Week 6 - Grades and Assessments

My collaborating teacher still uses a paper grade book, but several others that I work with use online grade books. In my school, the teachers keep track of assignments mostly with a check mark to show that an assignment has been completed. There are not a lot of grades collected, but they focus heavily on performance, participation and effort. These things are then communicated on the report card. 

The primary way that the teacher assesses reading and math skill is through work in I-Ready. This is an online assessment tool. The students take a formal summative version three times per year. The reading portion of the test measures things like phonics, vocabulary, high frequency words, phonemic awareness and comprehension. The math portion tests students on numbers and operations, measurement and data, algebra and algebraic thinking and geometry. This diagnostic tool can also be used to create differentiated instruction for students.
When the assessment is complete, it generates a wealth of data for the teachers and administrators to use to determine students abilities and track their progress. They also perform progress monitoring assessments periodically to check for growth. By using this technology assessment, teachers are able to differentiate lessons to better accommodate student learning.
Here is a link that explains more about the I-Ready test.

http://www.wtulocal6.org/usr/2016/pdf/Busra_Aydin_-_Iready.pdf

Week 5 - Teacher Resources

We are incredibly lucky to be learning in a time when so many resources are available to us. I asked several of the teachers at my school what some of their favorite resources and sites were and received a variety responses. The top responses I got were:

Edutopia
Teachers Pay Teachers
Common Core

For students, some of their favorite websites were:
Woot Math
MyOn
ABCya!

What are your favorite teacher resources?

I love to find lessons on Teach Engineering. These STEM lessons, when planned at the right times, can support a variety of subjects. Edutopia has great resources for all areas of teaching and Teachers Pay Teachers has activities to support pretty much any lesson you are going to teach and often they are free. Finally, I use the Common Core Standards website to ensure that all of my lessons are following the required standards for fifth grade.

 What are your favorite student resources?

Woot Math is a great resource to reinforce math lessons. You can have students work on lessons based on material that has already been taught to review material or reinforce current material. This also allows you some time to devote to student who may need extra help. MyOn is a great resource to get kids reading and introduce books that they may otherwise not have access to. I allow them use time to read or log on to MyOn when they complete their literacy work before we transition to the next activity. Students also have the option to log on to this resource at home and over the breaks.

Week 4 - Classroom Newsletters

Communication between teachers and parent is a key component of student success in the classroom. I spoke with a third grade teacher this week and asked her the following questions about her newsletter.

1. What information do you communicate in the newsletter? 

The newsletter always has a note to parents letting them know about units that we are studying, any special events going on and information we want to convey to them.We include upcoming events or things to remember and helpful tips for home.

2. How often do you publish your newsletter? 

We send home a newsletter bimonthly.

3. Is your newsletter published digitally? Why or why not?

We do not publish the newsletter digitally, though we could if requested. Most of the families at our school do not use email for communication and we feel that they are more likely to read it, if it is sent home on paper.

4. How do you ensure that all students and parents receive the newsletter?

The students take home all communications and forms weekly in their Thursday folders. Parents were told at the beginning of the year, parent's night and conferences that the newsletter would be coming home twice per month. We also send it home in both English and Spanish so that all of our families can read it.

5. Why is it important for teachers to have classroom newsletters?

It is a great way to share information with parents on a regular basis what things are going on at school. We are also able to translate the newsletter which helps the teachers that do not speak Spanish have regular communication with parents.

Here is an example of a newsletter sent out by the third grade team in both English and Spanish. It is always copied 2-sided with both languages.

Week 3 Observations - Learning Tools

Every day students walk through the doors of the school to build their knowledge. Some of these students must overcome a variety of obstacles just to enter into a zone where they can learn. Teachers prepare lessons each and every day to help students overcome these obstacles and learn something new (or even just retain what has been learned). We are fortunate to live in a time with many learning tools that are available to support students. The fifth grade students that I work with had a wide variety of tools to help support their learning this week. 

First thing in the morning, each class holds a morning meeting. The classrooms have posters on the wall called "accountable talk" to help the many second language learners practice their conversation responses. Below is a picture of the ones we use from Really Good Stuff.

During their math time, I observed several more learning tools. They are working on fractions and the lesson was finding common denominators. Many of the students used multiplication charts, allowing them to learn the new skill, even if their knowledge of multiplication facts were lacking. Students worked in rotations spending some time doing a fraction game with a partner (which helped them to catch mistakes), some worked in a small group with a teacher or interventionist helping solidify the skills they had been learning and others used Chromebooks to access lessons on I-Ready and Woot Math. All of these tools worked together to enhance student learning.

I also observed teachers using videos to share information on topics they were studying. The teacher reminded me that it is important to view the videos personally to ensure they are appropriate and that for some students it is helpful to show the video twice if it is short to help them retain the information.

One last thing I saw was a very low tech tool. I took a professional development class during our late start time last week and they highlighted the importance of phonemic awareness for second language learners. We created a tool with post-it notes that looked similar to this.

The teacher says the word, the student repeats the word and then taps each square to help identify the individual sounds. We learned that using hand motions and tools like this help solidify learning.

I look forward observing and learning about many more tools in the future.