Mascoma Curriculum Newsletter
❄️January, 2024 ⛄
January, 24 early release day - Grit
This video shows how the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) may be used as a formative assessment — to determine students’ understanding of a concept or their knowledge of a topic. Educators can use the QFT to assess their students at the beginning of a unit, as seen in this video, in the middle of the unit, and toward the end of the unit.
There are other creative ways to use the QFT, including as a summative assessment (see: “Making Questions Flow” to read more about how to use student questions).
In this video, Lucy Canotas, a fourth-grade teacher in Manchester, New Hampshire, uses the QFT for formative assessment purposes. “I’m interested to see what they can bring as questions to make me understand where they’re still stuck or what they still don’t know,” she explains. To elicit students’ questions about fractions, she designed a visual Question Focus (QFocus). She found that using the students’ questions and work helped her better understand what they knew about this mathematical concept. This video shows each step of the QFT in an elementary-school classroom, and it shows how Canotas uses the QFT to collect information that helps her fine-tune lessons.
Curriculum Google.Classrom
In an effort to curate curriculum resources, I am in the process of developing a MVRSD Curriculum google.classroom. Check out the class for professional development materials, K-8 math pacing guides, scope and sequence documents, and more. 📚 📏 📖
Course Code: cshmptt
Ann Elise Record - Math Professional Development Videos
Math Running Record videos - There is an introduction video and then one for each operation where I interview students and explain how I coded the running record. Teachers can download the recording sheets from the site www.mathrunningrecords.com for free and practice while watching the videos.
Daily Routine Videos - There are separate videos for Kinder through 4th grade. All links to the daily routines shared are on my padlet: https://tinyurl.com/RecordElementaryMath
Teachable Courses - Teachers will go to the link and click in the upper right hand side of the site where it says "All products". They will then see all the courses I currently offer on the Teachable site- Cuisenaire Rods, Problem Solving K2, Fraction Essentials, and Place Value.
Please see the Mascoma Curriculum Google.Classroom for the code.
Social Studies Resources & Professional Development
- NH CIVICS has partnered with NHED to share resources with educators via NHED’s Canvas platform. Using the public NH Civics course on Canvas, educators can stay updated on upcoming professional development, public events, in-class programs for students, the NH Civic Learning Coalition and more.
- Keene State College, Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies: We believe that Holocaust and Genocide Education has much to contribute to civics education. Although this is difficult and traumatic material, we teach to ensure consistent engagement with the pressing questions of individual and group responsibility towards the other. By exploring values, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and critical understanding of these complex issues and forces, we enable responsible civic engagement. As we remember, we seek to prevent genocide and crimes of mass atrocity by finding points of leverage, intervention, and empowerment.
- “Moose on the Loose” is a social studies curriculum for the State of New Hampshire. Created by the New Hampshire Historical Society, it explores the Granite State’s history, economics, geography, and civic life, introducing students to the state’s rich cultural heritage. The site was designed for kids in the upper elementary grades (Grades 3-6), but much of the material is adaptable for students in other grades. "Moose on the Loose" provides many ways for kids to connect what they learn about the past to current, statewide issues. It also provides a foundation for lifelong learning about New Hampshire, America, and the democratic traditions that unite us all. So dive in and find out more about the state we all love!
- Civics Fundamentals takes the one hundred questions asked by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on the naturalization test for U.S. citizenship and explores the “WHY?” to help the student discover their meaning and importance. We have created a two-minute video for each of the one hundred questions that can be turnkey lessons in civics education classes nationwide. Our goal is to move beyond the rote memorization of facts that dominates the current civics curriculum toward “inquiry-based instruction” that engages learners and is becoming more prevalent in education today. This video based product is available – at no cost to any educator or student – via online streaming.
District Assessment Data
Mascoma CIA, ELA Review 📚✒️🎭
📝 The district-wide Mascoma CIA group has begun to review the ELA curriculum, programs, instructional strategies, supplemental materials, and assessment scores. This is a long process with many steps - thank you to the team who is engaged in this work! Here is a quick overview of our action plan:
- Winter/spring 23-24: review ELA assessment data & current scope and sequence; plan summer professional development; continue to learn about the science of reading.
- 2024-2025: review possible K-8 ELA comprehensive programs; continue professional development and curriculum work (scope & sequence, competency grading & alignment); budget for possible program pilots; plan summer of 2025 professional development.
- 2025-2026: pilot K-8 ELA comprehensive programs; continue professional development and curriculum work (scope & sequence, competency grading & alignment); budget for possible program change/implementation; plan summer of 2026 professional development.
Alma - Student Information System
- Check out the staff help guide
- Elementary Report Card Rollout Plan
- Competency Grade Documents - Elementary (DRAFT!)
✏️ Frontline Professional Growth 📚
Check with your building P.D. Representatives for individual questions.
App Vetting
“Be the change you wish to see in the world” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
547 U.S. 4, Enfield, NH, USA 603-632-5563