JWL Weekly Update
Volume 7 * Issue 19 * week of November 26, 2018
Staff . . .
Students . . .
Parents . . .
Instruction Focus
Fall Benchmark in Summary
1. Effective instruction
2. Classroom management with student engagement
Effective instruction has to be planned with a targeted direction; thus, we frame our lessons. Once well framed and then taught step by step, one must check for understanding throughout the lesson, not just at the end. Focused practice using specific activities and materials is a crucial aspect of effective instruction. Then we must check for understanding! When we determine students did not master skill, we must re-teach.
Re-teaching 201: Guided Discourse
Let students unpack their own errors and build a solution.
- Show-Call: post student work (either an exemplar or incorrect response) and ask students to identify why that answer is correct/incorrect. **Fifth grade does a form of this in an activity titled, Here Comes the Judge. (See clip from Teach Like a Champion website for an example)
- Then, stamp the understanding.
- Ask: What are the keys to remember when solving problems like these? or Can someone give me a rule?
- Be sure students are answering in their own words.
- Give them At-bats: Give students opportunities to practice with your guidance. (See below for explanation for At-bats.)
Classroom Management
Engaged Small Group Work
Mazimize the learning for every student during group work:
- Deliver explicit step-by-step instructions for group work
- Make the group tasks visible/easily observable (Monitor the visual evidence of group progress; check in every 5 to 10 minutes)
- Create a role for every person (with each group no larger than the number of roles needed to accomplish tasks at hand)
- Give timed instructions, with benchmarks for where the group should be after each time window
- Verbally enforce individual and group accountability (ex: "You are five minutes behind; get on track. Or "Brandon, focus."
(As taken from Getter Better Faster . . . by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo)
Remember, time off task is time not learning.
Attendance
Goal: 98%+ Attendance
Weekly Attendance Percentages:
K: 92.87% Time to get back on track.
1: 91.78% Eek. From highest to lowest in one week.
2: 95.77% Staying steady. Let's increase this week.
3: 93.98% Decreased a bit.
4: 93.59% Decreased too.
5: 96.43% Maintained exactly the same & rose to the top! Congrats on earning your next belt.
JWL: 94.15%
Any grade level with an average weekly attendance of 98% or higher will earn a popsicle party on Friday! Ready. Set. GO!
Belt status:
White:
First grade: Week of August 20
Fifth grade: Week of August 27
Third grade: Week of September 17
Yellow:
Fifth grade: Week of September 3
Third grade: Week of October 1
First grade: Week of November 5
Gold:
Fifth grade: Week of September 10
Third grade: Week of October 15
Orange:
Fifth grade: Week of October 8
Third grade: Week of October 22
Green:
Third grade: Week of October 29
Fifth grade: Week of November 12
Blue:
Purple:
Brown:
Red:
Black:
What's Your Mindset?
You might share these books . . .
- Wilma Unlimited
- Salt in His Shoes
- The Dot
- Mirette on the High Wire
or movie examples such as . . .
- Finding Nemo
- Finding Dory
- Zootopia
Heads Up
Goal Review
“Without data, all anybody has is an opinion”
-Edward Deming
In preparation, you need to determine . . .
- Are you on track for meeting your goal?
- How do you know? What data shows this?
- If you are not, how far off track are you?
- What next steps will you take to get on track?
Please update your Strive goal form with answers to these questions by adding "new message" and/or "adding evidence" to answer by Friday, November 30th. I will review your updates on Friday.
Tutorials
Tutorials are not a suggestion. It is required to host tutorials a minimum of two times per week. Please be sure your students are
1. Attending. If you don't have a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 students coming to your tutorial time, you need to call parents and determine the barrier to non-attendance. If these initially invited students are unable to attend, then you need to reach out to others.
2. Signing in each time. The Google forms are hyperlinked below. Please be sure students are signing in each day they attend.
- Number students participating : I'm using our sign in sheet to determine this, so if you aren't having your students complete the form each session, then you need to do so ASAP.
Kinder . First . Second . Third . Fourth . Fifth
This time is to be included on the IAP to show your extended support time for these students.
Lexia usage
Weekly usage for JWL
- Bass (96%)
- Morgan (95%)
- Bosak (100%)
- Robb (95%)
- Stack (94%)
- Vasquez (95%)
- Farquhar (100%)
- Dove (95%)
- Ray (100%)
- Roseberry (100%)
- Hurd (100%)
- Lilley (100%)
Dreambox Usage
Golden Tickets
Grade levels, you distributed the Golden Tickets to your Tier 3 students to use as passes for their morning computer time from 7:30 - 8:10am. This time, as you will recall, is for students to utilize Lexia and Dreambox as additional support time. The Golden Ticket is like a "fast pass" for the breakfast line and a hall pass to go to the computer labs/library.
Those on duty in these areas: please be sure students are signing in with the Google Form. (see below)
K & 1: Pardoe in Lopez's computer lab
2 & 3: Harvey in Harvey's computer lab
4 & 5: Snow in library with COW cart
Teachers: If you see that your students are not attending, please ask them why. Let's verify if there are valid concerns (ie, transportation issues) or if they are "skipping".
Parent Communication
Keep up the communication with families!
Remember, each user (homeroom, special interest group, etc.) is to send at minimum one message each week to parents informing them of weekly ongoings, curriculum topics of focus, and/or special projects. Please stay connected with families; they are our partners in educating their kiddos.
This Week's Ongoings:
Monday
- ARDs
- SSTs
Tuesday
- Picture Make Up Day
- PLCs
Wednesday
- ARDs
- Faculty Fun Fest: Meet at Starbucks (Hwy 34 & I-20) for an after school caffeine fix, dutch treat.
Thursday
- PLCs
- SSTs
Friday
- Grades Due for Progress Reports
- Goal Review in Strive
Calendar & Upcoming Events
Staff Shout Outs!
Phillips
Thank you for your dedication to your students and your hard work each and every day to help students be successful.
Robb
You share ideas with your team unselfishly.
Anderson
You work hard and wear so many different hats. I wish you could just be our counselor.
Morgan
I am impressed with the way you have been singing and working with TWO classes of kids at the restroom line every day.
Ray
The energy and excitement you bring to learning is a joy to observe. Keep up the great work!
Ledford
Thank you for making reading fun and allowing your passion to be evident in your classroom.