Make HW Productive & Beneficial to Long-term Learning Goals:
Different Reading Logs are used throughout the year as skills develop. You will find them all below. Please take note of file names to determine which Reading Log is correct for this month.
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I spent countless hours at the table helping my son with his homework back when he was in third grade. Sometimes I would wonder, "What is the purpose of this activity?" or "This seems like busy-work." As a teacher, I think I sometimes err on the side of caution and give too much information as to why certain assignments are important, or some tips on how to make the most out of one assignment so students aren't overloaded with work, but are focused on the skills they need. I recommend always reading the update for the skills we are currently working on first and foremost. Below I have compiled some of the things that I have found helpful to parents. This may be your first or fourth time as a parent of a third grader. Even after 250+ students, I learn new and helpful things every year so please let me know if you discover something that may help others!
Reading/ELA: *Please remember to watch and listen to your child read nightly. It is very important to support them as they read higher level books and develop their vocabulary. *Pick a just right book (A quick check is around 3-5 small errors on a random page. No errors may be too easy. More than that is too hard for independent reading.) *The Lexile Band for 2nd-3rd grade is 420-820. As a third grader, our goal is to be reading near the middle to upper end of that, so look for books in that range at the library or bookstore. (You can even look up titles at Lexile.com.) *Modeling proper reading pace and inflection will help improve student reading.Show them what a great reader sounds like by reading a page here and there or get two copies of the same book and trade off reading chapters to each other. Plus, 3rd graders LOVE to be read to still-cherish it while it lasts! *Accelerated Reader (AR) books are also leveled to help you pick out appropriate books at home. They are leveled 3.4 for 3rd grade, 4th month for example. (It's ok to be "close" or a little ahead.) *Please ask them comprehension questions (provided at the beginning of the year conferences) as they read to you to develop their thinking strategies and become stronger at inferencing. *Identifying question types: is the question about cause-effect, main idea, vocabulary, text features, author's purpose, chronological order, infer, right there. Let them "WOW" you with their knowledge as you ask them questions. This skill will develop throughout the year. (This is a highly-tested 3rd grade skill so any support at home is helpful.) Reading logs are sometimes time consuming at first, but they also help in so many ways. They actually cover a variety of areas, including reading fluency (pronunciation and speed), vocabulary development, sentence and paragraph structure, summarizing, character analysis, critical thinking, writing development, handwriting/cursive, and the list goes on and on! They can even be used to study Science material by reviewing or previewing that week’s lessons. (In fact, we recommend 2 entries on fiction and 2 on nonfiction in order to keep a good balance.) These are all highly assessed third grade skills and every amount of practice that students receive is critical. For this reason, we do ask that the 15-20 minutes of reading be done out loud, with a parent next to them where they can see the words and assist with errors as needed. We also ask that parents actively guide students with their summarizing skills and help them create good entries. For example: Acceptable: In The Keeping Quilt, Patricia’s great-grandmother moved from Russia to the United States. She outgrew her clothes, so her family got together and added pieces of their own to make a beautiful quilt. The quilt was at many family gatherings for many years. It always reminded the next generations of their grandparents, where they came from, and made them feel connected to each other. (About 50-60 word count and every section completed properly.) Not Acceptable: The book was really good. It was sad when they moved. One day someone got married and a quilt was there. It was pretty. I liked it a lot. Science
Math *Finishing in 5 minutes may seem great, but if the skill has been practiced incorrectly, it is actually more detrimental than not doing it at all. If a student is ever "stumped" please refer them to the online lesson, homework buddy helps on Savvasrealize, or simply write me a note if you do not have internet access. The website address is Savvasrealize.com. *Math skills should never "go away" just because the chapter or unit has been completed. For this reason, you may see homework (and test questions) that will be on a topic from the past. The goal is to develop long-term memory of this skill. You can do the same thing by asking your child to read a clock when you're out, measure something to the nearest 1/2 inch for you, or add some numbers for you mentally while you shop. *Please practice ways to add to make 10 and other simple addition problems mentally (great for in the car, while shopping, etc.) *Please practice the multiplication tables that they learned while in 2nd grade (0’s,1’s, 2’s, & 3’s) and go all the way up to 12’s (I can't stress the importance of this one enough-5 extra minutes a day outside of school, a few times a week starting in September will allow most students to have these memorized by FSA testing.) Multiplication.com or keeping a set of flashcards in the car will make this easy but the payoff will be huge! *Time, fractions, story problems, area, perimeter, features of plane figures, properties of addition and multiplication, angles, multiplication, and division are all great topics of apps (kids LOVE the apps!) or workbooks (or even “free printables” you can find online)
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Go to the Plato Academy Clearwater home page to see the school calendar and important information.
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