WOW! Nearly 11,000 views on The Principal's Page!
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, May 1 School Tour, 9:00 am; 4th Gr Parent Meeting, 6:300 pm
Thursday, May 2 Barnes and Noble Book Fair w/Piano and Violin Performances, 4:30-8:00 pm
Friday, May 3 BoxTop Collection; PTO Meeting, 8:10 am
Saturday, May 4 Rockin' Roll Carnival, 10:00 am-2:00 pm
Monday, May 6 - Friday May 10 Stanford Testing (daily, check classroom testing schedule)
Thursday, May 9 SDMC Meeting, 3:30 pm
Monday, May 13 - Friday, May 17 Teacher Appreciation Week
Thursday, May 16 Arts in the Park, featuring 4th Gr Recorder Jamboree plus many more
What is IIM?
After nearly two full years of implementation, we are seeing remarkable improvement in students' ability to tackle research. IIM, or Independent Investigation Method, is a child-friendly, research-based step-by-step process, used across the U.S. and internationally in schools to help children recognize and use the discrete steps for doing quality research, with equally strong products. Last year we implemented IIM in every classroom from Kindergarten to 5th grade. Each year students work together through a guided research process and in our upper grades, complete independent research in small groups or individually. (You've probably heard about notefacts, that's Step 3.)
Taken from the IIM parent curriculum, The Parent Guide to Raising Researchers, there are 7 steps within IIM:
Why Mixed-Ability Grouping?
Occasionally parents ask me why we don't use ability grouping to create GT classes. International Baccalaureate considers mixed-ability grouping to be a "best practice" for the Primary Years Programme. The IB mission statement says "...encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and life long learned who understand other people, with their differences, can also be right."
Students develop that understanding about "people, with their differences" through interaction with people who have different gifts, beliefs and understandings about the world. IB considers a variety of grouping strategies as a critical part of the learning environment. An excerpt from The Primary Years Programme as a model of transdisciplinary learning states, "Mixed-ability grouping based on shared interest frequently supports collaborative learning during the transdisciplinary units of inquiry. Regrouping provides opportunities to work with others who provide different skill sets and perspectives."
Also from The Primary Years Programme as a model of transdisciplinary learning, "Learning as a member of a group, while supporting the learning of others within the group, is a value embedded in the principles and practices of the PYP. Learning is a social act that reflects the community in which it is taking place. The community that the PYP promotes is defined in the IB mission statement, the IB learner profile, the PYP curriculum model with its transdisciplinary dimensions, and the PYP implementation standards and practices. That community is supportive, not competitive, reflects a broad spectrum of society, not an elite cohort; is integrated, not stratified; and is committed to lifelong learning, not learning to address solely summative assessment outcomes.
IB suggests flexible grouping strategies within the mixed-ability classroom for specific activities and purposes will adequately address individual student needs. "The major advantage of within-class flexible grouping is the temporary nature of groups, where students are assessed regularly for growth and regrouped based on that assessment. There should be opportunity for a range of groupings to ensure that all learners can be engaged in work that is meaningful for and appropriate to their specific learning needs..."
At Roberts we have a variety of flexible grouping strategies that help us match our instruction to your child's needs. For example, instead of using the grade level reading basal (text book) that is too hard for some, and too easy for others, as the primary curriculum, teachers assess our students by listening to them read, paying close attention to miscues (errors), fluency (rate of reading) and comprehension. Teachers can determine your child's independent reading level and instructional reading level to match children to "just right" books, and can target the specific skill areas with strategies for improving reading. Your child may be working on using strategies for improving accuracy, or may be accurate at the current level, but may be working on developing strong fluency (rate, phrasing and intonation). This allows students who are above level readers to receive instruction to develop strategies for comprehending more complex texts, while students who are still struggling to read on grade level are provided instruction to help them develop proficiency at their own level.
Districtwide Survey: Your Voice
Opens Wednesday, May 1st
This week in the Tuesday folder you will receive an envelope with a survey addressed specifically to you. Parents will receive one survey per school via the oldest child in the Tuesday folder. You may complete the paper survey, or use the individual code on the paper survey to complete it online. Please consider completing the survey at your earliest convenience. We do not have access to the individual codes from your paper survey.
The purpose of the customer satisfaction survey is to better understand the needs of our schools and how we've progressed toward district goals. Also, survey feedback is an important component of the Board's Monitoring System and district oversight reporting.
School Survey
Have you responded yet to the school-based survey? So far, 115 parents have given us their feedback. Your opinion counts. Take a few minutes to let me know what we are doing well and what we should be working on to improve.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZWSYN2D
Are you receiving the Tuesday Folder email blasts?
Are you able to access parent content on the website after signing in? If not, email our webmaster at information.services@robertselementary.org
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, May 1 School Tour, 9:00 am; 4th Gr Parent Meeting, 6:300 pm
Thursday, May 2 Barnes and Noble Book Fair w/Piano and Violin Performances, 4:30-8:00 pm
Friday, May 3 BoxTop Collection; PTO Meeting, 8:10 am
Saturday, May 4 Rockin' Roll Carnival, 10:00 am-2:00 pm
Monday, May 6 - Friday May 10 Stanford Testing (daily, check classroom testing schedule)
Thursday, May 9 SDMC Meeting, 3:30 pm
Monday, May 13 - Friday, May 17 Teacher Appreciation Week
Thursday, May 16 Arts in the Park, featuring 4th Gr Recorder Jamboree plus many more
What is IIM?
After nearly two full years of implementation, we are seeing remarkable improvement in students' ability to tackle research. IIM, or Independent Investigation Method, is a child-friendly, research-based step-by-step process, used across the U.S. and internationally in schools to help children recognize and use the discrete steps for doing quality research, with equally strong products. Last year we implemented IIM in every classroom from Kindergarten to 5th grade. Each year students work together through a guided research process and in our upper grades, complete independent research in small groups or individually. (You've probably heard about notefacts, that's Step 3.)
Taken from the IIM parent curriculum, The Parent Guide to Raising Researchers, there are 7 steps within IIM:
- Step 1 - TOPIC: Deciding What to Study. Researchers record information they already know (facts) and what they want to learn (questions about a topic they have chosen of have been assigned.
- Step 2 - GOAL SETTING: Making a Plan. Before looking for information, researchers develop a time management plan, record questions to guide their study, and identify possible sources of information.
- Step 3 - RESEARCH: Discovering Many New Facts. Researchers use a variety of resources and strategies to gather and record information, focusing on the goals set in Step 2.
- Step 4 - ORGANIZING: Putting it All Together. Researchers organize new information into usable categories which help them analyze and interpret their findings for use in a paper or project.
- Step 5 - GOAL EVALUATION: Checking on What Was Accomplished. Using the goals set in Step 2, researchers check to see if they have fulfilled the assignment requirements and then evaluate the quality of their work completed during the first four steps.
- Step 6 - PRODUCT: Creating Something to Show What Was Learned. Researchers write reports and papers, and/or create a variety of projects to show what they have learner in their studies.
- Step 7 - PRESENTATION: Sharing the New Knowledge. Researchers present their new knowledge to an appropriate audience.
Why Mixed-Ability Grouping?
Occasionally parents ask me why we don't use ability grouping to create GT classes. International Baccalaureate considers mixed-ability grouping to be a "best practice" for the Primary Years Programme. The IB mission statement says "...encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and life long learned who understand other people, with their differences, can also be right."
Students develop that understanding about "people, with their differences" through interaction with people who have different gifts, beliefs and understandings about the world. IB considers a variety of grouping strategies as a critical part of the learning environment. An excerpt from The Primary Years Programme as a model of transdisciplinary learning states, "Mixed-ability grouping based on shared interest frequently supports collaborative learning during the transdisciplinary units of inquiry. Regrouping provides opportunities to work with others who provide different skill sets and perspectives."
Also from The Primary Years Programme as a model of transdisciplinary learning, "Learning as a member of a group, while supporting the learning of others within the group, is a value embedded in the principles and practices of the PYP. Learning is a social act that reflects the community in which it is taking place. The community that the PYP promotes is defined in the IB mission statement, the IB learner profile, the PYP curriculum model with its transdisciplinary dimensions, and the PYP implementation standards and practices. That community is supportive, not competitive, reflects a broad spectrum of society, not an elite cohort; is integrated, not stratified; and is committed to lifelong learning, not learning to address solely summative assessment outcomes.
IB suggests flexible grouping strategies within the mixed-ability classroom for specific activities and purposes will adequately address individual student needs. "The major advantage of within-class flexible grouping is the temporary nature of groups, where students are assessed regularly for growth and regrouped based on that assessment. There should be opportunity for a range of groupings to ensure that all learners can be engaged in work that is meaningful for and appropriate to their specific learning needs..."
At Roberts we have a variety of flexible grouping strategies that help us match our instruction to your child's needs. For example, instead of using the grade level reading basal (text book) that is too hard for some, and too easy for others, as the primary curriculum, teachers assess our students by listening to them read, paying close attention to miscues (errors), fluency (rate of reading) and comprehension. Teachers can determine your child's independent reading level and instructional reading level to match children to "just right" books, and can target the specific skill areas with strategies for improving reading. Your child may be working on using strategies for improving accuracy, or may be accurate at the current level, but may be working on developing strong fluency (rate, phrasing and intonation). This allows students who are above level readers to receive instruction to develop strategies for comprehending more complex texts, while students who are still struggling to read on grade level are provided instruction to help them develop proficiency at their own level.
Districtwide Survey: Your Voice
Opens Wednesday, May 1st
This week in the Tuesday folder you will receive an envelope with a survey addressed specifically to you. Parents will receive one survey per school via the oldest child in the Tuesday folder. You may complete the paper survey, or use the individual code on the paper survey to complete it online. Please consider completing the survey at your earliest convenience. We do not have access to the individual codes from your paper survey.
The purpose of the customer satisfaction survey is to better understand the needs of our schools and how we've progressed toward district goals. Also, survey feedback is an important component of the Board's Monitoring System and district oversight reporting.
School Survey
Have you responded yet to the school-based survey? So far, 115 parents have given us their feedback. Your opinion counts. Take a few minutes to let me know what we are doing well and what we should be working on to improve.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZWSYN2D
Are you receiving the Tuesday Folder email blasts?
Are you able to access parent content on the website after signing in? If not, email our webmaster at information.services@robertselementary.org
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