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September 5, 2012

Mrs. Arms

Mrs. Hampf

Mrs. Heitner

Mrs. Holliday Mrs. Troccoli

Mrs. Ashby

http://patsysommerelementary1stgrade.blogspot.com/

In accordance with PBIS (positive behavior intervention support), a campus behavior initiative, and to ensure the safety of you child, and enhance their learning, the following rules will be enforced:

Be Safe- Keep hands and other objects to yourself; Walk everywhere; Use tools correctly; provide a safe learning environment 

Be Respectful- Listen while the teacher is talking; Follow adult expectations; Respect other's belongings; Use kind words while speaking to others 

Be Responsible- Come prepared and ready to learn; Take ownership and pride in what you do 

Be cooperative-Be helpful and a team player; Allow everyone to have a voice. 

Do Your Best- Always try and never give up; Make good choices; Come to school with a positive attitude.

We will be proactive in our classroom management by explicitly teaching, modeling and practicing classroom expectations, and procedures during whole class, group, and individual work time in accordance with the campus PBIS initiative.

Common Incentives- Whole Class- kids vote and decide on specific, reasonable rewards for whole class positive behavior

(goal is set for specific amount to earn)Ex: pajama day, hat day, extra recess, book party, eat lunch with teacher, etc.

Small Group- table groups earn points for positive behavior as a group, group that earns most points is rewarded by teacher. Ex: eating lunch with teacher, trophy, treasure box

Individual- students earn stallion stars that correlate to other incentives. Ex: sit by friend for a day, treasure box, bring toy out to recess.

Common Consequences- Warning- redirection or reminder of classroom expectations Teacher Conference- student and teacher privately discuss observed behavior and what the

expected behavior is Removing from engaged negative behavior- student is moved to designated area to give them time

to think, reflect, cool off, etc. Student is still part of learning environment. Teacher follows up with teacher conference.

Recess Consequence- student will select independent, physical activity for a specified amount of time. Ex: walk red line, jumping jacks, cross midpoint with arms, etc.

Parent Communication- Parents are informed about classroom behavior through behavioral log in daily folder. Parents are notified of the specific negative behavior that occurred in classroom.

Classroom Referral- used to document severe negative, physical, or verbal behavior. 3 classroom referrals will equal an office referral.

Office Referral- 3 classroom referrals, severe physical or verbal behavior with intent to harm self or others, or 3 red slips from cafeteria.

A successful school experience is the responsibility of the child, the parent and the school. Your child's progress, both academically and socially, is influenced to a great extent by daily participation.

Regular attendance without tardiness is key. School begins promptly at 7:45am. Students that arrive after 7:45am will be counted tardy and will sign-in on a tardy log in their classroom.

Students should arrive between 7:15 and 7:40am. Students should not arrive prior to 7:15 AM since supervision by the school staff is not available. No child or parent should be in the building before this time. Parents must say their goodbye’s to children in the main hallway. Parents are not permitted in grade level pods without signing in at the front office.

If your child is ill, please call the office (512-704-0600) and inform us of your child’s absence and the reason for it. This is for your child’s safety. If a student must leave early for a doctor’s appointment, go to the office to sign them out and they will call the teacher to send your child to the office. We are unable to release a student without being notified from the office. Never send another person to pick up your child without informing the teacher or the secretary.

Car rider: on east side of the building. Students will be sitting by grade level. Older siblings will be staying with their grade level. Please have the car number clearly visible on the right corner of the windshield.

Parent Pick-Up on side: Parents will park their cars in a parking spot and walk up to the east side of the building to pick up their child.

Walker/Bike Rider: Students leave the school through the east side of the building and are either walking or riding their bikes home.

School Bus: Students dismiss through the front of the school and go home on a specific school bus. Please be sure to let your child’s teacher know what bus he/she rides.

Daycare: Students will dismiss through the front of the school and go home with a specific daycare.

YMCA: Students will dismiss to the cafeteria where the school YMCA takes place.

In order to keep you better informed about your child's progress, First grade uses the 4,3,2,1 grading system

that corresponds to the RRISD report card.

1-child exhibits skill/concept with direct guidance. If it is an area where growth is needed then this is a skill/concept that will require greater guidance from the teacher and more practice at home. However, there may be some areas where a 1 simply means that the topic has just recently been introduced and they are not expected to be beyond that level yet. Please ask the teacher if you are concerned about your child’s performance.

2-child exhibits skill /concept with minimal guidance. Throughout the year most children require at least some degree of guidance from the teacher on most skills and concepts so a score of 2 is quite reasonable to expect in areas where your child is progressing at a reasonable rate toward becoming independent by the end of the year. 2 is a score that indicates your child is on-track to being successful with that skill or concept at the expected pace. By the end of the year we should see 2's growing into 3s and even 4s in some cases. 

3- child exhibits mastery of skill/concept (needs NO guidance) consistently There may be some areas where a child has consistently exhibited mastery of a 1st grade skill and is beyond needing guidance. These areas will be scored with a 3. It is important to keep in mind that the child must be consistently exhibiting mastery of the skill (without guidance) to get a 3.

4- child exhibits understanding beyond grade level expectation consistently   To get a 4 in any skill or concept your child must be consistently exhibit understanding beyond the grade level expectation. The key words are "consistent" and "beyond."

Blacked Out   This is intentional because at this point in the year we have not had a chance to fully introduce, teach or assess these areas because they will be addressed in the future. For example the "fractions" area is blacked out because as a grade level the students have not yet had a chance to practice and demonstrate mastery or independence with these skills yet. As the year progresses, however, these skill will be practiced and assessed and will begin to appear as a 1, 2, 3, 4 on the report card.

Some major assignments/ short cycle assessments will have a grading scale of 100%.  Students with a grade below 70% may be redone or retested for a maximum new grade of 70%.  If a student requires reteaching and retesting this may be reflected on the report card, which is a grade based on a collection of data.**This policy does not apply to district assessments/benchmarks. 

1. Build Community - The school should bring all learners together into a supportive community that

nurtures both the individual and the group. The community should permeate all possible spaces, in the classroom, in the home and Online.

2. Encourage Critical Thinking - The school should actively encourage learners to think critically,continually asking the question, "Why do we teach what we teach?"

3. Reward Risk Taking - The school should actively encourage learners to risk failure in the pursuit of

understanding.

4. Focus on all Learners - The school should surround the learner with ideas and information,encouraging the learner to pursue a wide variety of paths to knowledge, and supporting the

personal growth for all who inhabit the community.

5. Value Diversity - The school should actively encourage and value the input of those both inside and outside the community with a diversity of opinions and experiences. The school should consistently check that it is inclusive and supportive of learners from diverse backgrounds.

6. Nurture all learners - The school should provide opportunities and encouragement for all members of the community including teachers, students and parents to learn and grow.

7. Pursue Innovation - The school should actively explore, pursue and assess new ideas and technologies, while always keeping the learner at the heart of the pursuit.

8. Teach Empathy - The school should actively and explicitly teach learners to think beyond themselves, encouraging students to value kindness and generosity.

9. Break down the walls - The school should provide access and opportunities for learners to reach outside the walls of the school to the neighboring, national and global community.

Math consists of the following:Math warm-up: building fluency, vocabulary,

instruction/practice with concepts not done through problem solving (telling time to the hour on a clock)

Problem solving: problem of the day is read/introduced, strategy and operation needed is not obvious or given by teacher, two commonly graded problems a week

Share time: teacher and student led, share correct and incorrect strategies (work through it together and clarify misconceptions)

Assessments: summative assessments at the end of each unit

Science and Social Studies consists of the following:

Alternate unitsMini Lesson: whole groupGuided practiceIndependent practice: science notebooks (5E

model), social studies notebook, self generated experiments, hands-on, connected to real world experiences

Assessment: summative assessment for each 9 weeks

Reading consists of the following:Mini Lesson: teacher directed, whole class,

modeling or explicitly telling strategy or skill, students discussing, students practicing, link to independent learning

Independent reading, partner reading, guided reading-by level, book clubs, strategy groups- by skill, teacher observes and conferences (individual or small group), assessment

Share out (student led or teacher led)

Writing consists of the following:Mini Lesson: teacher directed, whole class,

modeling or explicitly telling strategy or skill, students discussing, students practicing, link to independent learning

Student generated work, teacher observes and conferences (individual or small group), assessment

Share out (student led or teacher led)

This program is designed to help students gain a deeper understanding of word patterns. Although spelling tests will be given at the end of each one-week unit, the focus of our work is on helping students to master and identify word patterns in order to spell words correctly in context. Students are not expected to memorize spelling list in isolation for the test.

Each test will occur every Friday. Some of the beginning tests include pictures so that the tests can be taken independently. Some of the more advanced groups will not have pictures, but they will have to sort the words as part of the test.

You may notice your child getting credit for misspelled words. In some of the beginning stages of spelling, the tests are only to check for the specific pattern. For example, a test on digraphs may count “chez” correct for the word “cheese”. The correct spelling will be noted for your child, but they will get a point for the correct pattern. This does not occur in the later stages.

Your children have taken a spelling inventory assessment to put them into groups based on their individual spelling needs at the end of 1st 9 weeks. During each one-week unit, the groups will be working on sorts and word work each day that pertain to the particular spelling pattern or skill that they are learning. Students will be working with many words during each unit in addition to those on their list. It is important that students are learning and using the patterns daily. Simply memorizing the list will not help them to apply the pattern to other unknown words.

Spelling is reflected on the report card in terms of spelling in isolation and in their writing. Therefore it is very important that they gain an understanding of words and their patterns.

~1st Grade Team