WUSD Advanced Learner Update

AL Progress Reports will go out next week through ROOMS. If you would like a paper copy please let me know and I will print and send home! Progress reports include quarterly standards/skills, tasks to work towards skill mastery, and personalized comments. Quarter 1 Progress Reports were sent through ROOMS as well.

Regional judging for Southern Lakes Anthology took place on Tuesday 1/30. 6 students from WUSD have been selected for publication in this year's Anthology book! Congrats to:

Neema (4th) Poetry-Washington

Ana (4th) Art-Lincoln

Eevee (5th) Cartoon-Washington

Alexis (6th) Poetry-WMS

Virginia (8th) Poetry-WMS

Johan (8th) Poetry-WMS

2nd Grade AL students have finished analyzing their different folk and fairy tale book versions. Students are working through the following project steps. and will move onto creating their set models in the next couple of weeks!

• Identifying setting details
• Choosing story scene for stage design
• First draft sketch with text evidence

• Text evidence typed using Google Docs
• Labeled final sketch (with materials)
• Google Form-materials needed

We are need of the following materials. If you have any you can send with your student on their AL Day! (Monday-Washington, Tues-Lincoln, Wednesday-Washington, Thursday-Lakeview). These would not be returned.

• Printer paper boxes
• Straw
• Sticks
• Toy Bricks
• Plastic Roof
• Lincoln
• Model Magic/Clay

Students have been working hard on creating their game rules and writing them in a way that will make sense to all players. This is a challenging task and we have been utilizing peer feedback to revise and re-write! Several students are also working on creating original game cards with their multiplication problems and an answer key to accompany these questions. 2nd Graders are becoming increasingly comfortable with using Google Docs and features like font, size, color, table insertion, and more. Next steps include creating a 2nd draft of game board, test run of game with reflection/revisions, final game board/piece/game material creation, and finally our game extravaganza to celebrate!

At Washington 2nd Graders watched the video, "Austin's Butterfly" (linked below) about the power of constructive feedback and how it can be utilized. This is an inspiring video and really hits home the fact that to do our best work we need to go through the critique and revision process. We will be practicing giving and receiving kind and specific feedback over the coming weeks. Most AL groups will be viewing this clip at some point in the near future ans critique/revision is a part of all of our projects.

3rd Graders participating in the Literary Entrepreneurs project have been busy business planning! Once students completed their identification of character traits and text evidence, they took part in an ideation protocol. All character traits were listed on the poster they created. The whole group then collaborated to come up with as many business start up ideas as they could (that aligned with those traits). Students then made their business selection (that their fictional character would create). From there students developed a business web with all elements they would need to think about to create that business. After that, they filled out a graphic organizer with specific questions related to the business, such as: competitors prices, marketing strategies, and target audience. Several students are on to creating their formal business plan on Google Slides. The next step is logo design and website building. Students are looking forward to developing an online space to represent their character's business! So far we have basketball camp, a comedy club, and an investigation firm!

Our young authors have been quite busy developing their short story ideas and outlines to accompany the illustration they chose from Chris Van Allsburg's book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Once their story element graphic organizer was completed, students moved on to create their story arc utilizing the provided format. This graphic organizer asked students to consider and plan out parts of their writing including: introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement, character arc, conflict/resolution, theme, and moral. Next students re-created their story arc on a poster. This will be used for our Gallery Walk feedback protocol during our next sessions. Students will receive peer and teacher feedback, reflect on the feedback, and complete revisions. After that we are on to drafting our stories. Once students have completed their first draft, we will be exchanging writing pieces across schools for another round of feedback. This gives students the opportunity to interact with other AL participants in the district. They will use the T.A.G (Tell what you like/Ask questions/Give suggestions) protocol for this feedback activity.

Students are completing their final drafts of their dream playground (on a 4 quadrant coordinate grid layered over school playground image). Students have identified the ordered pair for each vertex of each playground feature. The final list will be typed in Google Docs. Students are exploring tools and features available on docs such as size, color, font and formatting. Our next step is creating digital model designs of each feature on TinkerCad, an online 3-D modeling program. In the next week Ms. Deininger, our district tech. integrator, will be joining two of our groups to teach us the ins and outs of TinkerCad! Students will select one design to 3-D print. We will culminate the unit with students creating a final presentation and sharing their learning with Google Slides. To continue practicing addition and subtraction with integers, plotting points on a coordinate grid, absolute value/opposites students complete independent. practice on IXL and guided group practice on whiteboards.

Podcasting group have made amazing progress over our past few sessions. Students are working on a variety of steps including:

• Research and notes
• Episode outlines
• Script writing
• Writing professional email drafts to contact experts in their topic field
• Exploring the WeVideo podcasting platform
• Practicing their script
• Recording
• Creating episode and series art

Prior to recording, students will be giving and receiving peer feedback on their scripts. We are discussing the importance of the critique and revision process. We have focused on the importance of feedback that is specific and respectful. Receiving feedback can be challenging sometimes, and the more we participate in these protocols, the more comfortable we will become with hearing and utilizing suggestions.

We will start recording episodes in the next two weeks. Students have the option to record video to go along with their podcast if they choose. We will be using snowball mics to optimize sound quality. Once episodes are recorded and produced, we will be publishing on podcasting platforms, and culminating the unit with a podcast launch party! Stay tuned!

The 5th Grade students participating in the scale model unit have been working hard to master the long division algorithm for whole numbers and decimals. As we started discussing unit rates, we realized that we needed to practice division in order to feel comfortable with rates and proportions. We have been working through guided and independent practice around decimal quotients, dividends, and divisors over the past week. Some students have begun brainstorming which area of the school they will be creating for their scale model. Next steps:

• School area selection
• Decide what pieces will be included
• Measure
• Select scale factor
• Calculate to convert measurements using scale factor
• Blue print of school area
• Measurement/building
• Share out!

As always, please reach out with any questions you have about AL programming, identification, and PBL units! nelca01@wwusd.org