Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Cardinal Close-Look: Week Of 9-30-13

Quote of the week:



Intervention Connection:
One intervention we use at a tier 1 and 2 level with our grades 3-5 students who struggle with fluency is Read Naturally's Read Live.  We do not use the Assessor portion.  This video gives you an overview of what student sees when reading a passage, the videos is a little old and the online delivery had gotten even better over the years.  



Positively PBIS:

One of our biggest areas of discipline in our building is the bus.  Take a few minutes each day this week and review bus procedures with your students.


Literacy:


Front Cover
    Read what Fisher and Frey have to say about precise modeling:


"Modeling
The focus lesson is first and foremost an opportunity to model a task or skill. However, as noted before, modeling can easily devolve into telling rather than teaching. Modeling is different because it follows a precise pattern:
1.     Name the strategy, skill, or task. "Today I am going to show you how to combine sentences to make more interesting and complex statements."
2.     State the purpose of the strategy, skill, or task. "It's important as a writer to be able to construct sentences that aren't repetitive or choppy. Sentence combining is one way to make sure your sentences read more smoothly."
3.     Explain when the strategy or skill is used. "After I have written a passage, I reread it to see if I have choppy sentences or if I am repeating information unnecessarily. When I notice that's occurred, I look for ways to combine sentences."
4.     Use analogies to link prior knowledge to new learning. "I like to think of this as making sure I make a straight path for my reader to follow. When I eliminate choppy or redundant sentences, it's like making a straight path of ideas for them to follow."
5.     Demonstrate how the skill, strategy, or task is completed. "I'm going to show you three short, choppy sentences. Let's look first at information that we can cross out because it is repetitive. Then I'm going to combine those three sentences into one longer and more interesting sentence."
6.     Alert learners about errors to avoid. "I have to be careful not to cut out too much information, so that I don't lose the meaning. I also need to watch out for sentences that become too long. A reader can lose the meaning of a sentence that's too long."
7.     Access the use of the skill. "Now I'm going to reread my new sentence to see if it makes sense."
When learners have a skill or strategy modeled, and not just merely told, they gain a deeper understanding for when to apply it, what to watch out for, and how to analyze their success."


Safety First:

October 17th is the central US earthquake drill, more detail will come as we draw nearer to that date. In the meantime, you may want to check out some great earthquake safety resources: http://shakeout.org/centralus/


Tweet Of The Week: Click the tweet to be brought to the resource link, in this case it is an infographic on engagement.



Parent Resource:

Great Everyday Math parent resource!



Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Cardinal Close-Look: Week Of 9-23-13


Quote of the week:

"We need to talk to students about what trying is - about what effort actually looks and feels like - so it doesn't just remain an abstract concept to them" -Marc Jacobson




Intervention Connection:
Intervention groups are off to a great start.  We are almost exclusively running Fountas and Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention.  Check out the video clip overview of this amazing literacy system below:





Positively PBIS:

Our Cardinal Rules and reward system are off to a great start!  This Friday is a ticket cash-in day, we will trade in certificates for small toy and prize on Friday only and all other certificates on Monday (9/30).  Please submit your class drawing winners before you leave on Friday to be announced on Monday's CWE-TV, you can submit names HERE.  

I recently ran across some great homegrown PBIS videos a school district created: http://vimeo.com/groups/pbisvideos/page:1/sort:date.  Our PBIS team will be exploring ways to incorporate more video modeling this year. 


Literacy:
I read an article this week entitled: Supporting Boys as Readers by Frank Serafini.  The article was fantastic, and it's short!  I felt like it tackled many of the challenges that elementary boy readers face.  Read it here: 




Digital Resource Of The Week:

http://edublogs.org/

EduBlogs offers a free blogging platform that teacher can create and control student blogs.  Best of all the blogs integrate with a service call ClassBadges.com that allows teachers to give students blogs badges for specific accomplishments.  

Safety First:

October 17th is the central US earthquake drill, more detail will come as we draw nearer to that date. In the meantime, you may want to check out some great earthquake safety resources: http://shakeout.org/centralus/


Tweet Of The Week:



Parent Resource:

Common Core Downloadable RoadMaps