This is Ms. Hatcher’s ELL  website.  Here you will find helpful resources, language games, class links, etc.  Use it to find extra ways to practice English.  I hope you enjoy!

Ms. Hatcher

I’m going to be trying something new for our online newsletter updates.  Each month, I’ll post the basics of what we’ll be covering in my classes.  Hopefully this will give you a general idea of the content your students are learning, but it will not be as specific as the weekly updates.  Please let me know if you would like more information at any time.

Sincerely, Miss Hatcher

So here is what we’ll be focusing on in March:

Grade 1: We are learning vocabulary related to “house” and “furniture,” and it is quite a long list.  Here are the words:  balcony, bathroom, bathtub, bedroom, broom, cupboard, closet, door, dining room, dryer, dustpan, kitchen, living room, mop, oven, refrigerator (fridge), shower, sink, stove, television (TV), toilet, toilet paper, trashcan, washing machine, bed, chairs, coffee table, counter, desk, dresser, lamp, mirror, shelf, sofa/couch, table, wardrobe, shoe rack/cabinet, rug/mat.  Feel free to practice these words at home with your child!  We’ll also focus more and more on writing during this time.  We’ll learn about verb tense (present vs. past), word order in questions, and transition words.

Grade 4: We are steadily working our way through Wordly Wise Book 3 for our vocabulary work.  Check out http://www.spellingcity.com/hatcherc/ for word lists and practice games.  We’re also working on a research report in order to develop our writing and public presentation skills.  Finally, we’ll continue to hone our reading and comprehension skills through reading various samples of literature.

Grade 6: We are steadily working our way through Wordly Wise Book 4 for our vocabulary work.  Check out http://www.spellingcity.com/hatcherc/ for word lists and practice games.  We’re also spending a lot of time reading, discussing, and analyzing The Bronze Bow to supplement the students’ learning for sixth grade language arts.  Finally, we’ll continue to work on different forms of writing and revision.

Grade 4: Our focus in grade 4 ELL this week will be on the basic elements of a story plot.  We’ll make sure that the stories we wrote last week have clear rising action, climax, and resolution.  We’ll also spend some more time learning and using lesson 4 vocabulary words.

Grade 6: Last week, we began writing an expository essays on the changes in a character from the Island book series.  We’ll write the final copy of those essays this week.   Additionally, we’ll continue to pre-read the story, The Bronze Bow, for Language Arts class; the story is a bit challenging, so I’d like to help the ELL students along with some of the language.  Finally, we’ll spend some time working through lesson 6 vocabulary words.

Grade 1: We have been studying past tense verbs, and this week we’ll add transition words and phrases (for example, “then,” or “next”) to our learning.  Then we’ll put them all together as the students write their own adventure stories!

Grade 4: Last week, we began writing a story about a pet.  The main focus of this writing is to learn how to insert dialog properly into our stories.  We’ll continue to keep this focus as we revise, edit, and write our final copies.

Grade 6: Last week, we began writing an expository essay on the changes in a character from the Island book series.  We’ll continue to revise and edit those essays this week, and we’ll write a final copy.  We’ll also continue to read the last book in the Island series.  Additionally, we’ll do some pre-reading of the story, The Bronze Bow, for Language Arts class; the story is a bit challenging, so I’d like to help the ELL students along with some of the language.

Grade 1: We will review our “feelings” vocabulary.  We’ll also learn and practice using past tense verbs when we’re telling about something that already happened.

Grade 4: We will continue writing the creative stories that we began the week before break.  We’re focusing on ideas, punctuating dialog correctly, and revising our own and other students’ work.    Hopefully, we’ll have these stories finished by the end of the week!

Grade 6: We will continue working on our essays that we began the week before break.  Students are writing about a character from the book series we are reading; they are discussing how the character has changed throughout the story.  For this assignment, we are specifically learning how to write a strong introduction, thesis statement, and conclusion.