Elementary Essentials

During the January 4th professional learning, the two potential ELA resource materials (Wit and Wisdom and EL Education) for teaching comprehension were available for all teachers to review. Beginning the week of January 8, materials will arrive at schools for teachers to start looking at more closely. The goal is to have resources in all elementary buildings for two weeks to provide ample time for teachers to look through them.

At the end of the two weeks (January 30), a survey will be sent out to provide teachers with an opportunity to vote on their top choice. Please take time to look through the materials and determine which resource will support teachers in providing quality comprehension instruction.

Watch this video to learn more about the ELA resource adoption and the materials being reviewed. ELA Resource Adoption Update Video

Below are some frequently asked questions along with the answers to those questions regarding this process.

Q: What materials will teachers receive to teach comprehension through this ELA resource adoption?

A: All classroom teachers will receive the following:

1. Teacher manuals – 4 units, 1 manual per unit
2. Student workbooks for each of the 4 units
3. Online resources to support instruction
4. Authentic literature for students to read. It may be one copy of a text for a read aloud, half a set of texts, or a full set of texts so that each student has their own copy. Both companies provide options for how many texts are included; however, more texts can be purchased.

Q: Are there Big Books for kindergarten?

A: No, there are not Big Books as a part of these two resources. The main purpose of a Big Book is enjoyment. But these books can also be powerful motivators for learning. Shared book experiences help to model the reading process for beginning readers, encourage prediction, provide confirmation, and ensure the integration of new knowledge. We will revisit the Big Books that we have from Journeys and determine if they are still useful to keep.

Q: What are GEODES?

A: GEODES are texts that the Wit and Wisdom resource calls “readables”. The lessons that are written for these texts focus on comprehension instruction; however, they are also supportive of decoding. These texts are only available for grades K-2.

Q: Why is the American Revolution in the 4th grade materials?

A: The American Revolution appears in 4th grade materials, but in Kansas we teach the American Revolution in 5th grade. All three of the resources that we reviewed had the American Revolution in 4th grade. Laurie Winter conferred with the KSDE Social Studies facilitator; he confirmed that many states have statewide materials adoptions/approved lists and the big publishing companies write to the largest states (New York, Texas, California, etc.), as they make the most money there. Kansas standards do not influence publishers due to our population size.

Q: How will these new materials fit into the daily time allotments for next year?

A: The daily time allotment is a factor that must be considered for next year. In fact, we are already discussing this topic and will provide guidance on this later. Once the resource is selected, materials can be adjusted to fit in with the time allotment each day.

Q: What is the plan for integration with other content areas like science and social studies and writing Units of Study?

A: After the resource is selected, a team of teachers will be formed to assist in developing the new pacing guides which will deal with times, integration of content areas, units of study, etc. It is difficult to be more specific about what will happen until we know what resource is selected.

Wit & Wisdom Resources

The Great Minds company has agreed to provide all elementary schools with materials that will rotate from one school to another. You will have a week to preview the entire grade level of materials, then we will exchange the full set of materials with sample bags for each grade so teachers can look at one unit in depth. Hopefully this will provide ample time for teachers to review the materials.

Wit and Wisdom information and hyperlinks to a variety of resources can be found by clicking on the link below: Olathe Public Schools – Wit & Wisdom and Geodes Review Resources

EL Education Resources

In your buildings, a representative from Imagine Learning/EL Education will be dropping off print samples, grade level specific information and digital access for your teachers to see the FULL Curriculum K-5.

EL Education Digital Components include:

• Editable pre-made slide decks for every single lesson to save teachers’ time
• Customizable formative and summative assessments
• Embedded PD and support for teachers
• Cross-curricular teaching opportunities

Please use the links below to access all components and see the full scope of EL Education through the login information:

• URL:https://region7.ilclassroom.com/
• Username: olatheps@example.com
• Password: Teacher

Padlet with more information and helpful resources can be found here. If more questions arise as you are reviewing the materials, please ask the person assigned to the resource adoption committee from your building or email Laurie Winter.

The FAQs will be added to the ELA website under the new heading “ELA Resource Adoption Information.”

Check out this week’s ELL Spotlight regarding using sentence stems to encourage student talk in the classroom.

As many of you are aware, Cool Math Games has been extending beyond games of academic value for some time now. We will no longer continue to allow this platform to be used in our district. It will be blocked starting next week. Please let Spencer know if you have any questions or concerns.

Lots of information in the Science newsletter from KSDE! It includes: A call for feedback on our state assessment reporting; Linking Science, Mathematics & Literacy; Exploring the Universe through Legos; Explorer’s Guidebook and more! KSDE Science Newsletter.

Please check out the social studies newsletter for important social studies related items. Our social studies contest #3 has arrived, so please check it out!

The 4th Grade Social Studies Assessment should be given and recorded by March 8, 2024. Be sure you have entered your scores in your gradebook on time. Please reach out if you need assistance or have questions/concerns.

Enjoy your first week back with students! Please reach out if I can assist or support you.

Thanks for all you do! ~Julie