Dear Parents,

On a regular basis during the course of the school year, the Principals conduct classroom visits in all classrooms throughout the division. These visits provide pertinent information about classroom learning and are essential for developing connections with students.

During these visits, we engage in learning focused conversations with students about the learning they are involved in. The following are typical learning-focused questions that we ask students:

• What are you learning about today?

• What are you learning to do?

• What are you getting better at?

• What do you still need more practice with?

• Why is it important that you do this?

• Why do you need to learn this?

• Are you learning something new?

• Is this easy/difficult?

• Are you enjoying this?

Student responses to these questions provide us and their teachers with a great deal of pertinent information pertaining to the child’s understanding and perception of the work they are engaged in. We emphasize the importance of sharing learning intentions with students, and when such learning intentions are clearly shared, students are able to articulate the purpose of their learning.

Assigning work that is appropriate to students’ readiness levels lays the foundation for our instructional program. Our teachers utilize assessment, observational and classroom data to differentiate their instruction to meet respective students’ needs. While we do not want assigned work to be perceived as hard, it needs to be set at the appropriate instructional level that provides just the right amount of challenge. Asking students about the difficulty of the work they are engaging in allows us to gauge first-hand the appropriateness of the levels and formats of the learning that is being assigned. Our students are accustomed to engaging in learning focused conversations and they are generally able to identify what they need more practice with and what they feel they are getting better at.

As parents, we often typically receive the answer “nothing” when we ask our children what they did at school on any given day. Asking questions such as the ones shared above may solve this problem. Asking these questions will help your children to consolidate the learning they are doing at school and practice articulating their thinking. This is a great way to stay informed about your child’s learning and to engage him/her in reflecting on his / her school day. I encourage you all to engage in learning focused questioning with your children on a regular basis.

Pre-K 4 Learning Highlights: Prepared by Mrs. Linnea Maloney Pre-K 4 Team Leader

Already this year, Pre-K 4 students have played with letter sounds and rhyming words, explored new sights, sounds, and smells with their senses, learned about their classrooms and classmates, and are beginning to make sense of classroom rules, routines, and transitions. Currently, they are beginning three new units in language arts, math, and social studies.

For our new language arts unit, Tell Me a Story, the students are listening to and interacting with Fairy Tales, such as The Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Little Red Hen, while learning about story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution, what came first, next, then what, and last.) They will use these story elements to retell the stories. They are practicing retelling these stories using classroom resources like puppets and flannel boards, and by participating in activities such as sequencing pictures and ordering manipulatives (for example the bowls, chairs, and beds from The Three Bears.) Asking students prompting questions about their retells, such as “Where did the story take place?”, “What happened after that?”, “What do you think will happen next?” or “What would you do if you were that character?” helps students to think about and connect with the story and helps to provide them with a more solid foundation for reading and writing.

In math, the students started a unit called, Shapes, More Shapes. This is a really exciting unit, as the students are introduced to new manipulatives and games that they have not played with yet. The unit focuses on the attributes and properties of shapes (How are these shapes the same? How are they different? What makes a square a square?) as well as positional language (in front of, behind, next to, etc.) Students get to explore and play with Geo-Boards, Tangrams, pattern blocks and shape puzzles. They will also begin to create their own pictures using shapes of different sizes and colors.

Our new social studies unit is titled Me and My Family. Due to our diverse student population, this is always a fascinating unit, where students begin to think about and talk about where they are from. This can be quite multifaceted for our students, as they all live here in Doha, but may have been born somewhere else; perhaps they have lived in other countries where they are not “from”; or maybe they were born in a certain country but never really lived there. This opens up some wonderful conversations and provides students with yet another avenue to learn about their classmates. The unit focuses on the students' own cultures, celebrations and special foods, and who their family members are.

And last, but certainly not least, Pre-K 4 students are always learning about the ASD Values, and practicing ways in which they can demonstrate these values at school and at home.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lana Al-Aghbar

Lower Elementary Principal

American School of Doha

The Booster Club Holiday Market is back!

Use the QR Code or link HERE to pre-order Holiday Camels, Gingerbread houses, and new ASD Glass Christmas ornaments. Please note limited quantities are available.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for Booster Club Holiday Market! Please sign up for a shift through the sign-up genius link HERE. No experience is required.