Elementary Curriculum Updates

Please share this important information with your teachers

8/15/2014

Welcome back! We hope you had a relaxing summer and wish you all a successful new school year.  The Elementary Curriculum Team

GENERAL INFORMATION

  • K-2 Inspire

We had a wonderful time during our K-2 Inspire last week. Your school Math and ELA representatives spent time collaborating with other teachers to:

  • utilize the new ELA and Mathematics Curriculum Maps
  • create successful lesson plans for the first nine weeks
  • create instructional materials to enhance the academic and social focuses to lessons
  • understand the alignment of effective lesson planning to the Charlotte Danielson Framework

All resources were provided to your school representatives to share with their grade level teams.Resources are available for math on the VCS Intranet Math Site. The ELA representatives can access the resources on the K-2 Inspire Moodle.If you have any questions, please contact the elementary department ext. 20670.

  • Elementary Assessments

Attached you will find the elementary assessment calendar. Elementary instructional support staff is in the process of designing the assessments in ELA, Math and Scienceas identified by grade level.

  • Progress Monitoring and Instructional Calendars 2014-2015
  • K-5 Curriculum At-A-Glance

Science and Social Studies Curriculum At-A-Glance documents provide avertical and horizontal quick look at the concepts and content that will be taught K-5. This will allow principals and teachers to see the commonalities of instruction across grade levels. The At a Glance will also support teachers with planning. The Social Studies At-A-Glance will be sent out each nine weeks.

LANGUAGE ARTS

  • FAIR-FS Information

Yesterday the FAIR-FS contacts were trained on the new FAIR-FS assessment. All schools have access to resources that have been provided from the state at this time. As more resources become available,we will post them for you to access.FAIR-FS Resources

Attached is an overview of FAIR-FS.

Sub funding is available for K-2 teachers. Each K-2 teacher can utilize a sub for up to 2 hours. The sub fund numberwill be sent to principals as soon as it is available.

K-2 classroom administration (suggestion) - As in the past teachers may find it useful to pair with another teacher or distribute students among the grade level to assess students.

  • SIPPS Implementation support document

Attached are implementation support documents for teachers and administration for SIPPS. These are also available here: SIPPS resources

MATHEMATICS

  • Supplemental Materials

The Lakeshore Learning Daily Math Journals and AIMS Bundles are available on the collaboration site. Open the attachment for directions to these materials.

  • Instructional Mathematics Block

Open the attachment for a guide to create structure and a routine that allows for small group and center implementation in the math block.

Principals, please contact Toni Chieppa for additional support. Also, be on the lookout for the Fall PD Calendar which will include “Small Group Instruction in Mathematics” and “Math Centers” district workshops.

  • Formative Techniques

Please refer to the many formative techniques in the back of each of the K-5 curriculum maps. You can also access 4 tasks for every K-5 MAFS (Mathematics Florida Standards) at the Mathematics Formative Assessment System (MFAS).

SOCIAL STUDIES

  • TCI- Former 5th Grade Teachers and Gifted 4th & 5th Grade Teachers

Directions for Accessing your TCI Subscription

  1. Sign in to your subscription at
  2. Select the program you will teach in the new school year.If you select the same program, the custom presentations and assessments you've already created will be available to you.
  3. Create new classes and add students.

*If you have questions about TCI, after logging in please click the settings icon next to your name and select the help link. The TCI website is loaded with helpful hints (like below) on most of the questions a teacher might have!

  • TCI-New to 5th Grade and Gifted 4th & 5th Grade

Please send an email to Scott Hallett stating you are a new 5th grade teacher.

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