The Children's Book Harvest

The third annual book drive is part of the PPS Read Together initiative and aims to provide all students with books at home. 

The Children's Book Harvest, in its third year, has collected and distributed more than 30,000 books. PPS schools, school PTAs, and community organizations have hosted drives.

The donated books have been distributed to students at 10 Portland Public Schools. Studies show that books at home help students learn to read. Learning to read by 3rd grade is one of Superintendent Carole Smith's top three priorities for PPS.

This year's Children's Book Harvest is scheduled from Oct. 19- Nov. 13.

To host a drive at your school contact The Children's Book Bank. 

Questions? Contact Larry Bingham in Community Involvement & Public Affairs at Lbingham@pps.net.

6-12 Language Arts Adoption Pilot Updates

We’re excited to announce that all PPS teachers and students now have access to NewselaPro until January 22 (the end of the 6-12 Language Arts Adoption Pilot) as part of the 6-12 LA Adoption Pilot agreement that was just finalized last week.

During PPS's Newsela experience, you will have access to a variety of live and recorded training options. We encourage you to read this information to help answer some of your initial questions.

Some additional learning opportunities include the following:

1.     Get started with signing up for an account.

2.     Sign up for a live webinar.

3.     Explore additional training materials and resources.

4.     Join the Newsela community by following them on Facebook and Twitter.

Please send any technical support requests directly to Newsela by submitting a support request ticket after you've signed up for and logged into your NewselaPro account. 

Thanks so much for all you do everyday for our staff, students, and community - have a wonderful week!

Interested in Having a Portland Author Visit Your School?

Mighty Media Press is publishing a children's book in April 2016 called The Ugly Dumpling,  a modern re-telling of The Ugly Duckling. It is a fable of friendship, feelings, and being different. 

It is written by Portland resident Stephanie Campisi.  Stephanie is Australian born and now resides in Portland, Oregon.  She has combined her passion for food and love of etymology  into her debut picture book. The Ugly Dumpling is her debut picture book. 

Stephanie would love to come to the schools to do a reading and signing.   If you're interested in having her come to your school, reach out to Sarai Lien Edelman from Lien Public Relations at sel001@msn.com.

Multnomah County Library's Golden Tickets for 1st Grade Students

Multnomah County Library is offering Golden Tickets for 1st grade students in Multnomah County.

The Golden Tickets include 10 tips for parents to create strong readers, and suggested authors and series to check out. Students who bring the ticket to any Multnomah County Library location choose a free book to keep; participating parents will also be entered into drawings for incentives.

The Golden Tickets will be distributed to each first grade classroom in Multnomah County prior to fall Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Please reach out to Mandy Tuthill (School Age Services Supervisor Multnomah County Library) with any questions at 503.988.4618 or mandyt@multcolib.org.

EasyCBM Reminders

Students in 4th through 8th grade take easyCBM. For students in dual language immersion programs, Portland Public Schools created Vietnamese, Mandarin, Russian, and Japanese CBMs (K-5) to measure early literacy skills of students learning to read in those languages.

Students identified as newcomers (ELPA Level 1 and in the country less than 1 calendar year) should not to be benchmark tested on easyCBM in grades 4-8. To get more information on newcomer students see their IPT/ELPA scores or contact your ESL TOSA.

Newcomer students should be tested on DIBELS in grades K-3. Assessors must follow the administration discontinue rules for individual measures and must mark answers correct when pronunciation errors are due to pronunciation by a second language learner. See the DIBELS Next Administration manual for further clarification.

Professional Development Opportunity for High School CTE, Science and Social Studies Teachers

The Multnomah ESD is offering a series of professional development sessions for high school teachers: Boosting Content Area Writing Instruction.

This three-session series is designed for a team of 3-5 content area teachers at your school. (example: science, social science, health, CTE) 

Participants will learn instructional strategies for improving informative and argument writing in their content area classrooms. They will bring evidence of student work to review, use results to inform future instruction, and create mini lessons with their peers to teach key writing skills.

Strategy sessions are scheduled for: November 3, January 26, and March 1 @ MESD

If  interested, please email Penny Plavala (pplavala@mesd.k12.or.us).  

Opportunity to Propose Novels to 6-12 LA/ELL CMAAC

As part of the work of the 6-12 LA/ELL Curriculum Materials Adoption Advisory Committee, a novel committee has been formed to select two new novels to propose for the Core Works for each of grades 6-12.

These literature sets are housed in the multimedia library for teachers to borrow for whole class instruction. These are the current lists of Core Works for grades 6-8  and High School

New novels should promote equity, engage readers, and facilitate our instruction of grade level standards, particularly the Priority Standards for Reading Literature in each grade which have been carefully aligned.

Linked below are documents to which you can add your very best proposals for consideration by the committee. Responses will be most helpful if submitted by 9/18. You must sign into google apps4pps in order to collaborate on these documents.

Grade 6	Grade 9
Grade 7	Grade 10
Grade 8	Grade 11
	Grade 12

The committee looks forward to your participation in making these important decisions!

Accelerating Reading and Writing with iPads ~ A Half­‐Day Workshop for K‐2 Educators

 Learn how to effectively utilize iPads as instructional tools to accelerate students' progress.

Friday, October 9, 2015 8am-12:30pm 
Multnomah Education Service District (11611 NE Ainsworth Circle Portland, OR 97220)

Online Registration: http://bit.ly/PortlandReadingCouncil

PreK-5 Professional Development Fall Calendar

Please review the calendar to see the PK-5 professional development trainings offered this fall.  

Teachers, please register for these trainings on the Learning Campus.

PK-5 Language Arts & ELD Curriculum Materials Adoption Advisory Committee (CMAAC)

The Office of Teaching and Learning is currently forming a work group for the PK-5 Language

Arts & ELD Curriculum Materials Adoption Advisory Committee (CMAAC) and we
are looking for teachers and administrators who are interested in providing input and leadership.  

This team will research and make recommendations regarding a PK-5 materials adoption and create a plan for teacher professional development. This is a continuation of the work begun in 2014-15 with the Literacy Advisory Committee.

Teachers or administrators interested in applying should send a letter or email of interest to Angela Hubbs (ahubbs@pps.net) by 5 p.m on Friday, September 11th. The letter should include:

• Name
• Teaching/Administrative Experience
• Current Assignment & School
• Response to this Question (maximum one page): Why do you want to serve on the PK-5 Language Arts & ELD CMAAC and how will your experience and perspective support the work of this team?
• Two references: names & contact information

Applicants will be notified the week of September 14th. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 23rd from 8:30-11:00am 3:30-5:30pm. Additional meetings are scheduled for October 15, October 28, November 5, and November 18, October 13, October 20, November 5, November 19 and November 24 with other dates TBD. Sub costs will be covered by centrally by the Office of Teaching and Learning.

Decoding Dyslexia Oregon

Join our new west-side group in Tigard! 

You are invited to attend:

Dyslexia 101

Wednesday, July 22, from 7 - 9 PM

Presented by Barb Steinberg M.Ed., PDX Reading Specialist, LLC

Dyslexia 101 is an informative, enlightening and inspiring workshop in which participants will leave with a clear understanding of the neurological basis of dyslexia.  Scientific and peer reviewed research has shown that the brains of those with dyslexia show functional variations, and that these variations explain why some individuals—dyslexics—struggle to master reading, writing, spelling and occasionally math, despite their intelligence and effort.  After this workshop attendees will be able to recognize the most common early warning signs and chronic symptoms of dyslexia.  Dyslexia represents the most common and most prevalent of all known learning disabilities and impacts approximately 1 in 5 individuals (National Institute of Health). If you are a parent of a struggling learner or are responsible for the education of these amazing children, this is a workshop you don’t want to miss!

Click here for Flyer

(Cost is $5 to cover the room rental.)

Teachers - Earn 2 Professional Development Units for $20. Make checks payable to Lewis and Clark College. No additional paperwork necessary - certificates will be distributed at event

PD Opportunity: Teaching Structural Word Analysis to Middle School Students

Teaching Structural Word Analysis to Middle School Students

Gresham Barlow School District/ Dexter McCarty Middle school

1400 SE 5th St, Gresham, OR 97080

Alicia Roberts Frank, Ed.D & Wyatt DeRemer

Times for all dates are 4:00-5:30.  All sessions are free and open to the public.

PDU/CEUs are available through Lewis & Clark College for $20.
To register, contact: Alicia Roberts-Frank, Ed.D alicia@decodingdyslexiaor.org

           

Date	Topics/Activities
4/28	Dyslexia Simulation – In this session, participants will gain an understanding of what it feels like to struggle to read, write, and perform school-related tasks with dyslexia.
5/5	Educational needs of middle school students with dyslexia and related language learning disabilities -- In this session, participants will gain an understanding of the complexities of the English language as well as some of the linguistic patterns that simplify learning to read and write words.  Participants will begin to understand the learning struggles of students with dyslexia and the social and emotional toll that can be the result of struggling to learn to read.  They will take with them an understanding of the importance of accommodations for older struggling readers and strategies to support learning.
5/12	Orthography of English -- In this session, participants will learn about the spelling conventions of English and the influences of word origin and history on how the language is expressed in written form.  They will learn and practice the processes of decoding and encoding individual words, including dividing words into syllables and understanding how spelling influences pronunciation. Participants will gain an understanding of the importance of handwriting and how spelling supports reading.  They will have the opportunity to practice reading nonsense words, sorting syllable types, and basic encoding and decoding procedures.
5/26	Orthographic conventions & morphology -- In this session, participants will learn about prefixes, roots, derivational and inflectional suffixes, and the orthographic and phonologic changes that occur when affixes are added.  Participants will gain an understanding of other ways that dyslexia can affect students’ social & emotional lives and strategies to support students in and out of the classroom.  They will learn about Greek and Latin influences on the English language, practice sorting words and constructing lessons that explicitly teach structural word analysis, and create a plan for incorporating an understanding of dyslexia and the structure of English into their teaching.
6/2	Structured preparation for reading and structured reading -- In this session, participants will learn about the important roles that phrases and clauses play in fluent reading with comprehension.  They will learn strategies for choosing phrases from texts, providing explanations and practice with phrases, and structuring reading for fluency and comprehension.  They will learn about successful individuals with dyslexia who illuminate the strengths that can accompany a different way of learning.