It was great to see so many of you at the Fun Fair! I really love being a part of this community. It is so uniquely wonderful. A big shout out to Hannah O'Connor who organized the silent auction. It was amazing! Thanks to all of you who contributed to our lego basket and to Kristine St. Martin for pulling it all together. It looked great! Pictures and videos from the fun fair are on Irving's homepage.
Common Core
As you may have heard from other grade levels or district communications, District 97 is adopting the Common Core State Standards for English and Language Arts this year. This means that we are in the process of aligning our curriculum to these more rigorous standards. We have already begun this transition in our classroom. What does this mean for the students?
- They will be reading more non-fiction, more novels and they will be asked to demonstrate a deep understanding of the texts they read.
- Assessments will be different, too. (You have probably noticed that I am not sending as many weekly reading tests home.) Instead we are doing other kinds of assessments in the classroom.
- At the end of March we will be sending home a "final" assessment for the standards taught that month.
- Grades this trimester will be assigned based on Treasures assessments and a few common core assessments.
Math: We are enjoying our geometry unit and are getting really good at talking about polygons like mathematicians.
Writing: We are writing our "expert" books. This is an opportunity for your child to do formal expository writing without the research component. That will come with our next project.
Reading: We continue to read our novels and the students are really impressing me. I have asked the students to read books that are on average about 6 months above their current reading level. They have risen to the challenge and our discussions are most impressive. Way to go second graders!
