Language Lessons

Each week, the fifth graders will be engaged in grammar instruction.  During these language lessons, the students will learn the essential grammar and conventions that readers and writers require to make meaning.  We are just finishing up our first set of lessons where we focused on capitalization.  Throughout the year, these lessons will be taught with authentic texts that the students study and recognize the patterns.   The students have a packet that we fill out to record our class conversations about what they notice in a mentor sentence.  As we go through the process of learning the grammar focus lesson, the students then will be able to recognize errors in sentences and will be able to explain the effect of the error.  Each focus lesson will consist of 6-7 days of mini-lessons.  At the conclusion of the focus lesson, the students will complete a short Language Lesson Quiz to show what they know.  These quizzes help us to evaluate if the daily mini-lessons are transferring from practice to their everyday writing.  Overall, this instruction will help the students gain a better understanding of how language works for readers and writers.