“Literacy Lines”
Do you want to cut down on grading time while ensuring more objective grading practices? Do you want to measure your student’s performance in more authentic ways? Do you want to define expectations while informing students and parents of what is expected? Do you want to assess students in the actual process of learning in real-life rather than on isolated tests? If you do, then consider rubrics. They are much better than end of the story tests, used by a basal. Their test are only appropriate for maybe a third of the students in your class. That type of assessment does not give a real measure for the top or the lowest students in the class. It is a pass/fail experience.

When using rubrics all students are assessed at their performance level. You are able to define what it is the student has done successfully and what they need to do next to reach the highest levels of expectation. Rubrics help students set goals, understand tasks, and achieve learning goals.

To get you started using rubrics, I am attaching some to this literacy line. Let me know if you need more! If you already have them, great! I hope you’ll try using them soon.

I’m sending this early this week, as I will be at Furman on Friday. Have a safe Halloween and a restful weekend!
Ellen

“Literacy Lines”
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Weighing the pig doesn’t make it fatter.” Or “When are we going to stop weighing the cows and start feeding them?” These are lines often heard from teachers who are frustrated and/or overwhelmed with assessments. Sometimes we hear, “I just want to get back to teaching my kids.” These are honest feelings of frustration that are based on the idea that assessments are given too much and aren’t useful. But the reality is that assessments aren’t the problem. The real problem is not knowing how to use the assessments to drive our instruction. We are fortunate that our assessment tools are meaningful and inform our instruction. We don’t just decide what students need to know, but use our assessments to focus on our student’s strengths and drive our instruction. Vygotsky calls this the “Zone of Proximal Development” or ZPD. Whatever you call it, it means teaching our student’s where they are and intentional teaching for maximum growth in learning.

Word Study? What Words?

This week I am continuing to focus on Word Study since as a district we are growing and changing in that direction. Each classroom I visit this week has amazed me with their effort in this area. All the students are learning the process of inquiry. They are experiencing the joy of exploring with words.

Many teachers are still clarifying the terms of high-frequency words versus pattern words. Then we throw in terms such as content vocabulary words and the mix continues. Our high frequency words are those simple words that are most often used in student's reading and writing. They need to be accessible to children through the word wall and/or their personal word journals and these words need to be learned so well that the child doesn't have to think before recognizing them. We call this "automaticity." They just come quickly and with out a lot of thought. Our pattern words are those that we use for word sorts to explore patterns in words and discover how some words follow certain patterns.

Content vocabulary and/or vocabulary are the words that are specific to certain conent areas. For example; mutiply, divide for Math. Continent, country for Social Studies. These words children need to know the meaning of and may or may not be able to spell.

Word Study

September has been the season of word study questions and answers. As our district moves away from a traditional spelling program to a "Word Study" approach we all have many questions and concerns. But the main idea is for our students to apply their spelling knowledge in their everyday writing.

We will have to start small. Identifying our student's developmental levels is the most important aspect of the approach. Understanding where our students are starting from is our guide to instruction.

Engaging students in word study will be vital. Having students be accountable for high frequency words in their writing will be essential. How do we achieve that? I will be listing a variety of ways for students to study those words. Check out my next blog.

The Beginning! Are we ready?

NEXT WEEK OUR NEW STUDENTS WILL ARRIVE. ARE WE READY TO MEET THEIR LITERACY NEEDS?
HAVE WE PREPARED OUR ROOMS TO WELCOME THE NEW AND EAGER STUDENTS? WILL THEY FEEL WELCOME AND EMBRACE OWNERSHIP OF THIS NEW CLASSROOM?
LET'S MAKE SURE THAT THE FIRST FEW WEEKS OF THE YEAR ARE SPENT IN MAKING THE CHILDREN FEEL CONFIDENT, WELCOMED, AND EMOTIONALLY READY TO LEARN.
THE TIME WE SPEND NOW SETTING THE STAGE FOR LEARNING WILL REWARD THE STUDENTS AND OURSELVES A HUNDRED TIMES OVER.