Intermediate

Classroom Teachers
Guy Sallade 267.4114
John Foy 472.3138

Pod Parents
Jennifer Tuttle  472.1271 (Tri-1)
Lana Ramsey 333.4598 (Tri-2)
Sally Mosier 235.6173 (Tri-3)

Classroom Information
Assessment Rubric
Classroom Schedule

Project Information
Project Topic Brainstorming
Project Topic Directions
Project Fridge Reminder
Developing Questions
Finding Resources & Answering Questions
Graphic Organizer
5 Step Editing

Pod Mission
Our mission is to be creative lifelong learners with global responsibilities.

School Improvement Goals

• Goal 1 – All students will read at or above grade level.
• Goal 2 – All students will write at or above grade level.

Class Expectations
We agree to support one another toward becoming creative lifelong learners through the understanding and modeling of our school-wide traits to live by. These traits include being…

Caring | Responsible | Honest | Open-Minded | Reflective
Cooperative | Risk-takers | Curious | Respectful | Independent

Special Schedule
Monday – Music
Tuesday – PE
Wednesday – Library and Music
Thursday – Art and PE

School Theme: The exploration of history from the Dark Ages through the Renaissance.

Reading: Students in the Intermediate Pod are expected to participate in Independent Reading, Conference Reading, Reading Groups and Read Naturally. During Independent and Conference Reading, students have an opportunity to practice reading independently, choosing appropriate material at their reading level, and monitoring their own progress by completing a Reading Log. Teachers will review strategies and provide personalized lessons based on students’ academic needs while working with individual students. In Reading Groups, students concentrate on learning a variety of different skills. We practice reading strategies, fluency, inflection, and comprehension. We make predictions about what we think may happen next. We make connections between different books, between books and real life, and between books and what is happening in the world around us. While working on Read Naturally, the students are presented with at-level reading material on-line that focuses on modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring to help maximize reading proficiency.

Writing: Students in the Intermediate Pod write daily. We write about our experiences in our “Weekend News” journals, communicate in support of each other through our “Letters to Spotlight” and often we write reflections in order to fully understand our learning. Writing is challenging at any age. At this age, students are expected to be able to write complete sentences while applying basic mechanics (capitalize beginning of sentences and proper nouns, use punctuation correctly, use correct grammar), and express an idea or thought. Students are then eventually expected to write multiple sentences on one topic in paragraph form.

Spelling: The spelling program, Words Their Way, is used at WLC. Students are assessed and placed in spelling groups where they work at their own developmental level. Students work with a group of words before taking a pre-test. Only words that are missed on the pre-test will be on their test. This allows students to work only on words that they do not know and to avoid wasting valuable time on words they already know. Students are expected to master all words on their lists. If students miss any words on the test, the words will be on their next list in order to avoid gaps in their spelling knowledge.

Math: Students in the Intermediate Pod participate in the Investigations program. This is a hands-on problem-solving curriculum that is designed to help all children understand fundamental ideas of number and operations, geometry, data, measurement and early algebra. WLC has made the decision to split students into grade levels for Investigations instruction in order to ensure they are working on skills that are developmentally appropriate. Students also participate in math focus groups. These groups are created by skill groups and not by ability. Students work on skills such as numbers and operations, geometry, measurement, patterns, and graphing in focus groups and Investigations.

Projects: Projects are an integral part of the WLC program. From the beginning, WLC has placed great value in project-based learning. Projects integrate all areas of education to allow students to work on reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills while at the same time learning core science and social studies ideas. Students also have the chance to become the teacher and share their learned knowledge with their peers. While parents and teachers alike know that projects are time intensive, the independence that children gain, the connections made between school and home, and the wealth of information learned make these projects well worth the time and effort.