Issue #2

The students have been back for just six days but I've been fortunate to visit most of Claypit's classrooms. I've been helping Sherri Torti to launch skills labs in some of our K-2 classrooms but mostly, I've been visiting classrooms to launch STMath. No matter the classroom, I can't help but notice how engaged students are and how quickly they've adapted to the new routines carefully taught and reinforced in each room. As I visit classrooms I'm noticing and enjoying a very typical back to school vibe following two years that were anything but typical!

Claypit's students are enthusiastic and polite. They are great about following my directions and respond quickly to feedback. I am so optimistic about the progress we'll make with our students this year!

Kuddos to Michael Rosenblum who has been preparing feverishly for intervention to begin with our most vulnerable students. He will begin meeting with students this week. Students were identified for WIN block pull out intervention using last spring's iReady diagnostic. He'll begin his work by focusing on students whose skills in number and operations are one or more years below their current grade level. Students whose skills are one year or more below grade level in this domain, and who have an i.e.p. with math goals, will receive their intervention from a special educator who will push into the regular education classroom during the WIN block. If you have students who will receive intervention from Michael or a special educator, you should have received an email from Michael. Please reach out to Michael or me with any questions about which students will receive pull out or push in intervention.

The list of students qualifying for this initial intervention is based on just one data point. As the year progresses we will use future diagnostics, common assessments, and data gathered and shared at START meetings to determine eligibility for intervention with Michael. In addition, Michael will be progress monitoring his students. We expect that the list of students receiving intervention with Michael will be quite dynamic.

Thanks to Emily Shaw, Happy Hollow's math coach, for sharing her slides defining the WIN Block. I have modified her slides because WIN will look slightly different at Claypit Hill as we are the only Wayland elementary school fortunate enough to have a full time mathematics interventionist this year.

Regular educators have always been challenged to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. However, because of learning loss due to Covid and the increasing opportunity gap in our community, the range of learners in each classroom can take your breath away. I hope the below slides are helpful in getting you started with your WIN Block. Don't expect your block to be perfect right out of the gate. Instead, focus on including a few core instructional practices that will increase learning for your students, meeting them where they are at. I've included a few suggestions in the slide deck. I've also included a slide that outlines some of the iReady lessons you might consider using to address gaps from the year previous. I've included iReady suggestions based on most grade level's scope and sequence. If you need help finding the teacher's toolbox in iReady, please reach out. I would love to help you plan or tweak your WIN block. Please reach out if you'd like to collaborate with me. Also, know that in a few weeks, we'll have new data from the first iReady diagnostic of the year. I really do believe that this data will help us to design intervention that is both easy to facilitate and will make a positive difference for students who have gaps in their learning.

FYI: The Fall iReady diagnostic will be administered between September 20 through October 7th.

In the coming weeks we'll begin our PLCs where I really hope to get to know individual teachers and teams of teachers better. I look forward to planning for positive student learning outcomes and I look forward to working together to use data to guide our instruction and decision making. I also look forward to working with all teachers to ensure that mathematics learning is JOYFUL for you and your students!

Please reach out if I can help you in ANY way!