Brittany BeaumontInstructional Strategies

Teacher KeysPerformance Standard 3

Flexible GroupingBrittany conducts small group instruction in each subject area every day. These groups are formed based on student needs. Ongoing formal and informal assessment provides Brittany with insightto the strengths, weaknesses, and learning modalities of each student. This information is used to make decisions about how best to group students, what skills will be targeted, and what instructional strategies will be most effective. Group composition changes on a weekly basis and from subject to subject.

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Brittany provides opportunities for enrichment to all students multiple times throughout each week. She integrates activities and resources into her instruction that encourage students to stretch their thinking about the Common Core Standards and apply higher level thinking skills. All students participate in this challenging learning, regardless of their skill level. In this way, both high and low performing students have opportunities tomaximize their learning.

Enrichment for All

Students engage witha rigorous text andrespond to text-based

questions.

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Students solving math“brain teaser” problems

Students using deductivereasoning skills

Standards DisplayBrittany has created a set of posters that display each of the Common Core standards and the related essential questions and enduring understandings. Posting these helps to focus instruction, and they are referred to throughout each lesson. These are used by all of the 1st grade teachers at SPARK as well as teachers at 7 other APS schools whose teachers Brittany has worked with to model standards-based planning and instruction.

Posters

STEM InstructionAs planning for the 2013/14 school year got under way, Brittany proposed to her 1st grade team that they plan for monthly STEM instruction. Her teammates were quick to get on board with the idea, and Brittany led the way for planning activities and collecting needed materials. 1st grade students love our STEM weeks and have been applying cross-curricular knowledge to real world scenarios.

Check out ourSTEM projects!

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Intervention StrategiesBrittany applies intervention strategies that target the needs of struggling learners in all subject areas. She meets with students in small groups or 1-on-1 on a daily basis to apply interventions with fidelity. Data is collected on the effectiveness of these intervention strategies. This data is used to measure student growth, make changes to the intervention plan as appropriate, and/or adjust learning goals.

A student with that hasdifficulty organizing their writing

uses a graphic organizer to plan their

reading response

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A student works on a Words Their Way activity. Assessment data showed that this particular student was having difficulty with phonics skills such as identifying onsets and rimes, and phoneme segmentation and blending. Analyzing the data led to Words Their Way being selected as an appropriate intervention for the student. Followup formative assessments have shown that the student has made great improvements with the program.

A student that has demonstrated difficulty with segmenting and blending phonemes uses sound boxes to develop their phonemic awareness skills.

Anchor ChartsBrittany displays anchor charts throughout her classroom to showcase learning in all subject areas. These anchor charts are often created with the students and serve as important instructional aids that are frequently referenced by students.

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Book RoomBrittany has been responsible for creating and maintaining SPARK’s Common Core book room. The collection features leveled texts for each grade level to incorporate literacy standards into instruction across the curriculum. Brittany was responsible for setting up the physical space, working with each grade team to select texts, ordering and communicating with the vendor, working with the PTO to designate and raise funds, and spending time each week to maintain the organization and accessibility of the collection for all SPARK teachers.

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Brittany maintains content specific word walls that display current vocabulary. These word walls include terms, definitions, and key pictures. Word walls aid students in developing their schema of new content, making connections to previously learned concepts, and encouraging students to utilize academic language.

Word Walls

Timely Intervention and EnrichmentBrittany frequently uses a grid like the one on the next page during instruction. Each students’ name is in a box. While teaching, Ms. Beaumont can make quick notes about students responses or performance on tasks. Collecting this informal data on the spot allows her to make immediate decisions about student grouping and assignments for independent work sections of that day’s lesson. This also allows for immediate interventions to occur when needed.

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Written feedback is provided on students’ in-progress work. This graphic organizer was completed in the previous day’s lesson and was used to determine what concepts to emphasize in the follow-up lesson and the level of support and/or challenge activities that would be accommodated for.

Feedback

Feedback

Brittany engages students in conferences to discuss their growth and develop a plan to maximize learning. Providing detailed feedback is an instructional strategy that helps students to increase learning.

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Math Talk✤Students verbalizing their mathematical reasoning✤Students use mathematical vocabulary✤Students propose multiple solutions or ways of solving a problem✤Students analyze and critique the solutions and shared thought processes of their peers 

Brittany created these card rings for students to support math talk strategies. She makes these cards available to all teachers for free on her blog.

Brittany leads students in math talk activities throughout the week. This involves...

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✤Students engage in math talk activities throughout the week.✤Brittany models math talk strategies and provides students with feedback about their math talk usage.

Brittany frequently refers to the math talk sentence talkers on this poster displayed in her classroom. These sentence starters help to support young learners as they engage in math talk.

Math CentersStudents participate in math centers 4-5 times a week. Throughout the week, students rotate to different center stations. Each station offers 3-4 activities that let them practice skills that are currently being taught, as well as reinforce previously learned concepts. While students are working independently or in small groups at each center station, Brittany pulls individuals or small groups for differentiated math instruction (below, on, and beyond)

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Literacy CentersStudents participate in literacy centers every day. Throughout the week, students rotate to 10 different centers. Each center is meant to reinforce reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. While students are working independently or in small groups at each center, Brittany pulls small groups for differentiated reading instruction.

Word WorkCenter-

practicingsight words

Art & LiteracyCenter- retellingstories with

handmade puppets

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Poetry Center - Looking forsound and spelling patterns

Writing Center- Planningnarratives with a graphic organizer

Nonfiction News Center-Reading articles andanswering text-based

questions

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Shared reading withBIG books

Guided ReadingBrittany conducts 3-4 guided reading groups each day. These differentiated groups provide students the chance to engage in reading instruction that targets their individual needs. Brittany typically utilizes leveled books from SPARK’s Common Core book room.

Daily AnalogiesBrittany has created a set of posters that display analogies. A new poster is shared with students each day. Students work to identify the missing element, then provide a rationale/support for their response. This daily higher-level thinking practice helps students to build important analogical skills.

Math Problem SolvingBrittany integrates problem solving into her math curriculum throughout the week. Students learn how to identify key information in a problem, determine unknowns, select strategies, and justify their work.

Daily FiveBrittany incorporates elements of Daily Five into her literacy instruction every day.

✤Read to self✤Read to others✤Listen to reading✤Work on writing✤Word Work

Literacy PacksBrittany created take-home literacy packs for her class. Every student takes home a new pack each week. The packs contain two children’s texts (typically one fiction selection and one informational selection) and follow-up activities for families to complete together. These packs are optional enrichment that are meant to foster families’ interaction with reading and writing at

home. Students and parents love bringing home new packs each week!

Writers WorkshopBrittany engages her students in Writer’s Workshop sessions throughout the week. Students work through the writing process - drafting, revising, editing, publishing - receiving feedback and relevant support at each stage. This instructional practice leads to students becoming driven writers who are trained to attend to the quality of their writing.

Excited toshare publishedwork

Lesson onediting

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DigitalPublishing

SharedWriting

Reading a classpublished book

Teacher Leadership✤Brittany serves on Spark’s SILT team. The team works together to identify and support the use of instructional strategies that will help our school to achieve goals laid out in the Continuous Improvement Plan.

✤Brittany has been involved in leading district-wide instructional strategy training sessions. Most recently, she led a session in August 2013 for kindergarten teachers on the topic of integrating Common Core literacy instruction with

Georgia Performance Standards for Social Studies.

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✤Providing modeling and mentorship for teachers that are new to APS.(Brittany meets with these teachers to determine their needs, then models appropriate strategies and shares relevant resources. The mentoring relationship is continued through debriefing sessions, follow-up email correspondences, and future site visits.

GratefulMentees

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✤Brittany creates instructional materials that are shared with other teachers across the world. She maintains a blog (http://www.peachy-teaching.com) that she uses as a platform to share instructional strategies, lessonideas and resources with other teachers, and many of the materials that she creates are available for free on her Teachers Pay Teachers website (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Brittany-Beaumont)