High Ability Update

While there are two pathways into High Ability (CogAT and/or NWEA), some parents may have a tendency to worry when their child does not do as well on CogAT as they'd like. CogAT is an aptitude test which shows the potential of being identified as high ability. Below are sample questions from each of the three sections of CogAT to help you better understand what students are being asked. These questions are not taught at school, nor are they something you need to supplement at home. It's simply not a test you study for. These reasoning abilities start developing at birth and continue through early adulthood. Since it is a developmental skill, the student's age percentile is used for comparison to students of the same age.

NWEA is the achievement test which all students take three times a year. There's a great opportunity to support your child's learning based on their NWEA scores. In addition to supporting what's going on in the classroom, you can encourage students to go on Edmentum (AKA Exact Path). Many students are familiar with it already! It's a program they access through Clever. Edmentum gives your child what they need to work on which is directly linked to their most recent NWEA scores. NWEA is a great measure for high ability identification because it will give students above grade level questions as they correctly answer. For our achievement measure we use the grade level percentile. If you have questions about Edmentum, your child's teacher will be able to help.

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) measures students' learned reasoning abilities in three areas most closely related to success in school: verbal, quantitative and nonverbal. If you have a student(s) in kindergarten, second or fourth grade, their results came home before break. NWEA is the other pathway to being identified as high ability or having the potential to be high ability. Looking at your child's NWEA reports will allow you to see how their data is trending. They took the NWEA test in the fall and winter and will take it one more time this school year. I've included Duneland's High Ability link below if you want to know more about what High Ability looks like at the elementary level and beyond.

This integrated summer school program provides students with a time traveling adventure complete with reading, writing, projects, presentations, and enrichment activities to dig deeper into essential skills. The program is developed and facilitated by Duneland's high ability staff. This year's focus: Ancient Egyptian Adventures.

• High Ability Summer School is available for students currently identified as high ability in grades 1-4.
• At least 15 students must be enrolled for the course to be held.
• June 6 - June 29, 2023 (15 days), with no school on Fridays.
• Location: Chesterton Middle School
• Format: In Person
• Student Day: 8:00 - 11:50 a.m.
• Limited transportation will be available.
• No meals provided.

You may recall we wrote a persuasive paragraph early on in the year (topic was all first graders should learn Pig Latin). After a thorough discussion, we decided to write a persuasive paragraph on why pets should not be allowed at school. We used a hamburger graphic organizer to organize our thoughts. We also looked at a check sheet on what our persuasive writing should include. It is coming along nicely. This persuasive writing lesson will continue next week.

You may recall we had a very brief introduction to symmetry before spring break. While we did do a little more cutting and folding this week, I believe it was using small mirrors and seeing mirror images that helped students to start grasping the concept of symmetry. It's so great being there for lightbulb moments! We will continue exploring symmetry next week.

Journaling with the students about Edward's miraculous journey has allowed the students to express their private thoughts/opinions while getting in some writing practice. We have a couple students that are not capitalizing people's names, so I made notes in their journals where needed. Students could benefit from more practice on their writing stamina. Maybe you'd like to encourage your student to journal outside of school. Travel journals, summer journals, and diaries are all nice ways for your students to write more and for you to discuss their writing skills with them. We also worked on a crossword puzzle that tested our comprehension and retention of the book. We took a final vote on which book the students prefer. Three students prefer The Tale of Despereaux, and four students prefer The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I gave the students a bookmark that lists several Katie DiCamillo books. The students were discussing which of her books they have read and are interested in reading. If your student is not interested in reading at home independently or with you, maybe their love of Katie DiCamillo books is something you could use to prompt them to read more. Coming next week: Jeopardy!

Explaining our math logic in written words is a skill we work on throughout our elementary HA math curriculum. At first glance, some word problems can be overwhelming. The Think Deeply question we answered this week initially appeared to be a doozy, but we worked together to dissect the question. I always encourage students to carefully read a question three times to take time to interpret the situation. We spent 15 minutes thoroughly discussing our Think Deeply without verbalizing the answer. Students then worked independently to decide whether the answer is g+2=b or g=2+b and explaining their reasoning in written words. G stands for green, and b stands for blue. The word problem told us that the number of green stones is two more than the number of blue stones; therefore, the answer is g=2+b. We had a couple students answer incorrectly, so I will go over this again next week. I did explain it to the students, but I kept hearing they "had it backwards." I look forward to helping them understand why the answer is g=2+b.

We are on the second move (second project) of Fairy Tale Tic Tac Toe. You might like to ask your student what he/she is working on now. As with the first move/project, I am continually encouraging students to dig deeper. While these projects may not seem complicated at first, the caliber of work expected is high. Sentence fragments and sentences that are too simple are not acceptable. Sentences taken from one of our fairy tale books are not acceptable. Some projects do not involve much writing, but those projects need to be developed conceptually. Fairy Tale Tic Tac Toe appeals to the students since there is a variety of ways to exercise/apply what they know.

We continue to explore the Egyptians' face-value math and compare it to our place-value system. The students are digging deeper and making some impressive comparisons! We tried our hands at some Egyptian addition. I wish I had a video or audio recording of the discussion we had about the face-value addition we were doing. The students were explaining their logic and expressing their opinions with such care. Our time flew by and the student mathematicians and I did not want our time together to end. I cannot wait to explore Egyptian subtraction with them next week:)

We are having a slow start to our novel study. Once we are in the thick of it, we won't need to pause for absent students. At this point, students are still getting accustomed to our system for the novel study. Each student has a folder in class with tools to keep track of characters, clues, and important plot points. Each student has an index card tucked in their book to take notes at home. By Monday, each student should read chapters 4 & 5. Please check in to see whether or not your student has completed the assigned reading. It is very important they bring the book back to school on Monday. This is the first time they've had to do this for HA, so any support you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thank you, HA families!

We are moving on to decimals. Each student has a Zaccaro packet filled with decimal word problems. We will not be doing every problem in the packet. When the students eventually take it home, those of you that have your students do some work in the summer may want to keep the packet.

Email: kapeterson@duneland.k12.in.us
Location: Jackson Elementary School, North 400 East, Valparaiso, IN, USA
Phone: 219-983-3680