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J2 Back to School Night

2023/2024

Elizabeth (Liz) Lou, our J2 Grade Level Assistant Teacher.

Claire Bourne (j2B), Marisa Mercurio (J2M), Michal Urieli (J2U).

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UNIS Mission Statement

Under the auspices of the United Nations and guided by its ideals, UNIS provides an inclusive and diverse learning environment in which rigorous international programs foster academic excellence, innovation, creativity and cross-cultural communication to educate and inspire its students to become an active force in shaping a better world: peaceful, compassionate and sustainable.

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Mother Tongue Teachers

French: Isabelle Chu | Spanish: Idoya Tapia

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ELL Teachers

Janine Pelegano and Tracey Turner

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Our Student Support Team

Dana Marnin, Psychologist

Alyssa Frost, Counselor

Stephanie Clapes, Learning Support

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Communication

Newsletters | Email | Seesaw | Report Cards��Conferences: Parent-Teacher & Student-Led

Claire:

Weekly newsletter from the JS Principal
You can expect to receive a biweekly J2 team newsletter on the Friday of each A Week. The first will be on Friday October 7th.
You can always reach us via email - please do not use email as an instant form of communication. All urgent information should go through the Junior School office, changes to the dismissal plan must be updated on the School Dismissal Manager (SDM) and can be conveniently uploaded onto your smartphone.
Report cards sent out in January and June
In November there will be parent-teacher conferences and in the Spring there will be student-led conferences
Seesaw is a student driven digital portfolio and form of regular parent communication. Our learners might need some practice in logging on and off in the effort to gain independence. We appreciate your support.

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Overview of Humanities, Reading, Writing, and Math Units

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Humanities Units

→ The Power of Storytelling

→ My Rights, My Responsibilities

→ People who Make a Difference

Michal

Unit of Inquiry

In each grade of the junior school there are three units of inquiry, each lasting around 9 weeks. In J2 the units are: The Power of Storytelling, My Rights, My Responsibilities, and People who Make a Difference.

Each unit has:

an enduring understanding which sets the big picture goal of the unit
a set of concepts which drive the unit because we believe in teaching big, transferable ideas. Some of the concepts that feature in our first unit, The Power of Storytelling are: identity, experiences, stereotypes, perspective, and culture
We work hard to ensure that the content is age appropriate, relevant, meaningful, and engaging for our students
The IB learner profile is woven into all of our units
Connections to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Finally… We take pride our connection to the United Nations. Each grade in the junior school has at least one Humanities unit that teaches students about an aspect of the United Nations. In J2 ours is The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

If you work at the UN and can share your expertise, or if you don’t work at the UN but have a passion or talent that aligns to any of our units, we would love to hear from you.

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Writing

Unit 1

Narrative Writing

Unit 2

Opinion Writing

Unit 3

Informational Writing

Mentor Texts

Marisa- 3 units of writing throughout the year; each unit has a set of mentor texts, books that are used to teach skills related to each specific genre of writing. The first unit is small moment or narrative writing, where children write personal stories about important or memorable events from their own lives; 2- Opinion writing, where the children write opinions about their favorite book characters (ie; why the character is their favorite with facts and examples from the book to support their opinions; 3- informational writing, where children first study a variety of nonfiction texts to learn about the various features associated with this specific genre, and then write informational books about topics on which they are experts

Writing: The grade 2 writing curriculum is taught through 3 separate units. Narrative writing, Opinion writing and Informative writing. These 3 genres are developed from JA up to J4 and are vertically aligned. Students will also have other opportunities to write creatively and freely throughout the year through poetry, letters and free-choice writing. Writing is also heavily aligned with our reading curriculum, so this also adds further opportunities to write about books of interest, interesting characters and favorite parts of texts.

In our first unit, J2 students write narratives in which they will write personal small moment stories about their adventures and experiences. Students will work to include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, and provide a sense of closure. Students learn to revise with intent - and think how I’m creating an effect on the reader. They use craft moves in ways to make sense and also make thoughtful word choices using precise and beautiful language. Students will study how great authors write their stories and use these authors as mentors in their own writing. We call these books ‘Mentor Texts’.

In our opinion writing unit students dive deeper into uncovering their opinion about books. Writers study characters, favorite parts, pictures, titles, covers and lessons. In J2 we try to make it stronger, longer and more convincing. Students introduce their book, write their opinion, give reasons and evidence from the book, talk to their audience, add sections or pages to their writing, use juicy story words, back it up, refer to books to prove it and use quotation marks around exact words.

As Informational writers – We teach the reader about a topic. We learn to write like scientists.- ask questions about how the world works. Students learn to teach with labels and add details, and tell not only what to do, but how to do it. Another focus is working on conclusions, by reflecting, asking questions, giving explanations, and adding further information in our illustrations using comparisons through size, color, captions, arrows and definitions and descriptions.

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Reading

We refer to Reading time as Reader’s Workshop.
To make real progress as a reader, you need 3 things (access to fascinating books, time and quality instruction)

→ Mini lesson

→ Independent or Guided Practice

→ Share

1:1, partners, small groups, whole class, read alouds

Predictable structure

Claire (tag team if necessary):Our English Language Arts Curriculum is based on a balanced literacy framework and approach. Each child is provided with a variety of ways to become a well-rounded and strong reader. It is vertically aligned to standards across the Junior School and to Common Core Literacy Standards.

Reading: : At UNIS, our approach to reading instruction is rooted in the Reader’s Workshop model. Reader’s Workshop mini-lessons focus on skills and strategies that help to maximize comprehension of appropriate or “just right” books. We teach a new skill or strategy in a mini-lesson that only lasts about 5-8 minutes- 10 Tops! Then the children have an opportunity to practice that skill by reading a book on their Just Right Independent Level from our leveled library. During this time we might sit with a small group- to zone in on their specific needs for word recognition, reading strategies and comprehension skills. We also use the independent reading time to conference with individual students which allow us to coach and focus our instruction on specific skills and strategies that each child needs to practice and set reading goals. Conferences also allow us the opportunity to notice and celebrate progress and strengths. After we’ve reached our reading stamina goal for the day, we reconvene as a group to share what we’ve discovered or practiced, and we get ready for the next workshop.

Some of the topics we’ve covered thus far have been getting ready to read, stopping and jotting important thoughts, questions and impressions, collecting interesting words, understanding characters and understanding the main idea.

In order to match each child with an appropriate text we assess their reading at least three times per year. Children are given a range of levels, centered around their Just right reading level in an effort to promote confidence, practice taught skills and challenge themselves a bit.

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Phonics

Goals:

Understanding the relationship between letters and sounds
Automatic decoding and spelling
Smooth transfer of skills

Short Vowels

Long Vowels

Consonant Blends

(cl, cr, pl, fl, fr)

Digraphs

(ch, sh, th, ph)

Magic e

Vowel Teams

(ee, ea, ie, oo, oa)

“R” Controlled Vowels

(ar, er, ir, or, ur)

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MATH Units

→ I am a Mathematician

→ Fact Fluency

→ Place Value

→ Addition and Subtraction within 100

→ Geometry

→ More addition and subtraction within 1000

→ Measurement

→ Time

→ Money

Marisa:

Our Math Curriculum is rigorous, engaging, and accessible to all learners. It is vertically aligned to the Common Core math standards across the Junior School.

On the slide, you can see the various math concepts that we will be focusing on in J2 this year. We started this year with a unit called I am a Mathematician to set the stage for our math learning this year…..

* we do touch on multiplication and division but as these do not become a major focus until later grades.

Children are introduced to these concepts through the use of manipulative materials, hands-on tools that help the children to “see” the math behind each concept. For example, when being introduced to place value, the children may use base ten blocks to “build” numbers in order to better understand the base ten number system.

After the children’s conceptual understanding is built through the use of these concrete materials, they are gradually able to move to more abstract understandings.

Our Mother Tongue French learners will explore each math concept in their mother tongue with their French teacher.

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Homework

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CHROMEBOOKS

→new to J2 students

→Chromebooks are used to support our key learning areas of reading, math, writing, phonics & humanities

→examples are RAZKids, Dreambox, Seesaw, Epic and IXL

→also used in specialist classes

→stay at school

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J2 COMMUNITY

→town hall meetings X 1 month

→promote community spirit and discuss IB learner profile attributes

→awards

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“Sometimes we forget that the children have just arrived on the earth, and we expect way too much, way too soon. We become impatient, urging them to learn it all, know it all, and “act their age,” whatever that means. Although it is true that children learn quickly about life by observation, it is unrealistic to expect them to be on top of it all and always get it right……Give your children lots of practice time for whatever they’re learning, and remind yourself that, after all, they’ve been here a very short time.”

~ Judy Ford, Wonderful Ways to Love a Child

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Thank you