2024 - 2025 School Year

Welcome!

As we work our way through the second half of second quarter, we will finish up with our novel, Peak, by Roland Smith. Students are wrapping up the creation of their informational books about Mount Everest. They cannot wait to share all of their hard work with you! 

We will be shifting out focus back to literature standards for the remainder of the quarter. This time, we are focused heavily on characters internal traits, and how they compare to others in the same text. We are also continuing to summarize texts, but with forced choice options for sentences. Students are learning how to choose the best sentences to be used in a summary, and then place them in chronological order of the text. 

This quarter, my homeroom students will be participating in Spanish class. 

**Please see "Week at a Glance" section for more detailed plans for each day of the week.**

Important Dates  

Monday, November 25 - Parent Teacher Conferences

Tuesday, November 26 - Parent Teacher Conferences 

Thursday, December 5 - Literature summative assessment 

Thursday, December 12 - Literature Outcome Assessment 

Friday, December 20 - Winter party; Early dismissal (2:30) 

Monday, December 23 - Monday January 6 - Winter break 

Tuesday, January 7 - School resumes 

Remind Updates 

Kois/ Torres ELA (Block 2)

Our Encore classes for the year are as follows: 

Quarter 2 - Spanish with Mrs. Smerz

Quarter 3 - STEM with Ms. Jozaitis 

Quarter 4 - Music with Mrs. Zito 

We have PE every day - please remember to have appropriate gym shoes with you each day. 

My ELA classes will visit the library on Mondays. 

 

Quarter 2 Overview

Essential Question: What influences our ability to adapt?

Novel: Peak by Roland Smith 

Word Study:  During word study, we will be utilizing Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) to increase our vocabulary and spelling skills. We will be learning about Greek and Latin roots along with prefixes and suffixes. 

 

Sentence Study: We will be using mentor sentences from our quarterly novels to identify parts of speech, types of sentences, and figurative language. We will also be making connections to SWI.

 

 

Writing: 

• Prose Constructed Response (PCR): Literary analysis: writing a continuation; rewriting part of a text from a different perspective  

• L 5.2 – I can demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

 

Reading Literature Standards:

•  RL 5.1 I can quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. 

• RL 5.2 I can determine a theme of a text, including how characters respond to challenges; summarize a text 
• RL 5.3 I can compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama
• RL 5.9 I can compare and contrast stories in the same genre on their approaches to similar themes and topics 

 

 

Reading Information Standards:

• RI 5.1 I can quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RI 5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize a text 
• RI 5.4 I can determine the meaning of general academic and domain specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject are and by using context clues. 
• RI 5.5 I can compare or contrast the overall structure of events, ideas, concepts in two or more texts 
• RI 5.9 I can integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably 

E-Learning Plan 

In the event of the need to call an e-learning day, we will be utilizing the schedule located at the bottom of my page. E-learning days will only be called if we have fair warning of severe inclement weather and have time to send students home with all their materials and devices.