Mustang Musings
January 19, 2020
The Struggle is Real
My oldest daughter went through grades four through graduation with an IEP. She had a team of experts to help her navigate math, reading and the transitions of her days. When she met with challenges, there were always people there to help scaffold instruction or explain situations to help her be successful. She never learned to work through challenges independently and while this was great for helping her with feelings of success, but it did not help her gain endurance when she encountered challenging situations. She learned that she needed other's support in order to be successful. Are we giving our students the chance to experience productive struggles? Trust me, it is important that we give that gift to our students whenever possible. Interested in reading more? Click the article below!
ARC Focus of the Week
- We will use equitable conferences to meet the needs of all of our students.
- Our equitable conference schedules will be posted in the classroom.
- Our emergency students must be conferenced with 3 times in a 10 day period.
- At-risk must be conferenced with 2 times in a 10 day period.
- Proficient students must be conferenced with once in a 10 day period.
- Log home and school steps daily
- We will continue to focus on entering quality evidence into School Pace.
IWCS Reading Goals
I keep including this information in all of the newsletters because we do not want to lose focus on the goal of closing the gaps for our striving students. Our goal is that for ALL learners to receive the differentiated support needed to ensure 1 year of reading growth.
AND we are striving for GREATER with this added part of our goal...
Proficient learners will make at least 1.0 (1 year) of reading growth.
At-risk learners will make at least 1.25 (1 year and 2 and half months) of reading growth.
Emergency learners will make at least 1.50 (1 year and 5 months) of reading growth.
On Target for IRLA Reading Level
K- .50
1st- 1.50
2nd- 2.50
3rd- 3.50
4th-4.50
Reading =GROWTH
On Target for Reading Practice
Teach the Teacher
Part of our SOLs for the research lab is developing our student's oral language skills. The article below has great ideas for helping our students develop these critical skills that will help them succeed in life.
11 Ways to Improve Your Students' Oral Language Skills from the book Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, OWL LD, and Dyscalculia,
- Encourage conversation. ...
- Model syntactic structure. ...
- Maintain eye contact. ...
- Remind students to speak loudly and articulate clearly. ...
- Explain the subtleties of tone. ...
- Attend to listening skills. ...
- Incorporate a “question of the day.” ...
- Compile a class booklet of students' phrases.
- Asking questions before and after a reading assignment
Never assume students understood your instructional talk.
Teach concept words.
Click below for more information on how you can help your students gain these critical life skills!
This is interesting....
Do you have great writers in your classroom?
Are you in the game?????
STEPS calendar
Teach the Teacher
What can I do for you?
- Modeling
- Side-by-side coaching
- Coaching and modeling of using the IRLA
- Round up resources
- Assist with differentiating lessons or materials
- Cover your class so that you can observe a colleague's class
- Cooperatively plan a lesson or series of lessons that meet best practices
- Serve as another pair of hands for a lesson
- Offer strategies for classroom management
- Help you connect with other teachers in the district
- Lend an open ear for a topic of your choice
- Reflect on student learning in your classroom through conversation and observation
- Work collaboratively to bounce ideas off one another to address a concern
- Evaluate new students to guide instruction
Hardy Elementary School
Email: lhenk@iwcs.k12.va.us
Website: http://hes.iwcs.k12.va.us/
Location: 9311 Hardy Circle, Smithfield, VA, United States
Phone: 757-357-3204
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hardy-Elementary-School-205065852892284/
Twitter: @Mrs_Henk