Inside the ELA Classroom

Did you know our SMART Goal is to increase by 5% during the 2018-18 school year?

This academic year, the district goal is to increase by 5% (42% - 47%) of students scoring proficient and distinguished on the ELA Milestones EOG and EOC (grades 3012) assessments.

• Elementary - 226
• Middle - 248
• High - 188

TOTAL - approximately 660

How can we make this happen?

Coherent Instructional System

1. Implement Research-based instructional strategies
2. Provide engaging lessons based on student levels

Professional Capacity

1. Incorporate research-based strategies (Hattie's Visible Learning)
2. Use rigorous high quality questions with formative and summative assessments

Family and Community Engagement

1. Provide clear communication on student progress (utilize Lexile levels and assesslet feedback)

Supportive Learning Environments

1. Focus on Learning more than Teaching

• Explicitly teach students about the different cognitive levels and ensure that they understand what each of the terms means. Then, have them analyze question prompts for DoK level and assess what they are being asked to do—e.g., are they asked to categorize, infer, or predict?
• Work with students on unpacking strategies that help them engage in that cognitive activity. Consider creating process charts with them to identify the skills needed. For example, what kinds of skills and tools might we need to analyze a character’s motivation in a story?
• Give students the opportunity to develop their own questions aligned to the DoK levels that can be used in collaborative settings through group work, in Socratic seminars, or through a carousel, for example.
• Offer students the opportunity to reflect on their strengths—are they really strong in certain areas, but want to further develop in others?
• Have students code their assignments and questions. This is empowering and offers students a chance to reflect on what they are being ask to do.

Bulleted list taken from Edutopia

Article by Johanna Tramatano

Open eBooks is an app containing thousands of popular and award-winning titles that are free for children from in-need households. The goal of Open eBooks is to encourage a love of reading and to serve as a bridge to reading for children.

The three-minute pause is an appropriate strategy to allow students the opportunity to STOP, REFLECT on the concepts and ideas introduced, MAKE CONNECTIONS to prior knowledge, and SEEK clarification.

This game works well for any subject. Each student gets a card with an answer to one question and a new question for the next person. You begin with the student whose card reads ‘START’. That person reads his/her question: “Who has…a piece of land that is surrounded by water on 3 sides?”. The person with the card that says ‘peninsula’ says, “I have peninsula. Who has…the continent that is also the name of a country?”. The person with ‘Australia’ would respond by reading her card, and so on. Use internet searches to find ‘I Have…Who Has…’ games, and after the students have experienced the process. They are ready to create their own game. It’s a great review activity no matter how you incorporate it.

Pulled from:

15 Ways to make elementary social studies lessons more exciting - Angela Watson

What better was to teach non-fiction reading strategies than through interesting and relevant resources found in the social studies curriculum. The best social studies instruction is a balance of content instruction and reading strategy instruction.

Vocabulary lies at the heart of content learning. The demand on vocabulary knowledge intensifies as students matriculate through school. Vocabulary instruction could be leveraged through the interactions between the teacher, student, and text.

September 4th - Labor Day

September 6th - Fight Procrastination Day

September 8th - International Literacy Day

September 11th - National Day of Service and Remembrance

September 15th - National Online Learning Day

September 22nd - Autumnal Equinox (First Day of Fall)

September 24th - National Punctuation Day

Epic! For Educators - thousands of popular, high-quality books and videos for K-6. Epic! is free for elementary school teachers and librarians.