CMTs, Class Book, and More!
March 10, 2010 | Posted in: Class Updates
It’s been some time since I’ve had an opportunity to post an update on our site with news about some of the happenings in class, and I apologize for the delay. What a busy few weeks! CMTs will be completed in just about 12.5 hours from now, and the kids can all breathe a “sigh” of relief! I commented to one parent that I’ve never seen a group of kids handle the unavoidable pressure so well. The kids have approached the mastery tests with grace, composure, and (from what I can tell as an unobtrusive observer) with lots of effort. I’ve come to expect no less from this group of kids, of course!
But then again, you probably want to hear about more exciting news – like the answer to the ubiquitous question: “Jon, who on earth is taking over for you when you leave in two-and-a-half weeks?!” I can tell you that thanks are moving forward and that I hope to be able to share news with you in the coming week. One of my priorities is that I want to meet with my long-term substitute BEFORE sharing the news with you. This isn’t with the intention of delaying you from getting information. But, candidly, I know that many of you will have questions about my successor, and I want to do my best to have answers ready for you, rather than giving you a canned response – something which couldn’t do anything but lower your confidence in the transition process! But please know that things are going well and that I am VERY confident that you have nothing to worry about!
Back to class news… It’s interesting to see how the fourth grade team handles CMT preparation differently from what we did last year in third grade. Not better, not worse – just a different approach. This year, before each of the major CMT tests (…all of them!) the teachers reviewed general skills with the kids that they would be asked to apply the following day. While the extra practice may have helped the kids scholastically (and I certainly hope it did), I think the extra review helped them to feel more confident in their own readiness to “attack” the CMTs. I’m a firm believer in self-fulfilling prophecies, and I think that a student who BELIEVES that he or she will do well is more likely to achieve that goal. These extra review sessions have pushed our usual curricular lessons to the side, in some instances, so we’ve moved a bit more slowly than we normally do.
Reading is one area where we’ve REALLY taken a break lately. (I’m referring to specific reading lessons from our anthology program. Reading SKILLS are, of course, taught throughout the school day.) That’s why we haven’t had spelling words in two weeks. We’re starting to return to the anthology and the kids learned some new vocabulary words this morning.
Writing has, in turn, come to the forefront in recent weeks. It’s a skill the kids need to be able to apply with confidence and ability, and – let’s face it – it’s a skill kids need to apply in the overwhelming majority of the CMT tests (except, perhaps, the cloze-style DRP test, which the kids completed yesterday.) Last week, we practiced a few writing scenarios based on the made up topic of “Imagine you found a wallet with $1,000,000 in it. What would you do?” This let us explore several writing scenarios and what an effective approach would look like. We brainstormed a list of tips that we called “Moss’s Wisdom for Wonderful Writing.” (Despite this sounding somewhat show-off-ish on my part, it was, in fact, a list that the kids generated, based on our lessons over the past two years.) I’ve attached the list at the bottom of this article for those interested in reading it. Just click on “Read the rest of this entry” and then scroll down.
We are also working on FINALLY finishing the “First Story” project – a wonderful tale that will be the first book I read to Charlie. It’s several months past my expected “due date” of completion, but I can live with the delay since it’s a result of extra thought, revising, and learning. I think it’s been a great learning experience for the kids. Now I just need to get them to hurry up and finish the illustrations so we can be DONE! (There’s a limit, after all!)
I’m particularly excited with our recent work in math. In the week before the CMTs, the fourth grade teachers identified a common weakness among students: probability and mathematical applications. Math applications is the hardest area of math for the kids because it isn’t a skill unto itself. Rather, it is a kind of mathematical thinking in which kids need to apply their skills from any of the different areas of math and USE their understanding to solve an elaborate, open-ended story problem. Math application problems often have multiple steps and require that students keep their logic organized if they are to be successful. As you can imagine, it’s hard to teach kids to appropriately solve a math problem that could use any skill in any form. So I instead reviewed with the kids a series of strategies that they can use when working on a math application problem.
Working on probability has just been plain, ol’, fun for me! It’s odd that I like probability so much since it is based so heavily in fractions, and the kids know that fractions were NEVER my friend growing up. Perhaps my love of probability comes from the fact that it’s always applicable to a very REAL situation. (Concrete skills are ALWAYS easier for kids than abstract or theorectical concepts.) We spent a week talking about probability, and although it left us behind the other classes in beginning unit 7 in math, it let us race through the first several lessons in the new unit since unit 7 teaches (you guessed it!) fractions and probability! We’re having a lot of fun working through the new skills!
While we’re talking about math units, please allow me to apologize for the excessive delay in getting you the results from the recent math unit assessments. I got backlogged, and I never got around to sending the data home. I’m sorry for the delay and will absolutely get you the results this week. Since I may not be around for the unit 7 test, please know that all the grades at PGS are switching to a new score sheet that looks similar to the ones you receive unit by unit, but this new sheet will save paper by putting units 7-12 all on one page. (Think back to the math profile sheets that you received last year. It’s a return to that format, but with the new scoring rubrics that we’ve been using this year in math.)
Science and social studies have been on the back burner lately. We’ll be resuming both next week. Social studies isn’t often taught in discrete lessons and is instead integrated into other lessons in reading, writing, and math. However, you’ll see a permission slip for a field trip going home tomorrow. We’re going to the Noah Webster House, and the kids will be learning about this Connecticut hero in library class with Mrs. McCabe.
There’s probably more that I can share with you, but it’s getting late, Charlie will probably be up soon, and I have a staff meeting early tomorrow morning. Have a good evening!
Moss’s Wisdom for Wonderful Writing
• Keep your story under control so that you can resolve the problem! Don’t write yourself into a corner!
• Make sure you can resolve the story in the time and space you have been given.
• Write about what you know.
• Introduce your main plot and characters early in your story.
• Avoid using an “Easy Out” ending! (magic, it was all a dream, monsters, space travel, sudden solutions, etc.)
• Try to avoid science fiction writing.
• Have a plan! Planned writing avoids aimless stories.
• Don’t make your story needlessly complicated. Keep it clear and easy to follow.
• Make your story interesting for the reader by adding VALUABLE detail.
• Describe some or all of your five senses.
• Be SURE to describe thoughts and feelings!
• Follow a sequence! Go in order!
• Explain things! Remember, the reader can’t read your mind.
• Remember to use a Great Beginning and an Entertaining Ending!
• Keep track of your time and space.
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