Friday, September 28, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Handy Information for Accelerated Reader
This awesome link can be found on Central Ridge’s Home Site.
You can browse the Library Catalog, check the AR level of a book, and see the
number of AR points.
I think another bonus is that you will be able to search
titles of books that your child owns to see if there are AR tests and/or level
correlations available for their books.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Proud Teacher - love receiving compliments about our kids...
On Monday I was out of the classroom for FAIR Testing. Our substitute gladly appointed our kids as her best class so far this school year!!! I was very proud to hear the news. I anticipate that our kids will keep up the fantastic work!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
First Graders will receive Letter Grades
This school year First Grade students will receive letter grades. This is a change from our previous P, I, E, and N grading scales.
Our Grading Scale is as follows:
100-90 - A
89-80 - B
79-70 - C
69-60 - D
59-50 - F
****We do NOT record any grade lower than 50% in our gradebook. A child may have only had one answer correct out of ten (which would usually give them a 10%), but I do not record that grade as a 10%; I record it as a 50%. The chance of a student recovering from a 10% is minimal, while the 50% doesn't make their data fall as low.
We will be having our first conference shortly. Please make sure that you turn in the form with your 3 preferred dates so that I can promptly schedule our conference.
We will be discussing:
Our Grading Scale is as follows:
100-90 - A
89-80 - B
79-70 - C
69-60 - D
59-50 - F
****We do NOT record any grade lower than 50% in our gradebook. A child may have only had one answer correct out of ten (which would usually give them a 10%), but I do not record that grade as a 10%; I record it as a 50%. The chance of a student recovering from a 10% is minimal, while the 50% doesn't make their data fall as low.
We will be having our first conference shortly. Please make sure that you turn in the form with your 3 preferred dates so that I can promptly schedule our conference.
We will be discussing:
q Grade Level Expectations and
Proficiencies
q Midterm/Report Card/Grading System
q Skyward – Biweekly Grade Reports
q Common Core State Standards
q Present Levels of Performance
q Mandatory Retention Law (FS 1008.25)
I am always available to help and/or discuss your child. Thank you for your support!
-Trishia Mikel
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Daily Folder, Homework, etc.
In your child's daily folder, you will find a number of materials on any given day.
As previously noted, the colorful math workbook pages are from classwork. You will often notice that these pages haven't been completed. Your child can complete them at home, but they do NOT need to be returned to school. Some families are under the impression that those pages are homework and that is not the case.
The Math Homework pages are the grey/black/white pages that also appear to be workbook pages.
Our Tuesday Folders were delivered so those will start coming home each Tuesday. In the Tuesday Folders you will find newsletters, communication from the school, graded assessments, etc. Please review all information. Often, there are documents that need to be signed and returned to school.
Thank you for taking the time to review the information in your child's folder!
As previously noted, the colorful math workbook pages are from classwork. You will often notice that these pages haven't been completed. Your child can complete them at home, but they do NOT need to be returned to school. Some families are under the impression that those pages are homework and that is not the case.
The Math Homework pages are the grey/black/white pages that also appear to be workbook pages.
Our Tuesday Folders were delivered so those will start coming home each Tuesday. In the Tuesday Folders you will find newsletters, communication from the school, graded assessments, etc. Please review all information. Often, there are documents that need to be signed and returned to school.
Thank you for taking the time to review the information in your child's folder!
Parent University
On September 20th from 6-8 p.m., parents are invited to visit CRE and attend educational sessions based on various aspects of our school. There will be breakout sessions that correlate to primary subjects; so as to meet the needs of all of our parents.
Please stay tuned for more information.
We hope to see you there!
Please stay tuned for more information.
We hope to see you there!
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Great Readers Make Connections
Last week we used our schema to connect to text in different ways. The most obvious connections to our children are usually the text to self connections. These occur when something they read from a text reminds them of something from their own life. The next type of connection that will occur naturally is usually a text to text connection. A text to text connection occurs when they are reading from a text and they read something that reminds them of something that happened in another text. Finally, we have text to world connections. Text to world connections happen when we think of what we're reading and a text and think of where we've seen this in the real world; or more importantly, what we're learning about the real world.
Readers don't just make these connections and leave them hanging; they take these connections and learn to understand characters, text, and the world in a more meaningful way.
The kids needed to connect in a way that would be deep; as opposed to flat. They need to say that "I am making a T2S Connection because I have a pesky little sibling that gets into trouble and drives me crazy; so I know how the character is feeling".
A flat connection would be "I'm making a connection because I have a dog, too". Having a dog like someone else isn't important; the experiences and feelings that come with the pet are what help us as thinkers.
The following visual helps to explain that their connections need to bring them back to the text. We need to understand how the character is thinking, feeling, and how the character may respond/react to problems.
Readers don't just make these connections and leave them hanging; they take these connections and learn to understand characters, text, and the world in a more meaningful way.
The kids needed to connect in a way that would be deep; as opposed to flat. They need to say that "I am making a T2S Connection because I have a pesky little sibling that gets into trouble and drives me crazy; so I know how the character is feeling".
A flat connection would be "I'm making a connection because I have a dog, too". Having a dog like someone else isn't important; the experiences and feelings that come with the pet are what help us as thinkers.
The following visual helps to explain that their connections need to bring them back to the text. We need to understand how the character is thinking, feeling, and how the character may respond/react to problems.
When readers make T2T Connections, it is important that they pull out specific parts to relate from the texts they are connecting. There are many ways to connect to text and it is a strategy that we will talk about year round.
My first step in teaching the comprehension strategies is providing a teacher model via think aloud. I read a text and I model the strategy by sharing my thinking voice. Comprehension Strategies need to be explicitly taught because not all children know that they have this thinking power; especially when we are teaching them to read words.
It is a pleasure to have such an imaginative and enthusiastic bunch of children this year. They are ready to take on challenges and they are so much fun to be around. Thank you for all you do!
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