McGraw-Hill Education | Wonders - The Power of Connection

Educator Newsletter
Issue 8, Spring 2022

Wonders News!

Hello, Wonders Community,

Spring has arrived, and you’ve nearly made it to the end of your school year. Following a year of uncertainty and adjustment, we’d like to acknowledge and thank you for your continued resilience. You’ve spent the year creating new ways to inspire learning, uplifting your fellow educators, and working hard to ensure your students stay engaged and empowered. You inspire us, and though we know the end of the school year doesn’t mean your work is done, we hope you find well-deserved time to relax and recharge this summer.

In this issue, we’re sharing resources to help you wrap up your year, and if needed, support your students through the summer. You’ll also find exciting updates about new teacher resources around Wonders and more.

Wishing you success and support through the end of your school year and beyond.

- The Wonders Team

Introducing the Wonders User Community

As you complete this school year and prepare for the next, are you seeking support from others doing the same? With the brand-new Wonders user community, you can collaborate and connect with like-minded educators while gaining new insight into all that Wonders has to offer.

Sign up today to share your experiences and success stories, ask questions, access resources, and get advice from fellow educators and program experts alike. You’ll also be invited to participate in community-only events, webinars, book chats, and more.

We can’t wait to see you!

Spring into Literacy — A Virtual Mini-Symposium

Join us for Spring into Literacy, a free, virtual mini-symposium delivered on-demand once a week. Across four video sessions, literacy experts will offer actionable advice on key K-12 literacy issues. Topics addressed will include how the Science of Reading fosters educational equity; how social emotional learning and literacy support one another; why literacy and diversity are strongly connected; and how we can expand our definition of blended learning to better meet student needs.

Featured speakers include Cassondra Corbin-Thaddies, MA; Bill de la Cruz; Dr. Jana Echevarria; Dr. Douglas Fisher; Dr. Jan Hasbrouck; Dr. Devin Kearns; Dr. Michelle Martin; Dr. Christian Sawyer; Dr. Timothy Shanahan; Nicolle Stearns; Wendy Turner, M.Ed.; and more.

Registrants will receive the on-demand sessions beginning the week of April 18th, and the first available session will discuss the Science of Reading.

Sign up now to Spring into Literacy!

Wonders End-of-Year Support

We want to ensure you feel confident and supported as you guide your students through the end of the school year. The following resources and tips will help you make the most of instructional time, manage your digital workspace, and begin to prepare for the year ahead.

Flipped Learning: As you work to tie up the year’s loose ends, do you feel like there’s just not enough time to make it through instruction? Flipped learning, or giving your students exposure to lessons prior to instructional time, can help! Find out more in this video from Wonders Curriculum Specialist Christina Quarelli.

Did You Know? You can apply flipped learning strategies in Wonders right now! Try having your students view Essential Question videos prior to lessons, so they come to class ready to read and collaborate. To make accessing and viewing the videos easy, you can assign them directly to your students.

End-of-Year Guides: The guides below provide checklists for preparing your digital account for the new school year. You’ll find information about backing up your assessments and lesson plans, deleting or preserving classes, and more.
End-of-Year Guide for Manual Rostering Districts

End-of-Year Guide for Auto-Rostering Districts
Pro Tip: If you’re a manual rostering customer, please remove students and retrieve content so it is available for your next class. Also, be sure not to delete your class before you have set up a new one for the next school year!

Program Resources: Whether you’d like digital support to complete this year or hope to brush up on Wonders for the next, our program resources offer easy-to-implement tips and helpful guidance. Available supports include Teacher Tutorials, guides to our Teacher and Student Center Dashboards, and other tools to support your digital and in-class experience.

Preparing for Summer Success

If you’re getting ready for summer school instruction or simply want to provide additional guidance for students during their time off, Wonders has built-in resources to extend learning and address a variety of student needs.

Diagnostic Assessments: Diagnostic assessments pinpoint where students are thriving and where they may require more support. You can administer these assessments individually or in groups to help inform your instruction as the year concludes. With Wonders, you also have access to all grade levels, so you can use diagnostic assessments to see which grade-level expectations your students are meeting. You can then shape instruction to ensure all students are being challenged and learning effectively.

Find out more in the Assessment Handbook under Resources > Resource Library > Assessment > Assessment Handbook.

Tier 2 Resources: Wonders provides one set of strategic intervention materials for key technical skill domains of beginning reading (phonics and decoding, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension skills), plus writing and grammar at Grades 3-6. An additional set for phonological and phonemic awareness is available for Grades K-2.

Each set’s lessons provide explicit, systematic needs-based instruction that is designed for effective use across instructional settings. As your year comes to an end, you can incorporate these lessons into your instructional time to provide further support where needed.

Access these resources under Resources > Resource Library > Tier 2 Intervention.
Pro Tip: Each set of intervention materials also includes Practice Reproducibles that offer students targeted practice for lessons’ skills. You can print these practice pages for classroom use or send them home with students seeking additional practice over the summer.

Foundational Skills Lesson Cards: These mini-lesson cards reinforce foundational skills at Grades 2–3 and 4–6. The lessons follow a predictable, practical gradual release instructional design and include explicit corrective feedback options. You can also incorporate student goals, check-ins, and multi-modal learning methods to empower and excite students as they learn essential skills.

Find these cards under Resources > Resource Library > Tier 3 Foundational Skills > Foundational Skills Lesson Cards.

Inspired Ideas

Looking for resources to share with parents, research to inform your work, or inspiration from experts and peers? Visit our blog, Inspired Ideas. You’ll discover stories from educators, strategies from experts in reading instruction, and news from learning scientists and edtech experts. Here are three highlights to explore:

Right Here, Right Now: Focus on Regulation: Recent disruptions to learning have left many students uncertain and anxious about their time at school. Here’s how teaching emotional self-regulation can help them navigate these feelings and feel safe and supported as they work to learn.
Why Instructional Routines Work: Routines are a pillar of classroom management—but why exactly do they work? Learn more about the cognitive science behind routines’ effectiveness, including how and why they help foster a sense of community and increase student confidence.
How to Teach Writing, According to Research: Learning to write helps students express themselves, apply their knowledge across subjects, and collaborate with others. Discover research-based practices to instruct and support your students as they become confident, effective writers.