Coach’s Connections Week of November 7th

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Greetings Elrod!

For many years now, I have thought and thought about how to share all of the wonderful learning that is happening at our school with. I set a goal for myself at the beginning of the year, to ensure this would finally be the year I made that happen.

So…this is my first Coach’s Connection Newsletter, straight to your inbox!  My goal is to highlight all of the wonderful work that happens day in and day out when teachers are partnered with a coach.  Through photos and short narratives, you will find yourself taking a quick glance in to another classroom in our school.  I hope you enjoy this opportunity. Please let me know what you think, I value feedback.

Here’s a look at how my time was spent in classrooms last week!

In Kindergarten, we are working toward the goal of meaningful partner talk during writer’s workshop. This classroom works to focus partner conversations to enhance writing. As teachers, we are focusing in on conferring to grow writers through their strengths while determining the most meaningful way to collect student evidence to show impactful learning over time.

In Second Grade, we have worked to fine tune routines so that instructional time is maximized during reading core, while focusing in on student engagement and opportunities to practice vital learning tasks.
Students here concentrate on attending to detail and expanding their answers using text evidence. Students are eager to read and respond to their Wonders stories.

In Third Grade, our goal was to teach students how to create meaningful responses as readers. We collected data at the beginning of our cycle to determine the impact we will make in our 8 weeks. We have taught students how to generate thinking with various thinking charts and are now focused on the power of collaborative conversations. You can see students using their rubrics in order to grow their craft. 

The Power of Our Words

Finally, I was fortunate to spend time with our wonderful instructional support paras and tutors on Friday as we discussed data outcomes for interventions and small groups, problem solved and continued our work from last year on the language for learning.  The link to a powerful article we read from Paula Denton is above. This article is a snapshot of her book: The Power of Our Words. Paula is Director of Program Development for the Northeast Foundation for Children (developer of Responsive Classroom.)  PS I have this book if you’d every like to borrow it.