Back to School Night

September 2014Ms. Ostlund

Presentation Objectives

1.) Introduce myself

2.) Common Core State Standards Highlights

3.) What to expect in fourth grade

4.) Walk through my website

5.) QA (time permitting)

A little bit about me...

• Graduated from CSU East Bay with a BA in Liberal Studies and Minor in Human Development.

• Student teacher at Kolb for first grade and at Hearst in Pleasanton for third grade. This is my second year teaching fourth grade.

• Subbed in kindergarten, first, fourth, and special needs

• Happily married with 2 children.

• Interests are the outdoors and crafts.

Why do we need to shift?

● Studies show a gap in high school students’ knowledge readiness and skills upon graduation and their college readiness

● Today’s jobs are more demanding

● The new assessment is driving changes in how teachers teach and how students learn

What to expect in fourth grade● Reading to learn and have a deeper understanding

of all content areas

● Literacy will be incorporated into all content areas

● Increase in non-fiction text (see next slide)

● Emphasis on listening and speaking skills- Collaboration, Communication, and Oral Language Presentations

● Increased student accountability, organization, and independence

● More technology (homework, word processing, powerpoints, etc.)

Distribution of Literacy and Informational Passages by Grade

Fourth Grade Curriculum

• Reading Comprehensiono Houghton Mifflino Core Literatureo Literature Circles

• Writingo DUSD piloting Lucy Calkins Writing Program

starting in Octobero Focusing on providing students a repertoire of

writing strategies- volume and practiceo Focus on three genres: narrative (realistic

fiction), argumentative and informational/explanatory

o More citing text evidence and elaboration o Increase in text complexity/academic

vocabulary

• Matho Envision- will provide access to online text

• Social Studieso Harcourt- California History, from Native

Americans to the 1950’s

• Scienceo Next Gen Standards

Earth Science- rocks, minerals, and water Physical Science- electricity and energy Life Science- structures of living things Labs Probes (investigative learning) Engineering

Homework

o Daily Reading Log – 20 minutes

o Daily Online writing : Kidblog (coming soon)

o Weekly Spelling Word List

o Daily Math Worksheet

o Weekly Social Studies

o Weekly Science

o Projects throughout the year

Teacher to Parent Communication

• Content Area Progress Reports (after each topic)

• Weekly Progress Reports o Behavior, class work, and HW

• Kolb Folder (weekly)o Corrected spelling testso corrected homeworko corrected class worko School flyers

Smarter Balanced Assessment

● Will officially be implemented this year

● Technology based

● Variety of item types (selected response, constructed response, extended response, performance task, technology enabled response and technology enhanced response) in Language Arts and Math

Selected Response Example

Which of the following statements is a property of a rectangle? Select all that apply.

☐ Contains three sides

☐ Contains four sides

☐ Contains eight sides

☐ Contains two sets of parallel lines

☐ Contains at least one interior angle that is acute

☐ Contains at least one interior angle that is obtuse

☐ All interior angles are right angles

☐ All sides have the same length

☐ All sides are of different length

Constructed Response Example

The table below shows the number of students in each third-grade class at Lincoln School.

There are 105 fourth-grade students at Lincoln School. How many more fourth-grade students than third-grade students are at Lincoln School? Explain your reasoning.

Show or explain how you found your answer.

Technology Enhanced Example (students must highlight text evidence directly in the poem)

St

Other items to discuss with parents

• Tests

• Box Tops

• Progress Reports

• Field Trips/Clearance forms (must show ID)

My Website

1.) Search the Dublin Unified School District

2.) Find Kolb Elementary under “School Site”

3.) Click the Teacher Sites tab4.) Click Ostlund, Larissa

Please take a moment to go to my website and complete the form on the Overview page.

Thank you so much for coming!!!Please remember to take the flyers on the desks home and sign in if you haven’t already done so.

I look forward to a wonderful year together.