A month is gone

With snow and the flu I am really behind on posting. Sorry guys. We are just finishing up our second round of reading testing for the year. The snow has really put us behind but luckily we have the best staff and student population in the county so they are plugging through! Currently we are beginning our global screening process for second graders. This process is done with ALL second graders so that every student has an equal chance at identification. Please know the county does want us focusing more on the instructional practices best for these students rather than a GT code. Our instructional resources for reading are William and Mary, Junior Great Books, and Jacob's Ladder. Along with using texts at the student's current reading level. If you have any questions about these programs please feel free to contact me about them. You can also find information online. During global screening students are given two tests. The one being given tomorrow is called the In-view, it contains two sub-tests one on analogies and one on quantitative reasoning. These are not tests students can prepare for since they are simply testing cognitive ability not content. The second assessment will be given in March. It is called the Raven, this again is testing students logical thinking using picture puzzles and patterns. In March parents will receive a survey to fill out and teachers will be doing it as well. After all the information is collected we will also gather information about how students are doing in class. A committee will meet to review the information to plan instructional recommendations and make decisions about identification based on a decision tree. I will be presenting this information at the March PTA meeting if you are interested in coming I encourage you to attend. You can also contact me here at school.