19 Schools. One Commitment. Every Reader
There is something exciting happening across our district this year: all 19 of our elementary schools are represented on our Early Literacy Teams.
That is worth celebrating.
Last year, our kindergarten Acadience scores grew by 12 percentage points. Twelve points in one year is incredible growth, and it happened because of our teachers.
It happened because teachers learned, adjusted instruction, collaborated with colleagues, paid attention to what students needed, and kept getting better. That 12-point growth represents thousands of small instructional decisions made every day by teachers who believe every child can become a reader.
Now, we have an opportunity to build on that momentum.
With all 19 schools at the table, we can learn from one another and continue aligning the instructional practices that make the biggest difference for students. Alignment isn’t about everyone teaching exactly the same way. It’s about developing a shared understanding of highly effective literacy instruction and getting really good at it together.
And that’s what makes this year so exciting.
If our teachers helped create 12 points of growth in one year, imagine what is possible when all 19 schools are learning and working together.
Every school. Every classroom. Every reader.
Let’s keep going.
-Julie Richards, Elementary Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Systems
Math Happenings with Kerry Morton
Key Highlights and Changes for the Upcoming School Year for Amplify Desmos Math:
- Reporting & Visibility: Individual Student Reports now provide a unified view of student progress, and completed tasks automatically move to “past work” to simplify student organization.
- Flexible Assignment: Teachers can now assign tasks to individuals, custom groups, or use batch assignment for personalized learning.
- New Offerings & Content: Expanded Spanish print and digital materials, and added a starring feature to bookmark favorite lessons.
- Instructional Controls: Teachers can streamline navigation for small group/extension tools and toggle off non-essential features like “Math Adventures”.
- New Facilitation Tools: Includes Companion Mode, Projector Mode, Sketch Everywhere, and automated newsletter/caregiver translation tools.
You can watch the replay of the webinar here.
Boost! Here is the Teacher Guide if you didn’t make it to the session on Wednesday, September 2nd. Administering mClass Math BOY will place students on a pathway automatically, but you can also manually assign students a pathway based on the pre-unit check data. Here is a short video with directions.
Supplemental Data Reasoning Lessons – You will notice the Curriculum Maps has a link to include supplemental Data Reasoning lessons that align with Oregon Standards. They are aligned to your EL modules to help with connections. You can find the whole list here.
Rice! 3rd and 5th grade received rice in their Amplify Desmos Math kits. We have more if you need additional bags! Let Kerry Morton or your instructional coach know if you need more rice.
Literacy Happenings with Lindsley Gehrig
EL-aligned fluency passages K-5
In case you missed the session at Moves That Matter, here are some resources to help you and your PLC get started collaborating around complex text, fluency, sentence-level comprehension and fluency, and more.
The EL-aligned fluency passages are a tool designed to support instruction in these areas. There is lots of flexibility in how you use them to meet the needs of your grade level and students. One important reminder: all students need opportunities to engage with complex, grade-level text. These passages include built-in instructional supports to help lift all students into that work rather than limiting access.
Didn’t receive your Modules 3 and 4 from the print shop?
Since these passages are being used in classrooms for the first time this year, I’m holding off on filling Print Shop orders for Modules 3 and 4 until we’ve had a chance to gather feedback and make any needed adjustments.
I’m looking forward to hearing what you notice, what works well, what could be improved, and how this tool is supporting your students and your instruction!
- Home of all the passages
- Diagram outlining the intention of each part
- CADILAC lesson plan for using them throughout the week
- Adapt as needed
- I call this the PD for them. It includes information that your PLCs can use to learn more about complex text, overall fluency, and sentence-level comp/fluency during your monthly PLC/MTSS meetings
Student Well-Being
- Grades 3 – 5 Wayfinder’s Core Skill Screener window is 9/19 – 10/30
- Grades K – 2 Wayfinders Observed Core Skill Screener window is
Check out the Wayfinder Morning Meeting template you can use to build your routines for your community connection time in the morning.
Movement Moments
Would you Rather Back to School
Would you Rather Back to School #2
Animal Freeze Dance
Technology in the Classroom
Curriculum Access for Substitute Teachers
Clever Sub Badges make sub planning a little bit easier for teachers and provides substitutes secure access to the digital tools your class uses every day. You can use them to:
- Share digital resources (YouTube videos, web links, Google Slides, etc.)
- Provide curriculum materials like:
- Amplify Desmos teaching slides
- EL slides
- Wayfinder
- Newsela
- RGR lessons
- …and more!
If you created a dedicated Sub Page last year in Clever, you are already good to go. If you are interested in learning more or need support with Clever Sub Badges, just reach out to Robbie Faith for support!
Instructional Tools Website
In case you didn’t know, you can see all instructional tools that have deployed for you and your class(es) at https://instructionaltools.bend.k12.or.us This site also includes quick start guides to help you get started with many of the deployed tools.