Writing  

As part of writing students are exploring the structure and features of persuasive texts. To assist them with building their knowledge in relation to the persuasive topic, It is important for people to understand their family history, students are reading and viewing a variety of non-fiction texts related to family history. We are discussing key ideas for both sides of the argument, using ideas from the non-fiction texts to support their thinking and this is assisting them in their decision whether they would like to write in support of or against the topic.

In sentence level writing, students are revising strategies for how to expand sentences by adding details for who, what, when, where, how and why. We are revising conjunctions ‘because,’ ‘but,’ and ‘so,’ and students are completing sentences by adding onto the sentence stem after the conjunction. We are exploring high modality words that students can use in their text to persuade others such as the words undoubtedly, unquestionably, must, and undeniably as these will strengthen their arguments. We will explore the use of rhetorical questions so students can discover how these can be used to target their audience.

As part of spelling students are reviewing vowel sounds and exploring prefixes and suffixes to assist them when attempting to spell unfamiliar words.  

Each week students have time and opportunity to engage in a 20-minute touch typing skill session through Typing Club. All students have access to their own computer and, through this web-based educational platform, are learning about proper finger positioning and improving their typing speed and accuracy.