Coastal View Elementary School: Summer Reading

                Coastal View Elementary School 

             Principal's Blog with Dr. Sarah Owen

Final Reflective Thoughts:

·       Growth and change of my personal learning network:

      This course has introduced me to the new process of creating a blog with the purpose of collaborating with other stakeholders as a principal. Before the course, I had not participated in many blogs, nor in social media such as Twitter. This has been very different from communicating through Zoom meetings with the University. During Covid, weekly departmental meeting were scheduled with Zoom or Ring Central to align with Covid guidelines; however, last year the team voted to continue with the virtual meetings instead of returning to a face-to-face board meeting, since virtual meetings had proven to be both convenient and efficient. The blog offers the participants more time, with the ability to revisit the site, read, and think about what colleagues have posted. The Zoom meeting is more “in the moment”. Of course, the Zoom meeting can be recorded and revisited as well; however, the blog appeals to me more as collective, collaborative tool as well as a reflective one.  I feel more comfortable creating a blog and publishing it now for other educator’s participation.

·    How I plan to continue in the growth of my personal learning network:

      I have grown in my understanding of how important it is to meet students where they are in virtual settings and collaborative networks. This means that I need to establish a vested interest in keeping up with the technology and methods that students have used prior to joining higher education. It would be beneficial for me to enroll in a course to update my tech skills and to get more familiar with tech tools. One of these courses is offered on campus at Waldorf: Ed Media and Computers.

·     How I plan to contribute to personal learning with my colleagues:

      My plan is to integrate my learning into a Fall course syllabus. I am currently working with potential teacher candidates who are enrolled in courses to complete a Major in Education. If I can use what I have learned in this online course, I could teach the students how to create a blog for their own first classroom when hired with a school system. I think this would be a wonderful way to help them prepare an open channel of communication with parents when they are “real teachers”.

      In developing a future blog for the purpose of getting my university students involved in collaboration, I will share the value of learning strategies that will make the most effective collaboration:

      Develop and agree on a shared vision or goal.

      Foster a sense of community.

      Establish norms and expectations.

      Use dialogue to listen actively, share ideas, and believe in the power of communication

 

💥 Summer Reading

Happy summer at the coast! Hope you are enjoying this vacation time with family and friends!

Some of you may have read about the decline in recent reading scores from the spring ACT test and the recent NAEP test administered. Of course, school educators are alert to the drop in reading scores just as you parents. We are continually searching for ways to support our students' learning. With that in mind, I want to share with you several reading strategies that your child can practice over the summer that may help with reading comprehension. These strategies can be practiced with any library book or informational text. In fact, students from all grades and reading levels can apply these comprehension strategies to reading texts over the summer. In the fall, teachers will use the same strategies in the classroom to strengthen reading comprehension.

😎 Strategy 1: Monitor Your Comprehension: Helps the student to slow down reading so they can connect to what they are reading. Explain they will leave thinking tracks while reading the words.

• Read 1-2 paragraphs. Stop to make sense of the information. Use a sticky note to jot down a thought, reaction, or comment (no sentences - just thoughts like "Reminds me of my pet" or "too many people on the boat"). Place the sticky note on the book page or on a sheet of paper. 

😎 Strategy 2: Connect with the Text: Helps the student to break down the meaning of the text while coding the text. Explain they will mark the text with a code (below). To make it more fun, let them write on the page of a paperback book or a copy of a text. Sticky notes can be used for library books: Cut the sticky notes into thirds since each note will be only a few words long.

N    This is new to me

?     What does this mean?  

K     Already know this

R    Reminds me of ....

😎 Strategy 3: Organize Thoughts: Helps the student to use a graphic organizer to look at their thinking. Create a thinking sheet for the student by drawing a T chart with 2-3 columns or categories described below: (Note: The column of "What I Know" is filled in BEFORE reading the text.)

What I Know   /   What I Learned

What I Know   /   What I Learned  /   Things I Still Wonder About

Important Facts  /   Interesting Details

😎 Strategy 4: Summarize Your Reading: Helps the student to organize thoughts by retelling or summarizing the text. Ask the student to look away from the text and use their sticky notes and comments to write a paragraph to summarize the ideas. Remind them to start with a strong opening sentence, followed by at least 3-4 sentences that summarizes or "briefly" retells what they read.

👥 Parents ....

Join the blog and share your child's accomplishments in using these strategies!