Monday Mustang Memo: Filling the Gaps

Excellence in Education: Fill the Gaps

Lately, I’ve either been part of or have listened to several conversations about Mustang Morning. While some of the conversations have been about PLC time or logistics, mostly they’ve been about remediation. How can Mustang Morning be used to fill the gaps?

The following are taken from various conversations, and I honestly can’t accurately attribute them.

First, we must realize that we cannot fill every gap for every student. Instead, we should focus on filling the gaps that are causing the most trouble, those that are impeding learning.

We should strive to help students acquire specific skills that will most benefit student learning.
Use data from assessments (formative, common, or summative) to provide as much individualization as possible.
Students should be provided with the opportunity to practice in order to develop fluency and proficiency. For students who are struggling, this may include reviewing and practicing material from previous units.
Mustang Morning should not be more of the same instruction.
Students need to see their own progress, that their efforts are paying off. Through feedback and reinforcement students will see their own progression towards mastery.
Use Mustang Morning to pre-teach for the next section. Use Mustang Morning for pre-teaching vocabulary that other students are familiar, or prime their brains with a video or a reading so they will have the necessary background knowledge for the new material to “stick” to in their brains.
Allow students to have some fun during Mustang Morning, by creating interactive review games

Excellence in Education: We Rescue Too Soon and Too Often

From Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most by Jeffrey Benson

This is one of the biggest traps when working with challenging students who do not have a consistent grasp a basic skills--we rescue them. They are rescued before they can experience any more confusion. They are giving step-by-step directions, often a required accommodation in their individual education plans, for tasks that require pondering, consideration of alternative routes, and evaluation of methods. Teachers are exhorted to break down tasks, to break them down into the teeniest substep that the student can do independently. The opportunities to construct knowledge, to see the big picture and develop a meaningful concept--what could happen after the student followed the step-by-step directions--are cast aside for very students who need most more most need multiple opportunities to think for themselves.

Useful Links:

Positive Referrals: https://goo.gl/forms/HZtZoQqHoa2SWT0H3

Friday Activity Calendar (Mentorship/Portfolio/Club Day) : Portfolios

Portfolio Assistance If you have a student who needs assistance setting up his/her portfolio, click here

Technology / Website Permission Request Form http://go.shr.lc/1HovEA6 Please use this form to request use of a website that requires student log-in if the site is not already on the approved list. DART approved list

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm Please be sure to have announcements cued and ready to go at 8:55 every morning.

Announcement Request: http://tinyurl.com/requestannouncement

Teacher Handbook

Calendar and Memo Items

A-B-A-B-B

Please remember that the copy room and mailroom are off limits to students at all times.

February 20 and March 31 are NORMAL school days now.

Help Save The Next Girl: 9th and 10th grades, Feb 28; 11th and 12th grades, March 1 Here’s the schedule

Birthdays

Feb 22: Najwa Tatby

Feb 23: Kossi Djamessi (custodian)

Feb 25: Paul Jones, Krista Matheny, Joe Weaver