ACE LITERACY
Newsletter: December 20, 2018 - Year 4
Congratulations!
Congratulations on a wonderful first semester of the 2018-2019 school year. We are so excited by the accomplishments our students are making day by day! Take a moment to reflect on some of the BIG things we've done:
- Unpacked our literacy standards down to the specificity in weekly PLC's
- Studied student work in order to reteach precisely the skill they needed
- Instituted 20 minutes of daily high success reading for every child
- Differentiated instruction through guided reading to accelerate reading levels
- Built in a writing block that gives students opportunities to review authentic writing and practice grammar skills authentically
- Tightened our instruction through alignment of content and rigor
- Used aggressive monitoring to ensure that we support students to practice with high expectations and receive feedback in the moment
Whew! That's a lot of momentum for one semester!
Winter Reading
Ready to settle in with a good book this winter break? Here are a few suggestions from your ACE Core Team Joyce, Brittany and Shatara:
Something Professional:
Understanding Texts and Readers
This new Jennifer Serravallo book has really helped me think of how to develop my fluent readers' comprehension during guided reading! -Joyce
Visible Learning for Teachers
Always good to get your head into some research! -Brittany
Dare to Serve
I found this text inspiring and informative about the turn around of Popeyes. There are lessons that apply to our work for sure. -Shatara
Something Fun:
Becoming
I picked this book up as a gift but started reading it myself. I am really enjoying it so far! - Joyce
The Nightingale
I really enjoyed this historical fiction and learned more about WW2 France in the process. -Brittany
Life Like
I really enjoyed this dystopian fiction about artificial intelligence and how we connect to each other and understand our own identities. -Shatara
Something for the kids:
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
This is a beautiful children's novel. There are also some great opportunities to connect to model our fiction SE's. -Joyce
The 13 Storey Tree House Series
These silly stories were very popular in schools in Australia, and my daughter continues to wait in anticipation for the next books to be released. We've read them all! -Brittany
Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!
We love this book at my house. It's a great book as we head into testing season with an important reminder about confidence in yourself and authentic learning experiences. -Shatara
4th Six Weeks IPCs Updated!
Istation Update
The MOY window for Istation testing grades K-2 will open January 8. Please ensure a good testing environment for valid data to be collected. This will be an important indicator of our growth and acceleration.
Grades 3-5 will also find this assessment a helpful tool in ensuring best fit books during guided reading as students return from winter break!
Upcoming Professional Development
Event Information
ACE Team Thursday- Literacy 3-8
In our next ACE Team Literacy Thursday we have exciting new resources to share as we roll into spring semester. We will look at unpacking and annotating genres in authentic and engaging ways. We'll also look at differentiating the work post-ACP.
When?
Thursday, Jan 24, 2019, 04:00 PM
Where?