Kindergarteners prepare for precipitation. Third graders ponder penguins molting and elephant matriarchs. Fifth graders consider the concept of entitled in relation to the First Amendment. No longer just an emphasis in English language arts, vocabulary is front and center in all grades and subject areas at Katonah-Lewisboro’s elementary schools.
Katonah Elementary had the opportunity to share their work with other educators by hosting the Teachers College Advancing Literacy’s tour on May 13. Participants included educators from Advancing Literacy and its partner districts Clarkstown, Pelham and Rye, and Katonah-Lewisboro Schools’ two elementary ELA Curriculum Leaders Jackie Kovatch and Connie Merrit.
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Julia Drake highlighted the sharpened and streamlined vocabulary instructional practices across the District’s three elementary schools, which included aligning all Advancing Literacy’s professional development sessions with this work.
“The emphasis on intentional and explicit vocabulary instruction along with rich language environments is a research-aligned shift,” said Dr. Drake.
The visiting teachers popped into six classrooms; each group had their own route through the school. It was like a scavenger hunt for vocabulary instruction across grades and disciplines.
They listened to a social studies lesson in Geneve Patterson’s fifth grade class, where students were engaged in a conversation about the meaning of the word “entitle” and its connection to the First Amendment. They took photos of Sharon Paige’s fourth graders making words by moving prefixes and suffixes on pieces of paper with the base “struct.” Construct. Destruct. Instructor.
As Patricia Patwell’s third graders sorted words about animals into categories, the visiting educators noted the ease and engagement of the word work happening at the tables and the terms related to various animals that were displayed throughout the classroom.
In the primary grades, the visitors saw social and emotional learning through the lens of vocabulary. Kristen Couto’s first graders worked together to rank synonyms for happiness. Kim Buckley’s second graders acted out descriptions from their independent reading to determine how a character was feeling.
Last stop was Sheryl Carini’s kindergarten class. The visitors participated in the turn and talk in response to: “When it’s cloudy outside, how do you prepare?”
The tour ended where it began, in the school library, for an affirming debriefing that included the KES teachers who opened their classes for the tour.
Katonah Elementary Principal, Cristy Harris, highlighted some of the work the educators didn’t see.
She explained that she and Alison Porcelli, one of Katonah-Lewisboro’s instructional coaches, use faculty meetings and the school’s morning show to unify the school in building networks of words. They’ve even labeled various things in the school, such as the hallway chandelier and cafeteria’s cutlery area, to foster students’ love of words.
Fourth grade teacher Sharon Paige related that she’d given her students a heads up that groups of teachers would be visiting their classroom to watch them work.
“Why?” they asked.
“Because you’re great at what you do,” she said. “Learning!”