Literacy Lounge
News and Updates
As we near winter break, I want to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. I hope you are able to take time for yourself to rest, relax and rejuvenate. Enjoy time laughing and loving family and friends.
Common Middle School PLCs
Our next MS Common PLC will be held Wednesday, January 10th. I will be broadcasting from Lowes Grove. Please see this link for the PLC schedule and Zoom link. If your PLC has a session topic you feel would be good for the combined groups to explore, please share your ideas.
Planning for Q3
As we begin to plan for quarter 3, please keep in mind the order of the StudySync units. As a reminder, we do not navigate sequentially through the units as outlined within the core program. Please refer to the cart below for the correct unit of study.
NCCAT SPRING REGISTRATION OPEN
North Carolina educators have several opportunities from February through May to attend the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT). Registration for these programs is open now. Applicants are encouraged to register as soon as possible to ensure a spot. Programs are available to North Carolina educators at the Cullowhee and Ocracoke campuses, online, and with NCCAT faculty visiting school districts. For more information on residential professional development visit the calendar of programs.
ELA ESL Corner
ELA ESL Corner
Have you ever been unsure of how to grade an English Learner in your class? How do you measure your students’ mastery of the content so that they will be able to accurately show what they learned? How do we ensure that we’re being fair to all students in our assessment and grading practices? To fairly grade ELs, we must position them to be able to access our instruction.
Please check out our “Issues and Solutions for Grading ELs” for some suggestions for how to approach grading in Quarter 2 and beyond. For more research and recommendations on this topic, these brief articles share more info:
The Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs from Colorin Colorado
How We Can Fairly Assess English Learners by Valentina Gonzalez
Please contact ESL Instructional Facilitators Katie McClure- Elementary (katelin_mcclure@dpsnc.net) and Wendi Love- Secondary (wendi_love@dpsnc.net) for support with English learner strategies that also work for the rest of your class.
Resources Available Through Our Media Centers
Middle School Literacy One Pager
Click the image below and bookmark our resource one pager. This is a one stop shop for the big rocks with are represented in our work as instructional leaders. If there are any resources that are currently missing and are valuable resources to have quick links to, please share your suggestions.
Get Ready for anything...
Please take 20-30 minutes a day over the next 2 weeks to make sure you are ready to handle quarantines, sick days, hurricanes, Martian invasions, or any other curve ball that may come our way.
Here are some concrete steps to take to make sure you and your students are prepared for whatever lies ahead quarantine, closure, inclement weather, and galactic worm holes.
Canvas
1. Teachers are required to create, use, and keep their Canvas courses up to date for all classes. Canvas is DPS's LMS. Consistent use of Canvas is a powerful strategy to build consistent access to class information and materials for all students and parents/guardians. If you haven't already gotten Canvas up and running this year, there is no need to start from scratch. You can use all your hard work from last year! Click HERE for directions.
2. CANVAS Buddies- Team up with two or three department members and add each other as teachers in your Canvas courses. If you have to be out for any reason, you have department members who can help out.
3. Connect with a parent/adult for each student- Make a concerted effort to reach all students' parent/guardian email or phone. This will help ensure each student has accurate contact information in PowerSchool, and open two way communication for the whole year, no matter what happens.
StudySync
StudySync books distributed to all students- The DPS Student Literacy Bill of Rights clearly outlines DPS expectations and resources to support teachers and departments as they work to get every English I-IV THEIR StudySync Reading & Writing Companion.
StudySync online access and use- The DPS Student Literacy Bill of Rights clearly outlines DPS expectations and resources to help teachers ensure all students have access and know how to use their StudySync online accounts.
Google Drive
Google drive use/organization- My Google Drive is OUT.OF. CONTROL. It needs an intervention. Don't be like me. Take some focused time to organize your most recent back to school work in Google. Make some focus time in class to ensure students know how to share permissions with you, find and organize their work according to your directions, and collaborate with classmates in a common Google doc/slides/spreadsheet.
Contact Information
Beth Spataro
6-12 Literacy Specialist
Curriculum & Instruction
919-560-2000 ext. 21752 (work)
919-406-4619 (cell)