Lexia vs Reading Playgrounds – who wins?
Both…they serve different purposes!
Lexia provides differentiated guided practice and feedback in both word recognition and language comprehension, which helps move learning forward. Lexia is more comprehensive than Reading Playgrounds. Lexia is meant to work on all reading and language standards, not just the word recognition subset.
To increase students’ growth toward grade level standards, it is important for students to meet units gained. This is most important for students who are currently below grade level.
When thinking about the use of time, the best instruction for a student is when they are in a small group receiving direct, explicit instruction. The next best instructional method is to be working in a program like Lexia that provides guided practice feedback that moves learning forward. Lexia should take priority over other independent tasks.
Reading Playgrounds is a formative assessment that provides the teacher feedback on whether students learned what was taught that week in core instruction. It is meant to be used to practice the current skills students are working on and also to assess mastery of skills. The first three games assess content taught so far and the rest of the games are just practice. Consider what is most important with the time you have.
FYI….If you are still missing Really Great Reading materials please let me know. ([email protected])
Literacy Happenings
Resources for Foundational Skills
Don’t forget to bookmark this folder and check it out from time to time. New resources are being added weekly as created. This week you will find scanned versions of the RGR posters!
Articulation video
This is a great resource on sound articulation from Heggerty.
Math Happenings
Math Curriculum Review Team – The team had their first meeting on October 12th. We will continue to meet throughout the year to establish Core Beliefs around math teaching and learning. A team member will collect feedback from you throughout the year.
How are unit screeners different from pre-assessments? Unit screeners are designed to provide a measure of students’ readiness for the concepts in an upcoming unit of study. Screeners contain a maximum of five questions and require relatively little time to administer. Questions found on screeners have been selected to assess prerequisite understanding and skills needed for successful engagement with the content of the unit. Pre-assessments are more extensive, require more time to administer, and are designed to assess concepts and skills that will be addressed during the upcoming unit.
Administer screeners in place of the unit pre-assessments. Alternatively, teachers might administer the screener for a particular unit toward the end of the previous unit to anticipate and plan effective support and intervention. Each unit screener is accompanied by a carefully selected list of “just in time” resources to support students who need to reengage with prerequisite concepts and skills. Find unit screeners and activities to support reengagement with prerequisite concepts and skills in this folder.
Social Emotional & Mental Well-Being
Check out this awesome video on teaching students active listening.
The Harmony Meet Up or Buddy Up is an opportunity for students to practice active listening. During your morning meeting consider having specific students share and giving every student a chance to share during the week at meet up on different days. When only a few students share aloud you will have time to have students learn to practice active listening with their classmates. Here are the response prompts from Harmony to help students learn to respond to fellow classmates.
Movement Moment
Updated: PE Minutes Menu
Dance:
Lines and Angles – Go Noodle
Hallabaloo – Greater Than, Less Than, Equal To – Dance Go Noodle
Freeze Dance – Gummy Bear PE Dance VideoRaining Tacos PE Dance Video
Yoga:
10 minute kid yoga
Strengthen Your Focus | Guided Meditation For Kids | Breathing Exercises | GoNoodle
How To Manage Frustration | Guided Meditation For Kids | Breathing Exercises | GoNoodle
Mindcraft – Cosmic Kids Yoga
Fun Brain Breaks:
Which Monster are You? (3 – 5)
Joke Fitness #3
What’s That Animal Edition?
Guess Who – Family Edition Disney Themed
Technology
Instructional Technology Resources Available for Check-Out
Did you know that the Instructional Technology team has some great resources that are available to use in your classroom? These tools, such as Sphero Bolts, Ozobots, Bee-Bots, and Breakout kits and provide hands-on and engaging learning opportunities for students at any grade-level. Check out this post to learn more about what these tools are, how they work, and how to request them for your classroom. You can also find direct links for requesting these resources on the instructional technology blog. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to your instructional technology team with any questions!
Apple Classroom
Apple Classroom is an amazing tool for managing the iPad in your classroom. You can launch apps and websites on student iPads, lock student iPad screens, view all student screens at once, and more! If you need help getting Apple Classroom set-up, check out this document to get started. If you are having trouble getting set-up or need a 5-minute training session on how to use Classroom, please reach out to your instructional technology team and we will visit your classroom as soon as possible.
Digital Citizenship Month
Just a reminder that all of October is a great time to talk about digital citizenship with your class. Check out the Digital Citizenship Week Elementary Calendar and Quick Digital Citizenship Activities to access these ready-to-go lessons.