Grade 5 teacher — literacy, inquiry science, and a classroom that runs on routines
I am Elena Marchetti, a grade 5 teacher in Portland, Oregon. I teach reading and writing across the day, run science as investigation rather than as reading about investigations, and spend the first six weeks of every year building the routines that make the other thirty work.
This portfolio is written for the people who read it: hiring committees, evaluators and colleagues. Everything is on the page rather than behind a login.
What I bring to a building
Four things colleagues and administrators have named, put here so you know what you are getting before an interview.
A classroom that manages itself by October
Routines are taught explicitly, practised until they are automatic, and then trusted. Transitions, materials and independent work stop costing instructional minutes, and I can spend my attention on the two or three students who need it most.
Reading instruction grounded in assessment
I use running records, conferring notes and unit assessments to group and regroup deliberately, and I change groups when the data says to rather than at the end of a quarter.
Science taught as investigation
Students make predictions, build the setup, record what actually happened and argue about why. It takes longer than a reading and a worksheet, and it is the part of the day they remember in June.
Families treated as partners from week one
First contact home is positive and early, not a phone call about a problem. By conference time, families already know me, and difficult conversations start from a relationship instead of from scratch.
What I teach and what I can take on
Upper elementary, grades 3 to 6
Self-contained or departmentalised. My current assignment is a self-contained grade 5 class, and I have taught grade 3 and grade 4 in previous years.
Literacy across the day
Reading workshop, writing workshop, word study and content-area reading, including the small-group instruction that makes a workshop model actually work.
Inquiry science and STEM blocks
Hands-on units built around phenomena, with the materials management and safety routines that keep them from becoming chaos.
Mentoring and grade-level leadership
I have hosted a student teacher, run grade-level planning, and led the team through a curriculum adoption year. I am comfortable in the coordinating role and comfortable not being in it.
From the classroom
Four units I would happily be observed teaching. All six are described on the lesson samples page.
Water on the move — inquiry science unit
Six weeks of investigating erosion with stream tables students build themselves, ending in a design task to protect a model roadway.
Reading like a historian — nonfiction unit
Students compare two accounts of the same local event, learn to notice what a source leaves out, and write a short account of their own.
The persuasive letter — writing unit
Every student writes to a real audience about something in the school or neighbourhood they want changed. The letters get sent, and some get answered.
Fraction sense before fraction rules
Three weeks of number lines, fair shares and estimation before any procedure is introduced, built to repair the misconceptions students arrive with.
A short introduction
I came to teaching after several years of after-school and summer programme work, which is where I learned that a group of children will meet the expectations you actually teach, not the ones you announce.
I hold a current Oregon teaching licence with an elementary multiple subjects endorsement, and I work in a school where a large share of my students are multilingual learners. My planning starts from what language a task demands, not from what activity looks engaging.
What committees ask first
What grade levels are you licensed and endorsed for?
My licence, endorsements and their status are listed in full on the experience page, along with the professional learning I have completed.
How do you handle a disruptive class?
By changing what I am asking for before I change my voice. The classroom page describes the routines and the escalation sequence I actually use, including what I do when a student is escalated beyond redirection.
How do you know your students are learning?
The evidence page lists the kinds of evidence I keep and how I act on them. It contains no student names or images, because a portfolio is not the place for those.
Can we see a lesson or unit plan?
Yes. The lesson samples page describes six units, and I bring full plans, rubrics and student-facing materials to an interview.
Hiring for next year?
I am happy to talk about a position, teach a demonstration lesson, or answer questions by email first — whichever fits your process.