Literacy Lounge📚

Mr. Chris Cochran 📝

6-8 Literacy Coach

christopher.cochran@watertown.k12.ma.us

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Ms. Paula Cabral 📚

WMS Librarian

paula.cabral@watertown.k12.ma.us

The library was excited to host the 6th Grade Cell Museum during the week of February 12. All classes in the school were invited to stop by the library to see three dimensional organelle models created by our sixth graders for their science classes and to learn about how our cells work. Teachers that wanted to bring their classes were able to sign up and stop by. We especially received many visitors during WIN blocks. It was great to have our students’ hard work on display!

Ms. Cabral’s summer reading WIN classes are still hard at work reading potential book options for our One School One Question summer reading program! In March, we will enter our elimination phase and the top book choices will go head to head in a March Madness style bracket. Students will be able to debate the merits of their favorite titles and argue against titles that failed to capture their interest. May the best books win!

Ms. Cabral is so excited to offer a new WIN class for students that are interested in choosing our summer reading books for this coming summer. The class will be offered during Trimesters 2 and 3. Students who are in the class filled out a survey indicating that they were interested in joining and are okay with reading for long periods of time during the class period. Together, the class will select three books for summer reading, as we transition from a One School, One Book model, to a One School, One Question. The extra choice is intended to increase student engagement with summer reading, and student feedback from this class will help ensure that we offer a selection of books that can appeal to all students! More information will be offered as the year goes on!

We are proud to be able to offer a wide variety of WIN classes this time around, including many new literacy-focused classes.

Students are placed in WIN based on their need for math and/or reading intervention, classes they have previously taken, a rotation of extension opportunities, and teacher recommendations. Our goal with WIN is to support students in a personalized way while giving them a unique experience each term. We have developed courses to support students who need some practice in reading and to push students who have already mastered many of our grade-level skills.

What new literacy-focused WIN Classes are we offering in Term 3?

• Kara Conceison is teaching a Taylor Swift WIN focusing on lyrics as poetry, figurative language, and socisl-emotional learning!
  

• Lisa McDonagh is offering a reading workshop to help students select texts and ramp up their independent reading. On the opposite day, she is offering a creative writing course.

• Our art teacher, Bryce Davidson, will be teaching art and literacy for multi-lingual learners. We will be practicing our speaking, listening, reading, and writing, through creative art activities.

• Ellen Fitanides is offering a writing class to support students with practice in various modes of writing.On the opposite day, she is running a novel book club. She had a great collection of 7th grade texts, including Ghost by Jason Reynolds and Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. I wonder which book the students have chosen!

• Our reading teachers, Ms. Forlenza (Proschek), Ms. Braese, and Ms. Zuckerberg, are offering reading comprehension classes. These students will be exploring nonfiction and fiction texts and practicing ways to monitor their own comprehension.

• Zara Rix and Sheila Gilmartin are teaching writing for multi-lingual students.

• Sarah Schoenbeck has designed a Newcomer Academy to help students who are new to our school and country by giving them a strong boost of the literacy skills they will need to succeed!

• Ziza Soares is offering “The Hero’s Journey” - a reading extension to look at heroes in literature. On the opposite day, they are offering a reading comprehension class to offer strategies to boost comprehension.

• Zack Allen is offering a poetry class. They will be reading and writing different types of poems. On the opposite day, he is teaching a reading comprehension practice class for students to practice their strategies to help monitor their comprehension.

• Jessie Ewing, our literacy tutor, will be offering creative writing exploration for multi-lingual learners.

• Dan Skop is offering a reading/writing practice class. His students will utilize the tools in iReady to practice the domains that program assesses - vocabulary, fiction, and nonfiction. Dan will help them practice both their reading comprehension and their writing skills.

• Chris McDermott, Karen Kline, Meg Lipson, Kerri Lorigan, and Jim Kirkcaldy are offering a class focused on reading informational text. These social studies teachers are supporting literacy by offering students chances to practice analyzing and interpreting historical articles and current events.

• Our Cluster 1 and 2 science and social studies teachers will be offering "The Island" - an interactive game strategy and simulation activity.

• Cristina Spicer and Mike Casciano have teamed up and designed math for English learners. They are using specific words and phrases ("sentence frames") to help these students practice the language they need to describe math problems and scenarios.

• Laura Shock is teaching a current events class. 8th Graders in this class will be learning about current events in the world. I would probably sign up for this one if I could. :). On the opposite day, Laura is teaching Kingian - a conflict resolution course based on the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Sarita Spillert, our Digital Learning Coach, is teaching a coding class. These students are building their digital literacy.

• Paula Cabral, our librarian, is offering two sections of a Summer Reading WIN class. These 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (who all chose to participate) are reading contenders for next year's summer reading. They will discuss the merits of the books and decide if they should move forward for consideration. Eventually, they will narrow it down to three (instead of just one, as we have done in the past). We are hoping that this will increase our appeal to all three grades and offer more student choice. We will put it all together under One School, One Question. Exiting things in store!

Whew! We have expanded WIN SO much from when we began. It means that students are making progress and we are able to offer more choices. We are proud of our teachers for finding new ways to support literacy and for working so hard to plan carefully for the groups they teach during WIN.

There are MANY other creative offerings. Of course, all of our WIN classes most likely touch on some aspect of literacy, including our math and science courses. Ask your child what they have for A Day WiN and for B Day WIN, and see what great conversations it brings up.

In our WIN class, which is designed for multi-lingual learners, students were given an art vocabulary word. They translated the word into their first language so they could access the definition, then represented that word visually to show the meaning.

• How many languages do you recognize?
• How many art terms can you figure out based on how the students depicted them?