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Curriculum Corner

January 2018

Curriculum CornerJanuary 2018
Dear CLES Families,

We want to thank all the families who came out in December for our Family Math Night. We had over 100 individuals attend, and greatly appreciate your collaboration and support. In an effort to continue to build on this night and share materials with our entire community, we are attaching PowerPoints and any other materials provided that night below. In addition, based on some of the questions that arose in our discussions, I have put together resources that will hopefully help families further access online resources provided by the County. As a reminder, teachers are providing information on the standards being taught on their Canvas pages. Some teams do it as a team, and other teams have individual teacher pages. This is a wonderful place to start when looking to support your student. As always, we hope we can continue to deepen your understanding through these night events as well as through these communications.

Enjoy the January edition of Curriculum Corner, and please feel free to let us know if there is a topic or content area that you would like to see highlighted in these newsletters.

Sincerely,

Amanda Wadsworth
Principal

Resources from Math Night and More!

How do I best use the resources from HCPSS to support my child in Math?

HCPSS has two resources that are similar in content, can help you identify the standards that your child is working on, and provide resources to support practice at home. This information is also supported by your child’s math teacher when they post the standards for the month on their Canvas page.

Family and Community Resources (Links by grade level below)

The first resource is the link to the Family and Community Resources page. This page has listed what your child will learn by Quarter. The title of each of the broad concepts is at the top of each section (ex. The Number System). There are links to web based games as well as ideas for activities to do. You have to click on “What Your Child Will Learn” under each content area. Below is a visual of Math and how it is displayed.

Family and Community Resources -- Screenshots of a 5th Grade page “How to support your child” are shown below:

Essential Curriculum Documents (Links by grade level below)

These documents have the same broad concept titles as listed under Family and Community Resources (ex. The Number System), and they have the actual standard identifier (see visual below) listed next to each standard (ex. K.CC.4) description. This identifier is helpful if you want to look up on a Google search for additional activities or through one of the websites, such as learnzillion.com.

PowerPoints

https://youtu.be/CFnPywOIkrY
https://youtu.be/ebtGRvP3ILg

Developing Computational Fluency Brochures

This year CLES is participating in The Great Kindness Challenge as a part of our vision of building relationships and creating a safe & nurturing environment. Please see the letter that we sent home last week. We are looking forward to spreading kindness in our community and beyond!

Click on the link above to see a video about this challenge. See resources below on how CLES will be celebrating and participating in the Great Kindness Challenge!

The Great Kindness Challenge Checklist & Spirit Days

Instructional Intervention Team - What is IIT?

At Centennial Lane Elementary School, we met the needs of students through a multi-tiered approach to instructional practices which includes data discussions to inform class groupings and intervention groups to target small group academic support.


For those students that require more individualized general education intervention strategies, the Instructional Intervention Team (IIT) is an available resource for teachers at CLES.


The Howard County Public Schools System (HCPSS) has been widely recognized for its innovative and progressive problem-solving team practices to address academic and/or behavioral concerns, currently known throughout the county as the Instructional Intervention Team or IIT.


As part of the IIT at CLES, grade-level teams communicate and seek consultation/support throughout the school year to address any student’s academic and behavioral needs. Each team has a representative that serves as the grade level IIT representative. Teachers may seek additional consultation or support for any student experiencing difficulty by contacting the school psychologist and administration. A case manager is assigned from a pool of trained staff members to assist the teacher in developing, implementing and monitoring a systematic plan to address the concern. These case managers meet regularly throughout the school year to discuss student academic and behavior trends and patterns and to provide additional support on individual cases. Centennial Lane's support personnel including the reading specialist, school psychologist, speech-language pathologist, cluster nurse, school counselor, pupil personnel worker and teacher for English Learners (EL) can be accessed to support student success through IIT.


The goals of IIT are to work with school staff in assisting students who may be experiencing difficulty in school due to academic and/or behavioral concerns while fostering improved instructional practices and school improvement. Concerns that may be referred to IIT include: below grade level performance, behavioral difficulties in the classroom, attendance concerns, social/emotional concerns, and health-related problems.


Questions regarding IIT at Centennial Lane Elementary School may be directed to Mary Nalepa, School Psychologist, mnalepa@hcpss.org or 410-313-2800.


M. Nalepa CLES 2017

Team Talk

Prior to IIT, teachers can meet as a team in what is called a "Team Talk" meeting. If any teacher has a behavioral or academic concern that they would like additional support or consultation, teams meet together and use their collective experience to discuss these concerns. The team then plans for interventions and supports of student. See visual below.