#Sonntag Strong Nov. 13th
Moving Forward...
Student Learning Hub
Please link the Student Learning Hub to your parent communication. It is a parent resource with videos and information on strategies and lessons.
Don't forget about the Math Cluster Parent Letters. These should be sent home before each cluster begins. :)
Updates
MATH
The Region 11 Livebinder is a comprehensive resource that includes videos, workstations, lessons with background information for concepts. The link has been on Forethought for teachers to access--Please remind them about the livebinder when planning, building teacher capacity with the content, or when looking for other resources to meet student academic needs: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=930542#anchor
- Fraction Reasoning (Cluster 2 4th grade, Cluster 3 2nd, 3rd, 5th grades):https://mathreasoninginventory.com/Home/ReasoningFraction
- Due to a substitute shortage, it was necessary for us to postpone today's previously scheduled curriculum writing. We will have curriculum documents for cluster 3, which begins in January, as soon as we can complete them. We will have cluster planners, CBAs, and daily problem solving available before Thanksgiving. Lessons will be posted when we return from break. Thank you SO MUCH for supporting your teachers with planning
- Remember that Supporting Documents for the Revised Math TEKS are available for order at the copy center. These documents make a great companion tool for planning!
- Remind teams to refer to Forethought throughout the cluster because as ideas/activities/lessons are shared with us, we add them to Eduphoria for all to use. We also post announcements on adjustments made to CBAs or lessons in the Forethought window.
ELAR
- Cluster 4 is now loaded for all grade levels.
- Kinder Mentor Lesson 3.6 has been revised. Please have your kinder teachers access the updated version of this lesson in Eduphoria Forethought.The updated lesson has a new poem attached to support K.8B (describes characters in a story and their reasons for their actions.
ESL Tips
First Tip:
Step 3 of John Seidlitz’s 7 Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom is to Randomize and Rotate when calling on students. In his book Seidlitz says, “Our goal is to have everyone involved in discussions so that we can assess all students’ understanding of concepts, not just those students who enjoy participating.” and “If we do not have a system in place, there are students being left out. Those students are usually the at-risk pupils, students with special needs and English Language Learners, all of whom would most benefit from the active participation.”
Create a system, like using index cards or popsicle sticks to rely on when calling on students. When randomizing the questioning would look like this:
1. Ask the question
2. Pause
3. Select a student to respond using a random selection system.
Rotate questioning during cooperative group work to encourage accountability using: Kagan’s “Numbered heads together”, marking a seating chart as students are called on, numbering desks or using computer programs, just to name a few.
This way students become accustomed to always being prepared to respond.
Second Tip:
This week’s tip comes from 38 Great Academic Language Builders by John Seidlitz and Kathleen Kenfield.
Activity #5 Building Block Cards
This activity uses Brick words (content specific words) and mortar words (academic words) that are general academic words found in textbooks, tests and conversations across all subject areas.
Directions:
1. List up to five brick words from a unit of study.
2. Have pairs or groups of students record the words on index cards. These are the brick cards.
3. Ask students to organize the brick cards in a way that makes sense to them.
4. Ask students to link the brick words together using academic language. Students write the academic language on “mortar” cards (or sentence strips) that cements the brick cards together.
5. Offer a list of “mortar” words and phrases to support students during this activity.
Example: Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Content specific words: metamorphosis, pupa, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly
Non-content specific words/phrases: transforms, next, grows, inside, first, changes into, begins, second, last, then, process, forms, eats, resting, stage, is called
Possible student responses:
1. A butterfly begins as a caterpillar and then a chrysalis forms. It is now called a pupa and then breaks out as a butterfly. This process is called metamorphosis.
2. Metamorphosis is when a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. First, it is a caterpillar, then a pupa inside a chrysalis, and last a butterfly.