The Skokie Home Scoop
January 17, 2023
January 17, 2023
Dear Families:
We hope the return to the school routine was a positive one. We had a wonderful week back and are looking forward to the weeks ahead. It is hard to believe that we have only two more weeks of January ahead of us! Please see below for important dates and events in the weeks ahead.
Winter MAP Dates
Wednesday, January 18th: Reading
Wednesday, January 25th: Math
Lions of Leadership
Our Lions of Leadership is continuing to collect pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House, and they wanted to share this video as a reminder of their cause.
Exploring Skokie
Music: In the week leading up to break, students chose holiday melodies to learn and perform in mini class recitals (6th graders on piano keyboards and 5th graders on the ukulele). This past week sixth graders reviewed the piano skills that were introduced in December and started to work on playing with two hands together. Fifth grade students spent the week listening to music and expanding their music listening vocabulary.
Technology Communication Design (TCD): Last week we explored visual communication and the way that symbols, images, and graphics can represent an idea. Students created short “rebus” stories utilizing a combination of words and images. Next we are learning about figurative language, idioms, and cliches, and how each of those can be used in a variety of ways to communicate an idea. Students will create an animated clip that demonstrates an idiom, and research the historical origin of that idiom.
Winter MAP 2023 Testing
We are approaching our second testing window for the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) test, which will take place between January 17 - 27, 2023. Your child’s school or teacher will inform you of his or her specific testing dates.
Similar to the fall, all students in Grades 3 - 8 will take one reading test and one math test. The MAP Assessment is designed to measure a student’s achievement level at different times of the school year and compute growth over time. MAP is a computer-adaptive test, which means every student receives a unique set of test questions based on responses to previous questions. This provides a personalized assessment experience by adapting to each student’s learning level.
The purpose of the second testing session is to provide teachers with midyear progress data that will help inform their instruction as they move forward into the school year. Winter student reports are not sent home. Student reports are sent home at the end of the school year with fall to spring growth measures. Additional information on the MAP Assessment may be found on our district website in the Assessment Section of ITL. If you need further information on your child’s testing session please contact your building principal.
Winnetka Parents Institute
JANUARY 2023:
Acceleration in Winnetka 36
January 25, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.
The Skokie School Community Room
Director of Innovation, Teaching, and Learning Dr. Becky Mathison will host this information session about the acceleration policy. The acceleration policy provides the opportunity for parents, students, and licensed educational professionals to request that accelerated programming be examined for an individual student. The policy identifies acceleration as: early entrance in Kindergarten, early entrance into 1st grade, single-subject acceleration (any subject), and grade-level acceleration. The content will include a review of the purpose of the acceleration policy and a preview of updated procedures this year. Participants will have the opportunity to provide feedback on specific components including the initial request form. Please note that the New Trier Math program and Washburne accelerated math are not a part of this policy.
Interested:
January 25, 2023
10:00-11:00 AM
Parent Education Sessions from District Partner Family Action Network (FAN):
For upcoming events, access FAN’s website here.
Sincerely,
Michelle Cooney and Larry Joynt
Principal and Assistant Principal
The Skokie School