Day 6 – Torture: OWAs, DRAs, and Long Division

Our day began differently to our normal routine. Our start of day had a focus on language assessment in reading and writing. Students started their day working on their Ontario Writing Assessment (OWA) for Term 1. They were tasked with writing a tale or legend on a given topic. We discussed the task and the rubric that will be used to assess students to ensure everyone understands the expectations. Students then began writing their tale or legend. While they worked on this, I pulled students aside to complete the oral part of their reading assessment for this term. This part of the assessment focuses on expression, fluency, accuracy, and phrasing when reading out loud. It is very time consuming, and we did not get everybody’s assessment completed today. We will be continuing over the next few days.

In math time, we took up some of the trick problems from yesterday’s homework as a class. We then began today’s lesson on multiplication and division. We did not have as much math time as we usually do because of the language assessments in the morning. Some students may need some support with their long division work. Parents, please monitor them as they work on their problems and show them where they went wrong if they do make mistakes. Long division problems take a long time to complete and can be very frustrating. We are NOT using calculators, except to check some problems as indicated in the text. Grade 6s are asked to complete the remaining work on p. 28 - 31 of their MMS Practice and Homework. Parents, please quiz your children to see if they can explain the following math terms:  dividend, divisor, and quotient. Also, ask them to explain the mnemonic we used to help us remember the steps in long divisions.

During our inquiry time, we discussed our observations from yesterday’s investigation into materials that do and do not allow electricity to pass through them. Students then watched an introductory video about electricity. In this video they learned that there is a very large number of electrons that flow through the circuit in 1 second, that is a current of 1 Ampere. The class has been challenged to find out what this number is. In our math unit we learned about numbers in the millions, billions, and trillions. This numbers is greater than trillions. Grade 6s took notes as they watched the video.

 

Grade 6s attended French, gym, and music class today.

Students should be working on their IB Learner Profile poster and be ready to present these on their scheduled date. Rishaan will be presenting tomorrow.

Homework and Reminders

·        Math p. 28 – 31, Math test is likely to take place on Sept. 21

·        What do we call the number of electrons that flow through a circuit in 1 s?

·        IB Learner Profile Posters

·        Return the signed last page of the student handbook if you haven’t already done this

·        Read for 20 minutes