The Wildcat Write Up
WB Curriculum and Instruction News
Accelerating Literacy Grant
Preschool
The preschool students in Mrs. Mattos’ class are working hard on becoming young authors, they recently “wrote” a book titled “I am an Illustrator.” They did an amazing job and we cannot wait to see what their next “published” piece of work will be!
Mrs. Dancey’s preschool class has been learning about volcanoes and dinosaurs. They have conducted experiments with making volcanoes erupt and on Friday, they will be exploring what they might find in a “dinosaur egg.” They are future scientists in the making!
Future Scientists!
Instructional Technology
ST Math
What Is ST Math?
In West Bridgewater, St Math is used in grades Kindergarten through sixth.
Deep Conceptual Understanding
ST Math is mastery based, which means students must pass each level with a score of 100% (all puzzles correctly solved) before the next level in a sequence becomes available to them. Each student has their own personalized journey and takes as long as they need to achieve mastery. This ensures that students are building and demonstrating a strong conceptual foundation.
Formative Feedback
In ST Math, action is critical and mistakes are the perfect opportunity for learning. Animated formative feedback offers an intrinsically motivating learning experience that shows students the mathematical consequences of each answer, helping to form and shape their understanding. Students don’t just guess at multiple choices, or worse, get a question wrong and wonder why.
Standards-Aligned
ST Math games include more than 35,000 puzzles with interactive representations of math topics that align to all state standards, with learning objectives that target key grade-level concepts and skills.
ST Math is a flexible instructional tool that can fit easily into many different curriculum implementations. In a computer lab, during designated classroom time, station-rotation, or at home - as long as students are using ST Math for 60-90 minutes per week, you will see gains in their math achievement.
Star Assessments K-8
Q: What are Star Assessments?
A: Star Assessments are short tests that provide teachers with learning data. Star tests are computer adaptive, which means they adjust to each answer your child provides. This helps teachers get the best data to help your child in the shortest amount of testing time (about one-third of the time other tests take).
Your child may take a Star test for early literacy, math, reading, or other subjects of their teacher’s choice.
Q: What do teachers do with Star Assessments?
A: Teachers analyze the data they get from Star Assessments to learn what students already know and what they are ready to learn next, to monitor student growth, and to determine which students may need additional help. Star Assessments are heavily researched and scientifically proven to help teachers guide each student on his or her unique path to mastery.
Q: What do Star Assessments do for my child?
A: By pinpointing exactly what your child knows, teachers can personalize your child’s practice to keep them growing. Plus, short test times ensure your child spends more time learning and less time testing.
Q: Can we use Star Assessments at home?
A: No, Star Assessments are only used at school by teachers to gain insight to guide instruction.
Q: How can I help my child with their Star Assessments?
A: The best way to help your child with Star Assessments is to help them understand why they are taking the test: So their teacher knows exactly how to help them learn! For anxious children, it may be important to tell them that they cannot fail a Star test—as long as they do their best, the data generated from the test will help their teacher teach them more great things!
Q: Where do I go if I have questions?
A: Your child’s teacher is the best source of additional information about your child’s progress with Star Assessments. Renaissance is committed to protecting student privacy and will not share data with anyone outside your child’s authorized school staff.
Family Guides to the Massachusetts Learning Standards
https://www.doe.mass.edu/highstandards/default.html (please scroll to the middle of the page to find the guides)
Middle Senior High School Program of Studies
Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge
Family Resources
- Storyline Online - https://storylineonline.net/
- National Geographic Kids - https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
- Starfall - https://www.starfall.com/h/index-kindergarten.php
- KidLit TV - "is a winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy, and one of the American Library Association’s Great Websites For Kids. KLTV is available in over 600,000 schools worldwide via our website and video distribution partners. We’re a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers working together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives." https://www.kidlit.tv/
- Scholastic Story Starters - http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/index.html
- Khan Academy - https://www.khanacademy.org/
- Brains On - https://www.brainson.org/
Curriculum and Instruction
Email: dllanes@wbridgewater.com
Website: wbridgewatershools.org
Location: 2 Spring Street
Phone: 508-894-1230 . 2126