10/15/08 Writing, Comprehension, & Math

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night. 

Part 2 (Reading Comprehension): One of the main focuses of our year has been reading comprehension. Simply reading a book, article, or passage isn’t enough. Readers need to be able to re-tell what they’ve read in their own words!  Tonight your student is reading a short passage about bats. We have been studying bats this week so they already have some knowledge to start with. After they read the passage then need to answer 4 simple questions about the passage. There is explicit and implicit information available to help your student answer the questions. Explicit means that the information is written on the page. Implicit means that they figure out their answer from clues provided on the page. Readers need to constantly check for implicit and explicit information.

Part 3 (Writing with a Purpose): Your student needs to write a short paragraph about why we should like bats. Their paper should have a title on the top line. They should skip the next line and then begin their paragraph with a main idea sentence. Often, the title of an article and it’s main idea sentence will be exactly the same! After the main idea sentence your student should write 3-4 detail sentences that let us know exactly why we should like bats. I am sending home a similiar assignment that we worked on in class today (feel free to use it as a reference and then keep it at home). This does not have to be a long piece ans your student should be able to finish it neatly and quickly.

Part 4 (Minute Math): Minute Math is a daily activity. It is not due until Friday.