Progress Monitoring, PD Thursday & "You Must Have Worked Hard"

Progress Monitoring

So now that our mClass assessments are complete it is time to think about progress monitoring. (Collective sigh here.)  Our students who fall into the red on any of the mClass measures need to be progress monitored every 10 school days.  (Do not count weekends, teacher work days or all day field trips as school days.)  Our students who fall into the yellow on any of the mClass measures need to be progress monitored every 20 school days.  Our students who are in the green on all mClass measures need one progress monitoring point between benchmarks.  Janet and I will talk to grade levels at literacy planning to help you analyze your data and make a manageable progress monitoring plan.

IFL Principles & Accountable Talk PD Moved To Thursday!  

Our PD will be held on Thursday, October 2nd from 3-4 in the library!  We will be talking about the Principles of IFL and Accountable Talk.  We will examine teacher talk moves to build accountability, accuracy, and rigorous thinking in class discussions.  We will also share some strategies that help make accountable talk work in the classroom!    Join us if you would like to build on that, disagree with someone, or ask a clarifying question:)   

Growth Mindset

This video discusses a super interesting study about praising students and the growth mindset. 

mClass Window Closing, Tuesday PD, Growth Mindset & Why We Need Diverse Books

mClass Window Closing

The mClass window is closing on Wednesday, September 24th.  This means we need to have tested all of our kiddos by the end of the day on Wednesday.  It looks like most classes are in good shape and have only a few students who have yet to finish.  If you have any questions or concerns please let Janet or Emily know!

Tuesday PD

Our Tuesday PD calendar was shared last week and has many great offerings for differentiated professional development.  This coming Tuesday, September 23rd from 3-4pm, Hannah Goodwin-Brown and Emily Kochy will be offering a session about PBIS.  This promises to be a super session, so sign up here!  (This session is open to everyone, but is required for teachers new to CES!)

Growth Mindset Time

Here is a great video about the power of yet! This video is great for a brain break and as a reminder to keep on trying.  Soon your whole class will be singing along:)

Diverse Books

It is always good to take inventory of your classroom library looking to make sure you have diverse books.  It is important that our kids can see themselves in the books that they read!  In the short video below Rita Williams Garcia, award winning author of One Crazy Summer, talks about the importance of diversity in children's books.   If you find that you need more diversity in your classroom library, let Janet or Emily know!

Introducing the CES Literacy Blog

Big News!  

This year we will maintain a literacy blog for our CES teachers!  This will be a place to share information with you, celebrate our school success stories, and contribute ideas. So let’s get started with our favorite topic…

Assessments!

mClass Updates

Our mClass assessment window opened on September 2nd and is scheduled to close on September 19th.  Our K-3 teachers have been doing a great job beginning assessments with our students.  If you have questions, are missing anyone from your roster, are having trouble accessing your DL partner’s class, or just need a big mClass hug - let us know!

Performance Series

This year 4th and 5th grade teachers will no longer be using the F&P benchmark assessments.  We will administer the Performance Series assessment for reading (4th and 5th) and math (3rd - 5th).  This is a computer adaptive test meaning that it is designed to adjust the level of difficulty - based on the responses provided to match the knowledge and ability of a test taker.  If a student gives a wrong answer, the computer follows up with an easier question; if a student answers correctly, the next question will more difficult.  There will be Performance Series training on Wednesday, September 10th from 3-4pm for grades 3-5 in Shelby’s classroom - Room 308.  Thanks for hosting, Shelby!

School Reading Partners is Gearing Up

The School Reading Partners program supports reading instruction in our early elementary (K-2) and pre-kindergarten classrooms.  This program provides additional opportunities to explore books and language.  The SRP volunteers read selected books with students and reinforce early literacy skills.  Their volunteers work with students at least once a week during school hours.  If you have students you would like to see served by School Reading Partners, please send an email to Emily Moorman.

 

English Language Arts Units

The literacy coaches across the district have been working on reading and writing units for K-5.  Each unit includes possible assessments, essential questions, key vocabulary, and a series of minilessons.  The early units for each grade are ready for use; some of the later units are still under construction, but will be ready when you are!  A Year Long overview is created for each grade level that has links to the units and resources.  Please find the links for each grade level overview below:

K Grade Overview

1st Grade Overview

2nd Grade Overview

3rd Grade Overview

4th Grade Overview

5th Grade Overview

We will discuss these units more in our literacy planning meetings.  

Literacy Block Flow Charts

If you are still working on tweaking how your block is working or trying to figure out how much time you should be spending on word study check out the flow chart for your grade level.

K-2 Flow Chart

3-5 Flow Chart

If you feel like you need some help thinking through your block structure - let us know!

A Few More Things...

Check out the links to the right for a variety of helpful tools, videos, and resources you may need throughout the year.  You will find everything from conferences forms to inspiration!

Best,

Janet & Emily