Brummitt's High Ability Blog

Welcome to Brummitt  High Ability 2017-2018! I am excited to meet all of my new students! As we get started, there are a few things that you should know.

 

Schedules and Possible Homework

 

Our blog is where you can go weekly to get a peek into our classroom.  You'll read about all that's going on in our world and it'll help you bridge our two worlds together.  I've heard from parents that they often use it to prompt their child into opening up about their week.  I also do my best to rotate through pictures of the students "in action" in the classroom.  How fun to see them in their learning environment!

Occasionally there will be homework assigned.  It honestly tends to be more with the language arts/reading groups than with the math groups.  There will be reading homework in second and fourth grade for sure!  Our third grade unit will possibly be new, so I'm waiting to see what it has in store.  It is critical to their success in the classroom to stay up on the reading assignments!  I strive to put first things first and have our blog up and posted no later than Friday and often times get it up by Thursday.  I'll inform you through an email to let you know when it's up!  You can access the blog from a link at the bottom of my emails OR through Brummitt’s  homepage under classrooms.

Our weekly schedule will be Monday/Tuesday for Reading/Language Arts and Wednesday/Thursday are for math.  If your child qualified for both, then I will see them all four days!  I do not see students on Fridays due to the fact that I meet with the other HA Instructors from our four elementary schools.  We go over lesson plans for the upcoming week.

High ability will meet twice a week during each grades' differentiated instruction time.  It's a half hour set aside at Brummitt per grade level for all students to receive more intensified instruction to meet their needs.  Although I keep an open line of communication between the classroom teachers, our curriculum will often be very different than what is going on in the classroom.  We teach from a separate curriculum that is geared towards the needs of gifted students.

                                                

High Ability LA/Reading Curriculum

We are using the High Ability Language Arts Curriculum Project which was developed by the Indiana Department of Education.  Each grade centers around an umbrella concept that fits every lesson.  They are filled with many fantastic lessons that build upon each other as the year goes.  Teaching under the umbrella allows students to make connections which calls on higher order thinking.  We will use several of the trade and picture books suggested by the state as part of our curriculum.  The gifted lessons use the same models from year to year like Paul's Reasoning Model and the Hamburger Model for persuasive writing.  The added bonus is that students who continue through the grades in High Ability, will become quite efficient and familiar with the similar high ability structures while analyzing literature.

 

                                                              

 

 

High Ability Math Curriculum

For math, we have purchased additional high ability math units to use with each grade.  I'm sure many are looking forward to the giant Yeti or the egg crash test that they've heard about from previous students, but the units are different this year.  We are using the same series, just teaching a different unit.  For the younger grades, we'll be using Mentoring Young Mathematicians (M2).  The upper grades will use Mentoring Mathematical Minds (M3). 

I just love teaching math this way!  It's not math in isolation; it's real life applicable situations.  The students are asked to problem solve problems using math as a means to get there.   

The start date for High Ability at Brummitt will be Tuesday, September 5^th. The Schedule for students will be:

First Grade:8:00-8:30 LA Mon/Tues  Math Wed/Thurs.

Second Grade:11:00-11:30 LA Mon/Tues  Math Wed/Thurs.

Third Grade: 1:10-1:40  LA Mon/Tues. Math Wed/Thurs.

Fourth Grade:10:00-10:30 LA Mon/Tues.  Math  Wed/Thurs 11:30-12:00.

 

 

 

                                                    

A Little About Me

My name is Delinda Pierce. I graduated from Ball State University in 1995 with a degree in Elementary Education.. I have 15 years of  experience working with children from Pre-k through middle school.  I am married to my High School sweetheart , Ed and we have three kids. (Jacob, Abby and Zion).

We have two cats named Darla and Smokey We moved to Portage in 2013 after living in Green Bay, Wisconsin for 7 years. I love reading and learning, camping and hanging out with my family, travelling, and cooking. I  of the have been to 40 of the 50 beautiful states, including Alaska. I love watching football and my favorite team is the Green Bay Packers. Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.  I am  looking forward to an AWESOME year!