ELA

Students receive 45 minutes of ELA instruction each day. ELA consists of three major areas.

• Collins Writing Program
• MCAS Prep
• Grammar

Collins Writing Program

The Collins Writing program is a comprehensive, process-based program that encourages writing across the curriculum. Students complete an average of 18 pieces of writing throughout the school year. Almost all of those pieces of writing are edited (either teacher-edit, self-edit, or peer-edit) and most of them are then "published" in a final copy. All the writing is kept in the classroom in the writing folders until the end of the school year. Students then choose what they consider their two best pieces of writing to be sent to the receiving 6th grade teacher, and then rest of the folder is sent home. Feel free to make an appointment to come in and look at your child's writing folder at any time during the school year. Click the link below for a detailed list of the writing grade 5 students complete throughout the year.

• Collins Writing Schedule

MCAS Prep

Once a week, during ELA, students participate in a variety of MCAS prep activities. Some of these include open responses, practice tests, test taking strategies, and open response scoring. Not only do these lessons help prepare students for the MCAS, but they also help improve their reading and writing skills. Above all, MCAS prep days help students become familiar with reading, understanding, and answering the types of questions they ask on the MCAS test. As MCAS time approaches, I may also include math and/or science practice tests and open responses.

Grammar

Students also receive weekly instruction in grammar and sentence structure. We use the Scott Foresman grammar program. I try to make grammar lessons as fun and engaging as possible by incorporating games and other activities. Students also work on grammar skills through the "Daily Bite," a daily warm-up activity in which students must correctly punctuate and fix sentences. In addition, students strengthen these skills when they edit and revise their writing.

Weekly ELA Schedule at a Glance: