Blog
Community of Practice || Celebrations of Learning
A Community of Practice takes a deep dive on a part of what makes our crew special, and works to make it even better. Read more to learn about our Celebrations of Learning!
What is Celebration of Learning at Detroit Prep?
Celebration of Learning is a moment where the students can shine; students can display their ability to show skills, knowledge, and display their Habits of Character with actions. It is also a celebration that takes place at the end of a term/close of the student’s Expedition. Students will display their outcomes from the leadership of different teachers as well as other experts to maximize their ability to produce high quality work. This learning opportunity gives students insight by having students dissect guiding questions to focus their learning and inform their work. Research is completed by reading books both hard copy and online. Students' often include scientific drawings and content specific vocabulary. Celebration of Learning also gives students the opportunity to learn to collaborate in Expert Groups by taking on leadership roles such as notetaker and timekeeper. Students learn to share feedback. The feedback is shared in “stars'' and “steps” that gives students specific advice as they revise drafts. Students support each other throughout this process These revisions help students to speak comfortably with confidence in front of adults and peers. During this educational journey students leverage their own learning. This learning allows students to make the shift from learner and researcher to the expert!
Why did we choose this group?
This year at Detroit Prep, a committee of teachers reflected on the effectiveness of our Celebrations of Learning and its impact on the greater community. This group used district, local, and national-level expeditionary learning initiatives as a barometer of comparison for our work here at Detroit Prep.
What are the common trends we noticed in practice?
As a community of practice, we identified common areas of interest in opportunities for improving Celebration of Learning at our community. We began by reviewing our Celebration of Learning rubric and thought through things as a community we are doing well, opportunities we can grow, and ideas for modifications and shifts. After this reflection, we worked to analyze trends in ideas of ways we want to grow and those were: adjusting the agenda, identifying connections to final products, and leveraging field study and experts. From there, we worked in chosen expert groups to identify areas of improvement in each of these categories.
How did our learning shift?
After reviewing and reflecting on the celebrations of learning during the 2022-23 school year, we asked ourselves the following questions:
What is missing from Celebration of Learning?
Is Celebration of Learning aligned with our mission and vision?
How can we scaffold celebrations of learning per term to highlight community based calls to action? How can we ensure that each celebration of learning builds in expertise as the school year progresses?
How can we include all community stakeholders in Celebration of Learning?
How can we increase student voice in Celebration of Learning?
How can the culminating Celebration of Learning at the end of the year reflect a school-wide call to action?
Based on our responses to the above questions, we decided to reevaluate how Crew Leaders plan and facilitate Celebration of Learning so that they are uniform and all stakeholders' experiences are reflected. In practice, this looks like Crew Leaders inviting experts to Celebrations of Learning as well as students sharing their learning with the community.
How can all stakeholders experience Celebration of Learning?
Throughout our community of practice, we researched and planned with our students and community stakeholders in mind. In an effort to ensure all community stakeholders have an opportunity to experience celebrations of learning, we found it extremely important to ensure communication is top notch. That includes, but is not limited to the following:
Ensuring COL days are on the family calendar at the beginning of the school year
Sending out communication/family updates with enough advanced notice via email and Remind;
Sending multiple reminders, 3 weeks out, 1 week out, week of and/or day before COL
Having a clear map that outlines the flow of COL
Inviting Expedition topic experts that students had the opportunity to learn from to engage in COL
What connections did we make between Celebration of Learning and student’s final products?
At Detroit Prep, we believe that everyone's perspectives and experiences are important in the global community. To achieve this, our expeditionary topics are designed to inspire our students to become active changemakers by using research and applying their knowledge to bring about positive change. Our students begin by deepening their understanding of a problem impacting our community, identifying the contributing factors perpetuating it, and then crafting a solution. After many weeks of research and thought provoking conversations with diverse learners, students become “experts” on their expeditionary topic. Their Celebration of Learning showcases their breadth of learning and celebrates their intentionality toward becoming active changemakers in their communities.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
This year's 4th grade students engaged in a Museum Takeover at Henry Ford Museum in the “With Liberty and Justice for All” Exhibit. Students were able to curate a presentation about their learning of key events in the American Revolution and teach museum goers about whose perspectives were missing from the history of the American Revolution.
How can we leverage field study and experts during celebration of learning?
Experts and field studies play an integral role in the student learning process and in celebration of learning. Throughout our community of practice we explored more ways to incorporate field studies and experts to enhance student learning and community involvement. We truly believe that incredible learning stems from learning hands on and outside of the classroom. Our hope is that every grade can participate in a field study and expert learning for each expedition throughout the year. Therefore, we focused on starting and building a field study/ expert database that could be utilized by crew leaders at the beginning of the year. This would allow crew leaders to have easy access to field studies and experts that have been used in years past and a quick way to contact them. This also serves as a working document where resources, community contacts and possible field studies can be updated and expanded on each year or concurrently during the school year. By doing so this eliminates the groundwork and puts our crew leaders and individual crews a step closer to build relationships and foster learning in an appropriate time frame. We also focused on tangible evidence of student learning during field studies and expert visits and how that could be utilized during celebration of learning to showcase student learning. Evidence of learning could be shown in student-taken photographs, physical artifacts, and inviting experts to come back and attend the Celebration of learning. Finally, we brainstormed ways in which we could make this learning experience authentic not only for our scholars, field experts and crew but the broader community as well. This led to conversations of inviting field experts to facilitate and encourage scholar discourse. We discussed how this can be done in person or remotely. This is just one example of how leveraging field experts can help increase engagement, allow scholars to explore theories discussed and learned in class can be applied not only to their learning but the community as well. Our hope and goal is that our students become the experts through their learning and pass that knowledge on to their community through the practice of celebration of learning.
Kindergarten // Social Emotional Learning
Kindergarten Crew Leader Ms. Kailey shares more about social emotional learning with our youngest crew members!
Social emotional learning is described as “the process for developing the self awareness, self control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school work, and life success”. Social emotional learning is a crucial skill that all people must learn. However, it is critical to learn this early and through explicit instruction. Young students who enter into the classroom come from all different backgrounds and have different levels of emotional understanding. At Detroit Prep we have a system, used from kindergarten all the way up to 7th grade, in order to explicitly teach and help students understand emotional regulation. This must come before all other learning.
Zones of Regulation
Students are explicitly taught each emotion and categorize it using a color system called the zones of regulation. Green zone is calm, focused, happy, ready to learn. Yellow zone may be excited or nervous. Blue zone is described as tired, sick or sad. Red zone means that you have lost control of your body and feelings, you may be extremely sad or extremely mad. These zones are introduced through books, videos,and targeted lessons. They are then practiced through games, conversations, and in different play scenarios.
Reset desk
Once the zones of regulation are taught and understood by students they are introduced to the reset desk. This is a space in each classroom where students set a 2 minute timer. They identify how they are feeling and look at different options of ways to get back into the “ green zone”. This could look like breathing exercises, reading a book, getting a drink of water. In upper grades it could look like a written reflection of what happened, how they are feeling, and next steps.
Buddy Room
Sometimes students need an additional break or a break from the classroom altogether. In this instance Buddy rooms are utilized. A buddy room is a classroom nearby, preferably the same grade level, where students go reset at that classroom's reset desk. This desk is also filled with tools to aid in emotional regulation and a 2 minute timer. This break of surroundings truly helps students regulate their emotional system to the point that they are able to return to their class and continue in their learning.
Peace Path
Another critical aspect of social emotional learning is relationship skills and decision-making. This can come to a head in schools, while children are learning how to relate with their peers, and start solving problems independently. This is where the peace path comes in. The peace path is explicitly taught, modeled, and practiced starting in Kindergarten. This is a multistep process starting with identifying their feelings and someone else's. They both identify the conflict and what they both need to resolve the conflict. Finally they explain what they will do from now on to avoid the conflict in the future. The peace path allows students to problem solve together and gives them a facet to be able to do so routinely and independently.
Putting it All Together
Through social emotional learning students gain independence. They are able to regulate their emotions while also problem solving as issues arise. With a clear curriculum set in place from kindergarten to 7th grade, this system is vertically aligned, allowing students to continue to practice social emotional regulation and learning each year they attend the school. Through this process, by the time students reach 8th grade, they have a clear understanding of social emotional skills that will follow them and set them up for future success.
Community of Practice || Student Led Conferences
One of our Communities of Practice did a deep dive on a part of what makes our crew special, in hopes of making it even better. Learn more about our Student Led Conferences!
At Detroit Prep, student-led learning is an essential component of our curriculum. We believe that when students are engaged in their learning they become more well-rounded, reflective, and active participants in their education. Students participate in Student-Led Conferences (SLC) four times a year to highlight work that they are proud of and areas that they would like to improve on.
Student-led conferences replace the traditional Parent/Teacher Conference. Crew leaders facilitate the meetings, but ultimately the student is the leader. Students resolve the authentic problem-based task: How do I share my learning with my family?
During SLCs, students present a portfolio of their work, reflecting on their learning as well as their strengths and areas for growth specific to each content area. Students use their portfolio to explain their progress toward and mastery of academic and character learning targets. Adults present are encouraged to ask questions in order to understand the student’s work. Over time, the compiled portfolio pieces and the accompanying reflection will provide evidence for students’ passage presentations in the 4th and 7th grades.
The SLC is an opportunity to support the student’s continued progress, both by reinforcing successful habits and identifying and executing new routines and structures to maximize the student’s capacity to produce his/her best work.
In addition to Student-Led Conferences, we have also been exploring how our students with Individual Education Plans could be empowered to take more ownership over and at least partially lead their annual IEP meetings. We are currently working toward identifying criteria to determine which students would be good candidates for Student-Led IEPs, as well as developing protocol to help prepare these students for the task. We believe this process will further enable students to understand their disabilities and IEPs, self-reflect on their progress and needs, and advocate for themselves both here and when they transition to high schools.
Our Community of Practice investigated the guiding questions:
How might we deepen our understanding of our existing core practices to continuously strengthen and inspire student learning?
How do we strengthen SLCs to be more vertically student-driven?
How can we authentically prepare students to goal-set and reflect on their process?
First, we separated into smaller research groups. We explored best practices in SLCs across the country. We also started to research developmentally appropriate reflections and writing.
Next, we held our March Student Led Conferences and piloted some of the reflection practices we learned about, including developmentally appropriate scripting, using discussion and feedback protocols for practicing before SLCs, and preparing artifacts each week alongside our Habit of Character Reflections to deepen student ownership and incorporating specific evidence of their learning in their reflections.
Our next step is to create a continuum of best practices and exemplars from Kindergarten through 8th grade that outline our criteria for an excellent Student Led Conference or Student Led IEP at each grade level! We know that this will help support our students in authentically knowing themselves well as learners, and increase their independence and investment in their growth.
8 Ways to Make Reading Fun & Engaging for the Summer!
It’s that time of year again and schools are out for summer. For a lot of folks that means family vacations, sleeping in or a time to catch up with family and friends. Whatever the case, summer break for me has always been a fun time for me to work on my hobbies, do some traveling and at the very least catch up on some summer reading.
Like many educators across the city I’m excited for the close of an adventurous school year and also looking forward to some much needed time off. Similarly, I also can’t help but think about the potential learning loss that happens over the summer, also known as summer slide. Summer Slide or Summer learning loss is when some learning that occurred of the ending school year fades over the summer break.
Here are a few family friendly ways that you can make reading fun and help to ensure that learning continues to happen over the summer break.
1. Consider planning a family book themed field trip as a way to extend/expand the readings. For example you can visit museums, cultural events, restaurants, festivals, etc.
2. Book Themed Dinner Nights: consider planning a book themed dinner or make a fun snack based on a book that you or your family are reading. For example the “Nate the Great” series (pancakes), “If You Give Mouse a Cookie” (cookies), “Strega Nona” (soup) are great examples. Also, here are a few links with some great ideas to get you started. https://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/packages/shopping/articles/the-best-kids--books-about-food https://bookroo.com/explore/books/topics/food
3. Make a habit, build a tradition, create a routine of reading your favorite weekly article, Sunday paper or blog post. Consider creating a weekly family newspaper where you create your own comic, article or news story.
4. Audiobooks are another fun and engaging way where you as a family can enjoy a great story either individually or together. This can be a great idea during those summer road trips or even to have playing as you read along with the physical copy.
5. Change the setting/Set the stage- One way to make reading fun and more engaging for the whole family is to mirror the setting of the book.
6. Attend a community reading or literacy event. Many local libraries, bookstores and coffee shop offer and may host events where authors and storytellers provide reading programs
7. Family Art Night- have a family book themed art night and create crafts based on the overall books or pivotal imports at details. For example if you read “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” you can make a cupcake collage. Here is a link with some great literature and art aligned activities. https://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/giant-list-of-story-art-projects/
8. Game Night: After finishing up a great read consider having a family trivia night based on the book you just finished. Sites like kahoot have user friendly ready made games to go for all ages!
Education in the Summer?? Absolutely!!
What am I going to do with my kids?! You don’t want your children to be over-scheduled, but you don't want your children to experience the “summer slide”! Summer is quickly approaching and many families are wondering what will the summer look like, sound like and feel like?
Research has long said that over-scheduling children leads to stress for children and also their parents. Try to select one or two activities that will be weekly. This will help develop continuity and routine. Next, ask your child what may interest them. Try an important skill such as swimming. Research a few doable activities for them to choose from. Doable means; it’s in the budget, they can get to and from pretty easily without disrupting your day. Remember that just about everywhere learning can take place and does not have to be a huge expense. Summer time is the perfect time to learn and appreciate the world around us. How about a box garden? A trip to one of our Metro Parks? Did you know that you can bird watch in some of our parks? You could build a birdhouse, research the various bird seeds and set it up in your backyard. These activities show Curiosity and Creativity
Remember to cook! Cooking is a good integration of reading, math, science and cleaning up! Jello is simple, bake a batch of cookies, make a cake from scratch, or a fruit or veggie cold pizza! You can even make slime or playdough. Practice doubling recipes.
Don’t forget to visit the library or some of the free book boxes around. You can donate a book and take a book. This is teaching to recycle and share with others. Take a day to pack up toys that are in good condition but are not being used. This is teaching compassion for others and responsibility by cleaning and tidying things up.
If you are able to take time off, day trips are so awesome! What about a free trip to Belle Isle? Make a picnic lunch, grab balls, bats, bubbles and have at it! The aquarium is free however, they do accept donations.
Once your day is over, take some time to do yoga, mindfulness, journaling or just go sit or lay while listening to quiet sounds, classical or jazz. This is teaching self-care and self-compassion.
All learning is not pencil and paper. Children learn through doing and experiences. This type of learning is beneficial to a child’s self esteem by developing a relationship with the world around them and helps them become independent by learning self-help skills.
Summer Programs
Free and nearly free!
Belle Isle (there is a nature center, many playscapes, the Giant Slide, botanical garden, aquarium and the Dossin Museum)
Metro Parks
The River Walk
The Library
Neighborhood Parks
Backyard grilling days
Smores in the Fire Pit
Walks around the local high school track or neighborhood
Grab inexpensive watercolors and paint outside
Interview a family member
Take pictures of nature with the tablet
Take a trip to one of our many beaches around Michigan
Go lighthouse chasing ( start right on Belle Isle!)
Make a pizza, taco bar and have a board game day
Visit the Detroit Cultural Center ( DIA, The Children’s Library, The Detroit Historical Museum, The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History)
Set a sprinkler and have a water day
We Are Crew!
At the beginning of the school year, 5th Grade Redbud and Maple Crews explored the concept of identity as our first unit of study. We categorized what makes up an individual and found that people in general had a history of not being accepted or stereotyped. Many had to take a risk to preserve their right to express their thoughts and feelings freely. This was transparent from the start. The topic of identity saw us sharing aspects about what made us special no matter who we are. As one quarter led to the next, a cluster of our/my students proudly formed and launched Detroit Prep’s GSA Club. This movement occurred right out of the box -the beginning of the year- :) Talk about an action oriented group of youngsters-WOW WOW WOW!!!
The leadership of this club eventually rested under the tutelage of Ms. Aly our social worker and it was here that students across our Upper School acquired a safe space to talk about their identities. In the end and in conjunction with National Pride Month, our school’s 5th grade GSA founders spearheaded to own, plan, and execute Detroit Prep’s Pride Week Celebration on June 9th of 2022-2023. DP’s wider community came together to celebrate equitable treatment of our core being no matter who we are. We Are Crew. 5th graders know it and are proud of it.
Crews’ 5th grade study of identity, diversity, justice, and action ran its course because of intentional planning from our administration, specialists, lead teachers, and parent support. The motto “ We are Crew” is recognized, practiced, and deliberate throughout our CREW term planners. In turn, the daily initiatives of Morning & Closing Crew opened the door for Redbuds and Maples to teach others a valuable lesson: Set the bar high when it comes to addressing, accepting, respecting, and most of all celebrating the rights we hold for one another. And if you don’t believe me, just keep watching our school’s collective group of students in the years to come!
Juneteenth
My name is Charles Johns and I teach 6th grade ELA at Detroit Prep School.
My students have been learning about Juneteenth. They learned that five years ago, most of the United States didn't even know what Juneteenth was, its history, or why we should celebrate it at all. I, myself, was fortunate to grow up in a small town in Southern California that did celebrate it. As I grew up and began to travel I realized that I was the minority. To be involved with educating young people on this important part of our history is an honor. My kids have had awesome questions and have actively participated in the education process. I am so encouraged by their excitement to learn about this topic.
I asked the crew to read an article about Opal Lee. If you don't know who she is, please do some research. She did something amazing. Let's just say she'd make a heck of a Lobbyist. The kids had to read and annotate the article and write the main idea of the article. Once that was done, they used a template of a combined single paragraph outline. This outline gets them in the practice of organizing their thoughts so that they can write a clear, well thought out paragraph that will summarize the article.
Below is the finished product of one of my students. Also see the pictures of the writing process:
This is the story of how Opal Lee worked hard just to make Juneteenth a national holiday for everyone. At 90 years old, Ms. Lee is so passionate about Juneteenth and its importance to the American story, she decides to bring awareness to people by marching all over the United states. Ms. Lee's goal was to make Juneteenth an official Federal holiday for everyone but she also had a huge impact on everyone in the U.S. as well as accomplishing her goal. At one point, Ms. Lee asked President Obama to walk with her but he was in Chicago and unavailable. She wasn't ready to quit though. Ms. Lee asks rapper and producer, P. Diddy to march with her. He helps her to get 1.5 million signatures to make Juneteenth an official holiday. Finally, after about five years of marching, educating people and asking for help, Ms. Lee makes it to the White House as President Biden signs the Bill to make Junetheenth a United States Federal holiday. Opal Lee marched for five years around the U.S. to make Juneteenth a holiday for everyone.
Art and Cross Curricular Planning
Our art teacher, Ms. Jillian, shares more about how she incorporates classroom learning and expedition topics into art class!
At Detroit Prep a lot of care is taken with our curriculum and planning for our content area(s). We want our students to become experts in their Expedition Topics, experiencing the topics through experts, field studies and from multiple different sources as well as settings. One of the other settings the scholars are focused on their expedition topics is in the art room.
Our art curriculum is designed to help support the expedition learning process through the creation of part of the student’s final products as well as a heavy focus on projects that are under the topic’s umbrella. A good example of both of these approaches is our third grade art curriculum. At the beginning of the school year, the third graders investigate the Wide World of Frogs in one of their science expeditions. During this study, students create part of their final products, Frog Trading Cards based on the frogs (and some toads) from Michigan in the art room. The part of the project students complete with me is their scientifically accurate frog illustrations. We learn about scientific illustrators as a job, using shapes to help us draw complex images as well as draw from observation by looking at a reference guide like a scientist through multiple drafts. The goal of the drawings is to be as realistic as possible so that a viewer would be able to learn about the frog from it. We also do several skill supporting projects painting frog habitats in the style of Claude Monet, technical drawing videos with different frogs as the subject matter, a simple yoga frog art piece that introduces artists to movement and a just for funsies, frog prince painting.
Later on in the school year, third grade turns its attention to water ecosystems. While the scholars do not create parts of their final product within the art space, they still create artwork that supports their expedition learning topic by being on theme. We create multiple projects that either directly tie to water access, like our Rain Barrel assemblages that upcycle aluminum cans, or through various ways water can be depicted in art genres specifically focusing on sea scapes.
While I’ve only highlighted third grade artwork in this blog post, each grade level has at least one, if not multiple projects that are aligned with their various expedition topics. Another way I’m working on using art to help support expedition learning is creating a mini curriculum for our create labs. I’m doing this by building a map that can be accessed by classroom crew leaders and will have various art lesson plans that can be completed during the afternoon. This way students are experiencing making art that supports their major learning both in the art room and in their crew room. I’m also very excited about this because I have expedition themed lesson plans that I’m currently unable to fit into my art maps. This way DP artists will still be able to do the projects even if I won’t be able to guide them through it. I look forward to seeing all of the various expedition themed art pieces on display during Celebrations of Learning for a long time to come.
Summer Homeschooling for Your Incoming 1st Grader
Summer is just around the corner and if you’re anything like my Aunt was when I was growing up, you’re looking to utilize summer as an extra learning opportunity for your child. Whether it’s enrolling them into a summer school program or you’re taking the task on yourself, here are a few tips to get you started.
1: Create a Getepic.com account. Get Epic is a great website to sign your child up for. It has thousands of books for them (or you!) to choose from to help them read over the summer. You can track what books they’re reading, how much they are reading and set goals for them. If you want to work on their reading comprehension, Get Epic allows, when choosing a book, to require a quiz at the end. It allows certain books to read the book to your child and it provides definitions to keywords in the books!
2: Sign up for Splashlearn.com. Splash Learn is a free website for you, the parent, to sign your child up for. It has math games for them to play while practicing their math skills! Who doesn’t love games? It makes learning fun! Splash Learn has games for everything your child will be learning in math in 1st grade.
3: If you and your child are anything like my class, you love a fun, do-anywhere, math game. One we enjoy in my classroom is POP!. POP! is a game to help practice your child’s counting skills. Standing in a long line at the grocery store? Or taking a road trip? This game is easy to play to test your child’s counting skills. You can count by tens and yell POP! at every even 10 you get. Or you could count by ones and yell POP! at all the odd numbers. If you are working on adding or subtracting, you could give your child many different addition or subtraction problems and they yell POP! if their number is 5,10,15, 20 and so on. This game is so versatile and easy, it can be played anywhere and in any way!
4: Last but not least, another River Crew favorite, BINGO! We love Bingo in the River Crew and we play it in many different ways. Now, this game will take a bit of preparation, but once complete, they can be used over and over again. First, create and print out many different variations of addition and subtraction bingo game boards. You can put equations without the answers, or the answers to equations on your bingo cards. This will force your child to really think about what the answer may be. After you’ve created and printed out your bingo boards, laminate them. This helps them last and become dry erase! Lastly, don’t forget to make your calling cards, or calling balls by writing an equation or number on a small piece of paper, ball them up and them out of a bowl or hat!
Professional Development: Health and Fitness Workshop!
Ms. Jess shares about her professional development day at the University of Michigan!
This school year I had the opportunity to attend the University of Michigan’s annual Health and Fitness Workshop in Ann Arbor. The goal of the workshop is to provide ready-to-implement ideas and practices to take right back to the classroom in areas of health, physical education, sports and athletics, and fitness. It was exactly what we needed and reminded me that getting outside of the classroom to learn, reflect and grow is so important not just for students but adults too!
The day was set up with mini-lessons and hands-on workshops delivered by experts in the field of physical education and fitness. I was able to choose sessions that I thought could directly impact my practice and our current Fitness curriculum at Detroit Prep. During a session on “skill-related fitness” the presenter set up the space like his own gym class and we participated in simple games that used open space like our fitness space, minimal equipment and a ton of balance and agility work. Another session, introduced quick activities to engage students with movement as soon as they enter the classroom, maximizing movement time and creating patterns that spiral skills into fun and easy games. They demonstrated using dice to add math into some of these quick games for kids to get extra practice while they’re moving!
It was great to get some new ideas, connect and collaborate with other Fitness professionals, and share a bit about how we do things at Detroit Prep. I was able to implement some of the strategies, tips and tools I learned during the workshop right away at Detroit Prep. We played partner games, incorporated math into our basketball unit and increased our movement time with quick games and activities. Glad to have been able to bring what I learned back to our Detroit Prep students and watch them grow!
Let’s Talk About it: The Importance of Mathematical Conversation
“When teachers at Detroit Prep teach ensure equitable access to mathematical content, facilitate authentic student discourse and focus on real word application, then students will make viable arguments, critique the reasoning of their peers, articulate their mathematical reasoning and cultivate a mathematical identity.”
Last year at Detroit Prep, we (a crew of math educators) came together and created a large-scale goal for our student mathematicians.
“When teachers at Detroit Prep teach ensure equitable access to mathematical content, facilitate authentic student discourse and focus on real word application, then students will make viable arguments, critique the reasoning of their peers, articulate their mathematical reasoning and cultivate a mathematical identity.”
Here's the gist. We want our students to be able to talk about math. To be able to defend their thinking and explain logically how they obtained the correct answer and why/how they know it is correct. More importantly, be able to talk about math and how it pertains to the real world and their lives.
Math as Discourse and Debate
So many of us, as adults, are a part of book clubs. We spend time talking about what we've read with a critical lens. This concept was taught to us in school. It was expected that after we read a book, we would then talk or write about what we read. This should absolutely be happening in math too. They should be answering questions like:
How did you solve the problem?
What strategies helped you to solve this problem?
Why did you use that strategy?
How is your strategy similar or different to your friends?
Could you solve the problem in a different way? How?
What steps did you take to find your solution?
Why does your solution make sense?
Talking and writing about math allows students to understand mathematical concepts at the deepest level. Students should be able to explain their thinking to their peers in a way that authentically creates space for student voice and debate. This might sound like:
I disagree with your answer, can you explain your thinking?
I would like to add your thoughts by…
I agree with your work, but I solved it in a different way…
I agree with your solution, but how did you solve it?
We want students to spend more time discussing their process and strategies and less time sharing correct answers. What is stopping us from starting math lessons with a heated debate that leads into student led mathematical discourse?
Math as a Collaborative process
So often, we think of math as a solo endeavor. Many of us might remember sitting in math class silently working on problems alone. The truth is, students learn an incredible amount from working with their peers, seeing the mistakes of others and collaborating on finding mathematical solutions. Math is never silent in my classroom, and I would argue that it shouldn't be in any classroom, ever! If we want students to learn from each other, to ask good questions and feel comfortable making mistakes; then we must make math collaborative. Our favorite way to teach math is sitting on the big carpet in a circle, white boards in hand, deep in discussion and debate. Our math is not a secret. The more we share our strategies and ways of thinking, the more we're going to learn.
The Creation of a Mathematical Identity
One of the hardest things to teach students is self reflection. It can be challenging for students to be able to identify their own strengths and growth areas when it comes to academics. We want students to know themselves as mathematicians, be able to verbalize the concepts that they’ve mastered and questions that they still have. This takes a lot of practice and as teachers, we must create space for this to happen. If students can talk about what's still difficult, it means that they have the agency to advocate for themselves. In the classroom, this sounds like:
I am really strong at X math concepts…
I can help you with that, I know I am good at X…
My goal is to get better at X….
I need support, I am confused about X….
My growth area is X, here are my next steps…
As our students get older, teachers will spend less time checking in to make sure they are on the right track. We want to create high school and college students that know when they need to ask for support and advocate for their needs. As our students enter 6th-8th grade, teachers need to continue to facilitate a space for them to have mathematical discourse and debate. This discourse allows students the opportunity to learn how to advocate for themselves and be vulnerable enough to ask for support, which wanes as they get older out of fear of being ridiculed. We use math in our everyday lives and having a strong foundation in mathematical concepts will propel our students into the change makers and future leaders.
What comes next…
Now comes the work. We've already made massive gains when it comes to students at all grade levels explaining their thinking, asking strong mathematical questions, and examining the work of their peers. We are well on our way to students seeing and understanding math as a collaborative process, one that is never fully complete. As this work continues, we hope that students get to know themselves as mathematicians; their strengths and more importantly their areas of growth. This is where the hard work lies, and were so ready to TALK ABOUT IT.
Middle School // Differentiated Homework for Math
Like most classrooms these days, my 6th grade math class spends a big part of our day doing small group instruction, or ‘centers’. Centers are a great way to have students work on individualized learning and hone in on practicing skills that they may need extra help on, but someone else may not.
I see the biggest growth from my students when centers are planned intentionally and students’ take pride in their work, but I always felt that I wasn’t doing enough to meet students where they were at.
Queue inspiration!
Like most classrooms these days, my 6th grade math class spends a big part of our day doing small group instruction, or ‘centers’. Centers are a great way to have students work on individualized learning and hone in on practicing skills that they may need extra help on, but someone else may not. I see the biggest growth from my students when centers are planned intentionally and students’ take pride in their work, but I always felt that I wasn’t doing enough to meet students where they were at.
Queue inspiration! During fall student-led conferences I had a handful of families ask about homework. Well, if a student doesn’t finish that day's work in class, it’s homework, I explained. But what about actual homework, they pressed. Actual homework? You want me to send home middle school math work for you to do with your child at home? (This sparked numerous memories of sitting at the dinner table with my mom, going over factor trees and multiplication charts and her saying something like I don’t know it just is 5 ok!) But yes, that homework. Okay, I said. I’ll look into it.
Here’s the idea: differentiated homework!
I love centers and working with students in small groups, but like I mentioned, it just wasn’t enough. So when I started planning my next term’s small group instruction plans, I added standard-aligned homework. Here’s how I manage it:
My students were already organized into 4 small groups: Ada Lovelace, Blaise Pascal, Katherine Johnson, and Alan Turing. I use mathematicians names to not only inspire students (we talk about their individual lives and history in the beginning of the year) but so students can’t tell which groups are, what I consider, my high, medium, and low performing groups, whereas 1, 2, 3 or Green, Yellow, Red groups may give that away. I then planned normally - I looked through my data and found standards that needed to be revisited, or in the case of my high level groups, what standards to stretch to. After collecting 6-10 learning targets per group, I wrote small group lesson plans, including warm-ups and exit tickets. The final step was finding worksheets that aligned with those standards and creating homework packets for students.
It was truly that easy. I continued my normal work process and just added intentional, self-paced work to supplement my small group instruction. By planning ahead I had 3 months worth of homework packets created. The difference has been incredible! I’ve heard directly from students’ mouths how much their homework has helped them with standardized tests, such as the NWEA. The packets have also brought a new level of responsibility to our class, as students are responsible for bringing their packet to our teacher table when their group has small group instruction, or they miss out on help and have to figure it out on their own. I can also see the sense of pride and ownership they have for their work - they know that this work is for them specifically, they’re working on their own goals at their own pace, and when they succeed at it, the smiles stretch for miles!
Books for Teaching Social Justice and Activism
If you are looking for books to use in the classroom, at home, or to recommend to students curious about social justice and activism, look no further! Here is a list of 18 picture books that can be used in the elementary classroom (and even middle and high school) to teach social justice and community activism.
If you are looking for books to use in the classroom, at home, or to recommend to students curious about social justice and activism, look no further! Here is a list of 18 picture books that can be used in the elementary classroom (and even middle and high school) to teach social justice and community activism. This book collection is filled with a multitude of stories, lessons and examples of racism, segregation, poverty, and other examples of inequality, and how activists have combated these injustices. The books and lessons are sequenced to first introduce the topics of race and segregation, and then move on to explore different forms of activism and historically significant activists. If you are looking for ways to start critical conversations in the classroom or at home about the history and influence of racism, the current political climate, or how to stand up against injustices, this is a great read aloud series to begin the process.
Mindful Mondays
Detroit Prep’s ACE (After Care & Enrichment) Programs are in full swing! The goal of ACE programs is to help students connect with their passions and interests, gain mentorship from caring adults, and cultivate friendships and connections to foster their love of learning, passion for exploring, and fulfilling their extraordinary potential.
Detroit Prep’s ACE (After Care & Enrichment) Programs are in full swing! The goal of ACE programs is to help students connect with their passions and interests, gain mentorship from caring adults, and cultivate friendships and connections to foster their love of learning, passion for exploring, and fulfilling their extraordinary potential. It also provides an opportunity for our amazing extended adult crew to share their talents, skills, and passions with students.
This fall, one of our offerings to students is a group diving into one of my favorite topics - MINDFULNESS! Led by a licensed social worker and Detroit Prep mom, the group focuses on what mindfulness is and how to use it as a student to support mental health and wellness. Students get the opportunity to participate in weekly sessions involving direct practice and reflection, and are practicing skills that can help them to:
Regulate emotions
Manage stress
Strengthen their attention to detail
Cultivate compassion for themselves and others
Mindfulness is the practice of focusing on yourself and your body in the present moment, without judgment of thoughts or feelings. Students have been asked to practice pausing and noticing sensations in their body while practicing yoga, meditation, and body scans. They have also been given the space to explore mindfulness with each of our 5 senses, fine-tuning their attention to details when it comes to hearing, touch, smell, sight, and taste. Our hands-on group gives students a safe space to practice these skills, and we hope that students will continue to bring these practices into our classrooms and their homes!
Want to practice some of these skills at home? Here are some ideas to engage your senses mindfully!
Hearing - For 1 minute, close your eyes and listen to everything going on around you. Listen for all of the possible sounds you hear in that minute. After 1 minute, write down as many as you remember. Do this with a family member and compare your lists!
Touch - Close your eyes. Have a friend pick out a random household item and hand it to you (you shouldn’t know what it is!). Take 30 seconds to feel the object and notice how it feels. Write down all of the words that describe how the object felt, then take a guess what it is!
Smell - Go to your favorite room or space. Notice what different odors you smell, both pleasant and unpleasant. Out of all of the smells in the space, note which is your favorite. Do some smells bring up emotions such as sadness, happiness, or anger?
Sight - Take a close look at a picture or painting around you. What details do you notice when you zoom in? Can you see the brush strokes or pencil strokes? Where do the colors meet or blend? Does the picture look different from far away? When you look closely at something, you can often see more than at first glance.
Taste - Challenge yourself to savor a piece of your favorite meal or snack. Let the piece melt in your mouth. Is it sweet, salty, sticky, sour? How does the texture feel on your tongue? For an extra fun challenge, do a blind-folded taste test with your family and see how many different foods you can guess!
March is Social Work Appreciation Month!
March is Social Work Appreciation Month!
Detroit Prep is committed to honoring and supporting the “whole child,” meaning we focus on the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of each individual. Along with administration and teaching staff, School Social Workers work closely alongside the school team to work with students who could benefit from developing any number of skills and strategies to succeed in their learning environment.
Detroit Prep is committed to honoring and supporting the “whole child,” meaning we focus on the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of each individual. Along with administration and teaching staff, School Social Workers work closely alongside the school team to work with students who could benefit from developing any number of skills and strategies to succeed in their learning environment.
What does a School Social Worker do?
School Social Workers (SSWs) hold a master’s degree and are trained mental health professionals, licensed through the state of Michigan. Social Workers utilize a concept called systems theory, which takes into consideration the biological, psychological, and social environmental influences on a client or community. We work as a link between home, school, and community, assisting with therapeutic interventions and providing referrals to families in need of resources.
School Social Workers:
Team up with parents, teachers, and other service providers to assess students for barriers to academic and social success, and create plans to help students address emotional, behavioral, social, or academic issues
Advocate for proper accomodations in the classroom and needs for families
Provide targeted therapy to students
Help with goal setting, planning, behavior plans, IEPs, 504s
Listen and provide support for students
Assist in dealing with a crisis
Meet our awesome Social Work team!
Ms. Aly Tetreault is enjoying her second year at Detroit Prep! She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English before spending two years serving with the AmeriCorps program, City Year Detroit. During her time working within Detroit Public Schools, she discovered a passion for supporting and empowering students and families, and making sure they receive the quality education that they deserve! Aly returned to school and graduated with her Masters in Social Work, and a Master of Arts in Educational Studies in 2019. She loves exploring Detroit, spoiling her two cats, listening to podcasts, and writing creative non-fiction in her free time. She can be reached at aly@detroitprep.org!
Welcome to Ms. Briana Quaker, our newest Social Worker! Briana is excited to start her journey as a social worker at Detroit Prep! She graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelors in Psychology and Criminal Justice. She was employed at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services where she worked in child welfare and human services. During her time working at MDHHS, she realized that there was a great need for social workers to help provide resources to families in the Detroit area. In 2021 she received her Masters of Social Work from Wayne State University. Ms. Briana loves working with children and is excited to support and empower our students. She can be reached at briana@detroitprep.org!
Ms. Briana and Ms. Aly are honored to be supporting your students! If you have any Social Workers in your life, make sure to thank them for all they do this month and beyond.
Reading During the Holidays
As an adult living in Detroit, I only make the 13-hour drive down I-75 to my childhood Georgia home during the holiday season. My winter weeks down South consist of lots of coffee, bundled porch mornings in 50-degree weather, and grass that somehow stays green year round.
As an adult living in Detroit, I only make the 13-hour drive down I-75 to my childhood Georgia home during the holiday season. My winter weeks down South consist of lots of coffee, bundled porch mornings in 50-degree weather, and grass that somehow stays green year round. The accompaniment of it all, though, are books. Whether it’s short stories for myself, romance novels for my mother, physics books (I will never understand) for my brother, or Arabic poetry readings with my father, the paper and pages in hand bond us together each holiday season. Reflecting as an adult, my parents were probably so happy to read a book aloud or, better yet, let us read silently to ourselves during Winter Break; it must have been way better than having to play an exhausting game of tag or piggyback rides (which we also requested often). And as children, we reaped the benefits.
At Detroit Prep, we tell our third-grade Turtle Crew members that the best thing they can do at home is read for 20 minutes a day. Not only is reading a great way to strengthen familial relationships, but it also improves your vocabulary, critical thinking skills, and connection to identity. And, with the colder weather at our doorsteps, reading allows you to escape cabin fever without leaving the warmth of the cabin. Making reading fun means every subject is more enjoyable, whether reading math word problems, deciphering science vocabulary, or diving into primary sources in social studies. It also teaches your child about new content and information. In small group instruction, our students have learned that President Obama was the first Black president (these kids are so young), explored lessons about friendships built on differences, and compared American customs to those in Japan. Reading is not reserved to the realm of education; reading unlocks a world of knowledge.
With so many upcoming breaks, there’s no better time than now to start that daily reading habit. While you may have your favorite books at home, Detroit Prep has new books to lend if you want to explore something different. Ask your teachers or small group instructors about what stories you may be able to borrow for the holidays. Beyond our little school on Sylvester, though, the Detroit community has endless resources available. The Detroit Public Library offers free memberships, including storytimes and eBooks, for anyone in the metro-Detroit area. Check out the Little Free Library project to see if there may be a bevy of books waiting for you in your neighborhood. If you want someone to read to your child, you can sign up for free mentorship through Brilliant Detroit and access their libraries after school. Even holiday traditions can be made into a reading experience (Read a shopping tag! Decode a brand name! Go through a recipe book!). Although we will miss your scholars at Detroit Prep, we hope we can support the buzz of learning at home in the midst of all the holiday excitement.