K-5 Curriculum Newsletter
May 2018
Finish Strong: Choose Rigor over Fluff
Rigor refers to a balance of 3 essential tenets in the math classroom:
- Developing conceptual understanding;
- Procedural skill and fluency;
- Application of skills in problem solving.
How does rigor impact teaching and learning?
Rigor does not mean giving more worksheets or problems to solve. Rigor is when we carefully plan experiences using quality tasks, rich conversations, and good questions. These experiences allows students time to make connections, discover patterns and number relationships, and clarify their thinking through meaningful discourse.
Let's take a look at the following two classroom lessons. Which one elicits mathematical reasoning and rigor?
Classroom A - Students are told that when multiplying a number by 10, they should simply add a 0 to a number. The students practice the skill with a series of computations. Their teacher is please that the computations are correct.
Classroom B - In another classroom, the teacher begins by posing the same computations, asking students to use base-ten blocks to find the product. As they record the product on the board, the teacher asks them to observe the data, and asks: What do you notice?
In both classrooms, students were able to find the solutions, but the students who investigated the patterns were able to make sense of their observations and develop and justify the rules, rather than being told a shortcut in isolation.
FINISH STRONG - Increase rigor in your class today with the following resources:
- Which One Doesn't Belong
- NCTM Illuminations
- YouCubed Tasks by Jo Boaler
- Open Middle - Challenging Problems Worth Solving
- SPLAT!
- Estimation 180
- Estimation Clipboard
Top Twenty Alternatives to Showing a Movie
#2 - MakeSpace Projects
#3 - Build Kahoot Games
#4 - Learn Chess and have a tournament
#5 - Math Idol (spin off of American Idol)
#6 - Retell a favorite story in Scratch
#7 - Code a song in Scratch
#8 - End of Year Mapping
#9 - Write a screenplay and act it out
#10 - Hold a Poetry Slam
#11 - Book Clubs
#12 - Hold a STEM Day
#13 - Number Talks
#14 - Playground Physics
#15 - Scavenger Hunt
#16 - Write a letter to incoming students
#17 - Garden Club
#18 - Paint Growth Mindset Rocks
#19 - Invent and create a new game
#20 - Play Ken Ken Math
One of our strategies that teachers enjoy using at the end of the school year is a practical, easy-to-use tool we call Celebrating Learning With Year Mapping. This activity gives your current students a chance to feel good about what they’ve learned and provides incoming students an opportunity to see real evidence that they can be successful learners in the coming school year. And it gives teachers a chance to enjoy seeing students share what they’ve learned and to internalize their successful teaching.
Several elements of this strategy make it a powerful way to end the school year with a positive experience, often much needed after testing is over and as a busy year comes to an end. With prompted recall, each student can remember learning events that mean the most to them. Year-end mapping utilizes the power of positive teacher-student relationships as well as personalized learning, summarizing, group learning, and organizing information graphically.
Excerpt from: Edutopia
The Arts: STRONG FINISH
We’re approaching the final weeks and students are getting restless; yet, there is still learning that must take place! How can we ensure that our students are learning and engaged when all they can think about is their summer vacation, especially after the long winter we had? Effective teachers will reach into their bag of tricks and make each day count! Here are a couple of helpful ideas:
Season specific work: Most students long for their spring and summer vacations, a time to kick back and relax, play in the pool, and enjoy the sun! What a great opportunity for music teachers to engage students in learning the perfect summertime soundtrack, or art teachers to take students outside to create open-air sketches, or sketch their dream vacation!
Collaboration: While students should be engaging in collaborative work all year, this time of the year is great for large-scale collaborative projects. For instance, music teachers can have the students create their own bucket band and then perform for the class. Art teachers can have students create a collaborative piece and then present to the class.
Kinesthetic Activities: During this time of the year, students need movement and active learning. Arts teachers can easily create learning centers for students to experiment and express themselves; or facilitate games such as musical chairs writing! When the music stops, pick up writing where the last person left off. For art, writing can include elements and principles, artists, or eras. For music, writing can include note values, rhythm exercises, and song lyrics to help memorize a piece.
Survey Students: Teachers can improve their practice by giving students a voice and asking them questions about their learning experiences. The following questions will give students a voice and provide teachers with input on how to alter instruction to help them perform better in class. Questions might look like this:
What was your favorite lesson of the year? Why? (Project a list of projects as a reminder)
What do you feel was the most valuable thing you learned this year? Explain.
Is there anything that could have been done to help you learn better? Explain.
What else do you feel is important to mention?
Remember to talk about constructive criticism and stress the importance of specific feedback.
A Dash of Summer Science
Ah, summer. Take your lemonade and tablet to the pool or beach and check out some of these great science and engineering resources:
The PictureSTEM Project offers engineering challenges and picture books that support young learners. Take a look at http://picturestem.org
Ok Go Sandbox shows ways to use their videos as introduction to your own STEAM projects. And they are just a blast to watch!
Summer is a great time to plan your Makerspace while hitting up yard sales and flea markets. The University of Colorado Science Discovery Program has a compilation of vetted resources to help you design and support Makerspace learning.
The National Resource Energy Lab has coloring pages and experiments on renewable energy for grades K-6. Have your students find a way to make their s’mores without a campfire.
Make Summer Learning Fun!
The HTSD Curriculum Department has created some fun ways to get students learning over the summer.
Preview the following resources with your students before the last day of school. These activities are fun and will motivate students to keep learning no matter where they go!
#HTSDReadOnTheRoad2018
#HTSDMathOnTheMove2018
Finish the Year Strong with Social Studies
As the 2017-2018 school year begins to wind down, here are some resources to help you and your students finish the year strong.
This website offers a vast array of articles, subjects, and tons of links for all subjects of social studies. Note: There are some ads that appear on the page.
Allow students to explore and learn more about the 50 states.
Have students check out the “Are We There Yet” or “Around The World” categories found in the video section.
Create a free account and provide your students access to great engaging articles.
Here’s an example: Amelia Earhart: Mystery Solved?
Twitter and Google = Shared Google Drive for Social Studies Teachers
As you finish out the year and are reflecting on the what resources you have found to be most effective, consider sharing those ideas with a other educators.
Joe Harmon, a Pennsylvania educator, has created a shared Google Folder and has reached out to all SS teachers on Twitter to contribute and help spread the word.
Here is an article about the shared SS drive featured in http://www.socialstudiescentral.com/ (April post in the “History Tech Blog” Section)
The Shared Drive can be found here. The majority of resources shared so far are secondary sources. There is an Elementary Folder. Check back for updates or choose to contribute to the folder.
Follow this link to the “Application to Contribute to the Social Studies Collaborative Drive” Google Form, if you are interested in becoming a contributor to the Folder.
Data Connections
Reflection
As the year comes to a close, reflecting about the current year helps me to plan for my goals for the next year. Here are a handful of the questions I’m thinking about. I need the newsletter readers to help me answer.
Did the i-Ready diagnostic and standards mastery data and corresponding reports in the system provide practitioners with timely information to improve student performance?
Were all of the practitioners able to participate in data meetings on a consistent basis (informal and formal)? Was there a consistent structure to the data meetings? (Data protocol introduced this year.)
Are staff utilizing Linkit! to access historical student data at the beginning of the school (new students and to view past student performance) in order to adjust instruction?
Take the survey HERE
Finally, if you are looking for summer reading, take a look at Dr. Tracey Severns’ recommended books page HERE or Dr. Victoria Bernhardt’s resources on continuous school improvement HERE.
Curriculum Connections
Notes from Mr. Scotto
It's hard to believe we have arrived at the last month of school. I certainly hope that you will take some time (for yourself) to reflect on the 17/18 School Year. A reflective practice/mindset only help us improve our craft.
We are almost ready to launch our 2018 Summer PD Academy. Once again we have an amazing list of topics and an outstanding group of presenters (most of which are teachers). I anticipate the session descriptions and workshop registration will be released by mid-June.
Enjoy these final days with your students and colleagues.
Hamilton Township School District
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Alejandro Batlle
Supervisor of K - 12 World Language
Health and Physical Education
Kevin Bobetich
Testing Evaluation Specialist and Data Systems
Mayreni Fermin-Cannon
Supervisor of ESL/Bilingual K - 12, Family Engagement, Title I Preschool, Title III, Title III-Immigrant
Heather Lieberman
Supervisor of K - 5 English / Language Arts Literacy
Library and Media Services K - 12, ALPS, BSI, Title I & II
Jennifer Marinello
Supervisor of K - 5 Mathematics & K - 5 Technology (STEM)
BSI, Title I & Title II
Kirsten Pendleton
Supervisor of K - 12, Science, and 6 - 12 Technology (STEM)
Anthony Scotto
Director of Curriculum & Instruction
Erick Shio
Supervisor of K - 12 Social Studies, Business,
Family and Consumer Science
Danielle Tan
Supervisor of K - 12 Visual and Performing Arts
Email: curriculum@hamilton.k12.nj.us
Website: https://www.hamilton.k12.nj.us/domain/1177
Location: 90 Park Avenue, Hamilton Township, NJ, United States
Phone: 609-631-4100
Facebook: facebook.com/WeAreHTSD
Twitter: @HTSDCurriculum