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6th Grade Language Arts, Zaldivar - Room 143

Course Description

 

Posts

Maternity Leave Starting 2/22/22

Hello Athlos Families!
 
I hope you all are doing well. I wanted to make a quick post just to let you know that my maternity leave will be starting 2/22/22. I will likely be returning near the end of April.
 
If you have a need for your student during the time I am out, I would recommend e-mailing one of the other 6th grade teachers! They will be able to best direct you about who you can contact to address your need.
 
This is the new zoom link for ELA while I am gone: https://alabpmn.zoom.us/j/88529866801
 
The password and time for ELA class will still be the same.
 
Thanks!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Week of 2/14/22

Hello Athlos Families! 
 
Happy Valentine's Day! Here is what you can expect for language arts this week:
 
On Monday we are reviewing all the poetic devices we have learned about. This is going to help solidify for the students the techniques that poets use, and hopefully, help students feel more successful when they are analyzing poems. 
 
Then throughout the rest of the week, the plan will be to close read poems! I will start by modeling step by step, the close reading of a poem. Then, students will work with their poetry groups to close read a poem. By the end of the week they will be doing it independently!
 
One thing to know, is that this will be my last week before I go on maternity leave. While I am gone, I will check my email, but it will not be frequently (maybe once every other week). So, if there are any questions that you have regarding language arts, this would be the best week to reach out to me!
 
Thank you!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Week of 2/7/22

Hello Athlos families! 
 
Here is what you can expect for language arts this week:
 
We will be wrapping up sound devices and taking a quiz on them Monday. Then we will start discussing symbolism (another type of figurative language commonly seen in poetry).
 
Students will be put into symbolism groups and each group is going to be given a different passage. They will work together with their group to determine the symbolism being shown in that passage, and will be making a poster to share with their other classmates. 
 
Later in the week we will (finally) begin close reading a poem. Poetry can feel very daunting so we will be taking it slowly and working together as a class, and then in groups to help practice the techniques needed when close reading a poem.
 
As always, if you have any questions, please let me know!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Week of 1/31/22

Hello Athlos families! 
 
Here is what you can expect for this week in language arts!
 
As a reminder, January 31st is parent teacher conferences. These will be held virtually and your student's homeroom teacher will be sending you a zoom link for you to use to attend the meeting.
 
Due to having two unexpected days off last week, a lot of what was going to be done last week in language arts has been shifted to this week!
 
On Tuesday we will be finishing up the different types of figurative language, as well as reviewing similes and metaphors. Wednesday and Thursday we will be discussing sound devices that author's use in poetry. Then on Friday, we will be discussing symbolism and analyzing the different ways that author's use symbolism in their poems!
 
There will be quizzes throughout the week to check for student's understanding of the different types of figurative language and sound devices. By the end of the week my hope is that students will be very comfortable with the different techniques poet's use, so that when they see those techniques being used in a poem they are able to recognize them and their purpose within that poem!
 
As always, if you have any questions or comments for me, please feel free to reach out!
 
Warmly,
Mrs. Zaldivar 

Week of 1/23/22

Hello Athlos Families!
 
I hope you all have been staying warm! Here is what you can expect this week for your student:
 
We will be starting our poetry unit! This week we will be covering the different writing techniques authors use in poetry. Specifically, different types of figurative language and sound devices. We will be taking notes and practicing identifying what type of figurative language/ sound device is being used. This will help us when we start to work on determining the meaning of different poems.
 
Later in the week I will also be offering a retake test for students who got a C or below on their unit 2 test that we took last week.
 
I know conferences are next week, and I am letting students know that, in order for their grades to be as up to date as possible for conferences, they must submit any missing language arts work to me no later than Thursday (1/27/22).
 
Of course, this is to best benefit them and you for conferences. However, I will still accept late work up until the end of the trimester for their report card. 
 
If you have any questions, please let me know!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

6th Grade eLearning Packet

Attached is an eLearning packet. This packet will be printed off and sent home with your student in the near future. Please keep this packet in a safe place. It will be used if your student needs to learn from home for any reason. Thank you and let me know if you have any questions!

 

Week of 1/18/22

Hello Athlos families!
 
I hope you all enjoyed the three day weekend. Here is what you can expect for language arts class this week:
 
We will be taking our unit test in language arts Tuesday and Wednesday. On this test we will be covering all of the literary elements we have learned in class. Students will be tested on main idea and supporting details, inferring, finding evidence to support their thinking, and writing a non-fiction summary.
 
They have been working so hard in class, and I know that they will do great!
 
On Thursday and Friday, we will be working on some grammar. For these two days we will be focusing on pronouns!
 
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up Directions

Hello Athlos Families!
 
This file shows you how to sign up for parent teacher conferences. Conferences will be held on January 31st. They will take place virtually. As a reminder students do not report to school that day! Please make sure you sign up for a conference time. Conferences are such an important way to support your student in the classroom! The sooner you sign up, the more likely you are to be able to get a time slot that works best for you.
 
For conferences, I will only be meeting with the families of students that are in my homeroom class. If your student is not in my homeroom, and you have signed up for conferences, I will be sending detailed information about how language arts is going for your student and their current grade in the classroom to their homeroom teacher.
 
If you need any help signing up, or the 31st does not work for you, please let me know!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Week of 1/10/22

Hello Athlos Families!

I hope you all stayed warm and enjoyed the surprise 3 day weekend :)
 
Here is what you and your student can expect for the upcoming week:
 
On Monday, we will have the wordly wise quiz that we would have taken on Friday. Students will be given some time in class to study for this quiz.
 
Monday & Tuesday: We will be working on making inferences! Students will be working on using textual evidence and their own background knowledge to practice making inferences through a variety of activities. Inference making is one of the most important reading strategies, and I think that the students will have fun with the different ways we will practice this skill.
 
Wednesday: We will do a quick inference quiz as a check in (these "quizzes" are worth less than a homework score- just a way that I can check in on the students' understanding). Then we will do some review stations for our mid unit test.
 
Thursday & Friday: We will be taking our mid unit test! The students have done such a great job with each of the skills that we have been working on, and I have no doubt they will be successful on their tests as well! They will be tested on the following skills:
 
-Determining cause and effect
-Determining (and supporting) the main idea of a passage
-Making inferences about the passage using evidence from the text and their own background knowledge 
-Writing a non-fiction summary
 
As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out!
 
Warmly,
Mrs. Zaldivar

Week of 1/3/2022

Hello Athlos families!
 
I hope that you all enjoyed your break with your students. It was nice for me to spend a lot of time with my daughters, and catch up on some rest! I am excited to be back with the students and continue working on our literacy skills.
 
This week we will be focusing on determining the cause and effect of different events in our reading. At the end of the week we will be discussing making inferences for non-fiction texts.
 
We are also starting wordly wise back up again. Please remind your student to be studying their words before the quiz on Friday!
 
It will be a great (and cold) first week back! :)
 
As always if you have any questions, please let me know!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Distance Learning Links

Here is the schedule for distance learning! It is important that your student comes into the zoom calls using their first and last name. They will not be let into the call if they are using a different name.
 
Please e-mail me for the password to the zoom calls.

Week of 12/13/21

Hello Athlos Families!
 
I cannot believe it is already almost winter break! Here is what you can expect for this week for your student:
 
We will be discussing writing summaries for non-fiction passages. We will be using the skills we learned about taking notes on non-fiction passages, as well as determining the main idea and key details of non-fiction passages, in order to write an effective summary.
 
For families who have students in my homeroom class:
We will be having a tree parade on Friday! During this parade students get to decorate their homeroom teachers as a tree. If you have any fun decorations that students could put on me to decorate for our tree parade that you would be willing to donate, I just need them by Friday!
 
I can make sure that anything brought is returned (unless you don't want it back- please just be sure to specify with me or your student if you want it back!)
 
If your student has been at Athlos before this is something that we have done every year, but were unable to do last year. I know the students are really excited, it should be a fun day!
 
As always, if you have any questions or concerns please let me know!
 
Thank you!
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Week of 12/7/21

Hello Athlos Families!
 
I hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend. Thank you so much for your patience as I was unexpectedly out last week. The students worked very hard and I am very proud of them!
 
Also, welcome to trimester 2! I am a big fan of fresh starts, and I always look forward to the new trimester. I have been reminding students of this fresh start to trimester 2, and making goals to submit their work on time so that things don't pile up!
 
This week, due to my absence last week, we are working on determining the main idea of a non-fiction passage and finding the details in the passage to support that main idea. We are really going to focus on this skill this week to help set students up for writing effective non-fiction summaries next week.
 
Due to the shortened week there will be no wordly wise this week! 
 
If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.
 
Mrs. Zaldivar

Week of 11/29/21

Hello Athlos Families!

I hope you all enjoyed the break with your students. One important thing to keep in mind for this week is that it is the last week of the trimester. I will not be accepting any late work after 12/2/21. 
 
Here is what you can expect in language arts this week:
 
Due to some unexpected absences, we did not get the opportunity to work on determining the main idea of a non-fiction passage. That will be that majority of our focus this week! We will be discussing how analyzing non-fiction is different than fiction, and the different steps we need to take in order to do it successfully. 
 
We will also be taking a FAST Bridge Assessment. We took one of these for reading and math at the very beginning of the year. This is another opportunity for us to check in on how your student has grown so far this year in reading and math.
 
We will be finishing off the week by having students present their Heritage Projects that they worked so hard on. It was really fun for me to get to learn so much about each student in such a unique way through these projects, and I am looking forward to them getting to share about themselves to others as well!
 
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me!
 
Warmly,
Mrs. Zaldivar