Bobcat Bulletin
Week of November 4, 2019
This Week's Events
Monday 11/4
- Devon at PD in Lansing
Tuesday 11/5
- PD Day at NHS
- Devon at PD in Lansing
Wednesday 11/6
- Picture Retake Day
- KDG Lit Coaching 8:50 - 11:30
- Vision Testing K,1,3 & 5
- Alice Drill 1:00pm
Thursday 11/ 7
- Collegial Chair Meeting - 8:00 am
- Vision Testing K, 1, 3, 5
- Barnes & Noble Night
- Devon at 1:15 Meeting at OVS
Friday 11/8
Next Week's Events
Monday 11/11
- Devon at 1:15 Meeting
- Grades due at 11:59pm
Tuesday 11/12
- Data Dig
- Vision Testing K,1,3 & 5
Wednesday 11/13
- Devon Leaving about 2ish
- ET 3:50 - 5:35
Thursday 11/ 14
- Devon in Washington D.C.
- PTA Breakfast with a Buddy
Friday 11/ 15
- Devon in Washington D.C.
- PTA Breakfast with a Buddy
- Report Cards Viewable in MiStar
Looking Ahead
November 19, 21 & 22
- Parent/Teacher Conferences
November 21 & 22
- Half Day
November 22
- Roar Assemblies
November 27
- Half Day
November 28 and 29
- No School
Reminders and Opportunities
- Please check out this great opportunity called Growing Up 2020: Walk in the Park or Social Jungle? New Ways to Manage Unfriendly Behavior and Prevent Bullying by Kids Empowered. If you are interested in attending (I'm going), please let me know and we might be able to cover the registration fee for you. Click the following link for more information: https://survivingthesocialjungle.com/
- As a reminder PTA sets aside $4 per student to go towards field trips. Please keep this in mind when you are planning!
- FYI - I mentioned something in my parent communication thanking PTA for our online subscriptions to Freckle, Raz-Kids and Brain Pop in case you have a parent asking about them.
Professional Development - November 5
November 5th is a full day of Professional Development. We will be at the High School all day, with lunch on your own. We will follow the common day schedule of 8:00-3:30. Paras you have a 1/2 day PD schedule from 12:00 - 3:30pm at Meads Mill.
Teachers, Aaron Baughman sent out the schedule, it varies slightly for Humanities, social workers, etc. Please click here for the link Teachers, please make sure you bring your laptop. Classroom teachers please bring your Fall BAS data, KDG please bring your MLPP data too. Depending on the sessions you choose during the PD Palooza, you may need other materials as well.
Speaking of BAS...
Earlier this week I communicated with your collegial chairs about a change in our BAS testing cycle that impact our Winter testing window. After much thought and discussion and the best use of your time, we have made some modifications to the testing cycle for students that far exceeded grade level expectations on their Fall F&P BAS testing.
This link from the Office of Instruction explains of the removal of the need to Winter Benchmark test those students testing one year of more above grade level in the Winter. Your time will be better spent instructing students than testing students so far above grade level.
While we are removing the Winter Benchmark for some students, it is important to keep in mind we should still be progress monitoring all students, no matter what level they are. This could include running records and comprehension conversations. Additionally, BAS has a number of optional assessments that can be used for progress monitoring.
While we are on the topic of BAS...
One of this things you will be doing is inputting your current data BAS data into Illuminate. It is SO simple to do, even the most untech savoy person will be able to do their entire class in less than 15 minutes.
The BAS data we need to you to bring with you to the 11/5 PD is not only your student's level, but their accuracy, fluency and comprehension data as well. I know that you have this data in report, but we are moving away from the "yellow folder". This way all information is digital and accessible to anyone at anytime.
Self-Care is sooooo important
Ever wonder why you do all the things you are supposed to do to "take care of yourself", but you still feeling like you never get it right? Or do you ever feel like you can never actually do the things you know are so important for your own mental health.
Self-care is not easy or simple. I found the article below spoke to my soul. I hope you find it as enlightening as I did.
LC Corner - Curriculum, Literacy & Learning...oh my!
Guided Reading Groups - Getting Started
Now that we are two months in and you have completed your F&P BAS for each of your students, it seems appropriate to share tips and resources about Guided Reading Groups and/or Strategy Groups. This month each edition of the LC Corner will focus on a different aspect of small instructional groups during your literacy time. This edition includes tips and resources about forming your small groups.
As a quick reminder, refer to the chart below to show the comparison between Guided Reading Groups and Strategy Groups. In this age of responsive education, you may find that your students this year need more than one kind of small group instruction or they may need a balance of both. In addition, here is an interesting article about grouping for reading instruction. (Grouping for Instruction in Literacy) Jeanne R. Paratore explains and shares the current research about what works and doesn’t work and what we can do as teachers to help all students meet their potential regardless of ability level.
Taken from How to Use Reading Strategy Groups in your Classroom
GETTING STARTED by GROUPING STUDENTS
All the tips and strategies out there for forming reading groups always comes back to data. You can use spreadsheets or even old-school sticky notes to help your visually see your students strengths and areas of need. There is a blog out right now that gives valuable tips for forming guided reading groups using multiple data points. The Blogger, Alison, gives low tech ideas like post-its and even a tech tool in the form of a simple spreadsheet to help bring the data together in one place to analyse. (learning at the primary pond) You can and should group students based on skills and not just reading levels. This, of course, will look differently K-5.
We know that we have our BAS system for assessing our students reading levels and some of us are using reading a-z levels and NWEA gives us a lexile level for each of our students. Sometimes all these different systems can lead to confusion, so you might find this correlation chart useful in helping your group your students too. (Learning A-Z Correlation Chart) Remember a student’s reading level is for the teacher not the student to use in helping us to move our students along the continuum from dependent to independent readers and thinkers.
In primary grades it is useful to look at decoding skills, comprehension skills, fluency, and even sight word knowledge in addition to reading levels. In the upper grades, we do start to look more at skills and strategies to group our students. In upper elementary, it is not just comprehension and to form strategy groups, we still need to know our students' strengths and weaknesses in reading. Some strategies to consider are synthesizing, inferring, monitoring comprehension, questioning, making connections, visualize, determining importance - to name a few.
We also have a wonderful influx of new literacy resources at our fingertips with F&P Classroom. The Learning Continuum can also be used to figure out which skills or strategy groups you might want to form in order to help your students grow in their literacy skills. When you follow the link below it should take you to a video about getting started with Guided Reading from F&P Classroom. If you have trouble accessing the video you may need to login first. Feel free to use my username: lamannael@northvilleschools.org and password: amermanf&p or just ask. The video is about 10 minutes and is a good introduction to guided reading groups and the materials. Home Page - Classroom
Hopefully, you will have time in the next week to analyze current data and form your student groups accordingly. Remember these groups should be flexible and will change over time. Something to keep in mind as you are planning for your literacy blocks comes from Jeanne R. Paratore’s article referenced above, “ Even as we make change, we must remain committed to keeping our eyes and minds open to a better way so that truly every child who walks through our classroom doors wanting to become a reader and writer walks out having
become one.”
Hello and Good-Bye
I hope you have gotten a chance to say hello to Keely Bartel who has exchanged her dragon wings for a bobcat tail. She is already right in the thick of things supporting our students and teachers. If you have not had a chance please stop by the social worker's office to say hello. Her hours are Monday afternoon and all-day Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
We also got the sad news that Mr. Greg has submitted his official resignation. His responsibilities at Target have gotten too great, that he cannot maintain sanity working both jobs. It know it was very hard for him to close this chapter of his life. He wanted me to let you know how much he will miss all of you, and the kids. He is hoping the make it to the staff Christmas party on December 6th at Deadwood.
Now that I've been observed...how do I upload and label evidence into pivot again?
1. Upload, name, and code evidence to a specific indicator.
2. To check where you have evidence by indicator.
Dismissal Duty
Week of 11/4
- Bus - McDougall
- Loop - Parnin, Tiba, Hartnett, Segerstom/Bartel/Lenahan
Week of 11/11
- Bus - Pinkelman
- Loop - Willerer, Cowger, Wayne, Isenberg
Random Useless Facts
A cow’s sweat glands are in its nose.
- The name of the dog on the box of Cracker Jacks is Bingo.
- Eyelashes usually last around five months.
- According to some surveys, the average person will use the bathroom six times during the average workday. (I would bet none of the people surveyed are in education!)
- John Wayne had an 18-inch neck.
- A dog’s normal body temperature is 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,896 miles.
- It is against the law to shave while driving in Massachusetts.