As I walked through classrooms this past month it was very nice to see whole group instruction taking place and then the teacher taking a group and providing intervention to those students who needed it. During our academic conferences we have targeted our students who need to make growth. This targeted instruction has to take place in ALL K-8 classes during ELA and Math. Please make sure your lesson plans reflect what you will be doing for that core group. These students are not performing at grade level and they still need to be exposed to grade level text AND be taught at the level they are currently at. What are you doing as the classroom teacher to make sure you are providing Tier 2 support at their independent level? It is the only way the student will make growth. If the teacher continues to only provide instruction at the grade level that gap will continue to get wider.
Quality Core Instruction
It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of providing students with strong, effective core instruction at any grade level. Without sufficient initial instruction, the percentage of students in need of intervention support will likely be larger than the capacity of the schools to respond adequately. It has become increasingly clear to us in our work with schools that building intervention programs without maximizing the effectiveness of core instruction results in overtaxed intervention providers and severely diluted intervention programs that have little hope of providing the intensity of instruction required to adequately support struggling students.
Core Components of RtI for Literacy Instruction
Instead of only having an intervention-focused approach to meeting students’ needs, effective programming focuses on prevention, begins with the intensification of core instruction. Core instructional planning must address both students’ academic needs as well as their social-emotional needs in order to provide true access to core instruction. High quality academic instruction will not be enough if students are so disengaged that they fail to receive the instruction due to excessive absenteeism and/or behavior problems. Thus, effective instruction will include strategies that keep students engaged, such as beginning lessons by priming background knowledge; providing students with a choice of assignments, texts, and topics; providing opportunities for peer collaboration; and supporting students in setting reasonable yet ambitious goals and providing progress-monitoring feedback to them as they strive to achieve those goals.
The Hour of Code is "a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code" and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, an innovator." Coding is the process of writing a program to make the computer do something. Everything that is done on a computer, like websites, games, applications, word processing, videos, and photos, has been coded to do its specific feature. The process of coding may seem daunting, but learning the basics can be quite easy.
Every year we participate in Hour of Code during Computer Science Week - December 3-7. This short video explains a variety of ways to get your students involved in Hour of Code.
Get started on your first coding project here! and remember to share your pictures on Twitter with #codeFSUSD!
Lunch with the Principal is on Monday, Dec. 3. Please send one student to have lunch with me.
Congratulations to our teacher of the year, Janice Whan. TOTY board meeting will be on February 7th at 6:00pm
Staff Social will be on Friday, Dec. 14th at Mindi’s home at 5:00. We hope to see you there :)
Observable Fish Moments at SV:
Be There: Make sure you take part in our hour of code next week. Thank you Mr. Passama for being flexible and taking your classroom to the staff room as they repair your room. Thank you Mr. Pringle for planning a college tour of CAL for our 8th graders. Thank you sunshine committee for planning monthly socials and secret santa. Thank you Mrs. Gabbart for writing report cards and holding conferences for your students while Mr. Madonna is out.
Play: Mr. Kimble thanks for organizing a fun game of frisbee with the teachers this morning. Nice job Jennifer and Kami!! #winning!!
Choose your attitude: Be kind.
Make Their Day: Thank you Sarah, Patty, Christina and Ariel for staying late last night for Literacy Night. The parents REALLY appreciated your guidance on how to help their child with reading and writing!!! ROCK STARS!!!
