Spring CIA Newsletter
From the Desk of Dr. Robert D. Locklear, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Accountability
Reading Is The Key To Success
March provides Public Schools of Robeson County educators, stakeholders, parents, and students a chance to recharge for the love of reading. It is not a secret that reading is the key to success; we have been told and taught this from a very early age. Remember all those book reports you had to do for free pizza in elementary school? And now in the age of the internet — reading, writing, and communication skills are more valuable than any other skills you possess. It has been proven that children who read better, perform better in school and have a more active imagination, leading to a larger world and more possibilities for success.
The National Education Association (NEA) also reported that children who were read to more often were more likely to count to 20 or higher, (60% of those who were read to compared to 44% who were not or read to less often) more likely to write their own names, (54% to 40%) and were more likely to read or pretend to read (77% to 57%). Those numbers are pretty steep, showing a direct correlation between reading and milestones. (milestones equal success for a child and often for the parent as well.) In fact, children’s academic success aged 9 and 10 can be linked to the amount of words they hear from birth through the age of 3. But yet, the NEA reported that in 1999 only about 53% of children aged 3 to 5 were read to every day by a family member.
As we return with students face to face, we need to encourage them (and those that have opted to continue virtual) to read even more than before to address the instructional loss over the past year. Media centers are opened for students to check out books and other related resources.
Please let curriculum and instruction know how we can support you not only this month, but for months to come. Happy reading!
Academically/Intellectually Gifted (AIG) Department
AIG Specialists have been working diligently on the new 2022-2025 plan for the district. We are hoping to implement new strategies that seek out those students who show potential for the program, promote equity and excellence, and that serve our identified students better.
The Superintendent’s Academic Awards will be held May 26, 2022 at UNCP’s GPAC. We are excited about meeting face to face to honor those students who have worked hard all year!
Shining Stars PreSchool
Happy Spring from Early Years'!
Our Early Childhood staff have been working hard these past few months. We have continued in our professional development of Teaching Strategies Gold, Ready Rosie and Letterland. Our students and teachers are now utilizing and implementing the new materials received in order to enhance learning. We can't wait to see all of the benefits and gains our students make.
Also happening in our world is the recognition of Pembroke with NAEYC accreditation. Thank you to our amazing staff, students and administrators for receiving such a high recognition. We are yet again a five star daycare facility!!!
We continue to move forward with our renovation of our Lumberton building and are excited with anticipation of what is to come! Please feel free to come visit us to see all of the wonderful things happening around Shining Stars'!
Media Services
1st Place- Tanglewood
2nd Place- St. Pauls Elementary
3rd Place- East Robeson
Congratulations to the following schools who placed in the 2021-2022 PSRC Battle of the Books 4th and 5th Grade!
1st Place- Littlefield
2nd Place- Pembroke Elementary
3rd Place- Long Branch Elementary
Great job to all the schools! Reading is fundamental!
2021-2022 2nd/3rd Grade PSRC Battle of the Books
2021-2022 2nd/3rd Grade PSRC Battle of the Books
2021-2022 2nd/3rd Grade PSRC Battle of the Books
2021-2022 4th/5th Grade PSRC Battle of the Books
2021-2022 4th/5th Grade PSRC Battle of the Books
2021-2022 4th/5th Grade PSRC Battle of the Books
Science Department
Pacing guide teams have been busy making sure the pacing guide has resources aligned to the NC Science Essential Standards.
Project Trash Talk will occur the week of April 4th thru April 8th for grades K-8th grade. These are short lessons that help students understand the importance of keeping Robeson County Clean and Green. We look forward to seeing pictures of these lessons in action in the near future.
Several STEM lessons have taken place across the district to help with student understanding of the standards and relate to real-world problems.
K-2 Literacy
3-5 Curriculum
Read Across America
WH Knuckles, Rowland Norment, Tanglewood, Rosenwald, Rex Rennert
Read Across America
Read Across America
Indian Education Department
Math Department
Math in Practice and Productive Math Struggle professional development sessions with Sue O'Connell and Kevin Dykema are wrapping up. We have had six wonderful sessions with each group, have learned a lot, and gotten nice manipulatives.
All Math 1 teachers in the county had a workshop on March 7 and 8 at the Central Office. Shari Brockington, Richmond Community College Instructor and former PSRC Math 1 teacher led the sessions with help from former colleagues Katasha Oxendine and Charles Johnson and former student Rayshawn Locklear, Assistant Professor of Mathematics for Shaw University.
Pacing guide teams have started their work. Their first project is creating Know and Show charts for the most tested standards for their grade level. If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas about things that can be added to the pacing guides, please email those suggestions to Catrina Bailey and I will pass them along to the appropriate group.
Social Studies Department
Historic Celebrations
January-
MLK day commemorates the life and work of Dr. King, who was a Baptist minister and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. People are encouraged to use the day to “reflect on the principles of racial equality and nonviolent social change espoused by Dr. King.
February-
Black History Month- a celebration and a powerful reminder that Black history is American history, Black culture is American culture, and Black stories are essential to the ongoing story of America — our faults, our struggles, our progress, and our aspirations. Shining a light on Black history today is as important to understanding ourselves and growing stronger as a Nation as it has ever been.
Presidents Day-is a federal holiday used to celebrate the birthday of our nation's first president- George Washington as well as our 16th president- Abraham Lincoln.
March-
Women's History Month-We celebrate the contributions of women. During March we can remember the sacrifices made by women, for women to help make the world, and our country, a more inclusive place.
Irish American Heritage Month-celebrated to honor the achievements and contributions of Irish immigrants and their descendants living in the United States.
Literacy in Social Studies
We are still pushing literacy and ELA standards in the Social studies classrooms to help support ELA teachers, bridge the gap in reading, help increase ELA EOG scores, as well as prepare students to become college and career ready by giving them the literacy and critical thinking skills they need to be productive citizens after high school.
Read Across America- The first week in March is labeled as “Read across America week” I had the opportunity to read to 9 classes ( Kindergarten and 1st grade) to show how exciting reading can be and how it is needed to be successful in life. Hopefully I left these awesome students with the love for reading and they use this experience to enhance their reading skills and efforts.
New Standards Update
Sandhills regional curriculum mapping- As you may know, the state pushed out all new Social Studies standards at the beginning of this school year. PSRC had the pleasure of working with theThe Sandhills Regional Education Consortium (SREC) which is a collaboration of 12 K-12 public school districts in southeastern North Carolina. During this collaboration we were able to map the curriculum using the new standards.By the end of March we should be complete with curriculum mapping for each grade level, which would move us into creating pacing guides for the Social Studies curriculum in PSRC.
Spring Social Studies Focus
Inquiry based Learning /Bias - Perspective
This Spring in Social Studies our focus is on Inquiry Based learning and how this process can eliminate teacher bias and perspectives.Inquiry-based learning is an approach to learning that emphasizes the student's role in the learning process. Rather than the teacher telling students what they need to know, students are encouraged to explore the material, ask questions, and share ideas. With this approach teachers are able to facilitate and lean on students to use critical thinking skills to determine meanings, ideas, real life connections and outcome of historic events using their own thought process.
January- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
February- Black History Month
February- Black History Month
February- Black History Month
February- 2022 Presidents' Day
March- Women's History Month
March- Irish American Heritage Month
Read Across America 2022
Read Across America- 2022
Planetarium
2. Quiz Bowl season: online wraps up, with regionals to come shortly. Four teams are going to regionals 3/12 in Fayetteville: Union Chapel, Deep Branch, Littlefield, and Lumberton HS. All of these teams enjoyed winning seasons, with Lumberton HS and Union Chapel emerging as league champions.
3. PSRC Hockey game: March 17th, almost 1300 5th graders from PSRC will be attending a Fayetteville Marksmen home game. The game begins at 10 am, and students should be back on campus by 2 pm. A workbook will be given to each student that attends this event.
Ken Brandt, our Planetarium Director, wrote and recorded this podcast for the 365daysof astronomy website, which has been compiling podcasts about astronomical things for 13 years!
Here's his latest contribution, about the anniversary of two mobile mars machines:
Ken Brandt was nominated to be on the NCASA Board of Directors, among other things, to serve on the Quiz Bowl committee.
Robeson County Planetarium
North Carolina Association for Scholastic Activities
Marksmen Hockey
Career Technical Education (CTE)
English/Language Arts Department
This spring, we have called together new English/ELA pacing guide teams that are collaborating across grade levels to refine our instruction for the 2022-2023 school year. Both the middle grades team and the high school team have been working vertically to consider many instructional factors during this revision: the new North Carolina Literacy Instruction Standards, standards-aligned instruction, selecting focus standards, integrated standards, quantitative and qualitative text complexity, scaffolding, and differentiation to support diverse learners.
On Thursday, March 10, from 3:45 to 5:15 we will host professional development with Newsela on Building Background Knowledge. Students need a wide breadth of knowledge to understand increasingly complex texts as they advance through their academic careers.
ELA teachers can intentionally design instruction to build students’ background knowledge, which in turn supports reading comprehension and reasoning skills.
On Thursday, April 7, we have scheduled a Patio PD session on Adolescent Literacy with Kelly Schultz from the NCDPI ELA team. This session will include information on the forthcoming specifications for the North Carolina Literacy Instruction Standards that apply to the core curriculum.
Assistant Principal Leslie Harris and ELA teachers at Magnolia Elementary collaborate during a vertical planning session.
Arts Department
Testing and Accountability
March 15, 2022: Makeup ACT (11th Grade Only)
March 31, 2022: Math and Science Common Formative Assessment (K-8)
April 4-8, 2022: Biology, English 2, Math 1, Math 3 Common Formative Assessment (High School Only)
April 4-15, 2022: Alternative RTA Assessment (Third Grade Only)
April 7, 2022: Reading Common Formative Assessment (K-8)
April 11-15, 2022: ACT Workkeys (12th Grade Only)
April 11-15, 2022: NC Check-Ins #3: ( 4-8 Read/ 3-8 Math/ 5 Sci-E&P & 8 Sci-L)
April 25-29, 2022: NC High School Check-Ins #2 Math 1 and Biology
May 2-6, 2022: English 2 and Math 3 Common Formative Assessment
May 2-13, 2022: Advanced Placement (AP) Exams
May 5, 2022: March and Science Common Formative Assessment (K-8)
May 11-18, 2022: PSRC Early College EOC Assessments
May 12, 2022: Reading Common Formative Assessment (4-8 Only)
May 20-June 3, 2022: NCEXTEND1- Grades 3-8 & Grade 10
May 20-June 3, 2022: NC EOG Math, Reading, and Science K-8
May 27-June 3, 2022: NC EOC Assessments
June 1, 2022: Grade 3 Read to Achieve Test
Digital Teaching and Learning
Nearpod is a website and app-based digital tool that lets teachers create slide-based learning resources that are interactive for students to engage with and learn from.
PSRC has bought Nearpod for teachers to use in the classroom as a digital tool and has been integrated in Canvas as an external tool and Clever.