October/November 2017

Personal Math Trainer Updates New Tutorial Resources:

New tutorial videos are available for frequently used tasks in Personal Math Trainer. These include: creating and customizing assignments, viewing results, and more. These resources are available through the Personal Math Trainer icon. Knewton Analytics

Report: A new Knewton Analytics Report, the Class Proficiency Overview, highlights areas of struggle for students that may need additional practice or review. Class View/Grade Overview is selected by default and shows each student’s progress which is a clickable link to view detailed analytics for each student. This report also includes Student View that can be used during parent/teacher conferences to highlight areas of progress and personalized recommendations based on student progress.

GO Math

Our second year with a new curriculum can be an exciting opportunity to dig deeper and learn additional features we may not have realized existed before.

Talk About It- Inspire your students to discuss what they are learning and post questions or prompts related to weekly lessons for students to respond. Students can also reply to each other’s posts. This online tool allows students to collaborate through the Student Portal in Wonders.

NGSS 101: This teaching channel video gives an overview of the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards and what science instruction looks like using NGSS.

➢ Scope & Sequence

➢ Pacing Guides

➢ Middle School Overviews

➢ Grammar Checkpoint Lessons

➢ Quarter Two K-12 Math Planners

NGSS

Curriculum Documents

Fresno Unified Newsletter

THE BULLETIN BOARD

Fresno Unified Newsletter

THE BULLETIN BOARD

Wonders

Unit Overview Standards appear in BOLD

GRADE 4: SCOPE & SEQUENCE ~ CA Wonders 2017-2018

WONDERS

UNIT UNIT

DESCRIPTION

Reading: Literature

Reading: Informational

Reading: Foundational

Skills

Writing Speaking

and

Listening

Language ELD

Please note that the standards listed to the right will be

assessed on the 2017-18 FUSD Interim Assessments:

Interim 1

(October 2 - 13, 2017)

RL 4.1

RL 4.3

---

---

---

---

L 4.1a

L 4.1f

L 4.2c

L 4.2d

L 4.4a

L 4.5b

L 4.6

Using the

California

ELA/ELD

Framework and the

Wonders English

Language

Development

Teacher’s Edition,

highlight

complementary

ELD standards

depending on the

needs of your

English Learners

that include:

• Interacting In

Meaningful

Ways (Section

1/Part I: 12

standards),

• Learning

About How

English Works

(Section 1/Part

II: 7

standards), and

• Using

Foundational

Literacy Skills

(Section 1/Part

III).

*Each TE outlines

a weekly Suggested

Learning Plan that

can be customized

for students’

Interim 2

(January 22 - February 2, 2018)

--- RI 4.1

RI 4.2

RI 4.8

RI 4.9

--- W 4.9b --- L 4.1b

L 4.1c

L 4.4a

L 4.4b

L 4.5c Unit 1

Think It

Through

Students will explore the theme of how a

challenge can bring out our best. Students will

read a variety of texts. They will cite relevant

evidence from text while describing in depth a

character, setting, or event in a story or drama

through collaborative conversations as well as

responding in writing. They will examine key

ideas and details in order to determine main

ideas and themes. Students will create a

personal narrative organized sequentially that

unfolds naturally.

RL 4.1

RL 4.3

RL 4.4

RL 4.7

RI 4.1

RI 4.2

RI 4.4

RI 4.5

RI 4.7

RI 4.9

RF 4.3a

RF 4.4a-c

W 4.1a

W 4.2b

W 4.3b

W 4.6

W 4.7

W 4.8

W 4.9a, b

W 4.10

SL 4.1b-d

SL 4.2

SL 4.3

SL 4.4

L 4.1a, f

L 4.2c, d

L 4.3b

L 4.4a

L 4.4c

L 4.5b

L 4.5c

L 4.6

Unit 2

Amazing

Animals

Students will build understanding of what

animals can teach us. Students will read

several pieces of literature and informational

text to explore how authors use animals to

develop a theme or main idea. Students will

write an informative/explanatory piece about

an animal of their choice using facts,

definitions, concrete details, quotations, or

other information and examples related to the

topic.

RL 4.1

RL 4.2

RL 4.5

RL 4.6

RL 4.9

RI 4.1

RI 4.2

RI 4.3

RI 4.4

RI 4.5

RI 4.7

RF 4.3a

RF 4.4a-c

W 4.1a

W 4.2a-b

W 4.3b, d

W 4.6

W 4.7

W 4.8

W 4.9a, b

W 4.10

SL 4.1b

SL 4.1c, d

SL 4.2

SL 4.3

SL 4.4

SL 4.5

L 4.2a

L 4.2d

L 4.4a

L 4.4b, c

L 4.5a

L 4.5c

L 4.6

REVISED 10/10/17

AC TEAM: Aaron Faz, Natalie Gomes, Linda Hoffman, Jessica Molina with PLUS teachers Gail Fry & Corina Valdivia 7th & 8th Grade Math Team, Yosemite Middle School

How have you developed as an AC? This is our 2nd year as an AC, but some of us have been together for as long as 4 years. As a team, we feel it is our passion for our students that brings us together. We share a common goal to build relationships with our students and help them succeed not only in the classroom, but as productive citizens in our community. Our students are at the center of everything we do. And having a great sense of humor can go a long way!

What is the structure of your AC meeting? Our AC is a safe environment. Like we said before, our students are at the heart of all we do, so we never take things personally. We honestly question and push one another to be the best we can be. Our AC uses CFAs to monitor student progress. Simple things such as exit tickets, Kahoot!, Illuminate questions, and randomized questioning in class are just a few examples that help us gather information about our students to share with our AC. In our AC meetings, we look at our data - question by question, skill by skill, and student by student. We look for common errors and decide, as a team, if concepts need to be retaught whole class or in small groups. We lean on one another to help make sense of problems and help find best practices for our students to better understand mathematics. Kids are at the center of all we do, so pride has no place here. We take risks with one another to help us improve our craft as teachers. We know we must build off one another’s strengths for our team to be successful. And above all, we have a good sense of humor!

To what do you attribute your success as an AC? Having a growth mindset, never taking things personally, keeping our students’ needs at the focus of our work, and having supportive administrators who model these behaviors daily, attribute to our success. We know it takes a relationship to work with our kids. Our focus is to build relationships which flows over into our AC. Everything we do is for our students!

Middle School AC to Watch

5th Grade AC AC TEAM: Kim Norton and Mina Smart 5th Grade, Jackson Elementary School

How have you developed as an AC? Our AC has been fortunate to work together for the last two years. Our learning is focused around the curriculum and students. When we first started working together, we saw things differently but we stayed flexible. We set norms and revisited them frequently. Initially, norms seemed so unnecessary, but they are needed! We realized we could not take things for granted especially each other. We set our expectations high; including for each other. Our thoughts were, “We have done all this work – now let’s get our student’s learning!” For time management - we use our phones! We talk all the time so our phones help us keep in contact.

What structures do you have in place for checking for understanding? We use CFAs in each content area to make sure our students are learning what we teach and to check for our “Next Steps”. Our rubrics encourage students to self-assess. The rubrics allow us to see what levels our students are performing at and at the same time students are responsible for their own learning. The data from our assessments is collected and analyzed by individual student and by specific class. We determine where the students are struggling and why. Then we implement new teaching plans to respond to this analysis and our students develop “I CAN” statements summarizing their next steps. We reteach in small groups using differentiated materials one hour a day based on this information. Our students like this extra practice and use their “I CAN” statements because it keeps them clear on their learning.

To what do you attribute your success as an AC? We have a good leader who helps make sure we are teaching as effectively as possible, by having clear communication and providing a safe environment. We celebrate our differences in our AC and appreciate each other. Having clarity when communicating the intentions of our lessons and what success looks like in relation to those intentions is important to us. We are relentless in asking ourselves, “How can we improve?”