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Dear Family Member,Welcome to the start of the new school year!Our school district is uses a reading/language arts program,Benchmark Advance. It’s published by Benchmark Education and is the newest program on the market, built specifically to meet the demands of the California Common Core Standards plus the new California ELA/ELD Framework.These standards require students to engage with more rigorous, complex text as well as dive deeper into the interpretation of the text. This has led us to look for and implement a more engaging, interactive, and modern program.So...what’s different about Benchmark Advance ? The biggest difference:the reading textbook. The core student books are light and manageable, magazine-like texts.These books are designed for students to interact with the readings by writingon the page and annotating the text.Wait...does this mean that my student can write in his/her books?Yes! Not only are students allowed to write in their books, but they shouldBe writing in them! Annotation encourages students to take ownership of the text and dive deeper into the content, which improves comprehension.Each book is meant to be used for just three weeks. After three weeks ofreading and working with the texts in class, students will bring the annotatedbook home. Your student’s annotations will allow you to see exactly how they are interpreting and engaging with the readings.As your student is working through each unit, you’ll notice that all of thereadings are centered on one topic. These topics include social studies andscience content as well as literary subjects such as point of view, theme, andcharacter. Every three weeks, you’ll receive a school-to-home letter that willprovide additional activities you can do at home with your student. Theseactivities connect to the unit topic as well as the vocabulary, comprehension, and phonics/word study skills being taught during the unit.Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I look forward to usingBenchmark Advance with your student and working with you to ensure asuccessful school year!As always, should you have any questions about our new reading/language arts program or about your student’s progress, please don’t hesitate to contact me.Unit 1Dear Family Member,Welcome to our first unit of study, “The U.S. Constitution: Then andNow.”This year, our fifth grade students will build literacy and languageskills by participating in ten cross-disciplinary units of study inour Benchmark Advance Program. Each three-week unit features atopic, ranging from economics to earth science, history and cultureto themes in literature, and more. The units are designed to focuson two shorter selections during the first week, which will preparestudents to explore the content more deeply in the second andthird weeks as they read longer passages. As students read poems,stories, plays, and informational articles, they will strengthenreading and writing skills and strategies, participate in meaningfulcollaborative conversations, and make connections to their othercontent area studies. We look forward to sharing your child’sprogress with you!As we start each unit, I will send home a letter like this one,introducing the unit focus and skills your child is learning. I will alsosuggest activities you and your child can do together at home tobuild on the work we’re doing in class.In this unit, students will discover how one of the nation’s mostimportant documents has been shaping our lives for hundreds ofyears. They will discover how the Constitution continues to changeto guarantee rights for all Americans, including the civil rights andvoting rights of women and minorities. The selections include avariety of genres, including informational text, speeches, historicalfiction, and biographies. Understanding the way our governmentcan influence the way we live will help students become responsiblecitizens. I hope the topic and suggested activities will spark somelively discussions at home.I look forward to working together as partners this year. Should youhave any questions about our reading program or about your child’sprogress, please don’t hesitate to contact me.Unit 2Dear Family Member,Welcome to our next unit of study, “Developing Characters’Relationships.”We are beginning our second unit in the Benchmark Advanceprogram. As a reminder, each three-week unit features one topic. Aswith the previous unit, I am providing suggested activities you andyour child can do together at home to build on the work we’re doingin class.In this unit, your child will read stories in which he or she comparescharacters and analyzes their relationships with each other. Shewill read several excerpts from Mark Twain’s The Adventures ofTom Sawyer. This will help students get an idea of how differentcharacters interact with each other, and it will also help themunderstand what makes some characters more likable than others.In addition to this classic example of realistic fiction, the unit alsoincludes some letters, as well as a biography.I’m looking forward to this exciting unit, exploring with your childrenwhat makes characters “tick.” It will be fun to discover how theymake connections between the characters in the stories and peoplein real life. And what better way to do it than through reading animportant piece of American literature?As always, should you have any questions about our readingprogram or about your child’s progress, please don’t hesitate tocontact me.Developing Characters’ RelationshipsIn this unit, we’ll read excerpts from Mark Twain’s AmericanClassic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and think in depthabout the question “Why do we value certain qualities inpeople?” Here are some activities designed to continue theconversation about characters to build on the skills andconcepts your child is learning in school. I know exploringthis topic together will be fun for both of you! Top Five ListDiscuss with your child the question we have been discussing in class: “Why do we value certain qualities in people?” Help your child focus on qualities that people consider mostadmirable by working together to make a top five list of the most important character traitsof a good person. Then discuss why that value is important. Next to each of the character traits, list a real person or fictional characterwho has that trait.Character StudyAs your child reads from various excerpts of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, he or she should be able to choose the character that he or shecan make a comparison with. Ask your child to think about the characters of Becky Thatcher,Tom Sawyer, Joe Harper, and then choose one of them. Make a Venn diagram with your child’s name on one circle and the character’s name on the other. Ask your child to fill out the diagram to make the comparison.Character StudyAs your child reads from various excerpts of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, he or she should be able to choose the character that he or shecan make a comparison with. Ask your child to think about the characters of Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, Joe Harper, and then choose one of them. Make a Venn diagram with your child’s name on one circle and the character’s name on the other. Ask your child to fill out the diagram to make the comparison.Mischievous TomAs your child reads more from the excerpts of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, ask your child to give you examples of Tom’s mischievousbehavior. Fold two sheets of stacked paper in half to form a booklet. Ask your child to make a short character study of Tom that illustrates hismischievous personality. ................
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