Mon Apr 9 2012, 6:00pm
District Meeting Room
Regular Meeting

REPORTS TO THE BOARD

WIS Report

Woodland Intermediate School
Monthly Update
March, 2012

Throughout the month of March professional development opportunities at Woodland Intermediate continued under the direction and focus of our Schoolwide Plan. Monday morning activities included the revision of weekly reading assessments to better align with state standards, and MSP testing materials. Staff also spent time analyzing practice MSP reading and math assessments, identifying trends and developing plans for addressing the trends between now and the end of the year.

On March 12th WIS hosted the 4th annual Book Exchange. This activity included information for parents pertaining to reading and math programs at WIS as well as how parents could support reading and math instruction from home. Our total attendance for the evening was 206 participants. This included 78 students. The 78 students exchanged a total of 651 books. Burgerville donated ice-cream for the event. Everyone had a great time, parents learned about our programs and students went home with new reading materials. 

We are continuing to prepare for MSP testing. We are in our second year of implementing online testing at WIS. This year our 5th grade students will join our 6th grade students in testing online. Our 5th and 6th grade students have spent several hours learning about and becoming familiar with online MSP testing. We are working to be as proactive as possible as we work to prepare our 5th and 6th grade students for the transition from paper/pencil to online testing. Communicating with parents is also an important aspect of this process. The parents of 5th and 6th grade students have been provided web site links and other valuable information so they can practice and become familiar with online testing with their children from home. This year WIS will administer exactly 1,400 tests to our 463 students.

The transition from 6th to 7th grade is one of the most challenging transitions our students will make. Going from a self-contained classroom in an elementary setting to having 6 teachers, many transitions and lockers is a significant challenge. March is the month when we start partnering with WMS to prepare for this transition. Student forecasting, parent night and visits from WMS leadership students all play a part in this transition.