Teaching Partnerships That Are Out of This World

Rhonda King working with a student on
http://www.galacticphonics.com/cvc/interactive/cvcspell/cvcspell.htm 

Meet Rhonda King, first grade teacher at Westfield Elementary and model teacher.  Rhonda is one of twenty model teachers in the district this year.  Model teachers have an open door policy and allow teachers and teacher leaders from across the district to meet with them, observe their teaching, and discuss how that instruction may apply to his or her classroom.

Today I had the pleasure of visiting with Rhonda and observing her classroom.  Her most recent student success is due to a teaching partnership with her first grade team of teachers; Kari Hollinrake, and Jena Conway, Kelly Kretschmar, the Instructional Strategist, and Deb Wegmann, the media specialist.  Rhonda King, and her team of first grade teachers at Westfield Elementary wanted to capitalize on the Journeys curriculum and expand it during their intervention block.  They were looking for something, but needed someone to help them find the light at the end of the tunnel!

Kelly Kretschmar, an instructional strategist met with the first grade team, and their building principal to have a planning conversation about what was happening in first grade classrooms during intervention block.  Kelly discovered the first grade team was noticing that their students were lacking in consonant/vowel/consonant work.  They were searching for more resources for practice and assessment.  Kelly asked a series of questions that helped her select resources to share with this team of teachers.

After some research, Kelly found Galacticphonics.com, a relatively new site to help students work on phonics, sight words, and spelling.  She followed up with the first grade team at their weekly meeting and shared the specifics. Rhonda and the other first grade teachers utilized resources and games and activities that had been organized by the Instructional Strategist.

A few of the materials from the site, organized by the instructional strategist.

"Without, the help of an instructional strategist, we never would have found time to research these resources, nor create them to use with students," stated Rhonda.  Rhonda uses the website to help reinforce the phonics skills that are embedded in the Journeys curriculum.  She uses it whole group to play some games with students, as well as for small group instruction during reading groups.  She also uses it one on one to assess students' understanding of consonants, vowels, and blends.  This website is a great way for students to work on high frequency word lists, as well.  Rhonda has found the information to be two-fold.  She can easily see what students have sounds, and which students can then transfer those sounds into spelling and reading.  She explains it beautifully in the following video.

A final thread in this partnership, was the first grade team sharing the website with the building media specialist who has added the link to the building library website.  Now teachers, parents and students can access this tool at school and home.

When I think about the impact of this one planning meeting, it is prodigious.  An activity that started out to impact 25-75 students has now ricocheted into a possibility for a school of 500 and now all seven elementary buildings in our district can utilize these on-line resources.  That is potential impact of 3,500.  As I reflect upon the instruction, learning, and assessing I observed this morning, I am reminded of the focus of teacher leadership:  adult learning and collaboration to improve teaching and influence student performance.

I want to give an huge shout out to Westfield Elementary for collaborating with classroom teachers, their building media specialist, and their instructional strategist to influence what happens in their classrooms.  You truly are OUT OF THIS WORLD!

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For more information visit these links:

http://www.galacticphonics.com/cvc/cvcwords.htm

http://www.galacticphonics.com/cvc/interactive/cvcspell/cvcspell.htm

http://bogglesworldesl.com/phonics/cvc_wordcards.htm

http://bogglesworldesl.com/CVCwords.htm

CVC Activity Maps – the Maps have various themes https://www.havefunteaching.com/activities/phonics-activities/cvc-activities

CVC Stamping Center (Freebie at Teachers Pay Teachers) http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/CVC-Words-Stamping-Center-271785

CVC Puzzles (Freebie at Teachers Pay Teachers) http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/CVC-Word-Puzzles-Freebie-