is how fluidly someone reads.  This includes speed, use of punctuation and ability to read with expression.  In order for a student (or adult) to read with fluency, they need to read at an independent reading level or slightly lower.  In other words, it is okay for your student to read an easier book. 

Concerned about fluency?
As a parent, you can model the reading of a paragraph or a few sentences, the way it is meant to sound and have your student try it with the same text.  It does not have to be speed reading, but purposeful and fluid.

How is fluency addressed in the classroom?
There are several strategies to increase fluency, including re-reading.  You may also see teachers instruct students through automaticity with sight words, phrasing, reader's theatre, choral reading, paired reading, reading while listening to text, teaching students to recognize the parts of difficult words that they already know (including teaching of and automaticity with prefixes and suffixes), and other methods as well. 

What is the expected rate of fluency for my student?
Fluency rates begin to increase in 2nd Grade and begins to take shape in 1st Grade.
Fall expectations:

Grade                                  Average #-words per minute                     Above Average#-words per minute
2nd                                        40-50                                                                          80
3rd                                        55-70                                                                          100
4th                                         75-95                                                                          120
5th                                         90-110                                                                        140

Teachers assess fluency while completing Reading Running Records with students at the beginning, middle and end of the school year in most grade levels. 

Enjoy watching your student read!

Helping Your Student Pick Just Right Books

Ever wonder what to do when your child chooses to read a book that is too difficult or too easy? Is it okay? How do I handle without being discouraging? Well, here is how teachers work with students to help them find a just right book.



Here are some ways you may hear the teachers at Roberts instruct when teaching students how to choose a just right book.

I PICK

P- Purpose (what is the reason you are reading?)
I- Interest (choose a book you are interested in)
C- Comprehension (be sure you can understand the text)
K- Know (do you know all the words- for a chapter book page, this means having less than 5 words on a page that you do not know. This means that the student does not have to sound out these words. For the younger students, this means knowing all the words)

The 5 Finger Rule

This is also used to describe "I PICK" or it is used to remind students that there should be 5 or fewer words on a full chapter book page that they do not know. "Knowing" in this stategy is being able to understand and read the words.

Book Room: Parent Corner

Dear Roberts community,

I am looking forward to being the new Reading Specialist at Roberts Elementary this school year. If you are wondering where I am located, I am in the small book room adjacent to the Center for Inquiry. In addition to maintaining the inventory of leveled readers for Teachers and Classrooms, I will be providing intervention for students who are in need of Tier III intervention as decided by the Intervention Assistance Team (IAT). I will be posting parent tips on how to help your readers at home. Here is the first tip:


Ever wonder what to do when your child gets "stuck" on a word while reading?

Do not provide the word right away.

First, ask the child, "What can you do to help yourself?"

If attempt is incorrect, ask...

"Does that make sense?"

"Does that sound right?"

"Does that look right?"

If your child does not attempt to read the word when "stuck", ask, "What's a word that would make sense in the story?"

It's important for your child to think about the meaning of the story/text while using the letter sounds they already know.

Keep reading,

Carol Rivers

Progress Reports, Survey and Carnival

Hello All, Progress Reports go home today along with graded work. Any grades of 75 or lower can be corrected and turned in. What I have noticed, is that many of the 5th Graders have "Senioritis" and are starting to take short cuts with their work and sometimes need reminders to continue to do their best and use the strategies needed to do their best. If you are concerned about your student's grade/s, please feel free to e-mail me. I have told students that these are Progress Reports and it is there to give students and parents time to progress and monitor progress. Carnival is May the 5th from 10 until 2:00. Our classroom booth is the Mechanical Bull and we will need parent volunteers to work at the booth. The times are from 9:00 until 3:00 with one hour shifts changing on the hour. We need two volunteers per shift so that everything runs smoothly. There is a sign up sheet on our classroom door and you are welcome to come in and sign up or you can e-mail me and I will write your name on the sign up (first come, first serve). Ashley Malone is our first volunteer and she will be working a 10:00-11:00 shift, thank you Ashley! Last, but not least, Mrs. Graves has the following message and survey link: Parent Survey Open Parents, its that time again! Tell us how we are doing. We want your feedback as we begin planning for the 2012-13 school year. This is your chance to be heard. Please complete the online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/robertsparents no later than May 4th! Thank you for everything, Carol Rivers

Blog Updates for April 17th

Two STAAR Tests finished and one more to go. As we approach our Science STAAR Test on Thursday, the 26th of next week, we are preparing with additional Science Labs with Mrs. Savarese. We will go to Science Lab each day this week and cover the more difficult Science concepts for review. We continue to review in class as well. We Tested for water retention in different types of soil yesterday and today discuss inherited versus learned traits, including behaviors.

Thank you to all of you who were able to volunteer to chaperone our Arboretum field trip. As some of you know, if you were approved through VIPS last year, you still need to update to be current for this year. We will have a 5th grade field trip to Regal Ranch on May the 24th and some other 5th grade activities on campus. If you are at all interested in chaperoning, please check with the office to be sure you are current with your VIPS status.

Stanford testing will be the week of May the 7th and have testing each morning. You can keep this in mind when scheduling any needed appointments so that students do not miss any testing. We know that it is sometimes unavoidable.

REMINDER- 12:00 Dissmissal tomorrow and there will be no extended day

Social Studies/IB Unit of Inquiry-

We have finished up Urbanization and have moved on to World War I, The Great Depression and the Roaring Twenties. We will be covering mapping skills starting next week. This will help in our review for Stanford.

Reading-

Book Clubs continue with a focus on Reading Comprehension strategies and Literary Devices (alliteration, meaphor, paradox, imagery, personification, understatement, hyperbole, simile, foreshadowing, onomatopoeia and rhyme). Modeling and think alouds are done through our classroom read aloud.

Math-

We have covered all of the 5th Grade Curriculum for Math. We are currently covering and reviewing 5th Grade and beyond for Geometric figures. Extensions to 6th grade are covered in area and circumference of a circle and cylinders. We will be meeting for Math on Thursday only of this week, so student will probably not be coming home with Math homework this week.

Roberts Idol-

Students interested in auditioning for Roberts Idol have been signing up with Mrs. Audi at recess time and auditions will be held on May the 1st and May the 3rd after school. If your student has not let you know, they should know when their audition is.


Carnival will be Saturday, May the 5th from 10-2:00. Can't wait to see you there.

Ms. Rivers

75th Anniversary

Oran M. Roberts Elementary, first opening its schoolhouse doors in 1936, will celebrate 75 years of educating children on Saturday, March 31, 2012. The celebration will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a reception on the front lawn and school tours available for alumni and neighbors.


Visitors and neighbors are invited to stay for our free Spring Community Night at the outdoor stage, to include the 1930’s classic film, The Wizard of Oz. Nachos and popcorn will be provided, with dinner available for purchase by Lola catering. Bring lawn chairs or a blanket for your comfort.


Help us get the word out to neighbors and alumni! Find out more information on twitter @REworldschool, or friend us on facebook at Oran M. Roberts Elementary Alumni.

If you are a Roberts' alumnus, let us know about you at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RE75th

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