Update From THIS I.F.
Mid January Already???
TES Focus
- Get students talking to one another about content! Student to student interaction increases language for students and helps them process information.
For your classroom to be considered "student interactive"--the students must be speaking to one another at least 50% of the time and as much or more than the teacher! This is hard to do but stopping every few minutes and allowing students to share with their partner, table or peer a definition, idea or summary can make engagement in your class rise significantly and build conceptual understanding!
- Speaking in complete sentences!
Remember if they cannot talk about it--they CANNOT read or write about it!
- Vocabulary Instruction (Do not forget Context Clues as well)
25% of the EOG--A MAJOR predictor of comprehension!
- 120 minute ELA Block and 90 minute Math Block (Intervention time must be in addition to core instruction!)
Have students summarize learning throughout the lesson! Stop and Think Pair Share or partner and talk about a word, topic, or definition! Stop teaching or "leading the speaking" and have students write their thoughts, draw a picture or share learning with a partner! Summarizing throughout a lesson is one of the best strategies to yield high growth. See my Blog if you haven't read about summarizing!! This strategy as outlined in my Blog can increase student growth 1-3 years!
Retention Meetings
Dates to Know:
Week of February 6th-10th
County Math Benchmarks for K-2
County Math and Reading Benchmarks 3-5
County Benchmarks for 3-5 Reading and Math will be the first week of February. These will be a bit longer than our first Benchmark and will begin working on endurance. Continue to use your visual timers to help students learn how to pace themselves during EOG practice. *3-5 Grade Levels: I need your day preferences ASAP. Thanks!
K-2 County Math Benchmarks will take place at this time as well. Do not forget you may want use released versions of this assessment to prepare students for the format. See the left of the screen to find your grade level
MOY Benchmark--Have you?
K-2
You will complete Reading 3D Dibels and TRC. Easy CBM CCSS Math, SRI
3rd
You will complete Reading 3D Dibels and TRC. Easy CBM CCSS Math. You are also responsible for DAZE (online). SRI
4-5
You will complete Easy CBM Fluency, Vocabulary, MCRC Reading and CCSS Reading. In addition, you will complete the CCSS Math. SRI
Curriculum "WOWs" in the Building
- Heather Houston and Tasha Sweet--Thank you for taking the initiative to find 7 minutes in your plans to increase reading. I appreciate your jumping in to the challenge!
- Terri Fincannon has plans to implement the 7 minutes through repeated poem read aloud! Love this idea and you for fitting this in your schedule!
- Mrs. Watts for getting reports out to teachers regarding progress and jumping back in to the routine. Thanks!
- Michelle Robinson extending her own learning through annotation and cause and effect with me. Thanks for all you do to ensure rigor for your students.
- Successful SST Meeting--thanks to ALL team members for your problem solving and passion for our students.
- Emily Durmire--thanks for you perseverance in getting parents in for conferencing AND sending the article on how poverty affects our students in the classroom! I am linking it here for others to read! POWERFUL! I appreciate you sharing it!
- Jennifer Muscarelli your silent presence in making things happen---continues to amaze me! Thanks for your hard work on NAEP Testing, Reading Counts Rewards and everything else you do behind the scenes.
- 1st Grade--Thanks for your hard work assessing R3D.
- Annotation being modeled in several classrooms this week--please remember this is NOT just an upper grade skill. Younger students can do this with sticky notes!
I really watched in classes this week for student to student interaction--please do not forget this piece. We need our students talking about LEARNING, VOCABULARY AND CONTENT 50% of the time in our classrooms! I noticed in 4th, 5th, and 1st grades--teachers modeling and working with students to respond in complete sentences but also appropriately back to one another and to the teacher. Mrs. Martin has been working on the Accountable Talk posters--use these! I heard a student say, " I disagree with you because____" and another student say "I think this is true because _________." Another classroom was having students share where they were not understanding or how they fixed their learning--VERY POWERFUL! Remember if they are speaking in this manner--they can write in complete sentences. Please make sure our students are articulating their ideas to you as the teacher but following up on the ideas of others. Thanks for thinking on this!
7 Minute Challenge
We had 2 people participate in the 7 minute challenge this week! These two people will get a free jean day AND a surprise from me in their box as a thank you for making this a priority!
I know you are busy but if you look at the chart above--how can we as a school not take this seriously and act on it. Notice 7 minutes a day increases exposure for students to about the 60th percentile. Research shows that more than 20% of students in grades 2-5 do not read outside of school AT ALL!
Document in your lesson plans where you are increasing reading by 7 minutes each day and your name will be put in for a weekly drawing. You will just put the 7 minutes in your lesson plans in bold print or highlight in yellow so they can be seen easily. Email Ms. Lingle and Kelly This that you have included the time. The email will be your "ticket" for the drawing so please make sure you do this.
To maximize time--you will have to plan for this time and it not be spur of the moment. Having a book basket or a book on the side of the desk for this purpose (not having to search for a book) is recommended. Students having appropriate books at their level at hand will encourage reading during "down times." Our reluctant readers will spend all their time at the book shelf choosing a book!
Weekly Blog
Kelly This
Email: kthis@alexander.k12.nc.us
Website: http://www.alexander.k12.nc.us/domain/1123
Location: Taylorsville, NC, United States
Phone: 8282922293
Twitter: @This1This