The document provides information about Asa Gervich's 3rd grade classroom for the 2012-13 school year. It includes an agenda for curriculum night, an overview of the classroom's curriculum including a focus on local Native American studies, field studies at Wapato Park, and project-based learning. It also outlines the classroom's approach to reading, writing, spelling and math instruction as well as behavior policies and volunteer opportunities.

1. Curriculum Night
Asa Gervich • 3rd Grade • 2012-13

2. Agenda
 Welcome!
 Third Grade Classroom Blog
 Development of Responsibilities and Accountability
 Homework
 Overview of 3rd Grade Curriculum
• Our Schedule
 Behavior Policy, Classroom Agreement
 Request for Volunteers
 Questions?

3. teacherasa.blogspot.com

4. Development of Responsibilities and
Accountability
 For themselves
Making appropriate choices, using “I-Messages”,
responsibility as part of the larger learning
community
 For their property
“Cubes”, lunches, desk space, community spaces,
classroom jobs
 For their assignments
Best work always, thoroughness, timeliness, neatness.

5. Homework
• Students should read in a book of their choice 20-30 minutes
each day.
• Homework Journal will be assigned on Mondays, due the
following Monday.
• Creativity is a part of each assignment.
• Students will assess their own work against a rubric and share
their work with peers.
• Please make sure your students have the space, materials and
time to complete their homework.
• Homework, including 20-30 minutes of reading, should take no

7. Curriculum Highlights for
3 Grade
rd
 Northwest Native Americans
 Salmon
 Wapato Park Field Studies
 School Native Plant and Food Gardens
 Rocks & Minerals
 Engineering & Physics of Bridges
 How Do Communities (and Cities) Self-govern?

8. Reading
Daily, Weekly Practices: Skills:
Independent Reading Stamina
Fluency
with Teacher Monitoring for sense
Conferences Envisioning
Shared Reading Activating and Using Prior
Knowledge
(includes partners, Prediction
Literature Circles) Empathy
Guided Reading Inference
(small-group work) Connections within and across
texts
Read-aloud (genre Determining Importance
specific, thinking Using Text Structures
aloud, whole group Synthesizing
Summarizing
teaching) Interpreting
Reading Critically

9. Writing
Guided, Shared, and Skills:
Write for a specific reader and
Independent Practices meaningful purpose
Daily writing, working on: Determine an appropriate topic
Present ideas clearly, with logical and
Present ideas clearly, with logical and
 Imaginative Story organized flow
 Myths Elaborate on ideas
Embrace language
 Personal Narrative Create engaging leads
 Poetry Compose satisfying endings
Craft authentic voice
 Nature Journaling
Reread, rethink, revise
 Opinion Writing Read wide and deep with a writer’s
eye
 Informational Writing
Take responsibility for producing
effective writing
Apply correct conventions and form

10. On Spelling…
First reactions?
I have a bull dog.
his name is B.J.
He is 6 years old
He has a black
nose. He is
brown. Heis
nose is flat. B.J.
can pull me
down hill. B.J.
can pull me up
hill. Me and B.J.
are good friends.

11. First reactions?
201 Steppe Street
Marion, NC 28752
Dear Ms. Goff,
Thank you for playing the
piano for us. You played
the piano very good. I like
music class. Are we good
singgers? I will like to learn
how to play the piano.
Thank you for coming. It
was inbarusing to be infrut
of every body. You are a
very good singger. Who
tolt you to play the piano?
We like you. Have you ever
ben in the hospitle? I love
you.
Love,
Jason

12. Taking a closer look…
Total words: 82 201 Steppe Street
Number of different words: 53 Marion, NC 28752
Out of the 53 different words, 46 were Dear Ms. Goff,
spelled conventionally. Only 7 Thank you for playing the
constructed spellings! piano for us. You played the
piano very good. I like music
class. Are we good singgers? I
Note the words for which Jason will like to learn how to play
constructed a spelling: embarrassing, the piano. Thank you for
singer, taught, hospital coming. It was inbarusing to
be infrut of every body. You
are a very good singger. Who
tolt you to play the piano? We
Cyrus had come to know reading through a basal like you. Have you ever ben in
reading and spelling program with daily exercises and the hospitle? I love you.
weekly spelling list.
Love,
Jason had come to know reading through the words of Jason
the authors of children’s literature. He is coming to
know spelling as an outgrowth of his writing.

13. Spelling
• Not preparing your child to “someday be a writer” –
rather, allowing he/she to be a writer NOW.
• Word family/phonogram/spelling pattern
instruction integrated into Writer’s Workshop
through the teaching of strategies that facilitate
spelling development and fluent writing.
• Spelling instructional plans are driven by careful
observation of current student needs - not by linear
textbooks, worksheets, or prescribed spelling lists.

14. Spelling
• Spelling integrated across the curriculum
• Ongoing assessment and evaluation through conferencing
• “Invented spellings” can tell us a great deal about what kids know
about rules, patterns, visual configurations, and origins of
language
• Students develop a spelling consciousness while writing for
authentic purposes and audiences
• Students focus on their needs through word studies and
investigations:
“Making Words” and “Words Their Way”
 developmental approach to teaching phonics and spelling.
 students select letters to build short and long words.
 explores words and letter patterns while increasing vocabularies.

15. Math: Bridges Curriculum
mathlearningcenter.org
Addition/Subtraction Computation, Early Algebraic Thinking, Probability,
Place-value, 2D Geometry, Multiplication Patterns and Concepts,
Money, Fractions, Data Collection and Analysis
(for more information visit http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/materials/parents
)

16. Asa’s Behavior Policy*
 Rules in my classsroom are few. I believe as all children
are different, and all actions and reactions are very
personal in nature, effective discipline involves a few
overriding tenets rather than a long list of specific rules. The Kids’ Classroom
Situations are dealt with as they arise with the focus on
enabling the child to grow and learn from his or her Agreement:
actions.
1.Treat others how you
My guidelines for student behavior would want to be
1. You may engage in any behavior that does not create a treated.
problem for you or anyone else in the world. 2.Be responsible with
our things.
2. If you find yourself with a problem, you may solve it by 3.Do your best work.
any means that does not create a problem for anyone
else in the world. 4.Be safe at all times.
3. You may engage in any behavior that does not
jeopardize the safety or learning of yourself or others.
Unkind words and actions will not be tolerated.
*
adapted from "Teaching With Love and Logic" by Jim Fay and Charles Fay, Ph.D

17. Classroom Needs
 Monthly Group of Parents to drive and assist a small group of students with
site monitoring at Wapato Park
 Chaperone other field trips (does not always necessitate driving – we
take buses for most off-island trips).
 Tutor a child in reading once a week (requires preliminary 10-15 min.
training from Asa in PPPP tutoring strategy; this can be done in the
morning, after-school or during lunch by appointment)
 Help children publish their writing once every 4-6 weeks.
 Help during art class on Thursdays.
 Make copies, laminate, staple, sort, etc.
 Organize, mail and distribute the third grade Scholastic book order each
month
 Organize rotating weekly snack donations for our classroom (rotates
through different families throughout the year – entails scheduling and
emailing a reminder to family of the week)

18. Classroom Needs
one-time volunteer opportunities…

19. What questions do you
have?
agervich@sauvieislandacademy.org
teacherasa.blogspot.com
(971) 227-6103