Bear Cub Digest #3

We are already moving into the third week of school! The third week of school is when initial routines settle, and actual academic instruction ramps up. The honeymoon phase ends, and establishing consistent daily habits, deeper content units, and behavioral expectations becomes the primary focus. The following elements are being practiced and/or implemented in the classroom:

All of our classroom teachers are prioritizing the following:

Be sure to ask your children about their week, specifically asking them to tell you about their routines, academic topics or learning targets, and other great things they are experiencing in their busy days at school. Please see the rest of the Bear Cub Digest for this week's testing updates, academic reminders, and pictures of the exciting work taking place at Narcoossee Elementary School!

It is time for our first round of progress monitoring assessments! Florida Assessment of Student Thinking - or FAST - is a progress monitoring assessment for reading and math that will be administered in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, three times per year, to track your student’s progress in learning the required reading and mathematics materials within Florida’s Benchmarks of Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards.  The assessments are taken on a computer or tablet. The questions get easier or more difficult depending on how the student responds, and each student will see different questions from a common question bank. Each test will provide 35–40 questions that will cover the entire year’s lessons, including material that has not yet been covered by the teacher.

The results of the first assessment will only be used to help teachers understand what areas to focus on with students. It is important that students take the assessment seriously, so teachers have accurate information to use for planning future lessons.

You can find more information about the test and see sample questions at flfast.org/families. Once on the site, just select the grade band appropriate for your student(s). Please check out the resources below for more information about the assessments.

We continue to see great things happening at NCES. Students are learning how to construct protocol sheets in mathematics and reading. Student math protocol sheets are structured graphic organizers or step-by-step frames. They guide learners through problem-solving routines like word problems, math facts, or error analysis. Similarly, reading protocol sheets are structured graphic organizers or step-by-step frames guiding students through reading strategies. Students also continue to learn how to construct and use their interactive notebooks. An interactive notebook is a personalized student-built portfolio and learning tool. It uses a two-sided layout where teacher-guided notes go on one page, and creative student-processed reflections or foldables go on the opposite page to boost retention. Our teachers have been getting students into routines such as writing their learning targets in their interactive notebooks, placing their mini-anchor charts in the notebooks, and completing their protocol sheets as they read text or complete their mathematic tasks. Teachers have also been implementing routines for their small groups and centers. These strategies are implemented in all grade levels. Please see some examples of these items below, as well as some examples of students engaged in exciting learning activities.