Classroom Routines & Policies

Katrina Reeves ADC 2015-2016

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Welcome to our classroom! Please take a moment toreview these classroom policies and procedures so that Ican work more effectively to help your child succeed this year. Thank you! ~ Mrs. Reeves

Class Web Site: Please visit for important information

Select School –Hewitt, Staff, Katrina Reeves

Contacting the Teacher:

761-5750 ext. 6502 (your voicemail will go directly to my email)

Although I check my email periodically throughout the day, I am only able to answer emails and voicemail messages during my conference time and after school. My first priority is teaching your children, so please be patient with me until I am able to respond.

My conference time is 9:00-9:45 a.m. If you need to schedule aconference time to talk with me, in person or on the phone, please call or email to schedule a meeting.

Homework: (This has changed from last year)

The focus for homework this year will be fluency of reading, writing and math skills. Homework will start on week 4 of school. Spending time at home working on the skills learned in class is important for your child’s retention and success. The homework packet includes 4 lessons which allows you as a family to decide which days you will use to complete the homework. Each lesson should not take more than 20 minutes per night.Please note that the homework sheet is due every Friday. If your child is struggling with a new skill being taught in class, I will send a note home along with extra practice work.

Take-Home Folders:

Your child will bring home a binder each night.

Inside Pocket: This will contain items from the classroom or office that needs immediate attention or signatures. Please check this pocket each night. If signature is required, please sign and return ASAP.

Blue Folder:

Left Pocket will contain homework. On Monday, new homework will be placed in the folder. On Friday, please return the homework sheet to the left pocket. It will be collected, checked and returned to you.

Right Pocket: All finished work, graded papers and notes not requiring a signature will be placed in this pocket on Monday. Please look through these papersevery Monday night and remove them. Let me know if you have any questions. *If your child struggles on a test given on Friday (below 70), I will put the test paper in this pocket to allow the student to study over the weekend and retake the test on Monday.

Behavior Page: Each day a behavior is documented on a calendar page in the binder. Please look at that each night. A “smile” indicates that they had a good day. Even if your child has landed on teacher choice that day, the smile shows they were able to change their behavior to make it positive. If there were issues, I will write parent contact on the day and you will be receiving an email or phone call from me.

Reading:The students will rotate through four stations during the reading block.

Station 1 - Guided Reading: Mrs. Reeves will guide the students each day through a book that is appropriate to their level. These leveled books support instruction in comprehension, vocabulary and story elements. The student’s reading level will be determined through a benchmark reading assessment during the first week of school andwill be retested periodically throughout the year.

Station 2 - Fluency: Mrs. Johnston will guide the students each day through a word fluency activity. The goal of this station is to build the student’s knowledge of words which will also result in increased fluency during reading instruction.

Station 3 - Spelling Word Work: Mrs. Wilson will guide the students each day through a program called Phonics Dance. Students will focus each week on a particular phonics concept called a “hunk and chunk.”, word family or letters. They will learn a rhyme/dance to help them remember the concept. Their spelling list will consist of words containing the weekly “hunk and chunk.” Each Friday, their spelling test will include reciting the rhyme, spelling words from their word list and writing a sentence dictated from the teacher. The goal of this station is to reinforce a particular strategy to assist the student in sounding out words. Due to the incorporation of rhyme and movement with every phonics rule, the students will be able to remember these rules and use them in their reading and writing.

Station 4 - Independent Reading Station: During this station students will be independently using their IPADs or Computers to work on Waterford Reading or Lexia Reading. Both of these programs reinforce reading skills through stories and activities that are independently leveled to each student.

Math: The students will rotate through three stations during the math block.

Station 1 - Guided Math: Mrs. Reeves will guide students through math concepts starting with a hands-on concrete approach and moving slowly to a more abstract understanding of the concept. The beginning of each week will be filled with activities using manipulatives, song and movement. A math vocabulary wall will be reinforced daily.

Station 2–Word Problems (Mrs. Wilson): This station will walk students through the steps of a word problem. Each day they will be presented with a word problem to put in their journal. The word problem will be dissected as they work on finding the clues that help them solve the problem.

Station 3 - Review of Skills & IEP (Mrs. Johnston): This station will work on reinforcing the lessons taught at Mrs. Reeves’ station and allow time to work on IEP goals.

Writing: Students will participate in handwriting, grammar, revision and daily writing activities. They will work on sharing their writing with their peers during share time each day. Each student will have a journal that is kept at the school until the end of the year. Some of their grades will come from their journal. If you ever have a question about one of their journal grades, please feel free to set up a meeting to discuss it with me.

Science: Each week a new TEK Science concept is introduced. Students learn vocabulary and participate in activities that help reinforce that concept. Dance and movement is incorporated to reinforce science vocabulary.

Social Studies: Students will participate in a variety of Social Studies activities. Including creating a Historical Figures IPAD book that your child will email you periodically.

Grades: ADC is a classroom that allows students to learn at their level using accommodations and teacher assistance when needed. We strive to have the students be as independent as possible on each assignment. Most of the work that your student will do in this class will be done in a small group with the supervision of a teacher or an assistant. If your child is making errors, we will work with them

immediately to explain and correct errors. When a parent receives an error-free paper, sometimes itis hard to understand how much of the work was done independently. To alleviate this confusion, I use a rubric to grade their work. The rubric grading allows the parent to understand the level of assistance and time it took your child to complete the assignment. This method also provides documentation of growth, as the goal is to have the student move from maximum assistance to independence on assignments. The rubric will be stamped on papers that come home and the grade circled. Please note that the grade reflected could be based on how much assistance is needed and/or how many reminders were required for the student to stay on task to complete the assignment.

Rubric

100:Student understood the material, used accommodations without assistance and completed the paper with no reminders to stay on task.

90: Student only needed minimum support to complete the assignmentand/or needed less than 2 reminders to stay on task.

80: Student needed moderate support to complete the assignment and/or needed less than 4 reminders to stay on task.

70: Student needed maximum assistance to complete the assignment and/or needed more than 4 reminders to stay on task.

Tests: Tests will be completed by the student independently using their accommodations stated in the ARD paperwork. A rubric will not be used to grade the test. However, if the student scores less than 70, a practice sheet will be sent home and the student will be retested.

Discipline & Classroom Management:

The focus of the classroom is promoting positive behavior through positive reinforcement instead of focusing on negative behavior. The following explains the behavior plan that will be used this year.

A behavior chart is located in the classroom that contains clips with each child’s name on it. The clips start in the middle of the chart and the clips can move either up or down. The focus for the day is moving the clips up. We find every way we can to reinforce positive behaviors and place less focus on the negative behaviors.

All students start on Ready to Learn. I feel like each day is a new day and everyone deserves a fresh start.
Kids clip up throughout the day when we see them doing something special. Sometimes a clip up is guaranteed, sometimes it is random, and sometimes it will be on an individual or whole-group scale.
All students that end the day on great job or outstanding will receive a sticker on their sticker chart. When the sticker chart is full they get to take it home and pick something from the treasure box.
The goal of this is to create an excitement in the class for good behavior earning praise and achievement. When your child fills a sticker chart and brings it home, it would be helpful if it could be a big deal at home. This will help reinforce what we are doing at school.
If the student has to move down, they are first moved down to a ‘warning.’ As soon as they are seen doing something good, they are moved back up to ‘ready to learn’ and so on. If a student has chosen to not make better choices they are moved down to ‘teacher choice,’ the student will have an immediate consequence that is relevant to him/her.These can be discussed with parents individually. If the student is able to change their behavior after the consequence the parent will not be notified at this time. Finally, if the student continues the behavior and has to move down to ‘parent contact,’ the teacher will discuss the issue with the parent. (It is very rare that a student makes it to this level).
This will be the second year that I have used this system. Last year the students worked very hard to keep their clip moving up.

Behavior Chart

Field Trips

Our class will take one field trip as a class this year. The students will also take a field trip with their grade level. An assistant from my classroom will ride with them and provide supervision during the grade level field trips. Information regarding the field trips will be emailed or sent home in the folder.