October 19-23, 2015--- Testing and Lesson Planning

October 19-23, 2015----It's Testing Season!






The end of the first quarter is approaching swiftly.  During the week of October 19-23, 2015 our students in grades 3-5 will take the WSFCS Local End of Quarter Test.  We have had many trainings for test administrators, proctors, etc.  Testing requires a lot of hours of preparation before we even receive the tests in our building.  Testing can be a tense time and should always be taken seriously---accountability belongs to each one of us. Please be sure to follow all of the district guidelines for testing that you received at your test training. Just as a reminder our Quarter Test Schedule is as follows:

Monday, 10/19--no testing of students

Tuesday, 10/20--5th grade Online Science Test

Wednesday, 10/21--4th and 5th grade Reading Quarter Test and select students will take the Read to Achieve Test

Thursday, 10/22--3rd, 4th and 5th grade Math Quarter Test 

Friday, 10/23---make-ups

There are NO CONNECTIONS classes on Wednesday and Thursday of due to testing.



THIS WEEK'S LEARNING SHOWCASE: LESSON PLANNING from
http://www.adprima.com/mistakes2.htm


This was a very thoughtful post about all of the thinking that teachers do about lesson planning.  I also like how the author gives additional insight into Checking for Understanding and Closure. As always, this is a reflection tool to help us all focus on our district's goal of lesson planning. 

Here's an excerpt:

The purpose of a lesson plan is really quite simple; it is to communicate. But, you might ask, communicate to whom? The answer to this question, on a practical basis, is YOU! The lesson plans you develop are to guide you in organizing your material and yourself for the purpose of helping your students achieve intended learning outcomes. Whether a lesson plan fits a particular format is not as relevant as whether or not it actually describes what you want, and what you have determined is the best means to an end. If you write a lesson plan that can be interpreted or implemented in many different ways, it is probably not a very good plan. This leads one to conclude that a key principle in creating a lesson plan is specificity. It is sort of like saying, "almost any series of connecting roads will take you from Key West Florida to Anchorage Alaska, eventually." There is however, one and only one set of connecting roads that represents the shortest and best route. Best means that, for example, getting to Anchorage by using an unreliable car is a different problem than getting there using a brand new car. What process one uses to get to a destination depends on available resources and time.

So, if you agree that the purpose of a lesson plan is to communicate, then, in order to accomplish that purpose, the plan must contain a set of elements that are descriptive of the process.

Each part of a lesson plan should fulfill some purpose in communicating the specific content, the objective, the learning prerequisites, what will happen, the sequence of student and teacher activities, the materials required, and the actual assessment procedures. Taken together, these parts constitute an end (the objective), the means (what will happen and the student and teacher activities), and an input (information about students and necessary resources). At the conclusion of a lesson, the assessment tells the teacher how well students actually attained the objective.

Process:

This is the actual plan. If you have done the preliminary work (thinking, describing the inputs), creating the plan is relatively easy. There are a number of questions you must answer in the creating the plan:

1. What are the inputs? This means you have the information (content description, student characteristics, list of materials, prerequisites, time estimates, etc.) necessary to begin the plan.2. What is the output?This means a description of what the students are supposed to learn.3. What do I do? This means a description of the instructional activities you will use.4. What do the students do? This means a description of what the students will do during the lesson.5. How will the learning be measured? This means a description of the brief assessment procedure at the end of the lesson.

Checking For Understanding (CFU) - The teacher uses a variety of questioning strategies to determine "Got it yet?" and to pace the lesson - move forward?/back up?  Which students got it and which did not? What do I do next for those that got it and those that did not?

Closure - A review or wrap-up of the lesson - "Tell me/show me what you have learned today".

Progress Reports and Report Cards

Report Cards need to be submitted for review on or before November 3rd. 

First Quarter

Week of Nov. 9^th-Report Cards Go Home

Second Quarter

Week of November 30th- Mid-Term Reports Go Home

End of Quarter January 15th

Week of Feb. 1^st-Report Cards

Now more than ever we have to.......