Read, Read, Read!

I read for information…to stay current with regards to educational best practices...and, to gain knowledge, but rarely do I make time for a good book just for reading’s sake!

In this month’s Educational Leadership Journal, I enjoyed an article about addressing reading concerns early. The article made many great points including the importance of alphabetical and phonetic awareness, but to summarize, the answer to good reading is to have your child read, read, and read some more!

This particular paragraph struck me.

A student in the 90^th percentile of reading volume (who reads 21.1 minutes per day) encounters 1.8 million words a year, whereas a student in the 10^th percentile (who reads less than one minute per day) sees only 8,000 words a year. Put another way, the first student sees more words in two days than the second reads all year (Cunningham & Stanovich, 2001). It’s no wonder that students with limited practice in reading (and, thus limited vocabularies and general knowledge) often struggle when they are expected to progress from reading relatively easy passages to increasingly difficult texts that require larger vocabularies, greater fluency, and more prior knowledge.

Know how important reading is to a child’s successes in school and in life. I challenge you to turn off the DVD’s in the car, lessen TV time at home, take time to help your child find a good book, and spend time reading together as a family. Whether you and your child read for fun, read for knowledge, or read to gain information, the important thing to do is read, read, read!

Bryan Goodwin’s article “Address Reading Problems Early” from March 2012 Educational Leadership

Oakhill Day School students from Toddler (Age 2) to Eighth Grade participated in the Read Across America Event this month. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to Stop, Drop, and Read!
(click on the image to see our readers in action)

Mathematically Speaking

As I observe classrooms, view lesson videos in the Day in the Life presentations, and listen to the students applaud in the Tuesday Town Meeting when asked, “How many of you like math?” I am proud…of our math instruction.

Mrs. Driskill gave me a math article titled “Mathematical Swindling” by Eugene Maier. The article made me think about my own mathematical abilities. I was confident in math, got A’s in my classes, did what my math teacher told me, and coveted the right answer. I was a math swindler! As the article states, I “remembered computational procedures and techniques and applied them to textbook exercises during a weekly quiz”.

It wasn’t until I taught math that I truly understood the majority of the concepts. I knew how to calculate and recite math facts, but there is so much more to math than just this! Math includes the way you think about numbers, the way you manipulate numbers, the way you use the memorized math facts, and the way you recognize how numbers are used in real life applications.

When teaching math, it is important to focus on concepts, on specific objectives, and “how” to best teach these concepts and objectives to meet the developmental needs of each student. Conceptual understanding, memorized algorithms, and developmental approaches mix and mingle to create true mathematical awareness. For instance, 4x5=20 is not the same as 5x4=20. Four sets of five are very different than five sets of 4 although the answer is 20 in both examples.

Research indicates that students are not truly able to think abstractly about math until they reach 10 years of age…somewhere during their 4^th grade year. Throughout Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education, teachers move the students from the concrete to the semi-concrete to the semi-abstract manipulation of concepts. New concepts are best understood through hands-on exploration and discussion versus a “this is how you do it” approach.

With this said, math practice is another very important piece and one I do not want to dismiss. This includes class work, timed tests for math fact recall, homework, and Study Island.

In class, we will be developing each student…each mathematician…through concept building, algorithm exploration, and developmental math tasks. At home, we encourage ongoing computational practice, as well as weekly repetition through our Study Island program.

This is our second year utilizing Study Island as a supplemental piece of our math program with emphasis on standardized testing format. We have a building license for this web-based program which is accessible to students at school and at home. If you have internet access, your child can log on to Study Island. Although we have been using this resource at school, we now encourage you to use it at home.

Your children have the log-in information for the site – www.studyisland.com. If you have questions about this resource, feel free to contact your classroom teacher, Trish Stripling (Study Island Coordinator), or Study Island at support@studyisland.com.

Here is another excerpt from the Mathematical Swindling article.

“As part of a research project to assess children’s understanding of mathematics, an elementary school girl had been interviewed. The girl had no difficulty reciting subtraction facts. However, when the interviewer provided her with a collection of tile and asked her to demonstrate the meaning of the statement “16-9=7” with the tile, the young girl was at a loss. Finally, when urged by the interviewer to do anything at all with the tile to portray the statement, the girl used the tile to form numerals; much in the same manner she would have recorded this subtraction fact with paper and pencil. There were no meanings behind the symbols, yet this young lady would have made short work of a page of subtraction exercises.”

To end, I am very proud of the thinking that goes on in the classrooms with regards to math! Math should not be a mystery. Math should not be watered down to facts. Math deserves so much more, and so do our young mathematicians!

Enjoy Study Island,

Suzanne

Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to my first blog!

I'm really excited to be able to share with you re-caps of my In a Nutshell Articles from our school publication, The ACORN, as well as articles, web sites, and other information that I find interesting and informative. I hope you enjoy my posts! 

Now that I have your attention!

Please mark your calendars for these exciting and somewhat new events. We have changed them up to make the sessions and presentations even more valuable to you! We hope you can come to both, but in case you cannot, I want to describe both events in detail.

Fly Up Night – Lessons Unleashed

On Thursday, January 12^th, we invite you to “Fly Up Night – Lessons Unleashed”! We will meet at 6:30 pm in the gymnasium where you will hear about where we have been and where we are going. I will touch on highlights, test scores, tuition for the 12/13 school year, and campus expansion and improvement plans. We will also have a few Oakhill graduates here to speak about their transition from Oakhill to high school and beyond.

At 6:55 pm, you will be dismissed from the gymnasium and encouraged to attend next year’s grade level lesson presentations. This year (ALL NEW), you will be immersed in the learning environment…into a real lesson. The teachers will SHOW you what makes us special and EXPLAIN to you how we are different. Once again, there will be three identical sessions starting at 7:00, 7:35, and 8:10 pm. You will also find your 2^nd quarter grade cards and re-enrollment packets in the classroom, as well.

The Specialist Teachers, including Art, Music, PE, Spanish, Science, Library, and Technology, will be in the commons with displays at their individual tables. They will be prepared to share a lesson outline with you, explaining what makes our “Specials” unique and different.

Day in the Life Presentations

During designated mornings in January (listed below), grade level teachers, Mrs. Gipe, and I will meet you in the library for a 30 minute “Day in the Life” PowerPoint presentation. For example, current 4^th grade parents would attend the Middle School presentation; current Kindergarten parents would attend the First Grade presentation.

The presentations will include classroom video showcasing the curricular areas, video clips and pictures highlighting activities and Special classes, and valuable discussion and explanation from the classroom teachers. We want YOU to walk away from this presentation understanding the value Oakhill brings to you and the difference it makes. We want to share with you how this grade level is different from the previous one highlighting curricular content, teaching styles, field trips, opportunities, events, and activities. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions in a small setting!

We are excited about these new and different events (thanks to your input and feedback)! We hope to make them worth your time! Fly Up Night will give you a lesson in the life of your student, while the morning presentations will give you a day in the life of your student. Our hope is that after these two events, you will see who we are, what we do, and how we set ourselves apart!

If you have any questions or need clarification, please let me know!

Happy New Year!