the RAH
Nov 28 - Dec 2, 2016
from the Hubb
Do you wish you could use sticky notes with your students without the risk of pesky paper cuts or accidentally pulling off more than one note at a time? Scrumblr.ca is the answer to your sticky note dreams. You can create online “boards” to stick digital sticky notes on. The cool thing is that you can also share the link to boards you create with your students. So, they can manipulate the sticky notes for the activity you create.
Getting board (get it?) with traditional KWL charts for non-fiction reading? Are you left with a KW chart because you have trouble wrapping up the L column (learning) at the end? It might be time to try out a RAN chart along with the Scrumblr.ca website. RAN stands for Reading and Analyzing Non-fiction.
· You can create the RAN chart by clicking on the link above for a sample, then click the + button on the right side of the board in Scrumblr.ca to add columns. Or, click on the RAN Scrumblr.ca board I made.
· Students begin by brainstorming what they think they know. Students can list these on the digital sticky notes under the first column.
· After the first read of the text, students list misconceptions they may have had. Or, they can move their sticky note from the first column to the second column if it was a misconception.
· If their prior knowledge was correct, they can move their note to the Confirmed column.
· After a re-read of the text, new learning is listed under the New Learning column.
· Any sticky notes left in the first column can then be revisited. Can the idea be confirmed if we put sometimes/often/rarely by it?
Here is a quick video of Tony Stead, the creator of the strategy, using the RAN strategy with students. If nothing else, his British accent is fun to listen to. RAN can be done old school on a chart with sticky notes, but scrumblr.ca is an engaging tool that doesn’t take up space in your classroom. Thanks to scrumblr.ca, you can save your band-aids for Nelly look alike contests instead of sticky note paper cuts.
Reading (IC) Checks
The window for reporting GR/FR fidelity checks came to an end on November 18th. Thank you for your time and effort to report teacher scores. Brian will send you a spreadsheet with your school’s scores along with graphs. You can use this to plan for professional learning opportunities for your building and individual teachers.
The process is intended to be a valuable experience for you and your staff, and to keep the emphasis on differentiating reading instruction for students. We’ll look at district-wide scores and have discussions about ways to support you as you work through the components of GR/FR with your teachers.
A few principals needed additional time for some of their checks. If you have additional checks to submit, please Brian know so he can wait to send you your school’s data until all checks have been completed. Here are the links to the Google forms for reporting.
Safety Drills
from J-
I couple of topics I wish for you to think upon. First, topic: partners. Our Partners in Education are so important. We believe we are aware of most current partnerships you have as a site. If any organizations come to you for partnership purposes, no matter how large or small, please loop Marty Moore into the discussion. This will help honor the work of both the partnering entity and SPS.
The second topic is that of student devices (we will go deeper into this conversation at our next leadership team). For those that already have student devices, think on your current practice, and for those yet to be ignited, think on what you will do. The essential question: How do we leverage the greatest learning that may or may not include tech tools? It is not about leveraging behavior using chromebooks. So, say a kiddo leaves their device at home. A current practice I am hearing is: "oh...that's 3 times now. Three strikes - you're out, and you can't borrow a device." We wouldn't do that with a math book, or a reading book. So why do we do it with a tool that is used for the same purpose? I totally get the "trying to teach responsibility" lesson; but I question if that is working. Might I suggest a different option? If the student is prone to leaving their device at home, have the student leave their device at school. While we want to encourage learning beyond the school walls, the device is best utilized for learning at school under the mentorship of teachers. This scenario and a few more will be part of our discussion in December.
I'm looking forward to continuing site visits this week, currently scheduled at Cowden Delaware, Rountree, Pittman and Wilder. As always, let me know if you need any support from Bret or me.