Category: Elementary Action Required

In order to align calendars at all levels and provide clarity and consistency for families and employees, elementary schools will be adjusting from a trimester to a quarter calendar. Parent teacher conferences will continue to be held twice a year at approximately the end of first and third quarters. An updated 2021-22 calendar is available on the Planning & Enrollment Calendars page.

In the past, report cards have been shared with parents/guardians at parent teacher conferences and at the end of the year as a final representation of a students’ grade for a class. This process will be slightly different this year because of the change from trimester to quarters. As the calendar indicates, parent teacher conferences do not directly align with the end of the quarter. With these changes, teachers will use the progress report to document and provide feedback about what each student is learning and the progress the student is making at the time of the parent teacher conference. Finalized progress reports will be made available to parents through Skyward at the conclusion of each quarter.

Reporting periods.

Progress reports have not changed from last year. We want to acknowledge the standards-based grading work that you have been doing with your teachers. We know your efforts to intentionally identify power standards and create explicit proficiency scales will help students learn and reach their highest potential. We will continue standards-based work throughout the year and hope to let the process prepare us for the implementation of new standards-based report cards in the coming year.

DATE: 
August 12, 2021

TO:  
All Elementary Principals

FROM:  
Administrators of Schools
Shelley Nordick, PhD, Administrator, Curriculum/Staff Development
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services/Fine Arts Consultant

SUBJECT: 
Utah Symphony Performance at Abravanel Hall for 5th Grade Students

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Once again. we are pleased to announce Utah Symphony concerts for your 5^th grade students at Abravanel Hall. The performance dates for 5^th grade at Abravanel Hall are February 8 and 9, 2022 at 10:00 and 11:30 a.m. Your school’s date and time will soon be provided on a separate schedule. Please note that there are no assigned seats. Schools will be seated upon arrival.

Study materials for use in preparing your students will be provided by the Utah Symphony in the weeks prior to the performance.

Your secretary will need to complete a transportation request on Skyward (your school's date and time shown on spreadsheet). The number of teachers should be included in your school’s final count. When entering your busing request, please include the correct group name (e.g. Daybreak, 115 Curr). This will ensure that the Curriculum Department will cover the busing fee.

Transportation requests should be completed as soon as possible. Due to the number of buses that need to be used for the Symphony concerts, there will be a moratorium on any other transportation requests for these dates.

DATE:       
August 20, 2021

TO: 
Elementary Principals

FROM:  
Shelley Nordick, PhD, Administrator, Teaching and Learning
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services/Fine Arts Consultant

SUBJECT: 
JSD-Arts Representatives for 2021-22

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This year we will continue to have two District Arts Representatives (DARTS) represent your school throughout the 2021-22 school year. We have appreciated the work of past DARTS representatives and how they have helped strengthen arts instruction in your schools. Meaningful progress toward a greater level of arts integration has been made, and we wish this to continue.

DARTS meetings will be held on the following dates: September 15, October 27, December 1, January 26, February 16, March 16, and April 27. The meetings will be held at the Auxiliary Services Building Auditorium from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Please assign two teachers to serve as your school’s DARTS representatives by either selecting a grade-level team, or two teachers from different grade levels. The DARTS representatives will meet once a month for two hours to learn and collaborate.  Teachers will be paid at the inservice rate and will earn relicensure points (Note: In addition to the two regular classroom teachers, your school's BTS arts educator will also be attending the DARTS sessions).

Please email the names of your choices for the JSD DARTS Team for the 2021-22 school year to linda.gold@jordandistrict.org as soon as possible.

DATE:       
August 12, 2021

TO:  
All Elementary Principals

FROM:   
Administrators of Schools
Shelley Nordick, Phd, Administrator, Teaching and Learning Department
Norman Emerson, Instructional Support Services/Fine Arts Consultant

SUBJECT:   
Utah Symphony Performance at Herriman High for 4^th Grade Students

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Once again, we are pleased to announce Utah Symphony concerts for your 4^th grade students at Herriman High. The performance dates for 4^th grade at Herriman High are November 22 and 23 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. Your school’s date and time will be provided on a separate schedule in the near future. Please note that there are no assigned seats. Schools will be seated upon arrival.

Study materials for use in preparing your students will be provided by the Utah Symphony in the weeks prior to the performance.

Your secretary will need to complete a transportation request on Skyward (your school's date and time shown on spreadsheet). The number of teachers should be included in your school’s final count. When entering your busing request, please include the correct group name (e.g. Daybreak, 115 Curr). This will ensure that the Curriculum Department will cover the busing fee.

Transportation requests should be completed as soon as possible. Due to the number of buses that need to be used for the Symphony concerts, there will be a moratorium on any other transportation requests for these dates.

Join Michelle and Mandy on Thursdays for a Literacy Launch Q & A. Michelle and Mandy will be available through ZOOM from 3:30 - 4:30 to answer your questions, help solve your challenges, and celebrate your successes.

• When: Thursdays, August 26, September 2, September 9, September 16, September 23, and September 30
• Time: 3:30 - 4:30

Where: ZOOM -- https://us05web.zoom.us/j/89344764673?pwd=SVkraGxvQzB2OXRSRG5PS1p3M2NZUT09

Please join the Nearpod activity at https://share.nearpod.com/bT8Go1P8Bib

Access the schedule and the ZOOM link from the Canvas Elementary JELL Course

https://jordanpd.instructure.com/enroll/DRNC6Y

(If you are new to the course, it will direct you to self-enroll.)

Schedule:

8:30     Superintendent’s Welcome Message
9:00     Cultural Diversity Video & Discussion

9:30  - - BREAK - -

9:45     How Does It All Fit Together, Part 1

• This session will review the journey we have been on as a district over the past year and help teachers understand how the new literacy implementation fits into that work.
• This session will include multiple opportunities for collaboration and school discussions. Principals should plan to be actively participating throughout the session.
• Some of the topics of this session include:
  • The JELL Instructional Cycle
  • Review Core Standards
  • Identify/Review Power Standards
  • Using Data To Drive instruction
  • Creating Learning Scales
  • Literacy Launch

11:30 - - LUNCH - -

12:30     How Does It All Fit Together, Part 2

• During this session, schools will map out the vision for your successful implementation of the new literacy tools. Using a familiar process, your faculty will create a framework that will help you set measurable goals throughout the year.
• Some of the topics of this session include:
  • The JELL Instructional Cycle
  • Creating Learning Scales
  • Literacy Launch

1:30     Planning for Success

Schools can choose one of the following options:

• OPTION 1
  • Schools continue together in a live session. This session will review the power of planning for success, teach the “What” and “Why” of a 60 day plan, and guide your faculty through the creation of your first plan of the year.
  • This is a great option for schools who feel their faculty can benefit from a strong discussion about setting goals with actionable steps, as well as any schools who may have struggled to stick to their plans last year.
  • Principals will share their school’s new 60 Day Plan with their AOS and save it in their school’s folder.
• OPTION 2
  • Principals can use this time to direct their faculty in a discussion about their past plans and create their first plan for the new school year.
  • This is a great option for schools who have a clear plan already in place and could use this time to engage their faculty in discussions that are more specific to their goals.
  • Principals will share their school’s new 60 Day Plan with their AOS and save it in their school’s folder.
  • Please note that this is not an opportunity for schools to finish early.

**Principals should pay close attention to the conversations and discussions throughout the day in order to create a plan that addresses the needs of your school. Your goal is to clearly identify where your school is at in the process and then guide your faculty to create a time bound plan with incremental action steps that will move you closer to where you want to be.

Principal TO DO List:

“Selecting Power Standards” Spreadsheet

• Make sure you know where your school’s copy of the “Selecting Power Standards” Spreadsheet is located in your Google Drive. (You may need to share this with teachers who are new to your school.)
• Click HERE
• (Links to an external site.)
• if you need a blank copy to remind you which form this is.
• Please share your Power Standards with T&L (Ronna Hoffman).

60 Day Plans

• Review your past 60 day plans prior to the PD Day. This will prepare you to celebrate the achievements your faculty made last year, and help you get ready to create your first 60 day plan this year.
• Plans should be shared with your AOS and saved to your school’s planning folder.
• Click HERE
• (Links to an external site.)
• if you need a blank copy to remind you which form this is.

JELL Meetings -- Details coming

• October 7; October 12
• January 17
• February 10
• March 1
• April 5; April 12

DATE:     
Thursday, August 5, 2021

TO:  
Elementary School Administrators

FROM:     
Shelley Nordick, Ph.D., Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:
Acadience Reading Grades 4-6 Testing Materials

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For the 2021-22 school year and beyond, the state Legislature will be funding Amplify licenses for students in grades 4-6, thus making it possible for all grades 4-6 students to participate in Acadience Reading benchmark testing and progress monitoring. USBE will be rostering students to mClass and Information Systems will be rostering teachers. This process will be completed by soon and teachers will receive their mClass accounts. As part of the Literacy Launch, participating 4-6^th grade teachers were trained on the administration procedures for Acadience Reading benchmarks. Those teachers who did not participate in the summer training will need to wait to administer the benchmarks to their students until they have been trained later this fall as part of the Literacy Launch.

Attached with this memo are the test administration materials listed below. School administrators are asked to pass the information from this memo and the attached materials onto their grades 4-6 teachers.

Grades 4-6 Acadience Reading Test Administration Materials:

• Student benchmark materials (stories for all three benchmark periods)
• Student progress monitoring materials
• Instructions for administering the Daze

For any questions about testing procedures, please contact Ben Jameson or Shannon Johnson in Evaluation, Research & Accountability.

DATE:  
Thursday, August 5, 2021

TO:    
Elementary School Administrators
Elementary Administrative Assistants

FROM:  
Shelley Nordick, Ph.D., Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT: 
Fall 2021 Acadience Reading and Math Testing

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Principals should have received their schedule for when district assessment assistants will be in schools to administer the state-mandated K-3 Acadience Reading and Math Benchmarks. For questions about scheduling, please contact Shannon Johnson at 801-567-8873 or shannon.johnson@jordandistrict.org.

There will be 9-10 assessment assistants during your assigned testing time along with your school’s instructional coach, which means that we will need space for 10-11 testing stations. To minimize distractions and the chance that students will overhear answers to test prompts, we are requesting a larger space to accommodate our testers. The school media center is preferred. If this is not possible, two classrooms in close proximity may be an option. The assessment assistants will need a larger table space than a student desk as they will be using an electronic device to administer Acadience Reading benchmarks and will also have additional materials to administer the Acadience Math benchmarks via paper/pencil.

Acadience Math:
For the first time, the state is also requiring that the Acadience Math benchmarks be administered in grades K-3. Kindergarten and first grade students will participate in one-on-one individual measures with the assessment assistants at the same time they complete the Acadience Reading benchmarks. In addition, there are whole class measures in grades 1-3 that classroom teachers will proctor. Here is what is expected of grades 1-3 teachers for Acadience Math benchmark administration:

• Evaluation, Research & Accountability will send master copies of the quizzes to schools.
• Each teacher will need to make copies of their quiz(zes):
  • First Grade: Computation only
  • Second and Third Grade: Computation as well as Concepts & Applications
  • Each teacher will need to attach a label with each student’s information (provided by Evaluation, Research & Accountability) to each quiz.
  • Teachers can administer both quizzes consecutively on the same day or at separate times.
  • Teachers will follow the instructions provided, proctor the quizzes and then collect them when the allotted time has expired.
  • All quizzes need to be completed prior to the date on which the assessment assistants are coming to your school. Completed quizzes will be given to assessment assistants on this day.
  • Evaluation, Research & Accountability will grade quizzes and then manually enter the data into Acadience Data Management (ADM). Teachers will only proctor the quizzes.
• Because all Acadience Math measures are administered via paper/pencil and then manually entered into ADM, test results will not be immediately available. For at least BOY 2021, test results will be available by October 30^th.

Please contact Ben Jameson or Shannon Johnson in Evaluation, Research & Accountability with any questions or concerns. We look forward to working with you on a smooth Acadience Reading and Math test administration.