TQS 2 k)The purposes of student assessment. They know how to assess the range of learning objectives by selecting and developing a variety of classroom and large scale assessment techniques and instruments. They know how to analyze the results of classroom and large scale assessment instruments...and how to use the results for the ultimate benefit of students.

There´s no question that improving reading fluency and comprehension is an urgent need at our school. 

Melissa, Phil, and myself are posting this month on a measure we are taking in our class to improve student reading with the aim of bringing all of our students to grade level in reading.

Phonemic Awareness Assessment and Grouping Based on Specific Student Needs

Lana Laine talked to us at the beginning of the year about the gaps that struggling readers often have with their phonemic awareness. Sure enough, when I started getting the class to produce rhymes, some simply couldn´t! With regular practice, I saw a notable improvement, but it wasn´t until a conversation with Jessica after the literacy convention she attended, that things really clicked.

Jessica talked about a school where  literacy achievement had syrocketed and a huge aspect of that was continual assessment and targeted, small-group teaching based on the results. This has been missing from my literacy instruction. I have some global ideas of the problems my students are having, but I haven´t been assessing specific skills enough that I can actually correct them! 

As a result, I administered a Phonemic Awareness Screening to my class and the results were quite surprising. Many students had problems with skills I´ve never even THOUGHT to teach! I organized the class by areas of need on stickies and have created small groupings to target those skills. I am also doing fun little phonemic quizzes on washroom trips to give everyone practice. 

This week, I am planning to do a reading running record with everyone on a book at their Fountas & Pinnell level so that I can get data on both fluency issues and comprehension skills for other targeted lessons.  I am optimistic that I can become so much more successful in improving my students´s reading if my instruction is done with greater intention.

Erin

Mrs W's Best Practice for 3C

Hi my name is Melissa and I am a first time blogger 😕please excuse my newness.

As Erin mentioned we have chose to write about struggling readers. At first I knew exactly what I wanted to write and upon some conversations and reflections this week I have added to it.

As a lower elementary teacher and working with the younger kids the past few years I still go back to the R+ program. By no means is it the greatest program, but I am sure it has had many adaptations over the years. When I look at where my students are in their reading I can see the lack of phonemic awareness (which touches on Erins topic as well). It seems that most times I analyze problem areas I am almost always lead back to this same problem. I have been able to work with students individually or as a group with R+ to teach these skills.

Through some reflections this year being in a new grade I have thought about why the kids are where they are at. We are all amazing teachers, we all have our strengths; sometimes strengths we didn't realize. Sometimes these are easier for other to see, especially in our setting. It is interesting to look at my class this year and see which kids came from the previous teachers. I have been thinking about how if I was to go back to Grade 1 or Grade 2 and do it over I would be able to improve what I was doing based on what I see from the kids a year further. We often sit with our grade level partners and discuss what going on and where to go from this point and something I think we can start to practice is talking to other grade levels (not in September) and having them point out the class strengths they notice and areas of weakness. Something that would not take very long as I am sure we thinking about it anyway, and can be very different to each person you speak with. It may not even be academic but something else that changes the daily routine. I am sure there are grade 2 and 3 teachers that can look at my classes in the past and say wow, she really needs to up her game on _____ topic or she did a great job teaching this unit. I am sure this concept has been discussed but not always implemented. It is something I will be doing from now on to better myself and my class!
I hope I did not bore you to death and ramble on.

Grade 4 Best practices

For our Grade 4 Best Practices, we've decided on this TQS Standard:

2. h) the importance of respecting students’ human dignity. They know how to establish, with different students, professional relationships that are characterized by mutual respect, trust, and harmony

Since the beginning of this year, many staff (ourselves included) have noticed an attitude of disrespect among our students. We have found ourselves needing many more tools this year to help us handle these challenging situations. We both reflected on things that we do in the classroom and things we would like to do more of. The articles below highlight some key points that we find important and helpful to maintain a positive classroom environment.

How to Get Difficult students to listen

Why you shouldn't have to convince difficult students to behave

Below are some additional practices that we have been implementing this year:

1) Consistency: One of the most important things we can do to is to be consistent with our classroom rules. When challenging behavior is a constant problem it is tempting to sometimes ignore the behavior but there should always be consequences for ignoring the classroom rules.

2) Reset: It is essential to start each day anew. by mentally removing stressful thoughts of the previous day or week. Recharging at home with an activity that gets your mind off the chaos of your day and focusing on something you really enjoy is helpful. This may be difficult to do, but important not just to promote harmony in ourselves as professional teachers, but for the students as well.

3) Calm: It is important to remain calm when you dole out consequences. If a student acts up in class, calmly remind them of their consequence, and continue on with your lesson. This also allows students to know they don't have the leverage or power to get a rise out of you and ruin your day  (some students have learned over time to be very good at this). Try postponing a one-on-one discussion until you are in a calm state of mind where you are not going to lose your temper.

4) Positivity: Focus on encouragement and praise as much as you can. Making sure the child knows they matter to the classroom. Have little chats with your kids as they are coming in or doing work. Make sure it's not about the work itself but about them so they can feel they matter and are noticed. Minimize negative interactions and maximize the positive ones.

5) Community: As teachers, we need to remind ourselves that we do not work in isolation. We have a community of team members that include other teachers, EAs, support staff, and administrators.
As much as we'd like to have strong connections with ALL of our students, sometimes they feel a stronger bond with other adults in the school. These connections should be fostered and encouraged by the classroom teacher if they are beneficial to the student. Ask your challenging student who they feel is a trusted adult in the school. Look for opportunities for the child to engage with that adult role model. This can be something as simple as letting them eat lunch one day a week with the trusted adult.

Google Form- Self graded quizzes

In the past, you could use Google Forms to give students quizzes, but you needed to use an external add-on called Flubaroo to grade it. At the end of last year, Google updated their forms, so you can now turn them into a quiz and have it automatically graded and give feedback to students without a third party tool. I don't know about anyone else, but I always like finding tricks that will save me time from marking!Another reason I appreciate using Google forms for quizzes is that it allows students to use an add-on that will read them the questions (Select and Speak is the one we use)- great for accessibility for our lower level readers! 

Here is a quick overview of how to create a quiz using forms:

When you have your form open (In Drive--> New--> Google Form), you will want to go to settings (the little gear icon in the top right-hand corner). Then you will want to click where it says "Quizzes", and then slide the little bar that says "make this a quiz". There are also a few settings here you can change as well. I like to allow my students to see their grades after they finish so they can see their mistakes and read the answer feedback on the questions they may have gotten incorrect.  

Next, you will start to type up a question. Once you have it entered, you will click where it says "Answer Key"

 Then it will flip your question over, and you can select the correct answer, and give it a point total. You can also add answer feedback. 

Once students begin to submit, you will be able to get their responses by clicking on the responses button on the top of your form 

You can then choose to view it in a spreadsheet or see the visual created by forms. **You will have to mark long answer questions by yourself**

Also, one extension for Chrome that I have loved this year is called 'NIMBUS SCREENSHOT AND VIDEO RECORDER". It is what I used to capture and annotate all my images. If you are looking for a tool to take screenshots, Nimbus has a lot of useful features and is really user-friendly. 

Math Opener--Splat!

One of the starters we learned about at the Dr. Nicki Newton's Guided Math PD was called Splat! created by Steve Wyborney.  It can be used at all levels.  It links with many number concepts and can be used to build equations, etc.  

When looking at Steve Wyborney's blog, he has many different activities to use in the classroom.  It will be fun to experiment with them.  The link to his blog and to the Splat! activities are below.

Steve Wyborney's Blog

Splat!

Guided Math

On Monday, several of us had an opportunity to go see Dr. Nicki Newton present about Guided Math.  This was a phenomenal PD opportunity and what we learned will definitely change my practice in math.

Below is a link to Dr. Nicki's blog.  I would encourage you to check out her math running records, games and various videos about work stations, etc.  Over time, as we try different elements of her program, we will try to share specific activities and ways to implement guided math in your classroom.

Dr. Nicki Newton's Math Blog

Google Updates

Google has some new and notable updates that I thought would be helpful to share :) 

Google Sheets now has add-ons! 

Docs have had this feature for a long time, but Slides just updated to have them this past week. If anyone has ever used Peardeck (which allows you to add fun interactive questions to your presentations), it now has an add-on. It makes utilizing this engaging tool super simple! I would highly recommend checking it out. It also ties nicely into the idea of exit tickets we discussed at our PLC meeting the other day at lunch. There is a whole post I wrote on Pear Deck on the blog if you want to read more about it.  Another add-on that seems like it has good potential is Unsplash photos (Free stock photos to use as backgrounds), or the noun project (free icons to add to your presentations). Since its a new feature, there is only a limited number created right now, but I'm sure there will be more to come!