Social Studies:Sudan is currently experiencing a violent conflict causing a refugee crisis as well as high civilian injuries and deaths. Understanding the conflict will help school personnel respond and reach out to Sudanese students and families living in Montgomery County. Here is a resource to help staff understand the current conflict in Sudan better: 2023 Sudan Conflict
Testing:
In an effort to support the administration and successful completion of the Spring assessments, we are extending the window, for the selected assessments listed below, through June 2, 2023.
RGR Blast Extension Units- NEW
There are four new optional Blast Extension Units available for use following the completion of the program that cover additional phonics concepts not included in the original instructional scope and sequence. Teachers may choose to teach all units or only the units their students need as indicated by their data. The first three units do not need to be taught in any specific order; however, the final unit, Unit 4: Consonant-le Extension Unit includes the concepts taught in the first three units and should only be taught after the concepts in those units have been covered. Each extension unit includes both a Teacher Guide and a Student Packet. The accompanying online tool can be found in Blast’s Supplemental Resources: PDF Resources > Blast Extension Units > Blast Extension Units Online Tool.
RGR Completion Guidance- REMINDER
If teachers complete all the units before the end of the school year, consider using the RGR Decoding Surveys and the last unit decodable passage to identify skills needing review by most students. Find those skills in your RGR curriculum and review those lessons. Use the RGR supplemental resources. Address handwriting and spelling of concepts learned. Continue practicing in decodable text and dictation in whole group. Consider lessons in Sentence Structure and Fluency (Reading Specialists have resources for this in the Small Group Instruction TOT). Reach out to your IS for more support with this if needed.
Benchmark Completion Guidance- REMINDER
If teachers are slated to complete Unit 8 before the end of the year, they may use Unit 9 texts to provide explicit instruction to reteach and review previously covered skills and standards. Prior to instruction, it is imperative that teachers review their Benchmark Interim Assessment data to identify the specific needs of their students. Instruction should be tailored to focus on the standards that students have yet to show proficiency on in Units 1-8. Please note, students in grades 3 & 4 will be using the word study components of Unit 9 for summer school.
