Our first ELA test of the school year? Check! We had our fiction test this week, which covered everything from fiction reading strategies and characteristics of fiction texts, to analyzing figurative language and writing a text-based essay about a character. Though only seven questions, this test wasn’t easy in that there were a lot of two-part questions. It ended up taking most of the kids a solid two class periods. Whenever we take a test, I always set aside a class period post-test that gives students time for revisions and reflection based on my feedback. It’s important that students view learning as a process, and that assessments don’t just receive a final grade without an opportunity to take my feedback into consideration and apply it to their work. Prior to revisions, I don't include any scores on their answers. Instead, I provide comments and questions in hopes of guiding them to make revisions that result in stronger, clearer responses. We discuss the questions as a class, talk about trends I noticed, and clear up any misunderstandings the kids may have. It isn't until after revisions that I attach a number to each question and grade the test. Students will bring those home this week to show parents, and we'll continue working one-on-one, in small groups, and as a class on various "trouble areas" that were revealed through this test and our whole group reflective discussion on the unit.

On Thursday, we concluded our unit for health, which had a teacher named Mrs. Schneider come in and teach fourteen 40-minute lessons on various topics. Between this unit and the twice-weekly yoga classes we had at the start of the school year, we unfortunately haven't done much social studies. But our schedule is finally back to normal, which will allow us much more time for writing and social studies when the students are with me in the afternoons. Our first unit is on map skills, and on Friday Ms. Tosches came in and integrated this focus with STEAM. Students applied their knowledge of the cardinal directions to create a scratch simulation that had them directing a cat around Somerville. It was cool to see them code, as they know more about coding than I do!

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Kailynn and Colin. Kailynn worked really hard on her ELA test. I didn't hear a single complaint from her, despite its not-so-fun length. Lately she's shown a resilience and ability to bounce back from frustration that makes me proud. Colin is hilarious. He makes me smile everyday with his witty remarks and insightful comments. I can't wait to have lunch with him and a friend tomorrow :)