Tuesday Tips and Tricks: Fluency

Tomorrow (Wednesday, 2/1), your child is bringing home his or her scores on the benchmark test we took last week.  There are scores for sight words, fluency, and the benchmark test.  Sight words and the test are self-explanatory, but what exactly is fluency and why is it important?

Fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.  Fluency is an important piece in the comprehension puzzle.  The ultimate goal of reading instruction is comprehension.  Students should be able to independently comprehend what they read.  Fluency leads to better comprehension.  When students spend all of their time and energy decoding words, they forget what they are reading about.  Their reading is too choppy and stunted to amount to much meaning.  Fluent readers are able to focus all of their energy on understanding and remembering the story. 

If you would like to help your child improve his or her fluency, try these activities:

• Repeated readings:  Have your child read the same passage over multiple times.  Time the reader each time and keep track of their times.  This gives young students a visual representation of their progress.
• Reader's theaters/plays:  Put on a family play or skit.  Have your student read his or her lines over to practice for the play.
• Fry Instant Phrases:  Download the phrases here and have your child read them multiple times.  You can try the timing technique so you and your child can see the improvement.
• Re-read a favorite book:  Reading the same text increases speed, word automaticity, and fluency.

For more information on fluency, visit Reading Rockets.  This website has a child-friendly rubric you and your child can use together to assess his or her reading fluency.

Tuesday Tips and Tricks: PBIS

PBIS

PBIS is a school-wide system for behavior management.  It stands for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.  Teachers and schools who subscribe to the PBIS philosophy rely on expectations and positive reinforcement to manage students' behavior.  The term expectations is used, rather than rules, because it focuses on how students should act, rather than what they should not do.  Instead of focusing on punishing offenders, it relies on rewarding those who do meet the expectations. 

In our school, we teach behavior expectations for different areas at the beginning of the school year and have several refresher "boot camp" days when needed.  We take students to the actual area, such as the lunch room, on a bus, or in the restrooms, and talk about what they should do in that area.  For example, at lunch they should stay seated, pick up trash, and talk in quiet voices.  Once a quarter, we have a PBIS celebration in which students for students who are meeting expectations.

Grade-level teams and individual teachers set the criteria for attending celebrations.  This way, each classroom can focus on the problem behaviors that are plaguing their particular class.  It's a very individualized approach to behavior!  In our class, the February expectation is Taking responsibility.  Students who take responsibility for their learning and their environment will be invited to attend the celebration at the end of the quarter (mid-March).  The exact celebration will be announced at a later date.

If you want to research the PBIS philosophy more in depth, PBIS.org and Illinois PBIS Network are great resources.

PS - A letter detailing our February expectation goal will come home next Monday (Jan. 30).

Tuesday Tips and Tricks: Homework

Homework:  you either love it or hate it.  On one hand, it reinforces the concepts children learn in school and provides extra practice that we (unfortunately) do not have time for during the school day.  On the other hand, children need  time to unwind and family time. 

When I assign homework, it is meant to help students cement their learning.  Most of your child's homework will always be over skills and concepts we have already learned in class.  Other assignments may be creative assignments that expand upon things we've learned in class.  If there is ever a homework assignment that requires resources that you do not have at home, please let me know immediately and I will secure them for you.

A generally-accepted rule about homework is that it should not exceed more than 10 minutes per grade level per evening.  For second grade, that amounts to no more than 20 minutes per evening (excluding time spent reading).  If your child is spending more time than that on homework, let me know immediatley and we will work out a homework plan.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, homework helps children develop good study habits and routines.  They learn self-discipline, responsibility, time-management skills, and how to work independently.

To further look into this topic, Internet4Classrooms has a wonderful Homework Help resource for parents.

Tuesday Tips and Tricks: Common Core

Common Core State Standards

What are they?  Where do they come from?  What does it mean?  These are the questions all of the NBE teachers had when we first heard about this new document.  The Common Core State Standards (or CCSS for short) are the new learning standards that the state of Illinois has adopted.  Before the CCSS, each state had their own learning standards and system for creating and assessing them.  In contrast to that, 45 states have adopted the same CCSS.  Before, each state decided the content they wanted their schoolchildren to learn and at what grade level.  The CCSS is the same for every state that adopts it.  Currently, 45 states have adopted the CCSS (all but Alaska, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Virginia).  The learning standards for children are the same in all 45 of these states.  You can move to New York or California or Florida or Montana tomorrow and your child will learn the same content and skills as he or she is learning at NBE.

The CCSS are more rigorous and advanced that Illinois' past standards.  They are also clearer, more concise, and straight-to-the-point.  These standards describe what students should be able to do at the end of the school year.  Students work all year towards meeting these standards.

  Some notable standards for 2nd grade include:

• W.2.6. With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
• W.2.8. Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
• SL.2.3. Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.
• 2.OA.2. Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.² By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.
• 2.MD.7. Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.
• 2.MD.8. Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have?

During School Improvement Days and staff meetings, the teachers at NBE have started deconstructing these standards and making plans for how we will integrate them into our classrooms.  In addition, I have been studying these standards as part of my masters degree coursework. 

The ISAT and other state assessments will reflect the CCSS in the future.  Currently, Illinois estimates that new assessments specifically designed for the CCSS will be rolled out in 2014.  Nevertheless, the standards are in effect in our classrooms!

If you would like more information on the CCSS, two great resources are the Common Core State Standards Initiative website or the Illinois State Board of Education.  The actual standards are available on both of these websites.

 

December Award Winners

Congratulations to our Rockin' Readers:

These students read at least 260 minutes during the month of December.

Chandrajo was our top reader with 660 minutes!

We had an extra recess to celebrate this reward!

Congratulations to our Homework Hall of Fame:

These students turned in every homework assignment (and on time, too) in the month of December.

We had lunch in the classroom and cupcakes to celebrate this award!

Congratulations to our Awesome Behavior awardees:

These students stayed on green or higher every day in December!

They celebrated this accomplishment with a trip to the treasure chest!

Keep up the excellent work, everyone!

Introducing... ActiVotes!

In our classroom, we have a Promethean ActivBoard, which looks a lot like this:



(except ours is mounted to the wall and our projector is not orange)

This thing looks like a simple whiteboard, but it is so much more than that!  It is connected to the computer, which means anything we do on the screen can be saved to the computer.  It is interactive; the students can go to the board and manipulate what is on it.  When the screen is on, you don't even need the computer mouse!  You can do everything with the pen that you would do with a mouse.  Our board is on nearly the entire day.  The students use it to make their lunch choice in the morning and we use it with every single subject. 

Today, we got to use our ActiVotes for the very first time!  ActiVotes are little egg-shaped things that also interact with the board and computer.

With these, every studentscan (anonymously or not - depending on the settings) respond to a question that is on the board.  After everyone votes, the results are shown on the screen in a graph format.  The ActiVotes give me an immediate idea of how students are understanding the lesson and also give the students immediate feedback on their performance! 

We piloted our ActiVotes with a cause and effect activity during reading today.  When we get really good with them, we can even use them to do assignments and take tests!  The possibilities are endless!