Viewing: March, 2012
March 22, 2012
Comparing and Contrasting Homework
G
ood afternoon! Tonight’s homework calls upon students to compare and contrast Nate the Great and Encyclopedia Brown. Both are child detectives in mysteries we read today. To help kids with their homework, I have scanned in excerpts from both stories. These pages give you some background into the characters, where they work, who they work with, etc. Click here to download the excerpts.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
March 12, 2012
Spring Parent-Teacher Conference Schedule
Please take a moment to check your scheduled parent-teacher conference time. You can access it through the link on the left sidebar of this page. In order to protect student privacy, the page is password protected. I’ve sent home a letter confirming our scheduled time, and the password for the page is at the bottom of the letter. Please confirm your time with the master list, just to make sure. This is the document I work off of, so what you see here is what I use. I update the schedule whenever someone requests a change, so please email me if you want one of the free time slots and I’ll make the adjustments to the schedule. Thank you!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
March 6, 2012
My “talking points” about the CMTs
The students in our class are nervous about the CMTs. This is 100% normal, and we (teachers) work
very hard to help kids to cope with the text anxiety that many of them feel during this testing period. I want to share with you some of what I tell kids about the CMTs in hopes that we can share similar messages to the kids:
- Many kids may feel like this toddler, AND THAT’S OK.
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“Yes, the CMTs do matter.” I think we have a tendency to try to downplay the importance of the CMTs to kids in hopes of solving their fears. But they hear teachers talking about them all year, they may see you open the envelope that has their scores, and they know that no other event in school gets such special, formal treatment. They know full well that the CMTs are a big deal.
- “The CMTs help you.” I think this is entirely truthful. Teachers use the CMTs to adjust our instruction to meet the needs of our learners. We use them to be more effective teachers, which absolutely helps kids. (Sure, there are other roles that the CMTs play, but why burden kids with extra focus on these parts?)
- “The CMTs will ___ and will not ____.” You might be surprised what misconceptions kids have about the CMTs. Today, I was asked if poor performance on these tests will prevent kids from going to fifth grade (no) or if it will keep kids from getting into college (double no). I try to be absolutely direct when telling what effect the CMTs will and will not have. (If you have a question about this, please ask me.)
- “It’s ok to be worried!” I think we have a tendency to try to remove kids fears by saying “Oh, don’t worry!” or “There’s no reason to be nervous!” The truth is, if a child is worried about the test, then clearly they feel that they have a reason to worry. I try to validate their feelings, and I instead focus on helping them to stop feeling worried, not on telling them to stop worrying.
- “Just try your best.” I have been very direct with kids – I ask them just to try their very hardest. If they can honestly tell me that they did, then I’m proud of them. But part of trying your best means taking time to remember the things you have been taught and making yourself think carefully about your choices during an assessment, not just picking the first answer that looks decent so that you can move on to the next item. It also means CHECKING OVER your work.
- “Sleep.” A sleepy student is predisposed to performing poorly on the CMTs. Please make sure that your child gets PLENTY of sleep the night before a test. (Consider enforcing earlier bedtimes, if you deem it appropriate.)
- “Have a calm morning.” By the same token, please try to minimize morning stress. Coming to school late and/or coming after a chaotic morning will put your child in a bad mind-set for testing. Try to make sure your child arrives on-time to school, as late arriving students will NOT be allowed to enter the classroom during testing. They will be sent to the library and will be expected to make up tests at another time. Students who are absent the day of a test will need to make it up after the conclusion of standard testing. This will cause them to miss classroom instruction, so it’s important that, whenever possible, students not be absent during CMT testing.
- “Dress comfortably.” Nobody is worried about fashion during this week of testing. Kids should dress in a comfortable outfit that doesn’t distract them as they work. (Haven’t we all been bothered by an itchy label or a pair of shoes that doesn’t fit quite right?)
- “Eat breakfast.” A filling, nutritious breakfast is also essential to good test performance. (Growling stomachs will distract your child, and, frankly, other students too.) Please try to make sure your child has breakfast at home. Healthy snacks will be provided for students before testing, but there is no substitute for a good breakfast.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
March 6, 2012
CMTs Off to a Good Start!
One down, many to go! Our school started the Connecticut Mastery Tests this morning with the writing prompt. This is the one mastery test that everyone in the state takes at the same time, and I think there is something special about that. First, let me explain that I cannot share what today’s writing prompt was. As a teacher, I’m obligated to keep that secret because the CMTs are a controlled test, and their content cannot be discussed until the state releases them (typically in the summer). Having said that, your sons and daughters are not bound by the same rules, and I encourage you to discuss today’s assessment with them, find out how they felt about the topic and how they think they did on the prompt. (I encourage this sort of discussion for all of the mastery test days, but particularly for today!) I do want to say how proud I am of all the kids in our class! Everyone worked hard on the test and seemed to put a lot of effort into their work! Hopefully everyone managed to avoid Calvin’s dreaded writer’s block (see left) as they developed their narrative stories.
Tomorrow, the kids will complete the editing and revising test. I was not exaggerating when I told the students that I was certain that they are well-prepared. I know they will continue to work hard, which is all I can ask for! Be sure to take a look at my next post: all about how we are preparing for the upcoming math assessments.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
March 5, 2012
Our Math Work
- We are working very hard to avoid your son or daughter feeling like this poor girl!
The Connecticut Mastery Tests divide skill areas into different topics, called strands. Last month, I shared with you how we’re working on a variety of different skills. We are still working on the math review packet, which focuses on some of the areas where students strugged on last year’s mastery tests. Because this directly addresses those weaker strands, it ignores other skill areas that are equally important for kids. Over the past two weeks, we have worked on one or two different strand packets each morning. Each packet focuses on a single strand. We correct them very quickly as a class (intentionally speedy) and then I meet with students who struggled with the packet. The idea is that I can provide more targeted instruction in a small group, and the kids who had little or no difficulty with the packet can work on other purposeful activities in class. This has been working very well, thanks in large part to the wonderful work of our classroom paraprofessional, Mr. Minton, who has either led whole class activities while I work with the small group, or vice versa.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
March 1, 2012
YOUR Homework (By YOU!)
- This is how you will react when you see how super duper tonight’s homework is!
I absolutely loved reading the Cloze passages you sent me last night! I took them and put them into a Quia quiz for you to try. (Yes, it’s a dull interface. I just started using Quia and am slowly trying out new things to see if you’d like using it. I’ll try to make things more exciting down the road.)
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss