Greetings Lafayette Families -
I hope that everyone shared a restful and thankful Thanksgiving holiday with loved ones. As we quickly move into more Winter holidays, I wanted to take a moment to pause and highlight the incredible work that teachers and students do in classrooms every day. At times, the logistics and multitude of events that make Lafayette such a special place take center stage in our conversations. However, it's the daily work of teaching and learning that that is the foundation of our school and community.
As I shared with parents at a Coffee Talk last month, our classrooms are all very rich places - text rich, inquiry rich, and focused on students growing as learners. Across the board, we utilize the DCPS scope and sequence that is aligned with Common Core State Standards. This provides our classrooms with a starting point, but certainly not the ceiling. From there, our teachers provide incredible hands on experiences to our students. This year, we are also implementing the DCPS Cornerstone assignments. These are assignments that are considered learning experiences that all students should have at each grade level. The most widely known Cornerstone was 2nd grade learning to ride bikes. This was an incredible experience for our 2nd grade students and couldn't have been done without the work of our PE teachers and parent volunteers. Other Cornerstones that are in our classrooms - designing a brochure about a DC neighborhood (3rd grade), creating a "Shark Tank" like video to promote your invention (5th grade), Technology Timelines Then and Now (2nd grade), Native American study on culture (4th grade), and a landscape design project utilizing math skills (4th grade).
Beyond the DCPS Cornerstones, we also have our key projects that are currently lining the halls of the trailers. These projects are a result of the collaboration between Mrs. McLaughlin and the grade level teachers. Some of these incredible assignments include architecture drawings of DC landmarks, totem poles mirroring the learning in 4th grade. The level of cohesion that exists between the classrooms and the art classroom is exceptional and prolific.
Aside from the bigger projects that are hallmarks for our grades, teachers work daily to be sure that assignments and groups are differentiated to meet students' needs. Our math specialists partner with our grade levels to assess students' prior knowledge for each unit. As a result of this collaboration, teachers are able to focus their instruction on what students don't already know, providing targeted intervention support for students who need more instruction in an area, and providing enrichment support for students who are performing above grade level. We also have several grade levels using the M2/M3 mathematics enrichment curriculum from the University of Connecticut and Marcy Cook tiles to continue to grow our students. Kudos to our teachers and our math specialists who are leading the way with a high level of sophistication they use to guide our math instruction - focusing on good inquiry based instruction, deep understanding of math, assessing student understanding, and providing both enrichment and intervention to meet all students' needs.
In English/Language Arts our teachers focus on a text rich experience that includes authentic texts, small group guided reading, and writing. Students have a daily literacy block that includes a variety of different instructional approaches to support phonics, reading fluency, comprehension, and writing, all steeped in meaningful science or social studies content. Teachers differentiate their centers and activities to meet the needs of all students. For example, students may all be working on the same task, but use texts at different levels that best fit their reading levels. Our ELA specialists also regularly collaborate with our teachers to identify areas of need, either intervention support or enrichment. We have several teachers who are trained in and utilize Junior Great books, as well as the DCPS accelerated readers units. Teachers also work infuse the ELA curriculum with high-level work, such as author studies, writer's workshop, and arts integration strategies. The result is a body of students, who are joyful, avid, and successful readers and writers.
Although I've only managed to highlight the tip of the iceberg, I wanted to share the continuous collaboration, creativity, and dialogue that are supporting all students' learning. We are all working relentlessly to ensure that all students grow - no matter if you are an advanced learner, a kiddo in the middle, or someone who needs more support. This means that every classroom has a balance of intervention and enrichment opportunities, and all classrooms are individualized to students' needs, and all students reflect the rich experiences and expertise of our teachers. We all set extremely high expectations for our students and work toward joyful rigor - learning that is meaningful, engaging, and fun! Every day I have the privilege of watching this unfold. I hope that I was able to shed some light on the true power of our teachers and staff and the high levels of teaching and learning that are delivered every day. I could not be more proud of our teachers, who are truly gifted at both the art and the science of teaching, or more proud of our students, who engage every day as inquisitive and insatiable learners.
With that, I will sign off for the day. We could talk for hours about the role of Science, Technology, Arts Integration, the incredible work of our Specials teachers, and all things teaching and learning. Look for a Coffee Talk coming soon in the new year to continue the dialogue.
Take care,
Dr. B