September 2023

Striving Toward Thinking Classrooms

By and large students spend most of their class time not thinking, at least not in ways we know they need to think in order to be successful … If they’re not thinking, they’re not learning.

— Peter Liljedahl

Mimicking is not thinking. Thinking requires students to engage in listening, speaking, reading, and writing using such tools as Cooperative Learning Structures, Accountable Talk Sentence Stems (literacy & math), Leveled Language Frames, Math Discourse Cards, and Thinking Maps. Together, these tools cultivate a language-rich learning environment where all students have equal access and opportunity to achieve the desired learning outcomes as developing readers, writers, historians, citizens, and mathematicians. Now that the 2023-24 school year is underway, what evidence of student thinking do you have in your classroom?

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Digital Curriculum on iPads

Some settings on a district iPad may interfere with access to digital curriculum. If students or teachers are having trouble accessing digital curriculum, please check these settings. These settings may need to be reapplied after an iOS update. For access and rostering issues, please submit a DTS ServiceNow Work Ticket.

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Math Updates

Looking for more math games to reinforce number sense and fluency? In applicable Unit Plans (Grades K-5), a bank of related math games are linked under “Instructional Resources & Notes.” Please note that some additional materials and preparation may be required for these games.

We have rostered all math sections with access to XtraMath once again this year through ClassLink. Please refer to the XtraMath Best Practices document for productively using this supplemental resource.

All enVisionmath2.0 Topics have a revised Topic Assessment linked for use in the corresponding Unit Plan. These revised Topic Assessments have fewer questions, align to the intention of the evidence outcomes, consist of various item types (including mathematical reasoning), and reflect the Five Strands of Mathematics Instruction. Digital forms of these assessments also exist for Grades 3-5 only. Check out how to use Performance Matters for administering these assessments.

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ELA Updates

ReadyGEN Scope and Sequence Documents:

Now that you have built schema around new and re-envisioned approaches to providing Comprehensive Language Arts instruction using ReadyGEN, this is an opportune time for you to navigate the Module Scope and Sequence documents to best meet the needs of the students in your classroom. As you review your lesson objective and connect it to the Reading/Language Analysis task, how might you customize your scaffolded approach to instruction by leveraging Thinking Maps that best align with:

• the lesson obective
• what you know about your students?

Further, how will you build a Language Rich Classroom by having students “talk off the map” as a means of oral rehearsal for Writing in Response to Text? And finally, how might you approach the Scope and Sequence documents as a means of strengthening the bidirectional relationship between reading and writing skills so that the two are not only interdependent but also reinforce one another?

Scope and Sequence Documents are developed in alignment with the pacing for modules and are intended to be used ALONGSIDE the Teacher’s Guide to refine delivery of instruction. These can be found on module plans in our Staff Curricular Resources for Elementary ELA.

For more reading on the Reciprocity between Reading and Writing, check out this recent re-post from Tim Shanahan.

Structured Morphology:

As a reminder, Structured Morphology is taught in 4th and 5th grade to support intermediate word knowledge acquisition. All 4th and 5th grade classroom teachers should now have the following materials to support implementation:

1. Level 4 Structured Morphology Teacher Manual
2. Morpheme Deck
3. Level 4 Assessment Companion

If you do not have these materials yet, please reach out to [email protected] to request a set. If you have received the above materials and you do not support 4th and 5th grade Language Arts instruction, please return the materials to the following:

Karen Smith

District Media Services

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Social Studies Updates

September 15 – October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month! Teaching about the history and contributions of Hispanics across the world should be embedded in our curriculum year-round. However, we take this month to highlight and celebrate these contributions with intention. Here is a curated list of resources, texts, primary sources, and lessons you might choose to use with your students.  

Additionally, September 17 is Constitution Day where students across the United States learn about the importance of this document. Here is a curated list of resources, lessons, videos, and online games you might choose to use with your students.

Are you interested in learning more about professional development opportunities? Here is a list of opportunities for the fall of 2023.

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New Unit Plans Google Sites!

Our Unit Plans have been updated and redesigned for 2023-24! The same content and general organization remain with cleaner navigation and aesthetics using dropdowns. These new Google Sites serve as one-stop, comprehensive collections of content area resources and curricular support for planning and instruction. The Unit Plans are only accessible through the “Staff Curricular Resources” app in ClassLink, and staff must be logged into their SVVSD Google accounts.

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Professional Development Opportunities

The following classes are available for registration through the Office of Professional Development. All classes are in-person unless otherwise noted.

• What is a Fraction? (Saturday, September 30; 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM; 0.5 credit)
• Thinking Maps Foundations (Saturday, October 28; 8:30 – 4:00 and Saturday, November 4; 8:30 – 4:00)
• Essentials in Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction (Session starts Tuesday, November 7; 2.0 credits)

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Contact Us!

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Previous Updates

August 2023