Conference Season

As we begin our first quarter conferences, check out these tips for talking about literacy at conferences:

• Print and share the mClass Home Connect with parents.  You will need to walk parents through the report explaining each part of the assessment.  Parents should understand what was assessed, how their child performed, and how this informs our instruction.     
• Have the TRC benchmark books on hand.  Showing parents what grade level text looks like helps them understand where their child is on the continuum.  
• Have running records, reading responses, writing samples, etc. available to show to parents. These artifacts show changes and progress from the beginning of the year benchmarks to now. These examples also support the report grades and illustrate strengths and areas for growth.
• Be prepared with ways that parents can support literacy learning at home.  You might show a kindergarten mom and dad how to play letter/sound recognition games with their child using magnetic letters.  You might recommend a fifth grade parent reinstitute the bed time read aloud so that the parent can model fluency and deep thinking about a text with their child.  Suggest simple things that will support the instruction that is happening in the classroom.        
•  Before you sit down for conferences, check out this body language Ted Talk.  Watch the first fifteen minutes to see how body language can help you face stressful situations with confidence. 

If you have questions or need support with conferences, please let us know.

Making our Instructional Environment Accessible to All Students - Great Examples from Ms. Manning and Sra. Mabe!

Making Our Instructional Environment Accessible to All Students

Last time we talked about organizing our classrooms by content so that they are super accessible to all of our learners.  Here is a great example from Ellen Manning's classroom of having content area information in one spot.  This is her science wall.  You will see anchor charts, word walls, and other unit realia in one spot.  This makes it easier for her learners to know where to look for science information.

Here is another tip that will help make your classroom super accessible to all learners.

Organized & Accessible Word Walls

This builds onto the idea of designated areas so students can find what they need.  Word walls need to have an organization built into them as well. Words walls can be organized alphabetically, but usually it makes more sense to organize them by concept.  Check out how this word wall from first grade is organized in categories:

Sra. Mabe and her students organized the words into categories that describe the features or characteristics of rocks. Next to each word is a drawing or a physical example to help the students better understand the vocabulary and recall the definitions.

Besides being organized in a way that makes sense, word walls need to be accessible to students. Words that are posted too high, or on the backs of doors are not easily seen by students. Movable word walls allow for students to borrow the words they need and eliminates the difficulty of tracking across the room that some students encounter. It also makes it easy to re-group words and to examine different word relationships. An easy way to make words movable is to use magnets on your white board (thanks Tate!)

Most importantly, movable and accessible word walls empower students.  They learn to recognize when they need help and independently find a resource that will help them do their job. This helps them to own their learning!

If you want some help around word walls let Janet or Emily know!

Making Our Instructional Environment Accessible to all Students Part I

As teachers we spend so much time working to make our classrooms a place where students feel welcome and successful.  We want our learning environments to aid in our students success and independence as learners.  Here is a tip that will help make your classroom super accessible to all of our learners.

Designate a specific space to each content area.  
This means that you want to group content area supports together.  For example on one wall of your room you might have math anchor charts, math resources, and your math word wall together.  On another wall you might group your project anchor charts, project word wall, project resources...you get the idea.  By having specific areas designated for specific content, we are helping all of our learners, especially our most fragile learners, easily find the resources they need to be successful.

Think of it like your iPhone.

You organize apps according to categories so that you can find things quickly and easily.  Our kids need this kind of organization in our classrooms.  We want our students to know where to look for what they need and to be able to find it quickly and get to work.  We have good examples of this here at Carrboro like.... Amanda Soldner!  She has designated spaces for each content area resplendent with informative anchor charts!  

If you want to work on making your instructional environment more accessible, but are not sure where to start, let Janet or Emily know and we can brainstorm together!

Progress Monitoring Reminders, UbD Days, Reading Conference Video

mClass Progress Monitoring

So we talked about progress monitoring on mClass at our literacy meetings this week with K-3. Students who fall into the red on mClass should be progress monitored every 10 school days. Students who fall into the yellow on mClass should be progress monitored every 20 school days. Classroom teachers are responsible for progress monitoring their own kiddos in mClass.  Remember you want to start progress monitoring in the lowest skill where you see a deficit.  

Where this can get confusing... RTI

In addition to your progress monitoring in mClass, interventionists who see our RTI Tier 2 and Tier 3 kids, will progress monitor our children based on their interventions.  Interventionists use a variety of progress monitoring tools, like Aimsweb and Fountas & Pinnell.  If you have students in RTI at Tier 2 or Tier 3, and are not quite sure about what progress monitoring for that student should look like let us know.  

UbD Trainings and Workdays

Four times this year, grade levels will have a day to meet for UbD trainings and work sessions.  This will be a time where we can dig a little deeper into UbD and begin planning a unit at a time.  The first meetings will happen in these next two weeks.  Check the dates and location below!

K/1 - Tuesday, October 7th at Extraordinary Ventures

2/3 - Friday, October 10th at Extraordinary Ventures

4/5 - Friday, October 17th at Extraordinary Ventures

So how do I prepare for my meeting day?  

• If your grade level has already written a UbD unit, you will work at the first meeting to revise that unit.  You will re-evaluate each stage of the unit to strengthen areas that need work. Bring any materials or resources you think might be helpful in your planning.  
• If your grade level has not written a UbD unit, you will work on writing your first unit! You will talk with your team and choose a unit that you teach 3rd quarter.   Bring any materials or resources you think might be helpful in your planning. 

Reading Conferences

This is a great video of a fifth grade teacher, Rick Kleine, conducting reading conferences with his students.   One of the best things about this is that Rick really lets students in on what it is they need to work on and then gives them strategies that they can use to improve and become better readers. By doing this, Rick is empowering the students to own their learning.    (Enjoy the video - try not to get too distracted by Rick's earring:)