Happy Monday! Sorry about that offensive line, Skin's fans...

Math: Hopefully you had a chance to look at the quiz from last week. Typically, you should expect a quiz to come home (graded) on each Friday. Please take some time to look it over and sign it prior to Monday. What many of you likely noticed is that the first 4 problems were simpler and consequently, met the rubric score of a two at the top of the page. The second half of the quiz was more complex - building upon the simpler content. Two observations that were addressed in small groups this morning: word choice ("place" vs. "value") and importance of systematically applying each clue to determine the correct number. My informal assessment showed that most gained some clarity with the mystery number problem. It will be on this week's quiz...

Tonight's homework deals with median and mode. They are only to complete RW24. The other side of the sheet is for classwork tomorrow! Speaking of tomorrow, we will delve into mean which as you know, requires a skill that wasn't necessarily taught last year - division. This is one of the few times where we need to go backwards a bit to construct an understanding of a foundation concept. This will take us a couple of weeks to practice, discuss, and develop a thorough understanding of what "mean" means...remember, it's not the formula we're after - it's the conceptional understanding of what the answer means.

Oh - there's a notes page for data analysis in their binders! Check it out...

Language Arts: It's been a few days but we are restarting reading groups tomorrow. We've made some adjustments to our instruction that have required a short break in the action...we haven't forgotten! However, our whole group lessons have continued...we've dug a little deeper with character traits by examining how dialogue and actions communicate traits to the audience. Next, we'll explore how the character is affected by the other elements in a story.

Writing: I conferenced with 9 students today to not only set an expectation but determine individual needs. Generally speaking - elaboration, word choice, and the inclusion of feelings/emotions.

Social Studies: We're in the early stages of economic resources and geographic characteristics. Today, we worked cooperatively to classify a collection of independent "resources" and developed names for each category. Next time we will determine which are examples of human, capital, and natural resources.