Math Scores on the Rise

We just finished our STAR testing for today and as I glance over the results I am pleased with the overall results.  Some students are beginning to really take off while other students are kind of bouncing on the glass ceiling.  I will be going over the results in more details, but I wanted to share a couple quick observations.

Class Average
Date	Scaled Score	Percentile Rank
9/14/2015	451	68
10/14/2015	517	87
11/11/2015	561	93
12/11/2015	587	95
1/13/2016	597	94
2/11/2016	606	94

As you can see, our class average standard score has continued to rise every time.  I am very proud of the jump that we have made from the beginning of the year.  We are kind of at a tough spot where many students are pushing me to go further and further across many domains of math.  I am trying to push them in unique ways and I realize that this group needs more small group time to really push them to excel.  I look forward to planning this into my schedule.

We had twenty students score in the 90th percentile or higher on this recent test and the students who didn't all improved their scores from January.  Our improvement is a credit not to just our students who math is their strong subject, but truly to the hard work of the students whom math doesn't come as easy for them.

As I looked through the scores, I will say that the students who are still climbing despite being in the top ten percent are the students who know all or nearly all of their multiplication facts.  The students who are still working on their single digit facts are not going to have time to solve the problems to continue to improve those scores.  All of these scores make me happy, but I know some students are driven to keep pushing forward and having those facts helps me push them further.

Thank you for all you do to support them and be proud of your kids!

Words of Wisdom

Last week we started the Wordly Wise vocabulary program.  It is a program that I have access to in order to boost vocabulary of my high achieving students.  There is all sorts of research that is out there to support that vocabulary acquisition is one of the most important factors of success in schools.  Along with Wordly Wise, we will be using other methods to focus on vocabulary building this marking period.

We will be working through the program on a weekly basis, but it may not be exactly one unit a week as I will be shooting for understanding over just plowing through a book.  We have been doing partner work and discussing the words and how they can be used in different contexts.  Yesterday we worked through a passage and talked about complete sentences and restating the question.  This is a difficult skill for second grade students, but it is one that we will be practicing.

If you want to join in boosting vocabulary, you can log on to some free resources at home provided in the program.  There are interactive flashcards, word lists, and some games on their website.  You can also use those words and have students work to create their own sentences to go with the word as that is one of the main pushes of the program.  We will continue working on vocabulary acquisition both in our reading and in our writing.

http://www.wordlywise3000.com/

We are in workbook three.  I also see that they have an app, but I have not used that so I don't know anything about it.

Why Games?

On Friday, we worked together to play the game Forbidden Island as a reward for having a good marking period and a good day with the guest teacher on Thursday.  Forbidden Island is a cooperative game where the entire team of people playing the game either wins of loses together.  Students were excited and took to the game very well.  It is one of my favorite beginner hobby games and great for the whole family.

Why do I introduce board games and board game design?  Besides being one of my favorite hobbies, I love games for their ability to teach social skills and character building.  It is important to know how to win and to lose graciously.  It is also important to develop a sense of working within a set of rules to solve a problem and look for ways to improve your play next time.

We will soon be working on the process of learning about the parts of board games and designing our own board games.  This process teaches creative thinking, problem solving, and the process of iteration.  Iteration is one of the most important skills needed to critically think through academic challenges going forward.  Iteration is the process of taking an answer and thinking through it again and through a process making it work better each time.

We use iteration in writing when we edit, revise, and rewrite.  We use it in science as we work to understand a phenomena and test and experiment with it.  We use it in math as we encounter more difficult problems that might take trying two approaches to see which one works better.  One of the things I will be working on academically is this process of thinking through your answer because your first idea doesn't always have to be the final answer.

I look forward to helping students solve problems and think through their project and make changes as they find things that don't work as well.  Testing and iteration is fun when you are designing a game, but it is even more important to develop as you develop critical thinking skills. 

Being Persuasive

Yesterday I had a chance to use my new teaching toy.  I bought a wireless keypad to be able to sit with the class and type as I teach.  I tried it out yesterday while talking about persuasive writing.  We did a brainstorming session and it was nice to be out with the class instead of being in front of them.  It gives me a new perspective and I think it is fun for the kids.

We talked about needing reasons to change someone's mind.  This is always the toughest marking period of writing as we talk about needing support for your opinion.  You can support this at home by asking students to orally express reasons that they made a choice.  It takes a mature thought pattern to be thinking of reasons besides I like it or it is fun.  I will be working with them to try to get them to see their audiences perspective instead of their own.  What is going to change your intended audience's mind and cause them to agree with you.