Curriculum & Instruction

Cat Berry

Assistant Superintendent

for Curriculum and Instruction

Dr. Lynette Graves

Director of K-5 Instruction

Dr. Larry Chappell

Director of Instructional

Support

Cathy Waddell

Director of 9-12 Instruction and

ESL

Nancy Cross

Director of 6-8 Instruction, CTE

Sheena Creech

Director of Digital

Teaching and Learning

Brooke Johnston

Director of Exceptional

Children

Beth Davis

Director of Testing and

Accountability/PowerSchool

Dale Brinkley

Director of Information

Systems

October 2019

Edition

Curriculum Updates

RCSS Teaching & Learning: A Tiered System of Support for all Students

Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create – Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

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Proudly Featuring

Instructional Highlights From

Eastern Randolph High School Principal: Greg Batten

Assistant Principals: Cecil Mock and Susan Chappell

Lead Teacher: Lori Ann Gardner

ERHS was fortunate to have Congressman

Mark Walker visit our Metals Manufacturing

Program on September 6th. Thanks to the

Pathways to Prosperity program and the gen-

erosity of the Lowe-Golden Leaf Foundation,

students have access to cutting edge technol-

ogy in Advanced Manufacturing.

Culture of Continuous Improvement

ERHS continues to refine our growth mindset to ensure that we put Students First In All We Do.

As we implement new strategies for our Road to Rigor Initiative, there is a continued focus on

standards-based assessments and digital learning opportunities. These concepts have been in-

strumental in supporting our continued EVAAS growth achievement over the past three years.

As we set our sights even higher, the knowledge we gained at the National SREB “Schools That

Work” conference this summer has empowered our staff with tools to move our students for-

ward. Learning opportunities include enrichment, remediation, and academic supports embed-

ded throughout the school day. These strategies allow us to focus on MTSS targeted goals and

continue to improve our instruction one student at a time.

9/11 Remembrance Ceremony

September 11, 2019

This annual event is Eastern Randolph’s personal offer-

ing of respect and gratitude for all those who lost their

lives on that fateful day and for those who fought and

continue to fight protecting our freedoms. Students are

featured from across the Cultural Arts and JROTC as a

part of this tribute.

Southeastern Randolph Middle School Principal: Dr. James Johnson

Assistant Principals: Mr. Shannon Edwards

Lead Teacher: Mrs. Kim Steele

Students at Southeastern Randolph Middle School have

been offered a unique opportunity by the Randolph Coun-

ty School System through the iLearn Randolph platform.

Thirty-five students who are currently enrolled in seventh

and eighth grade can earn high school credits for Spanish I

toward their high school graduation requirements. Next

year, the current seventh grade cohort can take Spanish II

as eighth graders.

Physical Education: The “Wildcat Way”

During the first few weeks of school, students at Southeastern Randolph Middle School have

been working on their flexibility along with strength and conditioning through creative activities

during their Physical Education classes. Each day, students are engaged in a warm-up that is fo-

cused on different muscle groups in the body. The students who were at first, hesitant, now

look forward to these very cleverly named activities. Monday is “Muscle Maker Monday.” Tues-

day is “Tummy Tone Tuesday,” which is a core focus. Wednesday is known as “Wildcats on the

Move Wednesday,’” which is a cardio style, quick paced workout. Thursday, students work on

flexibility and good habits with “Tension Reduction Thursday.” Finally, before students head

home for the weekend, they engage in a variety of exercises that hit all muscle groups and is

known by the Wildcats as “Fine Tune Friday.” The goal of this approach is to teach healthy hab-

its in a fun, caring, and supportive environment.

The Physical Education, Cultural Arts, and Career and Tech-

nical Education teachers are supporting classroom teach-

ers with data tracking and mentoring. Each week, these

teachers meet with a select group of students one on one

to track their performance in the classroom. During this

discussion, students are reminded of their baseline data

and receive tips on how to increase their Lexile and Quan-

tile levels. The principal also has a group of students to

encourage and support!

Coleridge Elementary School Principal: Jo Glidewell

Assistant Principal: Katie Henderson

Lead Teacher: Ms. Karen Binns

“Love That Dog” Poetry

by Mrs. Chris Marley’s Class

The 2019-2020 school year is off to a fabulous

start. Students in all grade levels have settled in

and are engaged in academics. In Language Arts,

a study of folktales and fables is underway in 2nd

and 3rd grade. Evidence of science investigations

completed by 1st graders is on display. Kinder-

garten students are enjoying getting to know

Letterland characters.

Mrs. Chris Marley’s fourth grade class launched the school year by diving into poetry. Students

fell in love with the genre as they began their exploration into several types of poems, ele-

ments of poetry, and figurative language. Students were especially excited to hear “Love That

Dog,” by Sharon Creech, read aloud and discussed. At the completion of the book, students

were asked to think about their own pets at home and pick one to write about. They brain-

stormed a list of everything they could think of that reminded them of their pets. They then

used their lists to write a poem that was modeled after the style of “Love That Dog” (a story

written in verse). Mrs. Marley gave each student an opportunity to share his or her poem with

the class with each ending in applause of support. Finally, the students were beyond excited

to have Mrs. Marley type up each poem, mount it on yellow paper, and display it, just like Mrs.

Stretchberry did (the teacher in “Love That Dog”).

Students from Mrs. Lamb’s 4/5 combination

class-share mini investigations

In Mrs. Lamb’s 4/5 combination class, students are re-

searching topics in science. After completing their re-

search, students created mini investigations recording

facts, vocabulary, and colorful illustrations. The investi-

gations are on display in the hallway for passersby to

enjoy.

Franklinville Elementary School Principal: Debbie Sheron

Assistant Principal: Angela Harris

Lead Teacher: Elissabeth Bernhardt

Depth and Complexity Anchor Chart

Who:

Reading specialists Ms. Tina Reeder and Ms. Dar-

lene Parsons at Franklinville Elementary are begin-

ning their second year of implementing Jan Rich-

ardson’s RISE reading intervention. With the help

of teacher assistants, the reading specialists target

each reading lesson to the reading needs of the stu-

dents within each grade level group.

What/Where:

Student participants are brought to the reading specialist’s room for approximately one hour of

intensive reading instruction. The block of time begins with a read aloud from either a chapter

book or a picture book. Students then transition to one of four possible stations. Each station

accommodates four students and one adult. Station one focuses on the introduction and first

reading of a new piece of text. Station two includes word work activities that are based on the

new book and student need. At this station the reading specialists are also including activities

from RIME Magic. Station three concentrates on comprehension and rereading familiar text.

Finally, station four encompasses both deeper comprehension and written comprehension of

familiar text. By the end of the hour, students have visited all of the stations. Our main goal is

to instill in our students a love of reading.

A Student Using Depth and

Complexity Symbols

Depth and Complexity by Dr. Sandra Kaplan (http://

www-bcf.usc.edu/~skaplan/) gives students the op-

portunity to delve deeper into a piece of text by con-

sidering different perspectives, changes over time,

trends and patterns, and ultimately the big ideas or

themes of the text.

Ramseur Elementary School Principal: Tammie Abernethy

Assistant Principal: Molly Montgomery

Lead Teachers: Greta Traxler and Erica Castillo

After Ramseur Elementary School staff completed a book

study on The Leader In Me, by Muriel Summers, Steven

Covey, Sean Covey, and David Hatch, the school worked to

develop a plan that would foster students’ leadership skills.

A “Leader In Me” committee with representatives from

each grade level was created to plan a student-led confer-

ence event that would be held in the spring of 2019. The

committee met regularly to develop documents that ena-

bled students to track their progress throughout the year.

Ramseur Students Practice Public-Speaking and Presenting their Academic Progress

After the committee created templates for students to create “action steps” and “personal mission state-

ments” that supported their academic goals, teachers held one-on-one conferences with students. Togeth-

er the teacher and student created specific, attainable steps that would lead them to their academic goals.

Throughout the year, students updated their progress in the data notebooks in reading, math, and science

and reviewed their personal mission statements. As spring approached, students began to prepare for the

culminating student-led conference event where they would present their hard work to parents and com-

munity members.

When the time came for students to present the progress they made during the school year, students

needed practice in public-speaking. In guidance classes, students practiced public-speaking skills and re-

viewed presentation rubrics, which were differentiated by grade level. Kindergarten through third grade

classes paired up with other grade levels within the school to practice presenting their data notebooks.

Fourth and fifth grade students at Ramseur met with Eastern Randolph High School students from the AIM

Service Club, Beta Club, and the Wildcat Initiative to practice their leadership skills and receive feedback.

A student charts his progress.

Finally, the students felt prepared for the Student-Led Conference event, or

as students called it, “Data Show-Off Day.” Grade levels had designated

time slots where they welcomed parents with refreshments and students

shared their hard work. Hundreds of parents and guardians traveled to the

school on February 19th to hear students share how they had taken ac-

countability for their own academic progress. Volunteers from the commu-

nity sat in for students who didn’t have a parent representative that day, so

every student could take part in the inaugural, school-wide event. Ramseur

plans to repeat “Data Show-Off Day” on March 10th, 2020, and make it an

annual event to encourage student growth and responsibility.