QAR, Civic Leaders, and Expository Essays

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling
We WILL have any spelling this week.  Please make sure to help your child learn his or her spelling words and their sort.  

Reading
We will begin learning about QAR.  QAR stands for Question/Answer Relationship.  We will spend the rest of this week and next week reviewing inferences and beginning to analyze questions using QAR (Question Answer Relationship).  

"QAR is useful as a tool for conceptualizing and developing comprehension questions. "QAR creates a way of thinking about the types of questions that are most appropriate for different points in guiding students through a text. Questions asked before reading are usually On My Own QARs. They are designed to access relevant prior knowledge. In creating questions asked during reading it is important to balance text based and inference questions. Search and Locate QARs should dominate and should build to the Author and Me QARs. Finally, after reading questions are primarily Author and Me and On My Own QARs. Please remember that too many Right There QARs may indicate and overemphasis on literal, detail questions. QAR is useful as a student tool in providing a basis for three comprehension strategies: locating information, determining text structures and how they convey information, and determining when an inference would be required. It initially helps children understand that information from both texts and their knowledge base and experiences are important to consider when answering questions. It helps students search for key words and phrases to locate the appropriate information for answering questions. Finally, QARs help students recognize whether or not information is present in the text and, if not, that it is necessary to read “between or beyond the lines” to answer the question." (the reading lady)

Writing
Mrs. Jenny Holter has helped us think about our writing in lots of different ways.  We will spend this week taking one of our expository essays though the writing process to create a polished and published piece.  Students have written about a variety of topics to choose from: the best thing about winter break, I'm their biggest fan, someone special, the best place to be, and our favorite foods!

SOCIAL STUDIES
STORY OF AMERICA
Story of American, Part One is complete.  This week we begin Part Two.  We will be learning about America's Civic Leaders: Benjamin Franklin, Pierre L'Enfant, Benjamin Banneker and Alexander Hamilton.