Fox Den Newsletter "Expect to Grow"
October 16-30
Our Mission and Goals
Mission Statement:
Our mission at Fletcher Elementary, through partnership with our children, families, and communities, is to educate our students by meeting the individual needs of the whole child, ensuring successful, productive, responsible citizens while providing a safe and nurturing environment.
Congratulations on achieving 5.01 growth last year!
SIP Goal 1: Fletcher Elementary will meet or exceed expected growth and meet all Annual Measurable Objectives.
2014-15: Met 25/27 AMOs (8/10 in reading, 10/10 in math, 6/6 in science, 1/1 for participation rate) The targets we missed were white students and students with disabilities in reading.
Although 5th Grade Science isn't in the specific goals below, here is our science data: CCR 66.2%, GLP 78.9%
Our Progress:
1. Our K-2 Reading scores will increase from 79.8% to 85% and our 3-5 Career and College Ready proficiency will increase from 53.7% to 75%.
2014-15 Reading Data
Grades 3-5: Overall CCR 53.3%, GLP, 65.6%
3rd: CCR 51.8%, GLP 65.1%; 4th: CCR 53.3%, GLP 65.6%; 5th: CCR 54.9%, 66.2%
Grades K-2: Overall Composite Score 83.47%, TRC 74.57%.
K: Comp. 90%, TRC 87%; 1st Comp. 81%, TRC 63%; 2nd: Comp. 78%, TRC 76%
2. Our K-2 math proficiency will increase from 88% to 93% and our 3-5 Career and College Ready proficiency will increase from 56.7% to 75%.
2014-15 Math Data
Grades 3-5: Overall CCR 62.3%, GLP, 74.2%
3rd: CCR 59.0%, GLP 75.9%; 4th: CCR 62.2% GLP 73.3%; 5th CCR 66.2% GLP 73.3%
Grades K-2: Overall 89.6% on grade level (HCPS average 91.3%)
K: 94%; 1st: 93%; 2nd: 82% (HCPS average K 95%, 1st 90%, 2nd 89%)
Coach's Corner by Dianne Wells
As you know this year we are focusing on adding rigor to our lessons and assignments. Our goal should be to create learning friction for our students. You might ask: What is learning friction? Learning friction is the point at which students struggle a little, not to the point of frustration, to solve a problem or answer a question.
One way to create this learning friction is to include higher order thinking skills in your lessons and assignments. You may recall from your Learning Focused training that incorporating these higher order thinking skills has an effect size of 1.61. What does this mean? When consistently used, students will show around four years worth of growth within one year, a powerful result.
Please see below for a list of higher order thinking skills that you can use as you plan your lessons. The thinking strategy is in bold and is then followed by its definition and an example of it.
Compare and Contrast
Finding similarities and differences
Compare human migration and animal migration to determine why living things migrate.
Determine Patterns
Finding patterns or themes in information
Complete the analogy Point: line ::_____:______
Analyze Relationships
Separating information into its parts and analyzing the individual parts to see how they are connected.
Classify a list of literary characters in multiple ways.
Analyze Viewpoints
Describing the reasons for different perspectives
Write a poem for two voiced showing the British viewpoint and the colonists viewpoint.
Construct Arguments
Finding proof to support a claim
Create an advertisement for the importance of the water cycle.
Evaluate
Judging based on criteria
Evaluate the author’s claim. Error analysis
Infer
Reaching a conclusion or generalization based on specific evidence
Based on the artifacts, what can you conclude about this culture?
Deduce
Drawing conclusions based on a general rule
Based on what you know about market economies, what do you predict will happen?
Professional Development on October 26
Here is the information I have from Shannon Marlow:
1. The PD will be held at Glenn C. Marlow Elementary. Feedback from last year indicated teachers would prefer to be in an elementary school environment.
2. Please carpool from Fletcher over there due to limited parking.
3. The PD will be a half day event. Teachers will rotate to two self-selected sessions in the morning and will return to school in the afternoon for school PD or planning. This is also based on teacher feedback from last year.
4. The program for the available sessions will come out at the end of this week or early next week so teachers are able to plan ahead.
5. The first session will begin at 8:00 am.
6. For the afternoon, you will be back at Fletcher and using that as PLC time. Please be sure to document what you do (the PLC notes format will work) and email it to me that afternoon before you leave.
A Few Reminders
2. During the last week of October, we will have visitors from county office conducting walk throughs. They will attend some PLC meetings and observe lessons (in both cases they will be looking for evidence of differentiation and DOK levels). They are doing this at all schools throughout the school year.
3. Benchmarks are next week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday) so please remind students to be quiet in the halls on those days. We will announce when testing is complete each day.
4. For Parent-Teacher conference night, please turn in to your grade level chair a copy of your meeting schedule as well as one or two samples of information you share with parents. Grade level chairs should scan in all items as a PDF and submit them to me for Title 1 documentation purposes.
Fletcher Birthdays!
Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Fletcher Fox Family Members! Happy birthday to you!
We do not have any birthdays in the next two weeks.