Waters Edge Elementary
Friday, January 17, 2020
The Edge
Thank you for another great week at The Edge. This week at PLCs, teachers were exposed to ELL Go To Strategies. Each grade level will have this training at their PLC in January.
One simple and effective strategy is the Key Sentence Frames. Key Sentence Frames support the use of academic language structures. This is a great strategy to use in whole group, small group, and in student pairs. Select one sentence frame and use it in whole group, small group, and in rotations.
It's that time of year for Mr. Zigler and I to schedule your observations. Be on the look out next week for an informational email.
#WEESRocks #2020Vision #OneTeamOneDream
Warmly,
Julie & Cory
Academic Focus
Our school goal is to increase learning gains in ELA from 67% to 80% and in Math from 76% to 83%.
Student Data Chats: This is a great time of year to meet with your students for data chats. Dr. Whitehurst did her dissertation on student data chats and she shared with me that there is very strong research about raising student achievement through teacher feedback, students keeping track and setting their own goals (Hattie, Fisher & Frey). She also stated that "it makes a tremendous difference when children know where they are in the learning process and know exactly what they need to do to improve".
A word on small group for grades 3 to 5: Use your diagnostic data to make informed decisions about small group instruction. Teachers should be meeting with students in small group with a focus on The thing to remember about the small group table when teachers are utilizing i-Ready or other test prep materials, is that students need to begin to build stamina- watching students complete the worksheets at the table is not effective. There should be teaching/modeling of strategies or skills and lots of accountable talk. Then students can move to completing the independent practice. They need to be able to start chunking the passages on their own in order to build stamina.
How Likely are Retained Students to Graduate in Palm Beach County?
Percent of students who graduate within their cohort level:
Students who entered grade 9 one year late: 69%
Students who entered grade 9 two years late: 29%
We each play an important role in our district's graduation rates. It is essential that we help all our students make a year's worth of growth. Ask yourself...What am I doing to help my students graduate?
Two Weeks at a Glance
1/20 - No School
1/21 - Day 5: Nevils/Grecsek Gumbo Limbo, Faculty Meeting
1/22 - Day 6: 1st PLC
1/23 - Day 1: 2nd PLC, HTHT 5th Grade, Swales/Ziffer Gumbo Limbo
1/24 - Day 2: Bailey/McGuire Gumbo Limbo, PTA Family Game Night
1/27 - Day 3: 3rd PLC, HTHT 4th Grade
1/28 - Day 4:
1/29 - Day 5: 4th PLC, Tornado Drill
1/30 - Day 6: 5th PLC
1/31 - Day 1: