Welcome back to our High Ability Blog! I hope everyone had a great summer and are ready for a great school year.
HIGH ABILITY START DATE:
We are getting started even sooner this year and I am meeting with each of my groups this week for an introduction day. My language arts students will meet with me on Wednesday, August 22nd and my math students will see me on Thursday, August 23rd. Next week we will start our normal routine of language arts on Monday &Tuesday and math on Wednesday & Thursday.
Please make sure your child's permission slip is turned in immediately or they will not be able to join us until it is turned into the school.
Below, is some general information about our High Ability Program information for the upcoming year.
GENERAL HIGH ABILITY INFORMATION
Welcome to our High Ability (HA) blog! This is our weekly blog that will allow you to peek inside our classroom to see what exciting things the children are learning throughout the year. A weekly email will be sent when the blog is ready to view for the week. My goal will be to have it ready for you every Friday. You will be able to access the blog from a link at the bottom of the email or from Yost’s homepage under classrooms.
Our weekly schedule will be Mondays and Tuesdays Language Arts (LA) and Wednesdays and Thursdays Math. If your child qualified for both, I will see them all four days! On Fridays, I'll meet with the other HA Instructors to share lesson plans for the upcoming week which means no classes on that day.
High ability will meet twice a week during flex time for a half an hour each day. Flex time is a time set aside at Yost per grade level for students to receive more intensified instruction. Your child's teacher and I will keep an open line of communication to make sure their needs are being met in both locations.
Occasionally there will be homework assigned. It honestly tends to be more with the language arts/reading groups than with the math groups. The homework mostly consists of reading assignments. It is critical to their success in the classroom to stay current on the reading assignments! If they do not complete a reading assignment, they may be sent back to class to catch up on their reading.
HIGH ABILITY LA/READING CURRICULUM
We are using the High Ability Language Arts Curriculum Project which was developed by the Indiana Department of Education. Each grade centers around an umbrella concept that fits every lesson. They are filled with many fantastic lessons that build upon each other as the year goes. Teaching under the umbrella allows students to make connections which calls on higher order thinking. We will use several of the trade and picture books suggested by the state as part of our curriculum. The gifted lessons use the same models from year to year like Paul's Reasoning Model and the Hamburger Model for persuasive writing. The added bonus is that students who continue through the grades in High Ability, will become quite efficient and familiar with the similar high ability structures while analyzing literature.
HIGH ABILITY MATH CURRICULUM
We are using the same series of math curriculum for this school year. For the younger grades, we'll be using Mentoring Young Mathematicians (M2). The upper grades will use Mentoring Mathematical Minds (M3).
It is great teaching math this way! It's not math in isolation; it's real life applicable situations. The students are asked to problem solve problems using math as a means to get there.
It was a bit of a change for the students in the past, in that they were required to write and explain their thoughts, ideas, and decisions about math. Being gifted in math is so much more than just being good with numbers. When writing and explaining their answers, it will further cement their understanding of the concept. I will support their writing efforts while in class, but writing and explaining their mathematical answers are something to work on with your child at home.
I am excited to be returning to Duneland for my third year. I was previously an instructional assistant with Michigan City Area Schools since 2011. I worked with students in grades K-6th teaching small reading groups. This school year will be my 8th year working in education.
I am a mom to two wonderful children. My daughter is officially a freshman in high school and my son is in 4th grade. We cannot forget about our family dog, Pixie, who is now 1. My daughter is a runner and loves to be on the stage - singing and acting. She is excited to be back to full strength, as she spent part of her summer healing from surgery on her shoulder. I am happy to report is now pain free! My son enjoys swimming, Star Wars and sea creatures. Bradyn got to enjoy a special trip to Florida this past summer with his mom and aunts. We even chose to road-trip it which was a family first for us!
Some things never change, as I am still a DISNEY Fanatic. When I am not running in many different directions with one of my children I enjoy being a Disney Vacation Planner in my spare time :) We were extremely busy this summer with a trip to Florida in June. Then back home where my daughter was involved in a musical that took up 9 weeks of our summer! It did not leave us with many free days because of her rehearsal schedule, but we managed to sneak in some some family fun on her off days!
Please feel free to email me at amy.losinski@duneland.k12.in.us with any questions or concerns.
Looking forward to a great year!
And we're off...
Monday, September 3rd - LABOR DAY - No School
