It's March and the countdown to Spring Break is on! Just two weeks to go and this week is full of fun. It is Read Across America Week and there are many fun reading activities planned. Please be sure to take a look at this week's schedule at the bottom of our memo. We can't wait to see you participating in the fun. Sometimes all we need is a little wacky hair ourselves to lift our spirits and to help us refocus on what school is all about.
FSA Testing
FSA testing will be underway soon. Our students that are on alternate assessment will begin testing right after spring break, and the rest of our 3rd-5th grade Cubs will start testing in April. We will be sharing a lot of assessment information in the coming weeks. To help you keep track of all of the important information related to testing, anytime I email you a document or information I will be placing a copy of it into the staff Google drive in the "Assessments" folder. At this time, you may want to take a look at the testing calendar. Additional documents will be added to this folder soon that will include which staff will be assisting on which days and the needed specials, lunch, and recess schedule changes.
Goal Setting and Data Tracking
How do we motivate students to improve academically? Making learning visible, setting goals that are realistic, and frequently checking in on those goals to celebrate success is important. Earlier this school year we rolled out some changes to the leadership notebooks. Many of you stepped out of your comfort zone to try something new and many of you have experienced some success. We shared earlier this year some examples of goal parties that classes were having to celebrate the first round of individual student goals that they had met. Since then, we have started noticing increased data inside your classrooms. As we get ready to head into the last stretch of the school year which is also our biggest academic push time, we would like for you to think about some ways that you can goal set with your students. Is there a particular skill or strategy that you would like for your students to reach or to use more? How will you know if they achieved their goal? What is the benefit for them academically if they meet this goal? What we as adults are excited about, our students will be excited about. Let's get them excited about our belief that they can improve through setting goals and working hard to achieve them!
Goals can even be very short term. For example, on a recent reading test you may have determined that only 65% of the class used the UNWRAP strategy to prove their answers. Of those 65%, 87 % of them earned a 90% or higher on their test which indicates that the use of this strategy has positive benefits to understanding the content. Of the 35% that did NOT use the strategy, 93% of them scored a 70% or lower which shows students that not using the strategy can be detrimental. Sharing this data with the class can be powerful. An idea is to then set a goal with the class for the percent of students that will use the strategy correctly and a goal for a class average for the assignment/assessment. Sharing data like this and goal setting for the use of the strategy can have long lasting impact on how students tackle reading tasks and their success on them.
Below are some photos of goal setting that is on display in some of our classrooms. These are great ways to get students motivated as well. Take a few minutes to look at these data walls!
This Week's Schedule
Keli and James
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