Falcon Focus
November 30, 2015
Students Self- Assess Their Way to Learning
"The most important assessment that happens in any building is not the state assessment," Berger said. "It's the assessment that's going on in a student's head every day, before she turns in work, when she thinks: Is this good enough?"
Heidi Andrade, an associate education dean at the University of Albany in New York, said that student self-assessment can help improve academic achievement.
"When you ask students to monitor the quality of their work on standards and criteria, not surprisingly, they do better," Andrade said.
Click here to access the entire article.
PBIS Update
Read Chapters 5 "Connection Before Correction" and Chapter 6 "Respectful Communication Skills" for the next book study in January!
Thank you!!!
To Do's and Calendar Updates
- Nov. 30th - Kevin Hood will be on campus to do Walkthroughs
- Math Protocol from the last CFA due. Click here to access. (results will be discussed in the PLC meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 1st)
- Writing Protocol from Writing Benchmark due. Click here to access. (results will be discussed in the PLC meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 1st)
- As you decorate and plan Holiday activities, please be sure to review the district AR. Click here. Thanks!
- We originally were going to have all the writing pieces that have gone through the entire writing process due on Dec. 4th. We are going to extend this to Dec. 18th. This would include brainstorming, editing/revising, and final copies. For K-1 grades - include a picture of any anchor charts you use to help students brainstorm, edit, and revise (if students are not completing on their own, yet)
- January Individual Data Talks - We will schedule a mid-year data talk with each teacher in January. You will meet with your assigned appraiser. See the following list for what to have prepared and what we will discuss (we will come to you):
- SPED and 504 Accommodation Tracking for each appropriate student
- RtI Intervention Sheets for each child
- Universal Screening and Progress Monitoring Data Collection System
- Guided Reading Record Keeping System - data collected during guided reading (Kelly Leach shared different systems a couple of weeks ago - if you need her help, please email her for ideas)
- Examples of Reading, Writing, and Content Area Journals/Notebooks you have students utilizing.
- Review of your Word Wall and how you are utilizing it with students. Click the following for some examples if you need it. Personal Word Wall and Classroom Word Wall Strategies
- Math CFA student tracking
- Other Formative Assessment tracking that you have in place
- Share any system you have in place where students are tracking their own data.
Calendar of Events
Everything is posted on the Collaboration Site, please check it weekly.
Response to Intervention
Character Quality for December - Caring
November 30 – December 4
"It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice."
Professional Development and Learning - Faculty Meetings, PLC's, and Kelly Leach Visits
- Kelly Leach will schedule the coaching sessions from the Guided Reading Walkthroughs with each of you.
- Dec. 1st - PLC meeting in the Think Tank: Track and Review Math and Writing Results and Questioning/Discourse Training
- Dec. 3rd - Kelly not on campus for Literacy Coaching
- Dec. 7th-11th - Next Math CFA
- Dec. 8th: Faculty Meeting
- Dec. 10th - Guided Reading Walkthroughs by Kelly Leach. Click here for the schedule for observation and coaching sessions.
- Dec. 15th: PLC Meetings
T-TESS Tid Bit
"Effective assessment is a fundamental part of instruction and learning. An effective assessment plan answers the questions, "What do I want my students to be able to do as a result of my teaching?" and "How do I know the students learned what I taught?" When these questions are asked and answered regularly, the teacher can effectively plan, diagnose and intervene on a continual basis to raise student achievement.
Performance Checks may include:
* Running Records
* CFA's
* Pre-Assessments
* Quick Writes
* Journaling
* Exit Tickets
* Self- Assessment, Reflection, and Goal Setting
What Kind of Teachers Should Mrs. Lockhart Hire? From the Mouths of Babes!
What Kind of Teachers Should Mrs. Lockhart Hire? This is what our students said:
- Happy teachers and upbeat teachers
- Teachers that want to be at school
- Tell us if they are having a bad day so we won’t think they are mad at us.
- Teachers that will help students
- That make it fun and want to have fun
- Teachers that are excited to be teachers
- Help students when they need it.
- Nice to kids to help them learn better
- Like to smile and can make kids smile
- Fun - not always so serious
- Take care of kids
- Teachers that are nice to the children