WELCOME

to Miss Gipes 5th Grade Class

Dear Parent(s) or Guardian(s),

Hello and welcome to a brand new school year at Palmer Elementary! I am looking
forward to having your child in my fifth grade class! One of my priorities throughout this
year is to maintain communication with the guardians of each of my students. I want to begin this
communication by sharing what the learning environment of your student will be like in my classroom.
The purpose of this newsletter is to share with you the classroom procedures, behavioral expectations and
curriculum covered this year. It also explains the reasoning behind why I implement these policies, so you
have a better understanding of why I run things the way in which I do. By maintaining communication
we can work together to ensure your student has a successful 5th grade year!

Relationship-Centered Learning

I center my teaching around the development of relationships, as

learning is a social endeavor that can be supported through group
work and discussions. In the classroom, relationships can be formed
between people, as well as between new and old information. By
processing new information and comparing it to what they already
know, students form knowledge connections, or relationships
between new and prior knowledge. Creating these connections
allows students to better understand new information as they can
then relate it to experiences in their own life.
With relationship building at the heart of my instruction, I have
explicit expectations of how students treat others so that learning
remains constructive. These expectations are outlined below:
Always be respectful to others, even if youre mad
Remain open-minded and listen to others, even when their
ideas are different than yours
Dont hinder anyones ability to learn or my ability to teach
If these expectations are not being met by a majority of the class, I
will revisit the expectations and model a couple scenarios in which I
demonstrate the behavior I expect. If only a couple students are
struggling with the expectations, they will be separated from their
peers, as they are hindering others ability to learn, and I will meet
with them individually to discuss their behavior. Together, the
students and I will develop a plan to help avoid the problematic
behavior again. Once a plan has been agreed upon, the students can
rejoin their peers to carry on with the day.

Choice in the
Classroom
As relationships are based on the
notion of give and take, I want to
imitate this in the classroom by
offering students as many choices
as possible. Offering students
choice will give them a sense of
control, thus students will have
the option to chose what topic
they write about or what book
they read. I will also use choice
when explaining consequences to
students because I want students
to take responsibility for their
learning and their behavior. For
example, if a student is not doing
their work I might say, You can
choose to do your work now, or
during recess. Or if a student is
blurting out in class I might say,
You can choose to raise your
hand, or not have your answer
written on the board because it
was shouted out.

THE LOREM IPSUMS

FALL 2016

Curriculum

Logical Consequences

The curriculum I teach is dictated by the

district Palmer is within, Grand Rapids Public
Schools. The curriculum is aligned with the
Common Core State Standards, which were released
in 2010 and work to ensure students are receiving
rigorous content to prepare them for their future.
In English language arts, students will read a
variety of fiction and nonfiction pieces from diverse
cultures and time periods. They will be responding
analytically to these pieces to build their
comprehension. Students will also produce stories
and essays throughout the year that will be multiple
paragraphs in length and allow them to gain mastery
over different grammar conventions and
punctuation. We integrate technology into our
lessons whenever possible, thus students will have
the opportunity to type their writing as well.
In math thus far, the focus has been on
arithmetic in order to prepare elementary students
for a more formal study of algebra in middle school.
To be ready for this middle school algebra, fifth
graders need to have a complete understanding of
fractions, as fractions are inevitable in even simple
equations in algebra. Thus, we will be moving from
whole-number arithmetic and focus more closely on
multiplying and dividing fractions.
In science we will cover topics in life science,
Earth science and physical science. Students will
follow the scientific method when conducting
experiments and analyze how different factors can
affect the outcome of an experiment.
In social studies, students will learn about
their role as a responsible citizen. Students will study
early American history as well, beginning with the
American Indians before settlers arrived and ending
with the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791.
Additionally, in 2015 students started taking
the Smarter Balanced Assessment, which is an
assessment that is aligned with these Common Core
State Standards and replaced the MEAP and
Michigan Merit Exam.

If students choose to persist with actions that they

know are inappropriate for school, I will give
them a logical consequence. Logical consequences
are just as they sound; logical. They are tied to the
time and place of the poor choice. I try to make
them similar to a consequence that would occur if
the poor choice was made outside of the
classroom to give students a better understanding
of the effect their actions have. For example, if a
student is unable to behave while walking in the
hallway, they will practice how we walk in the
hallway during recess. In the real world, if an
employee cant perform a task properly, they need
to practice the task until they are proficient, thus
that is the same mentality I will have when
determining consequences in my class.

Accountability
In order to keep students accountable, when
students are misbehaving or off-task, I will
intentionally redirect their behavior, rather than
tell them what they are doing incorrectly. For
example, if a student is off-task I might ask,
What should you be doing? rather than saying
Stop that! Through prompting the student to
question their behavior, I hope to instill a sense of
accountability. Furthermore, whenever I need to
pull a student aside to discuss poor behavior, I will
start off the conversation by asking, What did
you do? By asking this question, students will
learn to own the behavior they chose. I will then
ask, How are you going to fix it? or What can
you do different next time? Rather than telling
students what they need to do to solve their
problem, I want them to think about what they
need to do so that they can develop their own
problem solving abilities. If they need assistance in
deciding upon what they can do to fix the
situation, I will offer possible solutions and allow
them to choose form the solutions given.

If you have any questions about my expectations, policies or the curriculum, or would like to
notify me of any concerns, please feel free to email me at gipek@grps.org. I look forward to
hearing from you and cant wait to start the year together!
Best,
Miss K. Gipe
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