Parent Corner:
As we get close to finishing up our first quarter (WOW!), we need to look towards autonomy: to function independently without constant adult control or direct supervision. Below I have included “Discipline in the Responsive Classroom.” It explains how my approach to discipline is two-fold. I am proactive, in the sense that I spend the majority of the first six weeks of school making students aware of certain situations that may come up for the rest of the year and the rest of their lives. We then discuss each situation and some positive solutions or options for each one. In addition, we try to stop a problem before it starts by having dialogue with students about behaviors and patterns and feelings related to those behaviors and patterns. The other half of my discipline is that I am reactive. Reactively, we use logical consequences to help children regain control, make amends, and get back on track when they forget or choose not to take care of themselves or each other.
It is important that parents understand our discipline model so that if notes come home or a phone call is made, it is clear that we are dealing with a serious issue that has not been amended through both proactivity and reactivity. At that point, it may be necessary to make an individualized behavior plan for the student. The plan would allow the student to regain our trust in hopes that the plan can be removed. As always if you have any questions about our discipline philosophy, just send me an email or give me a call.
Discipline in the Responsive Classroom
Discipline in the Responsive Classroom is both proactive and reactive.
1) Proactively, we work with children to create, teach, and practice classroom rules.
2) Reactively, we use logical consequences to help children regain control, make amends, and get back on track when they forget or choose not to take care of themselves or each other.
Characteristics
The teacher:
• Respects the child and the child’s goal of being a significant community member.
• Shares power and control with students, building on their capabilities, teaching them necessary social skills, and giving them new responsibilities when they are ready to handle them.
• Uses encouraging and empowering language to support children’s success.
• Uses logical consequences to help children fix their mistakes and regain self-control.
• Values mutual problem-solving as a tool to teach ethical thinking and respectful community membership.
• Wants students to learn to think for themselves and act in caring and responsible ways.
Outcomes:
Students:
• Develop self-control and demonstrate ongoing responsible behaviors.
• Develop positive relationships with their teachers and peers.
• Internalize the skills of caring, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control (C.A.R.E.S.)
• Trust their teachers and respect their teacher’s authority.
• Understand and respect the rules.
• Develop self-respect.
Student-Generated Classroom Rules 2009 - 2010
1) Treat others the way you would like to be treated
2) C.A.R.E.S.
3) Respect Others. Respect Your School
4) Have Fun
Logical Consequences
1) “You break it – you fix it” – Students take responsibility for fixing, as best they can, any problem or mess they create. Children go beyond saying “I’m sorry” to making amends for the hurtful behavior.
2) Loss of Privilege – Establishing rules together implies trust among everyone in the group. With this trust come the privileges of the classroom: using materials and work areas, working with friends, choosing a learning activity, joining a reading or math group. When a student (or group of students) breaches that trust, for example, by being careless or unsafe, a logical consequence is for the teacher to take away the related privilege until the child shows a readiness to handle the privilege. The teacher also provides a process that helps the child learn and demonstrate that he/she is ready to try again.
3) Time-out – A child who is beginning to lose control in a way that is disruptive or that compromises safety is asked to leave the scene. During the time away from the group, the child’s job is to regain self-control so he/she can come back to the group and participate in a positive way. There are three steps to be identified and written out during time-out:
1) What is the problem?
2) How are you feeling?
3) What needs to be done so I can rejoin the group?
Hello Parents, Below is a description of standard - based and backward design instruction. It should give you more of an insight into how science and math will work this year.
Massachusetts has set standards for each grade level. These standards are the starting point for my planning. When I plan, I use the Backward Design Model. The elements of Backward Design are as follows:
* Step 1 - Enduring Understanding/Big Idea - this includes core concepts, theories, and processes that anchor curriculum. This begins a vision of what ALL students should achieve.
* Step 2 - Essential Questions - these organize and define what students should learn and define the essence of this learning.
* Step 3 - Standards/What Students Know and are Able to Do - curriculum must be anchored in standards and the students must know what they will be held accountable for.
* Step 4 - Assessments - assessment is ongoing throughout units and varies so students can be assessed in multiple ways.
* Step 5 - Activities Leading to Assessment - curriculum and instructional strategies need to be taught in an interesting multi-sensory way so that students can be led to mastery. In addition, learning is spiraled so students/teachers revisit and reconsider ideas and skills.
(Additional information on Backward Design can be found on the internet by searching the topic)
The Backward Design Model is a model used to plan out units. It is driven by standards-based education. Standards-based education is characterized by
1) Instruction and assessment guided by predetermined, validated standards for learning expectations.
2) Learning activities designed to address specific learning standards - that which is essential/important to know.
3) Provides common expectations for student learning for all students at a grade level, regardless of school or teacher assignments.
4) ALL students are challenged to perform at a high level.
5) Instruction is informed by assessment; students know in advance what they are expected to learn and how they will be assessed.
6) Achieved by using effective educational practices that engage all learners.
7) Teachers and students are held accountable for what is learned.
The Differentiated Classroom
Without getting into my entire philosophy of education, I want to touch on the differentiated classroom approach. In a differentiated classroom, teachers begin where students are, not at the front of a curriculum guide. They accept and build upon the premise that learners differ in important ways. In differentiated classrooms, teachers ensure that a student competes against himself more than he competes against other students. Also, teachers provide specific ways for each individual student to learn as deeply as possible and as quickly as possible, without assuming one student’s road map for learning is identical to anyone else’s. These teachers believe, I believe, that students should be held to high standards. We work diligently to ensure that struggling, advanced and in-between students think and work harder than they meant to; achieve more than they thought they could; and come to believe that learning involves effort, risk and personal triumph.
In action, teachers in differentiated classrooms, begin with a clear and solid sense of what constitutes powerful curriculum and engaging instruction. Then they ask what it will take to modify that instruction so that each learner comes away with understandings and skills that offer guidance to the next phase of learning. Within my classroom, within any classroom, students are at all different levels. However, a basic set of skills are taught to all learners. It is my job, to modify how I teach those skills so that each individual progresses and is challenged. Essentially, I accept, embrace and plan for the fact that all learners bring many commonalities to schools, but that learners also bring essential differences that make them individuals. I can allow for this reality in many ways to make my classroom a good fit for each individual.
I look forward to curriculum night, to not only cover our curriculum for next year, but to give you examples of how I will continue to put this belief into practice. I will give you examples of how this belief will look and sound in my classroom. Please do not hesitate to email or call me with questions about the differentiated classroom approach. In addition, think about questions that you have about this belief. I also invite you to visit websites or read books on differentiated classrooms.
Elements of Differentiation
Teacher focuses on the essentials
Teacher attends to student differences
Assessment and Instruction are inseparable
Teacher modifies content, process and products
All students participate in respectful work
Teacher/Student collaborate in learning
Teacher balances group an individual norms
Teacher/Student work together flexibly
Learning Environments That Support Differentiated Instruction
Teacher appreciates each child as an individual
Teacher remembers to teach whole children
Teacher continues to develop expertise
Teacher links students to ideas
Teacher strives for joyful learning
Teacher offers high expectations
Teacher helps students make their own sense of ideas
Teacher shares teaching with students
Teacher clearly strives for student independence
Teacher uses positive energy and humor
“discipline” is more overt than covert
Math Corner:
Norwell Public Schools
Math Fact Power Rubric
The rubric below is based on a 100 mixed problem assessment. The students are allowed 3 minutes and 30 seconds to work on the facts assessment.
Number Correct Report Card Grade
90 – 100 4
80 – 89 3
70 – 79 2
69 and below 1
Unit 3 - Geometry
Science Corner:
Study Guide
Earth Science
5th Grade
Weather Patterns
Essential Questions:
1) How do air, moisture, wind speed and direction, and precipitation make up the weather in a particular place and time?
2) How are the various forms of precipitation connected to the weather in a particular place and time?
3) How do global patterns such as the jet stream and water currents influence local weather in measurable terms such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation?
4) How are weather and climate different?
Objectives: Students will be able to…
1) Explain how air temperature, moisture, wind speed and direction, and precipitation make up the weather in a particular place and time.
2) Identify the various forms of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet and hail) making connections to the weather in a particular place and time.
3) Describe how global patterns such as the jet stream and water currents influence local weather in measurable terms such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation.
4) Differentiate between weather and climate.
Vocabulary:
1) convection current
2) air mass
3) front
4) barometer
5) anemometer
6) rain gauge
7) climate
Reading Skills:
1) Draw Conclusions
Study Guide Given: 10/20
Assessment Date: 11/18
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