Summer is almost here...

As the school year comes to a close, our minds and hearts are filled to the brim. It’s been a great year! What a school! Together we’ve learned much and shared experiences that will long remain with us in the years to come. The strength of our community and wholehearted passion to make our school a wonderful place of learning for our children primarily but for all of us makes Defer truly a special place.

Special thanks to all of you who have contributed in ways small, large and unimaginable! Copying for Thursday Folders, working in the clinic or the lunchroom, driving on field trips, helping with school pictures, providing food and/or organizing lunches for students and teachers, organizing events, working at these events, showing up to support your children, helping in the garden, serving on committees, sharing your talents, helping with traffic, picking up trash, participating in PTO night meetings, brainstorming the “what ifs”… supporting our work in countless ways and providing the resources to do what we dream and know is good for children. Thanks for getting your kids to school on time each day, for kind notes of encouragement that mean so much, for sending your kids with healthy lunches obviously packed with love, for making sure homework gets done… and turned in. Thank you for providing rich and engaging, well-rounded experiences for your children and knowing that education is about joy, wonder and fostering curiosity, along with the development of social skills so needed to succeed. For these, and a million other things, we are truly grateful.

To those of you who are leaving us for new places and adventures, we wish you all the best. Congratulations to our very capable 5th graders who are onto a new stage in their academic career! You are off to great places!

For your calendaring pleasure, the first day of school begins on September 6^th. Back-to-School Night is September 7^th at 6:30 pm.

Until then, enjoy a restful and replenishing summer with your families!

March is Reading Month

I can’t believe it’s already March!   The month of March is known as  the “reading month.”  This is a great time for you to grab your favorite book and dive right in!  Defer’s amazing teachers celebrate reading every day.  I’d like to focus this month’s newsletter on reading instruction and how we differentiate that instruction to meet the needs of all learners at Defer.

In Grosse Pointe, we teach reading through a Readers’ Workshop model.  A typical readers’ workshop lesson is composed of three elements.

Whole class mini-lesson focused on a specific reading strategy or skill :  10- 15 minutes

Class begins with the teacher presenting a reading concept that the students will be focusing on that day.  The teacher presents the concept to the whole group usually using one book as the “mentor text” to serve as the learning vehicle.   The teacher will model the concept in the mentor text and through questioning techniques involves all students in the thinking process around this concept. 

 Independent Daily Reading:  20 – 40 minutes ( varies by grade level)

Students read independently at their own specific level.  With their own book they work on the strategy or concept taught in the mini-lesson.  During this time the teacher circulates in the room, conferring with individual students as they read. 

 Guided Reading/Strategy Groups:  10 – 15 minutes

These groups are composed of 3 -5 students that are gathered to work on a specific skill or strategy.  These students are grouped by similar reading levels so that they can practice the concept with peers at that same  level.  In this case the teacher will have multiple copies of the same book or article so that they can work with all students together.

Last year the Defer PTO supported this instruction by purchasing books for each grade.  Teachers now have a much greater selection of mentor texts as well as multiple copies of books for group work.  The impact has been huge as this has opened more avenues to differentiate instruction for our students.   Thank you Defer families!