Progress reports are sent home every 9 weeks along with report cards. IEPS may be reviewed at any time. You may call me or any member of administration to schedule an IEP special review. Otherwise, IEPs are updated annually, one year from the date of the last Annual IEP. 

In resource, students focus on improving their reading, writing, math, executive functioning, and social competency skills.

Their is no syllabus for this class. Instead each child's program is guided by the Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This IEP describes each child's educational goals. If you need another copy of the your son's or daughter's IEP please contact me.

Course Content Overview

Reading

In reading, we use the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Intervention Program (LLI). Students read leveled texts in small guided reading groups. We also study word families and we write about the books we read. To learn more about this program, please visit the LLI website at

If you would like to read research on the efficacy of this program, it can be found at

LLI

We also use the Voyager Passport Curriculum to build reading skills. These programs carefully introduce new words to students and provide ample opportunities for students to read these new words in stories. 

In reading, we learn and practice a balance of reading strategies that assist students to identify unfamiliar words. Students are encouraged to flexibly use meaning cues, visual cues (phonics), and their understanding of language (syntax) together to assist them in figuring out new words. We will also be focusing on word families to help our students identify unknown words. Students are also encouraged to visualize, clarify, use background knowledge and make predictions as they read. Student will choose books from our classroom and school libraries to read with resource support. Often these books will be sent home to read with parents.

Finally we use the Project Read Curriculum. This curriculum focuses on using phonics to decode and spell unfamiliar words. It teaches students to take words apart through finger spelling. 

Math

In math, most students are introduced to TouchMath. This program uses touchpoints on numerals to assist students to add and subtract quickly, without needing to resort to finger counting. We also supplement the regular math curriculum through the use of manipulatives that students use which visually demonstrate math skills taught in their math class and assist students to develop number sense. Our students will also have access to the Voyager Math which also has an internet component. This program allows students to compete with 2 other students that are also on the computer at the same time when learning math facts. Links to this site can be found on my Links page.

Writing

In writing, we will be studying picture books to learn how published authors and illustrators create books. Your child will be writing his or her own picture books --- making the very same kinds of decisions that these authors and illustrators made when they created the books we studied. For example, a student may decide to show the "passage of time" in both their illustrations and by using words. They may decide to stretch out their "moment" by making several illustrations to show a sequence of events and then writing about each illustration. Students will build a comprehensive toolbox of writing and illustrating strategies. To help with spelling, students will be encouraged to look up needed words on classroom word walls or in their personal word folders. students will also be encouraged to say the word, stretch it out, listen to the sounds and then write the sounds they hear. This year, we will be writing about science topics such as weather, force and motion, electricity, and space.

Executive Functioning - Goal Setting, Planning, and Organizing

We will be learning to use our Classroom Planners to set goals, plan to reach our goals, and organizing the materials we need to accomplish our goals. Students will be decorating their planners with colorful aspirational, celebratory, and To-Do stickers to track their progress from goal setting to goal completion. Please visit local craft stores and send stickers, washi tape, colored makers, and other fun and special planner crafts for your child to use to decorate their planner. Place them in a zipped pencil box that your son or daughter can keep in our classroom.

Emotional Regulation - Getting to Calm!

Many children feel anxious when they experience difficulty with classroom assignments. We will also be working emotional regulation in the resource room by teaching strategies to "Get to Calm." These strategies will include listening to calming music, watching short calming videos, identifying, imaginating, and drawing themselves in calming places, taking brain-breaks through art, imagination, and construction/building activities, asking for breaks and what is needed to feel and "Get to Calm," and seeking support and problem solving ideas from others.

Social Competence - Working and Playing in a Group

Social Emotional Learning is the process though which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage their emotions, set goals and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. I use the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) integrated framework to promote intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competence of resource students across school settings. These compencies include Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making. (Please visit the CASEL website to learn more about social emotional learning.)

Using the principles of Social Thinking and a variety of Social Thinking! Curricula by Michelle Winner, our students use their eyes, ears, brain, heart, and whole body to identify expected and unexpected behaviors for working and playing in a group. Students learn to identify "What is the "Group Plan?" in a variety of school and play settings. Students then practice in a variety of Social Competence Skills which are embedded and taught within a natural and authentic context of Working and Playing in a Group. These skills are practiced in all learning activities and include the following:

Keep your Body, Brain, and Heart in the Group (Attention and Focus)

Be Happy and Proud of your Work (Growth Mindset)

Getting to Calm (Emotional Regulation)

Matching Emotions to the Size of the Problem (Emotional Regulation)

Beautiful Hands Working Together (Collaborative Play)

Making Invitations to Play with a Friend, Developing a Play Plan, Sticking with the Plan, Leading and Helping Roles, Sharing Resources, Staying in a Play Group, Working out Difficulties, Leaving a Play Group when its No Longer Fun, Reflecting on What was Fun (Collaborative Play).

Thinking of You, Thinking of Me! (Perspective-Taking)

(Check out the Think Social! Website for many helpful articles about building Social Competence!)

Contact Information:

Please call or email me if you need any information or have any questions.

My phone number is 476 - 4100. My email address is smray@lexrich5.org

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Last updated April 19, 2018