Exploring the Wild West Module 4, Week 2
This week in ELA, we are continuing to work on Module 4 which isvcentered on the Wild West. Our big guiding question is:
What character traits were needed in the people who settled the West?
Students will explore this through rich texts, vocabulary study, and informational writing.
🌵 Vocabulary Development
We will work with several important content words—including employed, celestial, sacrifice, complaint, homestead, primary, domain, residence, and ideology. Students will continue developing strong word-learning strategies by studying homophones and homographs, as well as working with prefixes (trans-), suffixes (-ous, -ious), and the Latin root circum-.
đź“š Reading Skills
Our reading focus this week includes:
- Monitoring comprehension and clarifying when the meaning breaks down
- Identifying the central idea of informational texts
- Analyzing text structure to understand how authors organize information
- Examining media techniques in images, videos, and graphics that accompany our readings
🔤 Foundational Skills
Students will review the VCCCV syllable-division pattern to support decoding long or unfamiliar words. Spelling practice will reinforce this pattern, and fluency lessons will focus on accuracy and self-correction.
đź’¬ Communication & Media Literacy
We will practice interpreting and analyzing different types of media, making connections between texts, visuals, and historical information about the West.
✏️ Writing Workshop
In Writing Workshop, students will begin an informational writing piece in the form of a letter. They will learn how to clearly share information, support their ideas with evidence, and write with purpose for a specific audience.
It’s going to be an engaging week full of history, literacy, and creativity as we explore the lives and character traits of the people who shaped the Wild West!