Our 5th Grade Writing Assessment is only a couple of weeks away! Our 5th grade staff and students have been working diligently on writing in all four genres since the beginning of the year. We are confident that our students have been very well prepared to do well on this writing assessment!

The students begin working on the writing skills that will be assessed in 5th grade, at the start of their school experience in their Kindergarten year of instruction. Every grade level contributes to the learning that will be assessed in 5th grade. By the time students enter 5th grade, they have been exposed to, explicitly taught, and provided opportunities to master the following genres:

        (1) Narrative Writing

        (2) Persuasive Writing

        (3) Informational Writing

        (4) Response to Literature.
On the morning of March 3, 2010, all of our 5th grade students will be given the 5th Grade Writing Assessment. This assessment is also a GATEWAY assessment, which means passing is a promotional requirement in GCPS for 5th grade students to promote to 6th grade. Each student will be given a topic from one of the genres listed above, and will be required to complete a piece of writing on topic from the brainstorming phase through the final draft phase in the writing process. Again, our students have been well prepared for this assessment from their kindergarten year through 5th grade. Our 5th grade teachers have provided intensive instruction all year in the four genres to help students master the skills required to promote to the 6th grade. We are very proud of the hard work of our staff and our students in the area of writing!

 

The Gwinnett Alliance for Gifted Education (GAGE) will be hosting its annual awards ceremony to recognize outstanding gifted students, teachers, parents and administrators. We would like to congratulate this year's winners. The recipient of the Outstanding Gifted Student award for Suwanee Elementary is Spencer Lally from Mr. Singleton's 5th grade class. Kaylyn Singleton in Ms. DeVuyst's class and Alyssa Frantz in Mrs. Head's class are our school finalists for a $100 scholarship to be used toward a summer program. All winners will be recognized at the 2009-10 GAGE Awards Ceremony on March 30th. Congratulations!