News and Updates

Welcome to February!

OAKS News from Kerri Sage
There have been updates to the OAKS testing windows and a few items that require clarification. Here are some specifics:

• The OAKS window will open for Elementary and Middle Schools on Monday, March 10, 2013. This is earlier than last year as some of you expressed the need to get a round of testing done before Spring Break.

• OAKS opportunities for students are the same as last year, with 1 opportunity for students who Meet* or Exceed, and 2 opportunities for those who do not Meet or Exceed on the first attempt.  (*Written parental permission is required if a student Meets but wants to retake it to try for a higher score.)  Next year (2015) students will get only one attempt with the new Smarter Balanced Assessment.

Summer School: Mark your calendars! Summer School has been set for June 30-July 24. We will be in search of both summer school teachers and EAs. Last year was especially challenging as we struggled to find teachers who held a reading endorsement. So, if you (or anyone you know who holds a reading endorsement) is interested in teaching summer school PLEASE let me know! We have yet to hire a Summer School administrator – as soon as one is hired, I will let you know!

The LOCATION HAS CHANGED for the February 24 Coordinator PD and Principal meeting ~ it is now in the auditorium!

Title Meeting Minutes (Jan. 21, 2014): Title Mtg 012114M

2014-2015 Budget Projections: Initial reports are that ODE’s preliminary funding for next year will be based on a 10% reduction. Unfortunately, this means that you should anticipate a reduction in your overall Title budget for next year. As you know, we built the current year’s Title budgets on a 10% reduction and we were pleasantly surprised with full funding. To be prepared, should this happen again, I would recommend having a contingency plan in the event more funding is provided. This way, my hope is that adjustments to Title budgets will be as smooth as possible.

As in the past, Title allocations will be distributed in concert with staffing allocations. Title budgets will need to be approved (by me) prior to submission of your staffing plan to HR to ensure Title budgets balance and funds are allocated in a manner that meets federal requirements. As the time grows near, Bee will work with each of you to set up a time for us to meet and review your budgets.

Resource and Ideas

PARENT RESOURCES
Parent Resources for Understanding the CCSS:  The Council of Great City Schools has published CCSS ‘Parent Roadmaps’ for each grade level.  They are well crafted and have a number of resources that parents may find useful.  The math roadmaps have been posted, for each grade level, in the respective assessment section of the mathematics teacher resource page.  Each roadmap is about 6 pages long.  For a shorter summary, you may choose to simply print the “What Your Child Will be Learning in Grade ___ Mathematics” section.  It is a good, quick summary of what we focus on for each grade level.

ROAD MAPS  FOR MATH can be found at the math page: http://www.curriculum.4j.lane.edu/math/

There are equally useful parent ROAD MAPS FOR ELA.  You can find them, along with other CCSS parent info here:
http://www.4j.lane.edu/instruction/common-core-state-standards/

Yet Another Resource ~ CCSS Parent Toolkit Has Gotten a Face Lift!
These resources can be included in school newsletters and/or a parent of your “parent involvement” activities.In October of 2013, NBC News Education Nation unveiled a Parent Toolkit online. The goals of this toolkit are to give parents a clear understanding of what is expected of their children at each step in their academic journey and to provide tips and tools to help parents monitor academic development. To access this resource, visit: http://www. parenttoolkit.com/.

The toolkit is structured around a series of frequently asked questions, with resources related to each question linked beneath. A parallel Spanish language page has also been created and is linked at the top of the main landing page. Materials on these pages include questions and answers for parents, information on what parents can do to help their children learn, parent guides by grade, and more.

Videos from the Teaching Channel: 3 Close Reading Strategies for Common Core:

• When Charlie McButton Lost Power: A Read Aloud Lesson;
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Close Reading of a Non-Fiction Text; Grade 5
• The Significance of the Frontier in American History; Grade 10

Five Questions To Get Students Thinking and Talking
In this Edutopia article, Rebecca Alber remembers that during her first year of teaching, she was criticized by an instructional coach for asking her class a question, waiting a few seconds, and then answering it herself. “So that day,” she says, “I learned about wait/think time. And also, over the years, I learned to ask better and better questions.” Here are some of her favorites:

–   What do you think?
–   Why do you think that?
–   How do you know this?
–   Can you tell me more?
–   What questions do you still have?

Effective Use of Open-Ended Questions in Elementary Classrooms ~ from The Reading Teacher by Barbara Wasik and Annemarie Hindman. Teachers sometimes ask questions that students can answer with a single word – for example, “Did you like the book?” elicits a simple “Yes.” It’s better for teachers to ask open-ended questions that invite elaborated responses. But there are two reasons teachers might hesitate to do this: the pressure to move on with the curriculum, and the uncomfortable silences when some students struggle with more-complex questions. Wasik and Hindman urge teachers to get past these two concerns, arguing that the nature of the prompts and teachers’ responses to students’ responses make a major difference in student learning. They suggest that teachers prepare a series of open-ended questions for each lesson, and then take cues from students’ responses to generate more questions. Here are their suggestions:

• Focus prompts. A general question like “What did you do over the weekend?” isn’t the best use of classroom time, say Wasik and Hindman. Teachers should – and make sure students use those words and ideas in their responses (students need to use new words multiple times before they’re learned). For example, during a primary-grade unit on spring, the teacher might ask:

–   What signs of spring did you see on your way to school?
–   What comes out in the spring?
–   Describe the animals you saw coming to school.
–   How do we know that spring is on the way?
–   Describe the parts of a flower.
–   What signs of spring do you see on the cover of this book?
–   How might the caterpillar on the cover change throughout the story?
–   What plants are we eating for lunch?
–   What parts of our lunch would a rabbit like to munch on? A caterpillar?

Some target words might be breeze, flower, grass, leaf, petal, plant, rabbit, squirrel, stem.

• Give children time to respond. There are several reasons teachers sometimes cut off students’ responses to open-ended questions, among them: not wanting one child to monopolize the response; impatience with repetitive answers from several children; and loss of momentum and student focus waiting for a response from a hesitant child. “All these practices, although motivated by the important desire to keep the classroom running smoothly, have the potential to limit the value of open-ended prompts, which depends in large part on how children respond,” say Wasik and Hindman. “Teachers should not simply ask open-ended prompts and move on; instead, they should foster as much child talk as possible in response to these prompts.” The quantity of student talk about key words and ideas is what matters, even if there’s repetition and a few awkward silences.
• Provide meaningful feedback. Immediate praise – “Great idea!” or “That’s right!” – may not be the best strategy. To extend and deepen classroom conversations, more-complex feedback helps students get used to extended, higher-level conversations about substance. For example, after asking, “Why do we see more insects in the spring than in the winter?” the teacher might accept several responses and then follow up on the theme by asking, “Describe some of the things that insects need to survive” and “How could insects hide from predators?” and “Tell me about some things that insects like to eat.”
• Encourage complete sentences. “If children use only a few words to respond to a question, they are not able to practice using language as fully as they should,” say Wasik and Hindman. Teachers should model complete, elaborated sentences and prompt students to respond in like manner.

Friendly Reminders

Don’t forget the half-day extravaganza, for Educational Assistants, coming up in February!
When: February 7; 8:00 to 11:30 a.m at the Ed Center Auditorium
What: Multiple sessions across the morning in various rooms

• Coaching for Independence – Autism Team
• Fine-Motor-OT/PT Team
• ELL Strategies – Abby and ELL teachers
• Tech Applications – Kim Ketterer
• Comprehension for Non-Fiction Text (repeat) – SDS
• Phonological Awareness – SDS
• Cultural Diversity/Competence – Carmen Urbina
• Behavior – Brianna Stiller
• Math TBD – SDS

There are some worthwhile breakout sessions, so please be sure and share this reminder with your EAs. With approval from the building administrator, EAs may  be able to adjust their work hours on 2/7 to capitalize on as many sessions as possible! As a reminder, here are the remaining EA workshops for 2013-2014. EA_Wrkshps_13-14

Inventories: don’t forget to add the small, 4-pronged, ipod charging device Monica is delivering when she works with each of your schools.  The serial number can be found on the back of the device and the cost is $27.23.

Quickbase Parent Report: a Quickbase parent report should be included with report cards and sent home with all students, in a SWP program. If you are a TAS, reports should go home with those students receiving Title services.

Student Profile Summary Report: Matt has generated the Quickbase summary report and I have begun my review. I will be sharing the results with you during my Title school visits in early March. I may contact you prior to this date should I have questions.

Parent Survey: Tami requested recommendations for additional, relevant questions to add to the survey. Please send her questions for the 2014 survey that will get to the data you really want to know about. Surveys go out in March/April.

Beyond the Bake Sale reading assignment; Chapter 4
Sharing the book with your principal is much appreciated!

1. Skim chapter 4, reading more closely those sections that peak your interest
2. Read the “Bright Ideas” boxes
3. Complete the survey on pg. 61
4. Read pg. 63; Ground Rules for Involvement. Consider what your ground rules would be.
5. Complete the checklist on pg. 75

Due Date:  February 24^th; 2014

Professional Development in Support of Your SMART Goals: As a reminder, a wide range of courses are being offered after school. As you consider your SMART goals, you are encouraged to review the course offerings as you will likely discover a course (or two….or three) that nicely support your goal.  Teachers can view listings and information regarding professional development opportunities for the 2013-14 school year here.  Please visit the registration page to sign up.

Calendar

February
2/24:  Coordinator PD; 11:00-11:30 lunch/11:30-2:20 PD/2:30-3:45 Principal & Coordinator mtg in AUDITORIUM
2/24: Beyond the Bake Sale book study assignment is due

March
Week of March 3: Title school visits
Week of March 31: Suzy out of the office

April
4/28: Coordinator PD; 11:00-11:30 lunch/11:30-2:20 PD (Mozart)/2:30-3:45 Principal & Coord mtg (auditorium)

Compliance Deadlines:

Penny would like to share a special “kudos” to all of you for working hard to ensure your compliance documents are current and up-to-date. You attention to this important paperwork is both recognized and appreciated! Thank you!

February: There are no compliance items due in February. However, I would recommend pacing yourself. Here is a suggested timeline for completing sections of the Program Review:
Sections 1-5 by the end of February
Sections 6-7 by the end of March
Sections 8-10 by the end of April
Sections 11-16 by the end of May

Program Review Document: Completion of this document has been broken down into two parts in an attempt to make the work a bit more manageable. Be sure and include your Site Council (parents) in this process; you will want to speak to your administrator about getting on the SC agenda in the months ahead. Due to the enormity of the document, you may want to consider dividing the work over two SC meetings. Please find the documents below:

Annual Title I SWP Program Review 2014
Annual Title I TAS Program Review 2014

As requested (great idea, by the way…), I have begun working on a sample Program Review to serve as a reference when completing your own. If it is helpful, I can set aside some time on 2/24 to more closely review the Program Review (section by section) along side the sample document. Time could also be allotted to work with another Coordinator to tackle some of the sections you feel are a bit more challenging. We can also schedule a Go To Meeting in mid-March, and again in April, to provide additional support and assistance as you continue working on your Program Review. Would this be helpful?

Please let me know of other ideas you may have to support one another as we work to meet compliance regulations in the most efficient, effective and accurate way possible!