Elementary Essentials

District Professional Learning

It was wonderful to see all of you at the October 13 Professional Learning. Based on the feedback that we received, many of you felt like it was time well spent. It is a tall task to plan productive professional learning time for 850-900 elementary teachers. We are carefully reviewing your feedback and using it to plan for our next session which will be on January 4, 2024.

As a follow-up to October 13, I thought you might be interested in the history and research behind comprehension of narrative text. Literacy Brief #5 provides you with more information in this area. Literacy Brief 5 - Narrative Comprehension

Another key area of learning on October 13, was for primary teachers around the science of acquiring sight words. We will continue this discussion as we use Linnea Ehri’s Phases of Sight Word Learning to guide us as to when developmentally is the best time to explicitly teach and work toward mastery in recognizing words on sight. Resources will continue to be added to the ELA website as well as future opportunities to explore this area more deeply will be provided.

Writing Units of Study

Primary teachers requested that we provide a writing paper that supported letter formation (top and bottom solid lines with a dotted line in the middle). These items are now available on the District Store Front for order.

The next Writing Units of Study, Community of Practice, is on November 7. A Community of Practice is a group of people who come together around a topic they are interested in and

want to collaborate to advance their knowledge and practice. There is no formal presentation; the participants provide the topics that they want to discuss.

In-Person Time: 4:15pm-5:15pm

In-Person Location: Instructional Resource Center and Summit Trail library.

Make sure to register through the professional learning website. Open to all kindergarten through eighth grade teachers.

Elementary ELA Resource Adoption

We have completed Phase 1 - Planning for the resource adoption process.

Phase 1 Planning - Spring 2023:

• Listening tour - completed
• Textbook/materials adoption leadership committee categorized notes from the listening tour - completed
• Rubric created to evaluate materials – completed
• Resource review committee is assembled- completed

Phase 2 – Study & Selection Process (October 26, November 2, 9, and December 6)

Phase 3 – Final Selection & Negotiations (second semester 2024)

Phase 4 – Purchase and Training (second semester 2024)

We will provide more detailed information about the resources being reviewed in the next Elementary Essentials.

Intervention

The fluency intervention was shared with grades 3-5 teachers. The MTSS website has more information to support implementation or check with a MTSS Support Specialist to learn more.

Assessment

Many of you are completing an intervention cycle and are ready to progress monitor. The MTSS Support Specialists have just recently revised the guidance for this process. Information has been shared with principals and can be found in the MTSS handbook or through your MTSS Support Specialist.

Tier II Vocabulary

As schools focus more on Tier II vocabulary, see this sample list of words and guidance for how to integrate Tier II words. Sample List of Tier 2 Voc by Grade.pdf

Check out this week’s ELL Spotlight regarding strategies for supporting reading comprehension.

Now is a great time to order cyclic review packets and application problems. We just heard that the Graphic Communications department has caught up after the rush from the start of the school year.

Math materials such as cyclic reviews, application problems, T.E. binders, cutouts, posters and more are available to order online in Digital StoreFront (DSF). **Log in with the beginning of your email address and your district password. Go under the Online Catalog, click Curriculum, then at the bottom click Mathematics. Add the item(s) needed to your cart and check out. In order to check out, you will need a valid school Oracle account number. Items paid for by the Math Dept will cost $0. If there's a price associated with the item, it will come out of your school budget.

Please feel free to reach out to Spencer or your Math Support Specialist if you need help finding these resources or ordering.

Note: Any cutouts (aka, flashcards) ordered could be delayed in delivery if the print shop doesn't have enough pre-printed in stock. Their cutter is down and a new one is not expected to arrive for a few more weeks.

We are excited to share reminders and tips in each upcoming Elementary Essentials. This week we are focusing on the recommendations from iXL about usage. It is a great tool to support your grade level, and/or previous grade level standards that have already been taught through. When students are using iXL for purposeful practice, it can be a powerful tool. Contact your instructional coach or MTSS Math Support Specialist for ideas on how to use iXL in your classroom.

Students in grades 2-5 will take Quarterly Benchmark Assessments (QBAs) upon the completion of each quarter. Students in second grade will take the assessment beginning with 2nd quarter’s QBA. These assessments will be placed into classroom trackers at the end of each quarter and show up as dark gray. Scores for the QBAs cannot be edited in Mastery Connect.

QBAs have been designed to efficiently and effectively determine if a student has a full depth of understanding of the rigor of 2-3 key standards (see table below for the standards that will be included on each grade level’s QBAs). The standards were selected based on critical topics for each quarter of instruction. These assessments contain 10-12 items. QBAs can be given during math MTSS time. Teachers can use the data to measure students’ understanding of grade level standards. The tests are currently available and the window will run through November 3rd.

Please reach out to Spencer Brown or your building’s MTSS Math Support Specialist, instructional coach, or administrator with any questions or concerns.

The Kansas Corn Commission is excited to support your teaching efforts by providing free supplies. These free kits come with everything you need to teach a lesson. Click here for grade specific information.

Check out the Social Studies Newsletter for important social studies related items. Our social studies contest #2 has been shared here!

Fourth Grade Teachers: Please be sure to sign up for your Kansas Day field trip by sending me your top two dates. Choices are: 1/19, 1/25 or 1/26. Dates are quickly filling up, so don't delay. We have space for one more school on the 19th. There is space for a few schools on the 25th and 26th. We are finalizing trips by next week, so please let me know soon if your school plans to attend. Transportation expenses are covered for Title buildings.

I hope each of you has had an amazing week. Please reach out if I can assist or support you. Thanks for all you do! ~Julie