Together We Can

As we embrace the cozy spirit of November, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for your continued support and involvement in our school community. This month is a wonderful time to reflect on what we are thankful for, including the hard work of our students and the dedication of our staff. We have some exciting events lined up, including a parent workshop with CPAC. Thank you for your dedicated support for our students and staff!

Best,

Stacey Heiligenthaler, Ph.D.

Chief Officer of Special Education and Student Supports

stacey_heiligenthaler@greenwich.k12.ct.us

Throughout the week, students in all of our preschool classes answered a question of the day. The question of the day is a simple, effective activity that we use from the Creative Curriculum to stimulate the student's curiosity and encourage critical thinking. Students in Ms. Danielle's class are having fun answering a question of the day related to Halloween candy.

Students at Parkway School engaged in a bullying prevention lesson as part of our district's effort to create a positive school climate. Students district-wide learned what bullying is and ways to respond if someone is targeting them or being mean. Strategies included being assertive and standing up, using "I" statements, gathering allies, and surprising with kindness.

Mr. Oddo works with a student on reading a decodable text at Julian Curtiss School. Decodable texts are a great resource for early learners. Decodable books are simple books that are written for the beginning reader and contain the specific grapheme-phoneme correspondences students have learned. This provides learners with the opportunity to use their developing segmenting and blending skills to read words in order to develop automaticity, or the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly, and experience independent reading success.

Mr. Quezada pushes into Mrs. John's classroom at New Lebanon School to assist a small group of students working on the Fundations Lesson. A Special Education teacher pushing into a class, ensures students do not miss content, but receive individualized support.

Mrs. Berluti works with a student utilizing Discrete Trials and the student's Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Device. AAC Devices give students a mode of communication that works for them. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a way of communicating that supplements or replaces speech and language. It can include a variety of methods, such as pictures or a speech generating device.

Ms. Meagan White, the district's assistive technology specialist, provided a half-day professional development training at North Mianus School. During that time, the staff discussed AT tools and did a deep dive into Snap&Read and Co:Writer, and how to utilize those supports for all students. Snap&Read helps students comprehend everything they read with tools to assist reading. Co:Writer uses grammar-smart and vocabulary-smart word prediction, translation supports, and speech recognition to help unstick ideas and get them to flow in writing.

October 23 was Western Day at Western Middle School. Student celebrated by visiting different stations, including" Spirit Lockers". This supported the AVID/SCHOOL NORMS GOAL of Communication by coloring posters with inspiration quotes, positive messages and school spirit to hang on lockers throughout the building.

The first GHS Unified Sports game occurred on October 29 at Cardinal Stadium, including visiting Norwalk High School. The event included group warm-ups, an inclusive game, fans cheering the team on, and lots of fun. Team practices are on Mondays and Thursdays after school led by Coach Deirdre Burke. The next game is scheduled for November 7 at Fairfield-Ludlowe, and the next home game is scheduled for November 14 at 3:15 PM at Cardinal Stadium.

On October 17, the Greenwich High School School Counseling department held its annual College Night. During the College Fair, representatives from more than 175 colleges met with GHS students and their parents to share information about their schools. Thank you to the GHS PTA for hosting a pre event dinner for all of the GHS counselors and college representatives.

Special Education teacher David Pepitone, met with students and families at the October 22 Open House at Community Connections. Community Connections is a GPS program that provides students, ages 18-22, with work and community experiences, vocational and skills training, and activities on college campuses.

with Jocelyn Bruchman

Background Knowledge & Your Student

Leading scientists and education professionals now see reading as a multi-faceted process.

When most people think of reading, we think of the common contributors to the process: like decoding or word recognition. Previously, those who ruled the field had not considered the role of background knowledge in a child’s (or grown-up’s) ability to read, that is, to make meaning from the writing on the page.

However, the most explicative theories on reading development now place a heavy emphasis on what your student already knows about the topic they are being asked to read. If we want to teach a blooming scientist about marsupials—animals that carry their young in an external front pouch—some background knowledge will be necessary to recognize the animals falling under this classification: kangaroos, wombats, etc.

Furthermore, a child who has previous understanding of related topics like predator and prey dynamic, adaptations, and food chains is more likely to make connections about the benefits of this adaptation, than one who does not have background on the dangers facing a young animal.

The more connections a learner can make to their reading, the more likely they are to understand the content they are reading about.

So how can families facilitate the building of background knowledge? Here are a few ways that don’t require preparation and can be fun in witnessing how your little one thinks:

1. Encourage connections: When you are reading or discussing a topic (and it does not have to be a new concept), promote connection to other sources. These sources can be other stories read, a song on the radio, food eaten, etc. For example, if you are in the market and the price of strawberries has risen, demonstrate to your child the connection between produce prices and the season change. This technique urges our learners to seek commonalities in material which will make it easier to store and retrieve information in memory when needed. Connections also help students understand the gravity and structure of topics.
2. Make predictions: All too often predictions are tightly tied to reading, but this does not have to be the case. Predictions are defined as an estimation of what will happen. Advocate for your child to make predictions based on given information. To demonstrate, have your student look at the items on the counter and predict what will be cooked for dinner.
3. Use analogies and idioms: When we use figurative language, such as, “That leaky pipe is driving me up a wall,” we provide the opportunity for our evolving readers to broaden the situation and consider how it could be similar to another situation. Explain to your student what that idiom means and why you’re using it for that situation. Check online some idioms with quick child-friendly meanings.
4. Categorize groups of items: Tell your kid you are going to give them a list of words and you want them to identify what the listed items share. For example, “sharks, whales, shrimp, octopus, jellyfish.” If they quickly say, “those all live in the ocean,” tell them to then break those items into groups. There is no right or wrong way to do this, but it invites your student to think critically about the items listed.
5. Use compares and contrasts: Give your child two items and ask them to explain how the two are similar (compare) and how they are different (contrast). As an illustration, pose a question your student. “Would you prefer to fly or read minds? Why?” Another example could look like, “Which would make a better pet, a tarantula or a snake?” Check online for a list of “Would you rather…”questions.
6. Read, read, read! Read together with your child (either in the same room within your own separate books), to your child in a read-aloud forum, or even via shared listening to audiobooks. A strong way to build background knowledge can be exposure to non-fiction books. These can sometimes feel less interesting than fiction and fairytale, but there are many historical fiction series like, “I Survived” or “She Persisted” to help broaden your students’ knowledge on some interesting and true moments of the past.

The GPS SESS department has partnered with Connecticut Parent Advisory Center (CPAC) for a virtual workshop on "Getting to Know Your Child's IEP". The virtual workshop will take place on Thursday, November 14 at 7:00 PM. Below please find the registration link

https://bit.ly/3YMzoqZ

We hope to see you there

Please visit the new Special Education and Student Supports Department webpage on the Greenwich Public School Website. Information about Special Education supports and services as well as contact information is provided

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Email: stacey_heiligenthaler@greenwich.k12.ct.us
Website: https://www.greenwichschools.org/teaching-learning/special-education
Location: 290 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich, CT
Phone: (203) 625-7493