4th Grade Enrichment

This year I am working with a 4th grade reading enrichment group.  If your child is working with me for this group, he/she wrote a letter to you explaining our plan for the year.  This group will be working on a One Book, One Community project all year.  This project will have us reading 4-5 Bluestem nominated novels together, and at least one novel independently.  We will explore these books in-depth, using above grade level literacy standards.  Students will be choosing a winning novel, and will be responsible for planning and executing a culminating activity that involves the entire community. 

Our first novel is A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord.  We are using Notice & Note close reading strategies by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst to help us read more deeply.  These strategies help students identify "signposts" that alert readers to slow down and look closely at the text.  Often times strong readers race through the text without reflection to see how the story ends.  My goal is to create attentive readers that consider character development, theme, conflict, and point of view in a text, and can use text evidence to support their thoughts and reflections in these areas. 

This week we learned about our first two signposts:  Memory Moments, and Words of the Wiser.  Ask your child about these signposts, how to identify them in a story, and why they are important.  We discussed character development this week, and the relationships between the main characters, using text evidence to support our thoughts.  We explored the setting more deeply, and watched a video on blueberry farming in Maine.  Next week we will work on some visualization strategies and learn another new signpost.  I'm also hoping to introduce a guest blogger, where the students will be responsible for summarizing our weekly activities on my blog.

Imagination Library

Research shows that reading to children as young as 6 months old has a huge impact on language development, working memory, processing speed, and early literacy skills.  Even though they aren't speaking yet, babies are still learning through these experiences.  Plus, doesn't it just feel great to cuddle with your little ones and share a story?

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a program that recognizes the importance of these early literacy experiences.  Imagination Library mails high quality children's books to children from birth to age 5 at no cost to families.  This program is partnered with United Way, and available in Whiteside County, regardless of income.  Visit the following link to sign up for your free books:  Imagination Library

Enrichment and Acceleration Classes

If you are reading this blog post, you are probably already familiar with the recent board policy passed on acceleration programs in Erie School District.  Enrichment and acceleration programs actually fall under the RTI department.  The interventions we provide are for all students that are not working at grade level.  This could mean for students close to achieving grade level skills that need an extra boost, or those students working above grade level that need an extra challenge.  As a parent, my own kids fall under both categories.  I have one child that struggles, and one that needs to be challenged.  It's a great personal experience that has allowed me to view both sides of the spectrum, and thoroughly understand the importance of both programs.

Mrs. Jacobs has typically taught all of our enrichment classes at the elementary school.  With a masters in gifted education, and years of experience, she is a great resource for our RTI team.  My experience consists of a masters in reading, 3rd/4th grade classroom teaching, student teaching 7th/8th grade literature, and as of last week, 6 hours of training in gifted education.  This year, I am excited to have a daily 4th grade enrichment group.  Our focus is on literacy activities including reading, writing, and speaking standards.  My group is in the process of writing letters to explain our plan for the year, so if you child comes to me, expect to see it soon!  I will also update our activities on this blog.

If you have any questions about our enrichment or acceleration programs, please feel free to contact the school.  Questions about assessment can be directed to Mrs. Jacobs, and questions about challenging your child can be directed to homeroom teachers.  Policy questions can be directed to Mrs. Livengood.

RTI Updates

Whew, my blog was in some serious need of updating!  The 2018-2019 school year has ushered in a lot of big changes to our RTI department.  Lauryn Wiebenga was moved to a 3rd grade teaching position in order to accommodate for that growing class size, and Lindsay Schryver has joined the RTI team part time in the afternoons to help.  She spends her mornings teaching preschool, and I'm thrilled to have her early childhood expertise!

In addition to personnel changes, we also have some curriculum and assessment changes.  We have eliminated the STAR reading and STAR math tests, and replaced them with MAP testing for reading and math.  We are thrilled with the amount and quality of data these new assessments will provide, and I believe that parents will also be pleased with the easy to read reports and specific information provided.  In order to prepare for the assessment changes, the RTI department had to complete several hours of training, as well as several hours of work setting up the new system and training teachers.  Now that students have completed their testing, our department will have our next round of training later this week.

This year we are also implementing the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention curriculum for our 1st-3rd grade reading groups.  We piloted this program last year, and loved the high quality materials, the focus on writing and responding to text, and the inclusion of phonics and word work.  In order to ensure that students are working at the appropriate instructional reading level, the RTI teachers must use the Benchmark Assessment System to have students individually read books of increasing difficulty until we find a child's instructional and frustration reading levels.  This is a time consuming progress, but they payoff is worth it!  Our RTI department attended 3 hours of face to face training on the new program this year, as well as a few hours of online training to prepare for this new curriculum. 

These changes got our groups off to a slow start this year, but rest assured the data we have been gathering will be crucial to individualizing our instruction to your child's needs.  We will be starting our first round of progress monitoring this week, so if you have been waiting patiently for those reports we promised, you will see them soon!