Elementary Essentials

The ELA Resource Adoption Committee has reviewed three resources to teach comprehension. Below are the top two resources that move forward in the selection process:

· Wit & Wisdom by Great Minds

· EL Education by Imagine Learning

During the January 4th professional learning session these materials will be displayed for all teachers to review during one of the breakout sessions. In addition, we are working on getting materials from both resources to schools directly, so that you will have more time to look through them and determine which one will be your top choice. More information will come soon regarding this matter.

There was an error on the 1st grade Fast Bridge One-Pager that was shared in the fall. It incorrectly listed the Sentence Reading as a subtest for winter. Sentence Reading is NOT required for winter testing.

The Fast Bridge testing conducted during the winter screening has produced a noticing with our early readers in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades. As students are completing the nonsense words and word segmenting subtests, the testers are noticing that many students are still decoding letter-by-letter with pausing between each sound pronounced and not blending sounds together.

During the October 13th Professional Learning session, kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers were provided information from the 95 Percent Group’s Teaching Blending Intervention resource. This resource provides information about different categories of blending (i.e., Blending Awareness or Concept of Blending, Rehearsal, Fluency), which includes stages A-G. We have created a short resource guide and posted it on the ELA website for your convenience. By supporting students to move from the Blending awareness to Fluency category, this will support students to blend sounds together more quickly without pausing so that they can hear the word.

Upon returning from break, we will be Cozying up with Comprehension by digging deeper into strategies to help build and strengthen our students’ understanding of text. Everyone will attend an opening session on comprehension followed by breakout sessions. One of your breakout sessions is required to be a comprehension strategy OR comprehension planning session. Below are the details.

Title: COZY UP WITH COMPREHENSION

When: January 4, 2024

Time: 8:00AM-11:30AM

Where:

• Mission Trail Middle School - K-3
• Manchester Park – 4th grade
• Millbrooke – 5th grade

Attire: Cozy/Comfy (sweats, hoodies, flannels, etc.)

K-3 teachers will select sessions by signing up in the Sched app. https://olathek3cozyupwithcomprehen.sched.com/ Please sign up BEFORE leaving for Winter Break! (K-3 ONLY)

The original 4th grade Units of Study materials used the American Revolution as the topic for teaching informational writing. The fifth grade materials used Westward Expansion as the topic for teaching informational writing.

The topics of these units were switched with grade levels due to the content compatibility with social studies standards.

· 4th grade will now use Westward Expansion as the topic for the informational writing unit.

· 5th grade will use American Revolution as the topic for the informational writing unit.

During the January 4th professional learning session, 4th and 5th grade teachers will be provided with a supplement to be used in conjunction with their Units of Study materials. In addition, teachers will be provided with training as to how to use the materials developed by the district.

Lots of information in the Science newsletter from KSDE! December KSDE Science Newsletter

There is an Annual Needs & Feedback Survey in the newsletter to assist KSDE in the creation and development of high-quality, targeted, and meaningful professional development and materials to meet the needs of your classroom in the upcoming 2024-2025 year. Please take a moment to share your thoughts. The link is https://forms.gle/qaDfg8xTUgoEmztm6

Please check out the social studies newsletter for important social studies related items. Our social studies contest #3 will be after the first of the year, so be watching the newsletter in January.

I hope each of you has an amazing break filled with family and friends and plenty of time for rest. Please reach out if I can assist or support you.

Thanks for all you do! ~Julie