Hello!

Yes! We've made it to the 2nd 9 Weeks! Please look to this newsletter as a resource for best practices in your classroom instruction. We can model these for you in your classroom, if you'd like! This month's newsletter features Digital Resources, a Read Aloud Suggestion, Co-Creating Criteria using Strong and Weak Work, Staff Spotlights, and a new idea for a formative assessment called "My Favorite No."

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Your Campus Instructional Team

Whiteboard.fi is a simple tool that can be used instantly. By creating a class and letting your students join, everyone will get a digital whiteboard. You as a teacher see all your students' whiteboards in real time, so you can follow their progress. The students only see their own whiteboard and the teacher's.

Whiteboard.fi is an instant formative assessment tool for your classroom, providing you with live feedback and immediate overview over your students.

Flyleaf publishing is granting free access to their decodable text this year. This may be helpful as you are implementing the phonics units. As we progress through the year, we realize the role texts play in helping young students learn to read.

America has been considered a melting pot of cultures from all over the world. The same can be said about our schools. Children learn alongside their peers and consider many of them friends. But, how well do they really know their friends, especially the ones they don’t share the same culture as? In a world where cultural competency matters, books serve as guides for student to a world of cultures different than their own. According to Diverse Book Finder, “of the notably small number of books depicting Middle Eastern, North African, and Arab characters at all, most are portrayed in stories about cultural particularity (Beautiful Life) or in traditional tales (Folklore). Perhaps more notably, they are the most underrepresented characters in any books that do not make race, ethnicity, or culture a part of the plot.”

In Rukhsana Khan’s Big Red Lollipop, culture and customs become part of the plot. Young

Rubina has been invited to attend a classmate’s birthday party. It’s her first American party to

attend! Her excitement wanes when Rubina’s mother insists that she bring her sister to the

party as well. Her mother is not familiar with American customs and is not open to Rubina’s

protests. To make matters worse, Rubina’s sister behaves badly, and even eats Rubina’s prized party favor…a big red lollipop. When Rubina’s sister is invited to her first American party,

Rubina does not want to ruin her sister’s time and gently explains again to her mother about

American customs in that children are not required to bring their siblings to parties.

If you'd like to borrow it, stop by Room 21A!

For the past few years, Rivera has been working on learning targets and helping students make connections to their learning. Teachers have worked on writing student friendly learning targets, making reference to them, and helping students make connections with their learning to real life. The journey now falls on teaching the students to self-assess. “With this strategy, we transfer ownership of learning to the student” (Chappuis, 2015, pg.12).

The first step involves students setting and using criteria as evidence for their learning. Often times, rubrics and checklists fall in this step. The key factor about rubrics and checklists is that they are not meaningful unless the student has helped to create them.

The most successful way is to allow students to set their own criteria. This makes the experience more meaningful and they will be more likely to use it. In the pictures above, teachers led a class discussion to decide what the intended learning should be. For example, “What makes me successful when answering word problems?”

This activity is also quite powerful for Writing.

Contact Gloria Mendoza or Joya Elam if you'd like to implement this.

This a wonderful formative assessment that allows you to get feedback about student progress almost immediately! It can be used for math or any other content areas. It allows students to learn from their mistakes and analyze other student's work for mistakes.

How does it work? It's simple! Hand out note cards and have your students solve a problem. Once the note cards have been turned in, sort them into 2 piles - YES and NO. Choose your favorite No and share with the class. Ask the students to identify what was done correctly and then what was done incorrectly. You are able to assess your students when they justify and explain their thinking.