I'm very fortunate to be working with the same wonderful team I had last year. Our classroom interpreters are Mrs. Piunno and Mrs. Westlake. Our classroom assistant is Mrs. Green.
Mrs. Piunno
Mrs. Westlake
Mrs. Green
I've introduced a fair amount of sign language this week (yes, no, good morning, friends, good afternoon, good night, restroom, drink, help). We will add to this as the year progresses. I incorporate as much sign language as I can. We have a wonderful partnership with Education Service Center of Central Ohio which provides services for our deaf students (as well as signing classes for our hearing students). Most of our students know some sign and many enjoy learning a new language. Introducing sign also enables hearing and deaf students to interact and develop meaningful friendships. See what signs your student can teach you. I've found many signs are easily incorporated throughout our day and allow for quick communication without interrupting small group and one-on-one conferences.The class is learning routines and expectations quickly, which will enable us to maximize our time learning together. Homework is a jump for some students, especially as they are still coming off of summer vacation and are building stamina. I will continue to use the same type of homework to support routines and good study/time management strategies for home. I will discuss homework in more detail at next week's Parent Information Night (see below).
"20th Century Skills" is a term we use to encompass a broad range of complex thinking and problem solving skills in Upper Arlington. I introduced collaboration, a key 21st Century skill, today through the use of Keva Planks (aka City Blocks), uniform blocks, for team construction challenges where students discuss successful team strategies and skills and then practice them. They are given the opportunity to reflect on their experience and apply what they've learned in new collaborative challenges.
Reading: We discussed reasons for reading (enjoyment, to learn, to "go places we can't really get to," etc.). We toured the classroom library focusing on "just right books" (books we can read and understand, books we can read fluently enough that our decoding doesn't interfere with our comprehension), and genres. To support genres, students received Reading Passports. As students read different genres throughout the grading period, they will conference with Mrs. Green or me to check for comprehension and contrast genre elements. We also compared the strategies of sounding words out and substituting using context clues (although I have not introduced the term context yet). Most students enter third grade with a well developed ability to decode words. The brain uses peripheral vision to scan ahead as we read, detecting "chunks" or patterns of words, and makes rapid fire predictions about what is coming next. For some, this is still developing and has to be practiced. If students with strong decoding skills come to an unfamiliar word, it is often a word they have not heard before (e.g., proper nouns, multi syllabic vocabulary words, etc.) and must rely on context clues to support their understanding. Substituting is often more efficient as it supports comprehension more than single word decoding does. We also began our read aloud, The Secret of Zoom, by Lynne Jonell. I am reading this on a nook to demonstrate different text formats.
Writing: We attempted a single paragraph. My approach to writing workshop is to start with a brief mini-lesson, focusing on a single idea, giving students a silent, uninterrupted ten minute period of writing while I circulate and check for understanding. We then regroup to share ideas and take our writing from "good to great." I then like to provide opportunities for students to share their writing via the "author's chair." As students read they begin to "fix" their writing, editing and revising on the fly, recognizing errors as they go. We discussed and looked at examples of paragraphs as single ideas. We also analyzed individual sentences, the building blocks of paragraphs, identifying the "who" and "what" of each sentence.
Math: I began math by introducing specific addition strategies, which you have seen on the back of the nightly math homework. We have covered zero more, one more and I introduced two more today. We also looked at strategies for determining possible combinations. For example: Ahmed has a blue shirt, a green shirt and a white shirt. He has black shorts and red shorts. How many clothes combinations does he have? While my emphasis will be on learning, I conduct a number of baseline assessments to see where students are and to measure growth. I administered a single operation assessment of 25 questions with a time limit of one minute and fifteen seconds (three seconds per fact) for both addition and subtraction. I sent these home today. The district standard for third grade fact fluency follows:
25 correct answers equals Extending
23 to 24 correct answers equals Achieving
21 to 22 correct answers equals Progressing Achieving
20 correct answers equals Progressing
19 correct answers equals Beginning Progressing
18 correct answers and less equals Beginning
I've found it is helpful to share your student's fluency scores in terms of Progress Report indicators, rather than a raw score or percentage. Interestingly, nearly the entire class performed better on subtraction than addition. I will continue to focus on single fact strategies that will support fluency. I'll share more on fact fluency strategies and how you can support your student during Parent Information Night.
Special Areas: We attended physical education, art and music this week. If you have not already sent an art smock, please do. Our special areas schedule can be found in earlier posts. We have library next Monday.
Class pet: Hobbes, our blotched tiger salamander, graduated from an aquarium tank to a terrarium and has started feeding on small crickets and mealworms. We'll observe his growth and changes as the year progresses.
Your student is bringing home an optional homework assignment. I encouraged the entire class to participate in next week's Student Council elections. I have asked them to prepare a short speech (paragraph or bullet points) that illustrates why they would make a great student council representative. I have stressed that we should vote for the best two candidates, not necessarily our best friends. Losing this vote can be hard on third graders so I will take great pains on Monday to stress that this is not a popularity contest before we listen to speeches and vote. Again, this is an optional assignment, but I strongly encourage everyone to consider participating.
Important Dates and Reminders
September 1st: Parent Information Night from 7:00-7:40
September 5th: No School, Labor Day
September 7th: School Pictures (information went home this week)
September 14th: Early Dismissal, students depart at 1:15
The school newsletter, "The Hawk Herald," is published monthly and the September edition is now posted on the Windermere web page (http://www.uaschools.org/indes.aspx?NID=763). Hard copies are available in the office. Please take a moment and follow the directions below to subscribe to our e-mail notification system so you will know when a new newsletter is posted.
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• Scroll down the list and subscribe to Windermere Hawk Herald (Newsletter)
• A small box ‘ Thanks for subscribing’ will pop up and click OK.
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