ALICE ISD ~ ISC Gazette
January 2015
Happy New Year!
This newsletter finds us in the middle of the 4th Six Weeks! This newsletter is filled with articles that highlight our colleagues and also serves as a resource for us to access information on upcoming professional development or links to access strategies you may have learned at a session you attended during the first semester. Please contact us if you need support in any area!
Math Communications...Newsletter, Facebook, and website.
Remember that there is also a parent newsletter explaining what is being taught in Kindergarten through Algebra 1.
In addition, there is a math page on the curriculum area of the district websitehttp://www.aliceisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?type=d&uREC_ID=279701&pREC_ID=676998
Please share this information with parents and encourage them to contact us if there are questions.
Under the departments section of the district website (www.aliceisd.net) there is also a Math page with links to information. Here is a direct link to that page: http://www.aliceisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?type=d&uREC_ID=279701&pREC_ID=676998
Math Staff Development
This year is a whole new ball game when it comes to the Student Expectations. Many of the student expectations rolled down from previous grades, so it is not unusual to find 3rd grade teachers working on concepts that were previously taught in 4th grade and even one that came down from 7th! Fourth grade teachers are working with concepts that were covered previously in 5, 6, 7th grades.
All of this means teachers are relearning concepts and learning how to teach them to students. High school TEKS will be changing next year!
The "rollouts" are times for teachers to really examine the Student Expectations, get clarification and then practice those strategies. It is now more than just planning the calendar. Sessions are very hands on.Below are a just few pics from recent rollouts.
Please remember that there are other engaging activities to supplement your teaching in the Teksresourcesystem site! These are found in the District Resources area. You should have received both a handout of directions for accessing these and a video. If you need more help, contact Anna Holmgreen.
Exchanging Coins
6th grade
6th grade
Math Rollouts
Feb. 12 - 3rd grade
Feb. 13 - 4th grade
Feb. 16 - Alg. 1 at high school
Feb. 17 - 5th Grade at Central Office
Feb. 17th - Gr. 7 and 8
Feb. 18 - 6th grade at Central Office
Feb. 19 - Kinder
Feb. 20 - 1st grade
Feb. 24 - 2nd grade
Alice ISD hosts Destination Imagination’s Spectacular Saturday!
Participants gain more than just basic knowledge and skills—they learn to unleash their imaginations and take unique approaches to problem solving!
More than 500 students from around the region participated in the exciting and innovative event, known as Spectacular Saturday. The event was hosted at William Adams Middle School on January 17, 2015. Every room in the building was utilized as students rotated from room to room participating in performance, tasked based, or a hybrid (combination of a performance and a task based) Instant Challenges. In addition, students learned to practice patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem solving process.
Types of Instant Challenges:
Performance-Based Instant Challenges require teams to create a performance from real or imaginary props. The team must either create these props from given materials or use ones already provided. They may include one or more of the following: singing, miming, rhyming, dancing, etc. Team members may enhance their characterizations through the use of Improv, Mime, Body Language, Stage Presence, and/or Voice alteration. When brainstorming a solution to a performance-based instant challenge, teams consider areas of Story Line Development such as: Situation, Conflict, Resolution, and Beginning-Middle-End. They also think about using other theatrical elements including: Staging, Music, and Special Effects.
Task-Based Instant Challenges are more hands-on type challenges. Team members must work together to communicate, move, change or protect something with the materials they are given by the Appraisers. Sometimes they will be given items that they must manipulate and then give related verbal responses. In a Task-Based Instant Challenge the team will be given a variety of materials to use to solve the challenge.
How Do Instant Challenges Work?
1. The team stands around a table on which a copy of the Challenge lies face down.
2 If the Challenge requires materials, they will also rest on a table.
3. When everyone is ready, the Appraiser flips over the Challenge and reads his or her copy of the Challenge aloud. As soon as he/she has finished reading, he/she starts the timer and the team can begin solving the problem.
4. The Appraiser makes sure the team follows the timing prescribed in the Challenge.
5. The Appraisers score the team’s solution to the Challenge.
In a world with growing cultural connections, increased levels and types of communication, and a new need for real-time teamwork and problem solving, the ability to solve problems quickly is becoming increasingly critical. The skills gained through Instant Challenges prepare students for real world experiences. In addition, the skills learned are lifelong and go far beyond what is "written on paper."
Spectacular Saturday allowed students the opportunity to practice their critical thinking, team building, problem solving and communication skills. For many students, the ability to think critically on one's feet in a very short period of time takes a lot of practice. This event was prescriptive and effective in meeting those needs.
Destination Imagination's Mission:
To develop opportunities that inspire the global community of learners to utilize diverse approaches in applying 21st century skills and creativity.
Cross-Curricular Connections:
The Destination Imagination program encourages teams of learners to have fun, take risks, focus and frame challenges while incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the arts and service learning.
Sample DI Task Based Instant Challenge -"Paper Tower"
Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/user/theresetcouncil
Newly Created "GT Journey Classes" at the Early Scholars Academy for Alice ISD Students!
Over forty Alice ISD GT Students in grades K-4 explored the "All Around the World" pods at the Early Scholars' Academy on January 13, 2015. Edna Yzaguirre (Hillcrest), Maria Martinez (MRG), Gloria Rodriguez (Noonan), Nelda Ramon (Saenz), Noemi Salinas (Schallert) , Analisa Cole, Lynnette Crane, and Marisela Serna (all from Salazar) facilitated learning as students moved from pod to pod. Their goal was to create independent learners who were excited about discovering new things.
These classes were customized to meet the needs of our gifted population. The "pods" were redesigned to increase the rigor in the learning environments for the gifted learner.
During the Journey Classes, AISD gifted learners participated in the “All Around the World” pods. These pods consisted of three separate learning environments, which included the tropics, polar, and ocean units. The students rotated through all three and accessed all three learning areas.
The "Journey Classes" seek to stimulate deeper thought among our gifted students with a greater emphasis on persuasion and analysis. The classes were interactive and meaningful.
The Tropics Pod:
The dark, hot, humid, shadowy environment of the tropical rainforest is recreated in this room to give it an authentic tropical feel. The moment our students stepped into the room, the noticeable temperature difference, the texture of the flooring, and the shadows created by strategic lighting and foliage created the backdrop for their rainforest exploration adventure. The sounds of pouring rain, yelping monkeys, tropical birds, croaking frogs, and chirping insects set the stage for a truly tropical experience. Dressed in their safari vest and guided by their flashlights, the students begin their adventure learning about the types of animals, plants, and weather phenomena found in the tropical regions of the world. The large electronic butterflies with their flapping wings grabbed our students attention. But it was the live creatures such as Shelly the redfoot tortoise, Leo the leopard frog, and Phoebe the tarantula that really piqued our students interest. Using their binoculars, students explored the well-hidden animals and insects by following the tracks on the floor, they also viewed the four layers of the rainforest: the floor, the understory, canopy, and emergent layer. Their search and discovery of hidden tropical creatures initiated a discussion about camouflage, habitats, food and animal growth and survival. Not only did the students learn about the inhabitants of the tropical rainforest, they were also introduced to the foundational elements of the structure of the region as well. They learned where on the earth the tropics are located and how plants and animals grow larger in the rainforest than on other regions due to the proximity to the equator.
As the students explored the Tropics Area, they developed math and literacy skills, increased their vocabulary, and learned about ecology, the environment, biology, and climate. The learning activities lead to conversations about careers in biology, ecology, environmentalism, entomology, and scientific research. They engaged in fun and innovating learning activities in the Tropics Area. This area gave them a realistic feel and experience, as if they were really in the tropics.
The Polar Pod:
Brrrr! The Polar Area allowed our students the opportunity to explore unknowns, they used critical thinking strategies about survival and the needs of living things. They were challenged to be creative in solving problems unknown territories. In the Polar Area Pod students were greeted by a very rigid room temperature, stark white “floating iceberg” floors, and the sounds of whirring polar winds. The sights, sounds, and feel of the room set the stage for immersion into the environment of Earth’s polar caps. The students dressed in warm fleece vests as they begin to explore the hands-on activities and materials in the Polar Area. Several counting, literacy, and science skill-building activities awaited these "polar explorers" as they used realistic props and materials to figure out solutions to the problems they faced.
In addition, the students observed a floater plane hanging aloft in the Polar Area ready to drop a cargo box of “supplies." Students learned about the materials and skills needed to live in the polar environment. They explored various ideas/concepts and analyzed what would be best to eat in their environment and where the food they need to survive will need to come from. They also discussed how to stay warm, where to find shelter, how to dress for various weather conditions, and how to best travel in the snow. The Polar Area Pod spotlighted various careers that related to marine biology, oceanography, and meteorology. A wide variety of animals that lived in the polar regions of the earth were introduced and the students learned how to survive in the harsh conditions of the frozen tundra.
The Ocean Pod:
Our students came aboard the colossal yellow submarine for a unique underwater adventure that enhanced their imaginations and encouraged exploration. The 12 foot long yellow submarine at the center pod housed 12 children. It took them on a simulated “dive” deep into the ocean where they observed many different types of deep sea life. While inside the submarine, students experienced a simulation of rising water to simulate the dive process. During this simulation time, students interacted with dolphins, whales, tortoises, and other sea creatures who were “swimming” by them.
As they disembarked the yellow submarine, the students explored the sandy shore floor modeled after the ocean floor, and were surrounded by “wall waves” designed to create a realistic oceanic environment. As they made their way around the Ocean Area, the students engaged in activities that improved their real-world awareness of marine life. The interactive sea life touch tank was stocked with sea animals including hermit crabs, snails, tube feeders, starfish, sea urchins, and pencil urchins. Students were allowed to examine and learn more about their aquatic friends. They also gained confidence in handling the sea creatures as well as developing respect and appreciation for living things.
Throughout the Journey Classes, students completed inquiry based activities, using multiple perspectives while technology was utilized to extend their activities. Students conducted "WebQuests" to combine their own research-supported theories with the effective use of the Internet to promote discovery and inquiry based learning.
The goals of the Alice ISD Gifted Journey program at the Early Scholars Academy is to provide students with higher order thinking skills, research skills, and technological resources to assist them in excelling in academics.
Chapter 6: Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations
One Technique from the recent New Teacher Bookstudy to really focus on this month! (Teach Like a Champion)
100 Percent Rule–
There’s one acceptable percentage of students following a direction: 100%. Less, and your authority is subject to interpretation, situation, and motivation.
The assertion that the standard of 100% compliance is reached with:
· A warm and positive tone
· Teachers being crisp and orderly
· Students doing as they’re asked without ever seeming to think about it
· The culture of compliance being positive and invisible
Three principles to ensuring consistent follow-through and compliance:
Use the least invasive form of intervention – the intervention should be fast and invisible
- Nonverbal intervention
- Positive group correction
- Anonymous individual correction
- Private individual correction
- Lightning-quick public correction
- Consequence
Rely on firm, calm finesse
- Students need to follow directions quickly and completely for having the best chance of success
- I need your eyes on me "so you can learn” NOT "I asked for your eyes on me because when I ask you to do something, I expect you to do it.”
- 100% teachers stress the universality of expectations “I need everyone’s eyes.”
- 100% teachers are strategically impersonal
- 100% teachers catch it early, before the rest of the class, and sometimes even the students in question, know it’s an “it”
- Find ways to make it easier to see who has followed your directions by asking students to do things you can see. Students recognize that it is far harder not to comply when you can “see” compliance.
- Be seen looking – when you ask for compliance, look for it consistently and be seen looking for it.
- Avoid marginal compliance – It’s not just whether your students do what you’ve asked but whether they do it right.
- Leverage the power of unacknowledged behavioral opportunities – Students can gain valuable practice behaving in a constructive and positive manner without even being aware that they are doing so.
Teach Like a Champion Chapters 7 & 8 - January 26th
Chapter 7: Building Character and Trust - Recap
Technique 43 – Positive Framing – Make corrections consistently and positively. Narrate the world you want your students to see even while you are relentlessly improving it. Psychological studies repeatedly show that people are far more likely to be spurred to action by a vision of a positive outcome than they are to avoid a negative one. Positive Framing corrects and guides behavior by following six rules:
1. Live in the now. Give instructions describing what the next move on the path to success is. “Show me how to SLANT!” NOT “You weren’t SLANTing.”
2. Assume the best. Don’t attribute to ill intention what could be the result of distraction, lack of practice, or genuine misunderstanding. Assuming the worst makes you appear weak.
3. Allow plausible anonymity. Begin by correcting them without using their names when possible.
4. Build momentum, and narrate the positive.
5. Challenge! Exhort them to prove what they can do by building competition into the day.
6. Talk expectations and aspirations. Talk about who your students are becoming and where you’re going. Keep positive by avoiding two things: rhetorical questions, and contingencies.
Technique 44 – Precise Praise – Positive reinforcement is one of the most powerful tools in every classroom. Most experts say it should happen three times as often as criticism and correction, however, it is sometimes used poorly.
Rules of thumb:
- Differentiate acknowledgment and praise. However, do not mix the two. Praising students for doing what is expected can be destructive.
- Praise (and acknowledge) loud; fix soft. Praise as specifically as possible and focus on exactly the behavior and action that you would like to see more of.
- Praise must be genuine.
- Remember to praise the EFFORT and PROGRESS kids make rather than just focusing on their ability to make great grades or answer questions correctly. Watch the video on Carol Dweck's research below.
Technique 45 – Warm/Strict – you must be both: caring, funny, warm, concerned, and nurturing and also strict, by the book, relentless, and sometimes inflexible.
· Explain to students why you’re doing what you are doing and how it is designed to help them.
· Distinguish between behavior and people.
· Demonstrate that consequences are temporary.
· Use warm, nonverbal behavior.
Technique 46 – The J-Factor – it turns out that finding joy in the work of learning is a key driver not just of a happy classroom but of a high-achieving classroom.
Technique 47 – Emotional Constancy – modulate your emotions; expect almost anything and have a plan to deal with it; tie your emotions to student achievement, not to your own moods or the emotions of the students you teach. An emotionally constant teacher earns students’ trust in part by having them know he is always under control.
Technique 48 – Explain Everything – Students know the logic behind the rules and expectations designed for their betterment; they understand the group success depends on everyone’s participation. Teachers make their expectations clear, rational, and logical. They constantly remind students why they do what they do and ground their explanations in the mission: this will help you get to college; this will help you understand how to be responsible.
Technique 49 – Normalize Error – Getting it wrong and then getting it right is one of the fundamental processes for schooling. Respond to both parts of this sequence, the wrong and the right, as completely normal.
· Right answers; don’t flatter; don’t fuss
· Wrong answers; don’t chasten; don’t excuse: Champion teachers show their students they expect both right and wrong to happen by not making too big a deal of either.
Chapter 8: Improving Your Pace - Recap
Improving Your Pace: Additional Techniques for Creating a Positive Rhythm in the Classroom
It isn’t the rate at which material is presented, but rather the rate at which the lesson makes the material appear to unfold. When maximizing pacing, your teaching engages and interests students, giving them a sense of progress and change.
6 Techniques for managing the illusion of speed:
· Change the Pace – changing the format of the work every 10-15 minutes as you seek to master a single topic. In addition, activities should fluctuate between active and passive.
· Brighten Lines – every time you start an activity in a lesson, present an opportunity to draw bright, clear lines at the beginning and end. Making activities begin and end crisply and clearly rather than melding together. Beginnings and endings that are visible to participants are more likely to be perceived as reference points and create the perception that you’ve done multiple discrete things. Bounding each activity with finite time limits makes it appear to be more autonomous and makes the end point clear and use odd increments of time. You can make the transition even sharper and more visible by giving a start signal: “Take three minutes to answer the questions in front of you. Then we’ll begin discussing the novel. Ready? Go!”
· All Hands – shifting rapidly among and involving a wide array of participants.
· Every Minute Matters –instead of the usual break at the last few minutes of class time or waiting in the hall for the next event, reward students for their hard work with a high-energy review of all they’ve learned or with a challenge problem. Keep a series of short learning activities ready so you’re prepared when a 2 minute opportunity emerges.
· Look Forward – put an agenda on the board for a lesson or the morning, you can start students looking forward. Refer to the future when giving directions: “Take three minutes to answer the questions in front of you. Then we’ll begin discussing the novel. Ready? Go!”
· Work the Clock – Count it down, parcel it out in highly specific increments, often announcing an allotted time for each activity. The countdown lends a sense of urgency to class time, reminding students that time matters and hastening them along to the next step. It also allows you to continually set goals for your class’s speed in meeting expectations.
Science and Young Children: Comparing Approaches
Traditional Approach
· Science viewed as already-discovered knowledge
· Teacher viewed as authority
· Areas of study set by teacher
· Large group instruction and investigations
· Evaluation based on right answers
· Content not connected to children’s experiences
· Predetermined parameters around areas of study
· Prescribed ways to collect and record data
· Science viewed as separate area of the curriculum
New Approach
· Science viewed as active exploration
· Teacher viewed as facilitator
· Individual and small group investigations
· Evaluation based on multiple criteria
· Content connected to children’s experiences
· Content of study open-ended
· Multiple ways to collect and record data
· Science integrated with other curricular areas
Regional Science Fair
Working With Intermediate and Middle School Students in Guided Reading Lessons
• Take some time to introduce your students to the routines of guided reading, and let them all know that while you are working with a small guided reading group all other students should be busy reading silently or writing about their reading.
• The students in the guided reading group focus on reading, discussing, and responding to the text they read that day with you.
Guided Reading Lessons: Teachers
• Read and analyze the texts you use for guided reading, paying special attention to selecting texts that will help your students grow in their knowledge of genre, structure, complex plots and themes, challenging features of nonfiction texts, and literary analysis.
• Assess your students with reading records on a regular basis to determine the direction of the teaching and to regroup students based on common strengths and needs.
• Select mostly short texts that can be read within one lesson. Longer texts that challenge students to build meaning over several readings, can be used occasionally to build stamina, but are more appropriate for book clubs or independent reading.
• Try to meet with the neediest students every day if possible, and meet with other students every other day.
• When reading longer texts, try to meet for several days in a row so that students can build momentum and hold on to the meaning of the text. Decide ahead of time how to divide the longer text into chapters or sections that will be read and discussed along the way.
• Support readers during the introduction by pointing out features of text that might be challenging to them. Be sure to attend to themes and ideas as well as organizational features of the text.
• During the reading, interact with students that may need your support as they read. You might ask them to read a paragraph or two aloud, or you might ask them to talk with you about what they are thinking about the text at that point. Occasionally you might take a reading record on a student during this time. It is also possible to confer with other students in the class while those in the guided reading group read silently.
• After students read the text that day, take time to discuss it. This might include asking students to share what they were thinking, touching upon an aspect you asked them to attend to, or asking one or two questions to probe their thinking. The discussion should be conversational and not limited to question and answer.
If your students need help with word solving, plan to do two or three minutes of word work after the lesson where you can focus on an aspect of word solving that will help them grow. In the upper grades this might include work with prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots, and the nuances of recognizing multiple meanings of words.
Balanced Literacy: Writer's Workshop
Highlights from January 14th and 15th Training Days
The following are notes from our two days of "Writer's Workshop" with the Collette Consulting Group. Revisit these notes to help you as you implement or work to improve your writer's workshop.
Developmental stages of writing:
1. Experimenting - scribbles, random letters, shapes, copied print
2. Emerging - recognizable text, semi-phonetic, environmental words are correct
3. Developing - attempts story, good beginning, spelling phonetically
4. Capable - tells a story, makes a point
5. Experienced - easy to follow, understands topic well, basic punctuation
Remember the stages of the writing process are not meant to be experienced in a linear fashion but rather in a recursive and reflective method. At any given time you may have students at different stages of the writing process. Remember it's all about the process - kids may move from one stage to another depending on their current needs.
- Exploring - generating ideas, brainstorming, making quick lists, using a graphic organizer, drawing pictures and labeling
- Drafting - writing
- Revising - improving the writing so that it sounds better [combining ideas and reducing repetition]
- Editing - improving the writing so that it looks better [spelling, capitalization, punctuation]
- Publishing - student has a finished product without any teacher corrections that is ready to be shared and displayed
*Remember not every writer needs to use a graphic organizer every time, BUT they need to know how to use one.
*Revising is basically the craft while editing is mostly mechanics.
*Editing matters when you go from private to public writing. Don't let the editing weigh down the writer.
Environment: writer's workshop should be very peaceful, tranquil, calming, and comfortable. The classroom environment should be print rich with anchor charts and word walls. They should have enough room for their materials. They should have their folders, paper, pencils or pens with them at all times. There should be a variety of paper available to students. Paper choice in writer's workshop is just as important as book choice is in reading.
IMPORTANT RULES OF A WRITER'S WORKSHOP
1. NO ERASING
2. DATE EVERYTHING
3. DON’T WRITE ON THE BACK
4. DON’T THROW ANYTHING AWAY – might want to add to it later
5. NO SPELLING WORDS FOR THEM – IT’S GOT TO BE OKAY TO LET IT GO
How much time do we spend on writing?
· Everyday
· At least an hour [if schedule allows]
· The mini lesson has to be short if you have less than an hour;
· We are more concerned about the amount of days in a row that we write consistently rather than how much time we are writing
Support – Teacher needs to be available and they need to be able to feel comfortable with their peers. Need guided instruction. Be very explicit about what we want them to do. Keep it simple. When you teach remember kids have to know why they are learning and how to do it.
Conference guidelines
· Create a relaxed environment
· Prevent interruption
· Make eye contact
· Be positive
· Listen carefully
· Don’t talk too much
· Ask helpful questions
· Take notes – need to know what kids are doing [this is important]
Writing is Recursive
Writer's Workshop
Wordle of Our Learning
UPCOMING Balanced Literacy On Site Support Days
- February 5th: Mary R. Garcia - Kinder
- February 11th: Schallert & Noonan
- February 18th: Schallert
- February 19th: Mary R. Garcia - 1st & 2nd Gd.
- February 19th: Saenz
- February 26th: Hillcrest & Salazar
Hi-Yield Activities
Screenshots below come from a lead4ward resource designed to provide teachers with detailed descriptions of specific, hi-yield instructional strategies. It should be used as part of an intentional planning process to include these in delivering rigorous, engaging instruction that incorporates various learning modalities and aligns to the TEKS.
For many of you these are not new. In fact you may have seen these strategies in Kagan workshops, Marzano workshops or others. Please revisit these tried and true activities to add rigor and engagement to your instruction.
If you would like to see the whole document, visit the teksresourcesystem.net and look in the district resources. A video and instructions was emailed to you last week. If you need more help, please contact Anna Holmgreen.
"One Minute Paper, 3-2-1 Summary and Vocabulary Building"
"Card Sort and Commit and Toss"
"Exit Ticket and Fact or Fib Showdown"
Providing Effective Feedback That Makes a Difference
1. Supply information about what the learner is doing, rather than simply praise or criticism. Most effective is information on what exactly the learner is doing right, and what he or she is doing differently than in previous attempts.
2. Take care in how you present feedback. Empower learners by giving them feedback and teaching them how to use it--not just "This is how you should do it." Help students compete against their own personal best.
3. Orient feedback around goals. "Where am I going?", "How am I doing?" and "Where to next?" Help learners see how they are making progress toward goals.
4. Use feedback to build metacognitive skills. The most lasting benefit of feedback is helping students develop awareness of their own learning.
*If you would like to read more see the link here:
http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/18/four-ways-to-give-good-feedback/
Flex Your Math Muscle
A solution video is also emailed after the papers are received. Teachers can show this video to students.
This initiative is strictly voluntary on the part of students. Teachers are just asked to print and post the problems and collect and send in the papers (and of course encourage students to participate).
See one of the solution videos below.
By the way, this solution video was created with a free iPad app called "ShowMe". There are others as well. If you are interested in creating one of these on your own, contact Anna Holmgreen.
Model Classrooms Project
MCP deals with six categories of instructional strategies: Content (designed to foster connections), Thinking (designed to cultivate thoughtfulness), Product (to strengthen understanding), Assessment (to guide quality), Facilitation (to nurture focus) and Reflection (to encourage consolidation). Each of these has several strategies. You may be familiar with the Three Part Objective (TPO), Randomness in calling on students, etc.
Teacher leaders from each campus have met with Mr. Samara in two hour sessions in September, November, December and in January. In addition, administrators and district leaders have met with him three times to support what is happening in classrooms. Two more sessions will follow this year.
This next few weeks teacher leaders will be working on Content Management (Direct Instruction Practices). They will be looking at their visuals, explanations, delivery, questioning and student production in addition to their own energy in the class (moving, eye contact, pacing, etc.)
Teacher leaders should be sharing what is discussed with their campuses. Be sure to ask what they are learning and explore ways you can address these strategies to impact your own classroom instruction and management!
Textbook Adoption: Proclamation 2015
Your schools will be receiving samples over the next couple of months to review. Please take the time to look at the materials. Feel free to use them to complete an activity to determine how the TEKS were covered and see how the students respond to the materials.
Each school has a textbook committee which will make recommendations to the district committee about which publisher the district should choose for the adoption. Take the time to look at the materials, compare them and weigh the pros and cons of each publisher.
Finally, we will be holding a Textbook Adoption Expo where the publishers will bring samples, discuss their products, and answer questions the audience has regarding their materials. The information about the expo is on the below flyer.
Social Studies:
- Social Studies, grades K–8
- Social Studies (Spanish), grades K–5
- United States History Studies Since 1877
- World History Studies
- World Geography Studies
- United States Government
- Economics with Emphasis on the Free Enterprise System and Its Benefits
- Psychology
- Sociology
Mathematics:
- Algebra I
- Algebra II
- Geometry
- Precalculus
- Mathematical Models with Application
- Advanced Quantitative Reasoning
- Engineering Mathematics
- Mathematical Applications in Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources
- Statistics and Risk Management
- Robotics Programming and Design
Fine Arts:
- Art, grades K-12
- Music, grades K-12
- Theatre, grades K-12
- Dance, grades 6-12
- Music Studies, grades 9-12
- Musical Theatre, grades 9-12
- Technical Theatre, grades 9-12
Alice ISD Instructional Support Center
Departments and Contributors
Dr. Grace Everett - Superintendent of Schools
Curriculum and Instruction Department
Velma Soliz-Garcia, Assistant Superintendent (Curriculum & Instruction, Career and Technical Education, Technology, District Coordinator of School Improvement, and GearUp)
Marta Salazar - Director of Instructional Services (ELA, Dyslexia, Parent Involvement)
Elida DeLeon - Director of Advanced Academics (GT/AP, Social Studies, Discipline Hearing Officer)
Anna Holmgreen - Director of Instructional Services (Math and Data Analysis)
Erika Vasquez - Director of Instructional Services (Science and RtI)
Dina Hinojosa - Texas Literacy Initiative - Literacy Shepherd
Technology Department
Velma Soliz-Garcia, Assistant Superintendent
Rachel Martin, Instructional Technology Coordinator
Special Education & 504 Department
Gracie Garcia, Director of Special Education & 504
Federal & Special Programs
Dr. Alma Garcia - Federal Grants, State Grants, Bilingual/ESL Programs, Migrant and Homeless Liaison
Career and Technical Education Department
Velma Soliz-Garcia, Assistant Superintendent (Curriculum & Instruction, Career and Technical Education, Technology, District Coordinator of School Improvement, and GearUp)
Mike Carper, Alice High School Assistant Principal & CTE Campus Administrator
Celina Garcia, Alice High School CTE Department Chair
Finance Department & Human Resources Department
Dr. Melonae Day, Assistant Superintendent Finance and HR
Student Nutritional Services
Krystle Flores, Director of Nutritional Services
Student Health Services
Lisa Lozano, District RN
Email: velma.solizgarcia@aliceisd.esc2.net
Website: Aliceisd.net
Location: #2 Coyote Trail Alice, TX, United States
Phone: (361) 664-0981
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alice-Independent-School-District/555189921231282
Twitter: @AliceISD
Texas Literacy Initiative Update from Dina Hinojosa
- In SY2015, collaborate with VGC to provide literacy coaches and district/campus administrators with training on differentiated small-group instruction in grades K- 4 to ensure students exit elementary schools on grade level. Literacy coaches and ELAR district administrators will implement the coaching model to train the teachers in differentiated small-group instruction. Campus Administrators' role will be to ensure accountability at each campus.
- In SY 2015, collaborate with VGC to provide literacy coaches and district/campus administrators with training on "writing for a purpose in the content areas (science, social studies and Math)" in grade 7 and 8 to ensure students have multiple, authentic opportunities to write. Literacy coaches and ELAR district administrators will implement the coaching model to train content area teachers in effective writing practices. Campus Administrators' role will be to ensure accountability at each campus.
At this time, the TLI grant funding is scheduled to end August 31, 2016; however, the work that has been started with TLI will continue to stay in place.
CBLTs continue to meet each week to reflect on the progress of the past courses in the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP). The next course will begin on February 9. CBLTs should submit all paperwork to Dina Hinojosa and keep a copy for their records.
For questions, please contact your literacy coach and/or Dina Hinojosa, TLI Literacy Shepherd, at 361-664-0981 ext. 32.