Call Me and Optimist

Call me an optimist, but I really think spring has arrived in CNY. Just yesterday I heard birds chirping as I got in my car to come to school. These last few months of school are known to pass in a blink of an eye. In the midst of your busy days I know you continue to prioritize the academic journey of your children. We live in a time, thanks to technology, where we have more resources than ever before to keep us informed about the changes in education as well as ideas for helping our students become career and college ready. 

In this blog I have written about www.engageny.org, a Web site organized by New York State that is a depository for everything you might need to know. Last week I gave a workshop for parents entitled “Math In The Middle” where I shared information about the Common Core Learning Standards and helpful hints including the connection between literacy and math. If you missed it, I would be happy to give you the information personally or in another small group…perhaps a group of neighbors. Just give me a call to schedule another showing! Many of the resources I shared are available here. 

  

At CMS we pride ourselves on being a learning organization. Improvements only come through a process of feedback and reflection. I would very much appreciate your thoughts about our school. Please take this brief, anonymous survey. It shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes and the information will help us look at our strengths and weaknesses. I’ll share the results in my June blog. The survey will remain open until April 19.

Wishing everyone a relaxing April break…keep your ears open – our bird friends are the harbingers of spring.

We Celebrate Learning – together!

Beth

"Time with Text"

It won’t surprise you to learn that I go to a lot of meetings and training sessions; it’s just the nature of the business of education. I really enjoy listening to other people at these meetings because, many times, they phrase big ideas in a way that seem to stick. Last week I went to a meeting about AIMSWEB. (As a reminder, AIMSWEB is a screening tool that we use for every student in the building, three times a year, to ensure that they are making growth in reading and math.) During the meeting the trainer told a story about how his own child learned to read, and he reminded us that “time with text” is critically important. Time with text…what does that mean for a middle level child? Well, I think it means that we want to create an environment, both here and at home, that encourages our students to READ– all kinds of text, all the time. In last month’s blog I talked about variety (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, opinion articles, newspapers, magazines, manuals, etc.), complexity (providing opportunities for challenging reading material) and amount (reading every single day). You will be receiving a letter in the mail in the next day or two with your child’s Lexile level, the directions for using lexile.com and a list of books generated from that site that your child selected. February Break would be the perfect time to put a few books on your child’s Kindle or head to the library to browse and select something from their shelves. If you are traveling this week consider a book on tape. Children of this age (although they would hateto admit it) still enjoy a good read-a-loud and this is a great way to introduce books that are a little more challenging but high interest. I hope that the week off provides you with some time to relax, get outside and enjoy a good book. We Celebrate Learning! Beth

Lexiles, Literacy and Learning

The three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic) that definethe most important foundational skills that students need to acquire during their school years are familiar to almost everyone. But the College and Career Readiness Standards (CCR) and the Common Core have given birth to a new trio – lexiles, literacy and learning. Taken together, the three L’s strengthen and bring more meaning to those old foundational skills. Of the three, lexile is likely a new term for parents. A lexile level simply refers to the difficulty of any particular text and is determined by a variety of factors including sentence length and individual words. We can determine the lexile level of any type of text – fiction, non-fiction, newspaper articles, an appliance manual and so on. For anyone who has struggled in setting up that new DVD player you got for Christmas, you might not be surprised to learn that those manuals have a pretty high lexile level! Three times a year, we screen every student to determine their ability to read higher lexile levels to ensure that they are making growth.  Next week we will complete the January screening. In early February we will send your child’s lexile level home along with directions for using www.lexile.com, a free on-line tool that will help you select reading material for your child. It is easy and fun to use!

The type of text students are exposed to in middle school has a significant impact on their readiness for high school and college-level reading. In fact, the research is quite clear that not only is the amount of text that a student reads a large contributor to their success but also thevariety and complexity. New York State has outlined, in the Educator Manual for the Common Core ELA Test, the range of texts that students may encounter by the end of their middle school years. You can see from the chart below that the notion of literacy extends beyond required reading lists. As parents you can help expose your child to this rich variety by sharing your own day-to-day experience with these types of texts. 

Working together, our children can learn to read and use information from sources other than their textbooks. As the second half of the school year begins, in just a few weeks, please remind your child to check their progress on SchoolTool. If you need a password, please contact Mrs. Boise at 672-8381. I look forward to seeing you here in the building at one of our great concerts, sporting events or PTO meeting. Stop by my office at any time!

We Celebrate Learning!

 Beth

Welcome Back!

When you work at a school, you don’t even have to look at a calendar to tell that August has turned to September. The empty athletic fields are suddenly burgeoning with modified sports teams (Thanks to http://savemodifiedsportsatwg.com), books are flying off the shelves in our library and the quiet hallways are now full with the voices of our students.  

Welcome back everyone! The 2012-13 school year will bring many changes to us here at Camillus Middle. From the new Common Core Learning Standards in ELA and mathematics, to our improved student management-grading portal SchoolTool, to the implementation of the Olweus anti-bullying program, our entire school community is ready to learn and grow. 

I will be writing about all of these changes in this monthly newsletter, but you can get a sneak peak by attending our Curriculum night on September 18 at 6:30 p.m. In the meantime, please feel free to call, email or just stop by the office should you have any questions.