the RAH
April 4 - 8, 2016
from the Mayor-
We invite you to consider applying for Leadership Springfield’s next Principals of Leadership class. Tuition for this learning opportunity will be paid for by SPS. Please click on this link to apply for the next class.
For the remainder of the 2015-2016 school year, we anticipate heavy employee absences on the dates listed below. Historically, Kelly Services has had a difficult time filling absences with substitutes on these dates. If possible and if an event hasn’t already been scheduled, we’d appreciate any effort you might make to avoid scheduling events on these days. Also, it would be extremely helpful if you can ask teachers to try to avoid Fridays for Assessment Testing. This made a huge difference last year!
- Thursday, May 5th – SPS Graduation
- Friday, May 6th – SPS and Evangel Graduation
- Friday, May 13th – MSU and Drury Graduation
Board of Education Study Session
Tuesday, Apr 5, 2016, 05:30 PM
1359 East Saint Louis Street, Springfield, MO, United States
from J-
A district wide Kindergarten Roundup registration event for families across the district will be held at Jeffries Elementary. The event is planned for Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at 6:30 pm and should last about an hour. This event is to promote Kindergarten readiness for our 2016 incoming kindergarten students and also encourage families to get their kiddos enrolled for SPS Kindergarten and hopefully in Explore.
The evening will include a presentation by Mrs. Zettl (counselor at Field) titled "Creating Independence in Your Child". Families will also have the opportunity to visit with Transportation, Nutrition Services, Before/ After School Care programs, Registration, and Explore. We will also have members of the P.A.T. staff on hand to answer questions and discuss kindergarten screenings and readiness skills. Please promote this opportunity with your families.
I'm looking forward to visiting Boyd, Holland, Cowden, Disney, Mann and Jeffries this next week. Please connect with Bret or me if for any support needed at anytime.
Mark your calendar for our Elementary Kickoff/Retreat on Thursday, August 4. This will follow the day after the Learn Lead Succeed Event for all district leadership, schedule for Wednesday, August 3. I had originally put out there we would do your Ele Kickoff on Aug 5, but that is New Teacher Induction Day for site orientation/connections, and many of you will need/want to be part of that. More specifics to come later.
I own that the AP discussion has potentially opened some discomfort and anxiety. I will continue to own that by asking for more feedback. Please click here for a 3 question input opportunity.
Finally, do a quick audit of your safety drills- are you where you need to be? If yes - kudos on promoting student safety. If not, please take action this week. Happy April!
PTA Council
Wednesday, Apr 6, 2016, 09:15 AM
Sherwood
from Shelly Shaver-
What’s all the fuss about shared reading?
The new learning standards address the need for students to be exposed to rigorous, complex text.How can classroom teachers support students who need to read a rigorous complex text? One way to approach this is through shared reading. “Shared reading is an apprenticeship approach where the teacher uses an enlarged text to model, coach, and scaffold the children’s learning about written text” (Dorn and Jones, 2012, pg. 36). Shared reading is an important part of reader’s and writer’s workshop.
In kindergarten, first, and perhaps second grade, shared reading can be a vehicle for phonemic awareness and phonics. For example, a teacher could refer back to a word in the text and ask the students for rhyming words or how to blend the phonemes of an isolated word within the text.
In the upper grades, a teacher might choose to use a complex text for shared reading to model how an author constructs a lead for a narrative text that they are composing in writer’s workshop, or model how an author compares and contrasts a concept within a PBL unit in order for the students to research and construct a non-fiction text that utilizes
For more information on shared reading and how it fits within an integrated balanced literacy framework, please read further in Apprenticeship in Literacy pgs. 36-39.
Accuracy VS Problem Solving
We don’t like it very much when we are wrong, but is it all that bad? Carol Dweck (author of Mindset) describes success as learning. A fixed mindset can be described as being right or wrong, being smart or not smart. Do we value the process of learning and being almost right? Being almost right gives us a glimpse of where we are as learners and where our students are in their learning process.
Praising and valuing the almost right can lift students to become more independent and strategic the next time they encounter a tricky part in reading or in writing. The types of prompting a teacher uses can shape the learner’s theory of what is important to attend to, and can let us know if a teacher values accuracy or problem solving. In the table below, I have listed a few examples of what you might hear and what kind of mindset the teacher might have.
Accuracy (Promoting a fixed mindset):
*“You’re so close!”
*“Try that again and take a closer look.
*You know a word that works like that.”
*“What can you do to help yourself?”
*“You made that make sense, can you try that again and make it look right also?”
*“Show me how you worked that out by yourself.”
*During a team meeting, you might hear a teacher say,”I need someone to help me problem solve what else to try with this student. I must be missing something.”
*In the book introduction, you would see a teacher introduce a couple of tricky words prior to text reading. The teacher takes anecdotal notes and scaffolds the students when the students encounter tricky words so that the solving is done with the least amount of teacher support as possible.
Problem Solving (Promoting a growth mindset):
*“You read that word right. What is this word?”
*"You got 97% on that book! “What were these words that you missed?”
*Child appeals and then the teacher gives a Told.
*Teacher points to the word and gives a told hoping that the child remembers that word tomorrow when she takes a running record.
*Teacher points to the word. “You got that word right. Good job.”
*During a team meeting, you might hear a teacher say, This student was below basic at the beginning of the year, and that is where he will be at the end of the year.
*In the book introduction, you would see a teacher introduce a lot of words that the teacher thinks will be problematic.
*After a running record, the teacher does not praise the student for what the student tried, even if it didn’t result in a self-correction.