Viewing: Class Updates
October 9, 2009
Update on Initial Tests
Wondering when you’re going to hear the results from the recent assessments? Here’s an update.
Math Assessment
Over the summer, we upgraded to the newest edition of our Everyday Mathematics program. Although the changes are very slight, I do like how it updates some of the activities to better support students. One more significant change is how the new edition assesses students at the end of each unit. There’s a greater focus on higher-level thinking skills, which I think is great. Also, the test is divided up into two sections that distinguish between fundamental skills that students should be comfortable with having completed the unit, and developing skills that may still be a challenge for students.
This change in assessment format posed a challenge for us in how we inform parents about student performance. Our old math cards (the ones with six units per side and checkmarks that show whether a student was in the B, D, or S range for each skill) do not fit with the new assessments, so earlier this week, a team of teachers from PGS and RBS met to develop new protocols and communication methods for filling parents in. I’ve held off on sharing math results with you in hopes that we would have a new system ready, and I’m glad to say that we do! The math profiles are still in draft form, but I want to make sure that you get the results, so I’ll be filling them out ASAP for each student and sending them home. I have a wedding this weekend, so I’m not sure if I’ll get to it before Monday.
Writing Prompt
Score reports for the first writing prompt are going home today. Students’ writing pieces are evaluated by a pair of teachers to ensure consistency of expectations. (Inter-rater reliability, for all the data hounds out there!) This is why there is a delay in sharing the writing prompt scores. Each teacher uses a six-point rubric (available in the Parent Resources section of this site), and the scores are then combined to give a total score out of 12 points. The passing grade is 8/12 points, however I don’t want to you think that your child FAILED if he or she received under eight points. Rather, he or she hasn’t yet reached the proficiency level. We will continue to work on writing skills throughout the year. The score sheets that I send home include a brief explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of your child’s writing. I have the actual writing prompts here and will be happy to share them with you at conferences. (Getting close to report card season now!)
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 9, 2009
How We Help YOUR Child
This is a time of change for our nation, and although much of the discussion on the news surrounds the wars overseas, the economy, and healthcare, there are also many changes going on in the education field. Supportive services for students who struggle academically are legislated (to some extent) by the federal government. Based on a new revision to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, schools around the country are changing how they support students, and our district is priding itself on being ahead of the game in implementing the new strategies.
The old way consisted of schools supporting struggling students through various interventions (reading and math resource, PAINTERS, Wilson, etc.) and classroom support. If a student continued to struggle for what seemed to be an inordinate period of time or experienced what seemed to be an intense difficulty without improvement from the support, a school might approach parents about determining the child’s eligibility for special education services. With parental consent, a team of professionals would administer a battery of tests in hopes of identifying specific areas of strength and weakness. This helped the team (of which parents are the most important part) to determine if the child would benefit from special education services. If the team agrees that special education services would be a good option for the child, they developed (again, with parent involvement) an individualized education plan (IEP) that outlined goals, objectives, methods, defects, strengths, etc. If the child did not qualify for special education, he or she would continue to receive all appropriate supportive services that fell under the REGULAR education (non-special education) umbrella.
The new way is referred to as RTI (Response to Intervention) or, in Connecticut, SRBI (Scientific-Based Response to Intervention). As the name implies, we use data to track how well a struggling student responds to various interventions that specifically target areas of difficulty. As Ms. Grainsky (Assistant Principal) wrote in the PGS newsletter:
This new model considers many possible reasons why students may struggle with the demands
of school and fall behind their peers academically or behaviorally. In an effort to accommodate
the learning needs of students who experience school difficulties, we have identified three tiers
of support to help them achieve state and district goals.
Tier I is comprised of academic and behavioral strategies that teachers routinely use. For
example, if a child struggles in achieving his/her grade level expectations, the general education
teacher will offer support by differentiating his/her instruction to meet the learning and
behavioral needs of the student. Support may consist of individual help, checking that the child
writes down homework assignments, and small group instruction.
Tier II consists of programs for students who require stronger interventions. It is in Tier II
support where a student may begin to see a specialist to get help with reading, math or writing a
few times a week. Much of this instruction, although possibly administered by a specialist, may
be occurring in the classroom. This support will not take place while the child is in his/her
regular education class and participating in direct instruction from the teacher. At PGS, we are
presently looking for the best times to offer this instruction so that children do not miss core
instruction but also do not miss other important times of the day. This is proving to be a
challenge because so much of the day is full with pertinent and enjoyable instruction.
Tier III supports are for the students who are not responding to intervention in Tier I or Tier II.
Tier III supports will be delivered by a specialist and consist of a longer duration and greater
intensity than Tier II interventions. Again the scheduling of these supports is the greatest issue at
present. A student receiving instruction in Tier III will need to participate in intensive and
targeted instruction, as well as being in his/her class for core instruction.
One of the biggest strengths of SRBI is how it encourages (mandates, in fact) teachers to support one another with ideas for strategies and interventions. Every Wednesday morning (before school), the fourth grade teachers will be meeting with each other, Mrs. Lenihan (Speech and Language), Mrs. McCarthy (Special Education), Mrs. Cole or Mrs. DelGallo (Occupational Therapy), Ms. Gooding (School Psychology), and specials teacher (this year, our music teacher, Mrs. Cowdrey), an interventionist (Mrs. Daly-Byrnes, Mrs. Kryzanski, Ms. Searson, or Ms. Jablonski), and either Ms. D-H or Ms. Grainsky. (This is why fourth graders read in the hallway before school on Wednesdays.) At these meetings, teachers are invited to bring up for discussion students who seem to be struggling with specific skills, concepts, or behaviors. We will brainstorm new ideas, and the classroom teacher will return to their classroom with new strategies and supports to try. That gets the ball rolling, hopefully on the right track for helping the student to improve whatever area is troubling him or her. The formal evaluation process for determining a student’s eligibility for special education services does remain available, as do all special education services, but the goal is to help a student to improve weak skills through a series of general education interventions, rather than through an IEP.
If you ever have any questions on how we’re working with your child, please feel free to contact me. If you have any questions about the SRBI model, please contact Ms. Grainsky.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 8, 2009
Can and Bottle Collection Now in Full Swing!
Last week, we started our second year of collecting redeemable bottles and cans. The proceeds go to Gifts of Love. It’s an exciting time, because the state redemption laws have just expanded to include bottles of water. That means that any water bottle purchased in CT after October 1st is subject to a 5-cent deposit when purchased and a 5-cent refund when recycled at a redemption machine or center. I’m estimating that this will eventually double our normal profit, since we get lots and lots of water bottles already (which, until now, we have put into town recycling). The collection bin is outside the office, and it keeps filling up! So send in your bottles and cans, please! We are in need of rubber (not latex) gloves so the volunteers don’t get messy when sorting the cans (redeemable vs. non-redeemable). If you’re willing to send in a box of gloves, we’d really appreciate it!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 8, 2009
Three reminders!
- The office will accept orders for the fourth grade math Student Reference Book until tomorrow. I recommend this book as a good supportive resource for home use.
- I’m accepting Scholastic book orders until tomorrow. I’ve gotten several in already. If you don’t choose to order this time, there will be plenty of other opportunities throughout the school year.
- In case you forgot, let me remind you that OUR CLASS HAD 100% PARTICIPATION IN THE GOVERNOR’S SUMMER READING CHALLENGE! As one of the classes to have every student participate, our kids earned an ice cream party from Mrs. McCabe. She has arranged for the kids to get their ice cream tomorrow during lunch. Please bear this in mind when you pack your child’s lunch.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 7, 2009
Change to Late Homework Policy
This year, I’m trying something new with homework, and I’ve been very pleased by how well it has worked so far. Instead of collecting homework from kids by having them put it in a turn-in bin, I now go around the room while kids have their homework on their desk, and I check to see who has come to school prepared with their assignments. This lets me check in homework more efficiently, which leaves more time for us to correct assignments together, giving kids more of an opportunity to review skills and ask questions.
However, it takes a lot of time for me to back up and fill out missing homework slips (especially since we have had a lot of missing assignments lately, unfortunately). Because a big focus in fourth grade is helping students to develop a sense of academic responsibility, I have started a new system of Homework Alerts. If a student is not prepared when he or she comes to school, I will ask him or her to fill out a Homework Alert and to explain on it the reason why they were not prepared with their homework. I will sign it, the student will sign it, and he or she must bring it home and have a parent/guardian sign it that night. If it does not come back signed the next school day, he or she may lose recess time, particularly if it becomes an ongoing issue.
Thank you for your ongoing support and involvement as your child matures into an increasingly responsible fourth grader!
Here is a sample Homework Alert for you to review, if you are interested: HOMEWORK ALERT
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 7, 2009
Teacher Team 209
The kids are fortunate to be working with several different teachers in our classroom! Besides me, here are a few other grown-ups who come into our class throughout the week.
Miss Laura Herold has been a paraprofessional at Pine Grove School since early 2009. She is currently taking graduate courses at Central Connecticut State University in the field of TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language). Miss Herold is in our class several times each week and works with many different students on various activities. As the year goes on, she may work with small groups of students on reading, writing, and math activities.
Mrs. Ann McCarthy is a veteran special education teacher at PGS. A few times each week (usually on Tuesday and Wednesday), Mrs. McCarthy will team-teach with me in class and will also work with ALL students in small groups or one-on-one. She brings a lot of ideas and expertise with her, and she’s been a great asset to our classroom. Mrs. McCarthy works with the whole fourth grade team and is someone we normally consult with if we have concerns regarding a student’s performance.
Mrs. Michelle Lenihan is a Speech and Language Pathologist at PGS, which means that she works with students on understanding language, using language to communicate, comprehension, etc. Mrs. Lenihan will work with the fourth grade team throughout the year on a variety of issues, and she will often be consulted when teachers have a concern about a student’s academic performance. She will be in our classroom on Tuesdays, right before lunch.
Mrs. Sherri Poi is a teacher of English as a Second Language. She works with students who speak different languages and helps them to develop their speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills in English. Having lived in Japan for many years as an English teacher, Mrs. Poi understands the challenges that English Language Learners face as they work to learn how to communicate in English. Mrs. Poi works with students at PGS, Thompson Brook, and (I think) at Avon Middle School. She will be in and out throughout the school year, depending on what activities we are working on.
Mrs. Carrie Dybinski is the permanent substitute at PGS. She is in the building each day and works in all grade levels. Because I will be out periodically for district educational technology meetings, Mrs. Dybinski will have an on-going presence in the classroom. She is very familiar with my expectations in class, and she knows our class routines very well. She is a certified elementary school teacher and formerly worked here as a paraprofessional before student teaching at PGS in second grade.
Mr. Severus Snape is a former teacher from the Harry Potter world. Described as a “horrible teacher” by J.K. Rowling, Mr. Snape works at PGS with students who anger their classroom teacher by not laughing at his jokes. (Kidding! Just checking to see who is still reading!)
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 1, 2009
Breakfast of Champions and Book Orders
Two quick news bullets:
- Today we started working on our first long-term project of the year, the Breakfast of Champions project. The kids can fill you in, but I didn’t have a chance to explain the assignment packet to the kids. Don’t worry, a detailed description of the project will be making its way home to you. Tonight, kids should choose their “champion” (role model) from all those listed on the website www.achievement.org.
Book order forms went home today. Participation is optional, but the bargains in the catalogs are MUCH better than the prices in the bookstore on on Amazon.com. If you are interested in ordering, please return your orders by NEXT Friday. Interested in having the option to place your orders online with a credit card? If so, email me. If there’s enough interest, I’ll look into offering that option. Remember, when you order from the Scholastic catalogs, you’re helping our class to earn bonus points that I use to buy more books for the library and other valuable resources.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 30, 2009
SAR Work Coming Home Today
SAR stands for Short Answer Response. It is a form of open-ended activity in which students must write a thorough response in a limited amount of space. This limit helps students to focus their responses in order to avoid a LONG response in which they “through everything but the kitchen sink” into a response in hopes of including valuable detail. In third grade, students learned about the importance of including detail and supportive evidence. Now, in fourth grade, we are focusing on being selective when choosing what pieces of supportive detail will best support the response.
You will see two drafts coming home today. The first (written on the worksheet) is ungraded. We reviewed several anonymous SARs and discussed the characteristics of a quality SAR. Then, students revised their SARs (on lined paper). This second draft is the one that I graded. Students were assessed on a scale of 0, 1, or 2. (If you are relating that to the report card scale, a 0 would be a B, a 1 would be a D, and a 2 would be an S.) For more details on how your child was evaluated, please click on the parent resources link on the left-hand sidebar and visit the Rubrics page.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 30, 2009
Math + Community Service = Learning
Curious as to why students were asked to bring in canned goods when school began? Besides being a valuable community service activity to support Gifts of Love, the canned goods allowed us to address an important skill: sorting and classifying. This skill often poses a challenge for kids who must sort items into different categories and explain their logic. We practice it at different points throughout the year in order to help students prepare for this sort of task, which will appear on the CMTs.
In our activity, we began by discussing what sorting, classifying, and ordering mean. Then, we made a list of many different possible ways to sort or order the items (by size, canned or boxed, store brand or name brand, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, etc.) Students worked in pairs to classify the items and wrote an explanation of how they went about sorting or ordering the non-perishables. It was a fun activity, good community service, and a valuable math lesson. Click on the thumbnail of the letter to read a thank you letter from Gifts of Love.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 29, 2009
School Pictures
Smile for the camera! School picture day will be next Wednesday, October 7th. I haven’t heard anything about order forms, but when I get them, you’ll get them!
I found the photo on the right when I searched on Google Images for “old camera.” Is it bad that I also stumbled upon a photo of my digital camera under the same search for OLD cameras? 🙂
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss