Homework
Homework will officially start the week of Aug. 19. This will give us an opportunity to meet on Back to School Night (Aug. 14 at 6:45 in E-5)
to talk about the green homework folder, reading journal, and math journal which should come to and from school each day and homework procedures.
We understand families need to focus on other aspects of life, so we are only assigning homework we feel will have the biggest impact on student growth. Homework will consist of:
1. Reading for 30 minutes per day and one chapter summary per week on one chapter your student read in his or her independent reading book at home.
2. Math Journal work in the form of either practice targeting a particular skill or a math investigation/activity.
Why 30 Minutes of reading per night?
The importance of independent reading time, both at school and at home, cannot be overstated and has been shown to have a direct correlation to student success:
Student's Percentile |
Daily Reading Time
|
Total Words Read Per Year
|
|
20th % |
.7 minutes |
21,000 words |
|
80th % |
14.2 minutes |
1,146,000 words |
|
90th % |
21.1 minutes |
1,823,000 words |
|
98th % |
65 minutes |
4,358,000 words |
(From Reading in the Wild, Miller and Kelley, 2014)
We expect your third grader to read at least 30 minutes outside of class each day and to track his or her progress of reading 1 million words by the end of May. As with any exercise or good habit, stamina and endurance must be built up over time, so reading times will most likely be broken into chunks. We understand family life is busy, so we will teach the students to find natural chunks of time in their afternoon or evening when reading can take place. For example, students can read at their siblings sports practice, in the car, in a waiting room, before bed etc.
During the first week of school, your child will be given a "Reading is Our Superpower" journal and book bag which they MUST bring to and from school each day. The third grade team will spend the first two weeks of school introducing the reading journal and showing students how to use the journal. The directions for the reading journal which we will be going over with your student are shown below. They will also be glued in the journal for you to reference.
Weekly Summary (Reading is Our Superpower Homework)
- Write at least 1 summary paragraph each week. You can complete it at any point throughout the week, but it must be done by the end of the week.
- Be prepare to discuss your summary during your reading conference with the teacher.
- Begin with an IVF sentence (Identify chapter and book title, Verb, Finish the Sentence)
- Follow with one sentence that supports the IVF sentence by providing key details.
- Use the grading rubric (sticker) to check your final paragraph.
Remember, summaries should summarize the chapter you read. Summarizing is stating the main idea/event. When you are doing this, consider questions such as: Why did the author make that chapter separate from the others? What mini-story did it tell?
Sample journal entry:
Chapter Three of Charlotte's Web tells about Wilbur escaping from his pen on the Zuckerman's farm. The goose informs Wilbur about a loose board in the fence and encourages Wilbur to run free.
Math Journal
The third grade team believes math work done at home should be engaging, relevant to your student, and encourage positive and fun interaction between your student and family. Therefore, this year, we are going to take a different approach to homework. Each week, not necessarily every day, your student will be assigned math questions, problems, investigations, or games based on what we have identified as beneficial. Just like the "Reading is Your SuperPower" reading journal, the math notebook should come home with your student each day. In addition to completing 30 minutes of reading each night and completing a chapter summary once a week, your student may choose to work on the task that was added to his or her journal. The hope is that your student will be motivated to engage in the task and/or practice to extend his or her skill set in the process.
The math journal has two sections:
Practice: This section includes skills specific to your student. He/she may practice these skills as much as needed in order to reach mastery.
Investigation: This section allows the student to both apply and explore skills related to a concept we are learning. There will be times when students will be asked to share their work with members of their group or the whole class.
Students wishing to complete more math practice have the option to take home a homework page from their math book or work online, either using Reflex to practice math facts or IXL to continue working on skills.
Math journals will not be graded. (There is not a homework grade on the 3rd grade report card). Our hope is that your student will feel compelled to complete the skill practice in order to reach mastery and feel equally excited about completing the investigations/activities in order to take part in the group/class discussions.