Newsletter: September 14

On Wednesday we enjoyed a fun game of "O-Ball" at recess with Mr. O's third graders.

Dear Families,

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to Opening Picnic last week. If you had other things going on and couldn't make it into the classroom feel free to stop by anytime before, during, or after school with your child. Just be sure to give me a heads up so I can expect your visit. Speaking of visits to the classroom...I would absolutely love to hear from any parents or grandparents who are interested in volunteering in the classroom. This could be consistent (weekly) or planned around an irregular schedule (little here, little there). It's wonderful having family members in the classroom. I am more than willing to match duties to the comfort level and/or interest of anyone volunteering. So, if you or anyone in your family would love to spend some time with us just let me know. There's always room for one more.

I sent home an email yesterday letting you know the kids had just completed the first of two fall MAP tests. Yesterday was the reading test and next week will be the math test. What are these standardized tests for? Ideally, such tests are supposed to help teachers and schools gain insights into our students' understandings and abilities so we can tailor our instruction to best meet their needs. However, because the score for any particular skill might be based on just a couple of questions such results are not always entirely accurate or reliable. Next, consider the fact seven year olds are being asked to concentrate on a single 41-item test that may take them an hour or more to complete and other factors such as attention span and exhaustion often come into play. Finally, because teachers cannot see the test before, during, or after the assessment we have absolutely no idea how, why, or on what questions they miscued which means we don't know where the potential breakdown in their understanding/ability is. This being the case, how in the world can we use this data to help them? And if we can't, are such tests used only to rank kids?

So, if standardized tests are not so helpful in allowing teachers to assess the kids' reading and math growth how DO we go about knowing what's happening inside our students' minds when they read a book or solve a mathematical problem? At CFI, we spend a lot of time sitting alongside them observing, questioning, discussing, and collecting authentic artifacts of their thinking and learning.

Over the first fifteen days of school I have worked alongside my instructional assistant, Sabrina Shealy, to meet with each and every reader multiple times, collect observational notes, and gather a sampling of artifacts from their reading. In that time we've gathered a detailed list of the reading interests and comfort levels of each child, interviewed them about their summer reading to get a grasp of their home reading life and practices, listened to them read aloud to us from their self-selected books to assess their reading fluency and comprehension, and asked them to read to us from a story in the second grade reading text to note what, if any, sorts of miscues they make when reading as well as the specific strategies they use when coming to unknown words.

I read the book Terrible Things to model the internal dialogue that happens
in my mind while reading. This was used to scaffold them into tracking their
own thinking while engaged in creating meaning from a text.

I also pay close attention to the type of thinking they do when reading a book. In the above photo, the kids' worked to stop, think, and jot throughout my reading of the book Terrible Things. This practice was designed to show them that we engage in an internal dialogue during the reading of a text and that this thinking that happens in our head is what allows us to understand what we are reading. Whenever we do this I collect the kids' sticky notes so I can see what sorts of thinking they were accessing to understand - summaries, clarifying questions, predictions, assessments of the characters, emotional responses to events in the story, etc.

So sorry for the rotated photos. I can't figure out how to fix them in Blogger.

The whole of this data, even in just fifteen days, allows me to know the kids really well as readers and make strategic decisions in how best to support their learning as well as their love (or developing love) of reading. At the end of the first nine weeks you will receive a narrative progress report from me detailing all I've come to know about your child. In the meantime, if you ever want to discuss any of this with me I'm more than happy to share it with you as well as make recommendations as to the best ways you can support your child at home.

Speaking of supporting your child as a reader at home, I would love to hear the ways your family makes reading special at home. This might include visits of the library, the bookstore, or Amazon. It could also include nightly reading rituals, special books, or favorite literacy memories. It could even speak to the ways in which you provide a strong model for your kids when reading in their presence. Does Fb and Twitter count? That's up to you!.

Please email me your responses over the next week and I'll include them in next week's newsletter (though I'll omit names). This collection of home practices will not only be a lot of fun to read but will provide a wonderful resource for us all.

Have a great weekend,

Chris