Newsletter

Friday March 27, 2015

Computers Mrs. Petersen

Kathy.Petersen@indianola.k12.ia.us

In Computers, we will be working with the Language Arts classes to complete the
rough drafts and final drafts of their informative papers. We will also continue
building our word searching skills through the use of A Google A Day and mastering
our keyboarding skills through Keyboarding Online.

Language Arts with Mr. Kotz

Hello all! We have officially begun our informative papers over African American
leaders. The rough draft will be due on Tuesday of next week. The final draft will be
due Friday. We will be working on this throughout next week. We will also be
working on a mini-unit over poetry and test taking skills.
IA Assessments are on April 6th and 7th.
As always, please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns.
Jonathan.kotz@indianola.k12.ia.us
515-961-9530 ext. 3118

Social Studies-Mrs. Larsen

Connee.Larsen@indianola.k12.ia.us

Mrs. Larsen is taking a student to the State Geography Bee is Cedar

Falls today!! If she has any very important news to share well get it to
you early next week!!

Ms. Loneman Language Arts

melissa.loneman@indianola.k12.ia.us
This week students
learned how to find credible resources
researched their topic using books and the Internet
completed a character trait graphic organizer
began writing the rough draft of their informative paper
took the STAR test and conferenced with Ms. Loneman about their results
Next week students will
complete their rough draft
peer edit rough drafts
revise their rough draft
submit their final paper
begin working with poetry and reviewing figurative language (when time allows)
Important Dates:
March 27thResearch Notes Due
March 30thCharacter Trait Graphic Organizer Due
March 31stHand-written Rough Draft Due
April 3rdFinal Typed Paper Due
April 6th & 7thReading Portion of Iowa Assessments (done in LA class)

As always, please contact me at any time with comments, questions, or concerns.

Email: melissa.loneman@indianola.k12.ia.us
Phone: (515) 961-9530 ext. 3134
Twitter: @msloneman (twitter.com/msloneman)
Website: msloneman.weebly.com
Have a great weekend!

Library News-Mrs.Wanamaker
Karma.Wanamaker@indianola.k12.ia.us

This week students parsed a query to search for information for their
biography paper. Students also practiced avoiding plagiarism a by taking
notes in their own words. Research occurred in both print and non-print
sources.
Students voted for the Childrens Choice and Teen Award books in their
READ classes.

Science Mrs. Simpson

Dorisa.Simpson@indianola.k12.ia.us

Not only have students been learning about alternative energy sources, but they
have also been practicing their academic conversation skills as well as reading and
writing informational papers. Students were assigned a partner and a specific
energy type (solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, biomass). Then they were asked
to read information about the type of energy from printed materials from the
following website: http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?
page=renewable_home-basics. Students were to take notes with their partner
about the facts of the energy type they were assigned, focusing on basic
information as well as the positive and negative environmental impacts. They were
then assigned to independently write a three paragraph paper. Each student
received a rubric and specific directions about the expectations for their
informational paper.
I would encourage you to ask your student about the type of energy they were
assigned. You may want to use the conversation prompts below to get your student
to elaborate. Your student is familiar with these prompts as they are some common
ones that we have used in class to get students to elaborate, which is one of the
five conversation skills we have been working on improving.
Prompts for Elaboration and Clarification:

Can you elaborate on ?

What do you mean by ?
Can you tell me more about .?
Can you be more specific?
Why is that important?
Id love to hear more about ?

At the end of this week and beginning of next week we will be working more on the
final eleven terms for the science focus vocabulary. Many of these terms have been
worked on throughout the year and therefore, are not new to the kids. Students will
be assessed over ALL the terms on their blue focus vocabulary sheet in April/May.
Next week, we will also begin unit 3 in our text which covers atoms and the periodic
table.
This Weeks Learning Targets:
I can describe how the energy source I am reading about impacts the
environment.

I can explain how I used information to write and informative paper.

NOTE: Some students are becoming increasingly reliant on the opportunity for
retakes, to such a level that they do not prepare adequately on their own before an
assessment. After additional research on the concepts, recommendations, and

implementation of opportunities such as this, we, as 6 th grade Science teachers,

have decided to change our guidelines for the retake/redo opportunities. As
suggested by Rick Wormelli, we will limit the number of retake opportunities
students have and the timeframe in which to complete the retake/redo. In Science
class, students will be limited to two retakes during the 4 th Quarter and any retakes
must be completed before May 21st. As students continue with their education, we
feel it is a natural progression to require more of them. Though this will be a change
for the students, we believe it should help instill the importance of preparation
which will be essential in their future.

Math-Mrs. Vetter
alisha.vetter@indianola.k12.ia.us

This week we did some testing to collect some baseline data.

We also had a change of plans for the Everyday Math curriculum.
We are going to jump ahead to Unit 8: Rates and Ratios. We feel
this will be more beneficial for the students to cover before Iowa
Assessments which are coming up the 2nd week in April. Students
will be asked to use Rate tables, set up and solve proportions and more in this
unit. We will then return to Unit 6 and 7 after Unit 8.
Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3147
Have a super weekend!