A Brand New Year: Updates for 2013 - 2014

1. A Brand New Year: Updates for 2013 - 2014 August 20, 2013

2. Updates Report Cards, Portfolios, Data Collection, Math Trailblazers, Read to Achieve, Cursive, Fountas & Pinnell Kits

3. Report Cards K-2 3-5 Will remain the same Committee looking into Standards-Based • Standards Based • Minor changes • Shading based on pacing • Second grade will pilot using report cards with PowerSchool as soon as logistically possible

4. Yellow Card is no more! • PowerSchool data • Data spreadsheet is no longer a district requirement • Data sheet/sticker will be printed for portfolio Portfolios & Data Collection

5. In other news… • Third grade will be using Handwriting Without Tears to teach cursive. For grades 4-12, it is the expectation that students complete at least one assignment in cursive each grading period. • 3-5 Benchmarks will be through School Net (a part of PowerTeacher). There will only be two benchmarks this year (Nov & March). • If there is a Fountas and Pinnell kit in your classroom, please don’t discard it. These can be used for students who read at level U or above or for progress monitoring.

6. Math Formative Instruction and Assessment Tasks http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Elementary http://www.mymathtrailblazers.com/

7. 21st Century Skills Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication

8. 21st Century Skills Framework www.p21.org

9. Elements of 21st Century Learning 21st Century Themes • Global Awareness • Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy • Civic Literacy • Health Literacy • Environmental Literacy http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/97673

10. Growing critical thinkers takes work! • Becoming a more critical thinker is not easy. It takes time and effort. Kindergartener’s are 98% divergent thinkers. By the time they reach 3rd grade, they are 40% divergent thinkers

11. What is critical thinking? • Critical thinking occurs when students construct meaning by interpreting, analyzing, and manipulating information in response to a problem or question that requires more than a direct, one-right-answer application of previously learned knowledge • Adams

12. What is critical thinking? • The rubric for our teacher evaluation lists these specific skills: • Think creatively and critically • Develop and test innovative ideas • Synthesize knowledge • Draw conclusions • Exercise and communicate sound reasoning • Understand connections • Make complex choices • Frame, analyze and solve problems

13. Understanding critical thinking: • An essential requirement of critical thinking is the ability to think about thinking, to engage in what is sometimes called "metacognition". • The art of thinking about your thinking while you're thinking in order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, more fair

14. Ways to think critically: Compare/Contrast • Critical thinkers strive to treat similar things similarly and different things differently. • Uncritical thinkers often don't see significant similarities and differences. • Things superficially similar are often significantly different. • Things superficially different are often essentially the same. • Only through practice can we become sensitized to significant similarities and differences.

15. Teaching Strategies for Compare/Contrast • Teach important vocabulary • Use thinking maps/graphic organizers • Model (read alouds discussing similarities/differences) • Practice, practice, practice

16. Ways to think critically: Creativity • Critical thinkers must be creative thinkers as well, generating possible solutions in order to find the best one • Very often a problem persists, not because we can't tell which available solution is best, but because the best solution has not yet been made available-no one has thought of it yet.

17. Sample of the Critical Thinking rubric for grades 3-4.

18. Pacing Guide and Units

19. Development • Focus • Purpose • Sharing General Information Acselementary.wikispaces.com

20. Unit 1: Acselementary.wikispaces.com