January 31, 2014

Always need to smile - 

Jill shared a couple of stories below with me -

 "This type of story makes the "hard parts" of my job worth it."

What a great addition to Friday Flash - 

I encourage you all to send me little snippets of things that happen that put a smile on your face.

Also during this same discussion, we read a book that mentioned that we need food but that we don't need candy. One student raises her hand and says "I know that this is wrong. I know that our bodies need sugar so that means we do need at least a little bit of candy." This time I was better able to answer that she was correct that our bodies did need sugar but that it can come from healthier choices like fruits and other foods. (Working in a little health and wellness - one of our 21st Century Skills - into our financial literacy discussion.)   :)

Later during writing, a student flagged me over and asked me to sit down beside him because he needed help. I asked what he needed help with and he said, "Well, I am trying to spell "stop" but it keeps coming out as "shop". I look down at his paper and sure enough there is the word "shop". Working very hard to keep yet another straight face, I say, "Okay, watch my mouth as I say the word "stop". He then hears the "t" and writes  "st" and says, "Okay, you can go now. I've got the "op" part.

Another girl wanted to read her story to me so I sat down to listen and read over her shoulder. At one point she read, "I ended up wearing my pajama top" but as I read over her should, this is what she had written: I end did up wearing my pajama top.

Providing feedback to students

Town Hall Meeting Stakeholders

Drumming 

Sam shares what he and Shiny did together over the weekend.
Shiny is a kangaroo sent to Mr. Jill's Crew
from their Crew Friends in Australia.

Students during speech language with Andrea.

One on one tutorial with Ms. Josie

Lindsey puts her recent Junior Great Books training
in to action.

Doug is using Ipad movies to give student immediate feedback on their performance assessment - any guesses about whether kids find this meaningful?

Collaborative efforts to support 

the needs of our first graders:

Jodie leading a small group to think about ways they can be kind. The kids are writing notes to acknowledge kind acts to friends.

Bill works with a small group on ideas of things they can do when they feel sad, okay, happy, worried & scared, and mad.

Student application:
This should make you smile...

Elisha works with a group as they make an "I'm Not Bored " book .
(Kids tend to make bad choices when they don't know what to do - so they are thinking of different things they can do inside, outside, with others and by themselves.)

Josie works with a group to identify feelings -
What's in my heart?
Things that make me feel sad, mad, scared...

Guided Writing Instruction

Ann makes learning how to count coins as real as she can.
Sierra is buying food!

All School Meeting Leaders

Calendar

February 3 - 7th:

Lisa's Crew on Winter Voyage

Monday:

8:00 Orientation for Discovery families

9:00 Discovery family meeting

Tuesday:

RTI meeting 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday:

PD - Differentiated as identified during your PLC

(Deborah out of the building for CASE conference on Thursday and Friday. 

Bill will be here to support the building as needed.)

February 10 - 14th:

Kenny's Crew on Winter Voyage

Fourth grade to Keystone for Winter Voyage

Tuesday:

RTI meeting 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday:

All School Meeting

PD: Differentiated as identified during your PLC

Friday:

Happy Valentines Day!

No school for students

Professional Development - as identified during your PLC

Three day weekend ahead...no school on Monday, February

Leadership Team Meeting

The Leadership Team met on Monday after school. We reviewed our progress on our Unified Improvement Plan goal - writing. We reviewed the implementation progress of using Every Child a Writer resource for guided writing instruction - it's strengths and limitations. There was consensus that this resource has been a strong support for guided instruction with room for improvements in the larger, more authentic view of writing.

We spent some time discussing and prioritizing the needs of teachers and students over the coming months for the creation of our professional development plan. Rather than list the plan here, Noreene will be sharing the plan in detail with teams during PLC's. On the calendar you'll see listed next to our PD days, 'differentiated as identified during your PLC', and this will be shared and explained during your PLC. Noreene and I spent several hours planning for differentiation with components of modeling effective teaching as per the CITE evaluation. We are pretty excited about what we created!

CITE Evidence 

Assessment 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 - 

Each student and I are constantly collaborating to assess the quality of their formative, interim and summative assessments. This is accomplished through continuous referral of learning targets, summative assessment criteria taken from learning targets, reflection, encouragement to accept personal judgements of work and using strategic questioning to guide students to answer what it is about their work they could improve or how they can problem solve a challenging situation. Their answers do not always match mine, but I always allow them to try them helping them develop the ability to take risks, fail and persevere and build their resiliency. Examples of my Balanced Assessment System can be found on my Google doc at https://docs.google.com/document/d/10vJHBU6RwgW2hiI-uZHXR-3PCIJgtfSOAJZ_1KgQTxU/edit?usp=sharing of my backward plans for each unit I teach. My blog, Renaissance Art, at http://artteacherc.blogspot.com/ shows students engaged in all three types of assessment under the Pages tab at the top of the blog page.

4.3

It looks like play, and it is. Team building is an essential component to the success of a healthy crew and individual and group projects. If kids can't learn to work together to solve complex problems than the joy that learning together can bring is lost, as well as solving the complex problem. So, we team build.

Through teambuilding students work to recognize that solutions to problems are often found through the combination of multi points of view. Students also recognize quickly that a goal will not be achieved if honoring peer differences is disregarded and instead struggle to keep alive only one point a few even after it has fractured the team.

Taking time to team build has made all the difference for the health and development of my crew. Check out the attached pictures that highlight different solutions to one problem and a debrief circle we use to discuss struggles and success, honoring risk, perseverance, leadership and restoring.

2.1

My balanced assessment system includes formative assessments. All day long, across all subject areas, I am taking formal and informal formative assessments on my children to drive my instruction and to meet each individuals needs in order to support their ability to meet outcomes.

I've included a photo of two pages of evidence that speaks to this. The evidence was gathered for one of my student's and was brought to her RTI meeting.
As you can see, I've taken assessments in reading, writing, math, and phonics/language.

Math examples include formal observations such as tests or mini-assessments on white boards, showing Alayna has trouble with concept words such as before/after, reversals of numbers, and difficulty in independently using a number grid while using two digit numbers.

In word work/writing my assessments of Alayna (conferring notes or observations during whole group work) showed that she was having trouble manipulating sounds in words and using known words to get to unknown words. (in ability to go from "look to book" while manipulating letters in a making words lesson , and the inability to know how to write "books" when she knows how to write "look")

Alayn'as spelling tests show that remembering how to spell HFW's as do her tolds of HFW's on running records.

My daily running records, guided reading notes, and formal DRA showed me how hard it is for Alayna to remember how to use more than one reading strategy and how easily frustrated she gets while reading new text. (appealing to problem solve)

Note: Although this is just an example of one child, I can show evidence of how I do formative assessments throughout the day on many children in all subject areas) 

2.2

My balanced assessment approach includes systems for giving interim assessments to provide benchmark progress on student's progress in meeting World Class Outcomes.

I've worked hard this year to create my own rubrics in writing and reading. Please see the writing rubric that I have attached. I use this as an interim assessment to check on the progress of my children during a writing genre. The children self-assess themselves on this interim assessment and then I do the same.
Then during conferring we collaborate together on what they feel are next steps in their writing. I've been so pleased, and admittedly surprised at how well many of them know themselves as writers and how aligned our thinking is. I believe this may be attributed to the fact that the learning targets listed on on this rubric are exactly what is posted on our working wall. Daily we review the expectations I have for them in writing of their stories.

I have made a similar rubric for reading in which we both can assess which reading tools they are using. I am thinking about creating an additonal reading rubric that speaks to their use of "thinking strategies"...but I don't want to over use rubrics. Kind of like we don't want them to have to retell each story they read:)
My observations and notes tell me how each child is growing as thinkers in reading. I ponder how much "formal" assessment to do for interims. I feel as though my informal interims are powerful enough to drive instruction if I keep myself accountable to reviewing them and teaching from them.

My math interims are almost daily as we do lots of white board assessments and as I take notes on concepts that are difficult while they do their Math Boxes.
I have an assessment notebook that shows evidence of all of my interims in all subject areas.
Expedition is where my teammate and I are working on interim assessments during PLC. For this reason I'd give myself ...

Teacher analyzes data from formative assessments to monitor progress of all students ...

My determination of a students' "next steps" is based on my assessment of their skill-level and abilities at any particular time. Observations, mental notes, anecdotal notes, and products help me decide what I need to reteach, model, provide more practice for, etc.

Explanation of attached evidence:
After analyzing the ability of each of these students to make sense of complex, informational text (Learning Targets: identify unfamiliar words and phrases, determine what the text was about, generate questions, and persevere in an effort to understand) I determined that they each needed a different level of support. Both needed assistance in deciding how to determine importance (not highlight/underline too much) - as did many others in our classroom. I did a think-aloud/model for the whole crew of how to determine importance when reading informational text. One of these students was competent in meeting the learning targets. The other needed one-on-one assistance in mastering the learning target skills. For example: I thought aloud in front of him to model how a reader might make connections and wonder about what s/he is reading and then generate on-topic questions.

Teacher uses interim assessments that provide an appraisal at benchmarks to determine student progress on World Class Outcomes :

Students role-played a specific "stakeholder" perspective during our mountain pine beetle case study. In order to effectively participate in our "Town Hall Meeting" discussion (where students attempted to come to consensus on a solution for the mountain pine beetle epidemic in Summit County, Colorado) , it was important that they explore multiple perspectives and anticipate areas in which they would agree or have conflicts with other stakeholders. I designed an individual and group interim assessment so that I could assess whether or not students were familiar and comfortable enough with their own stakeholder role's perspective before comparing and contrasting it to others. The individual assessment consisted of annotated notes and a summary of what the student's stakeholder stood for. I used a thinking routine ("Color, Symbol, Image") in order to assess whether or not each stakeholder group was ready to compare and contrast with each other.

2.2Teacher uses a balanced assessment approach, including interim assessments that provide an appraisal at benchmarks to determine student progress on World Class Outcomes.

I consistently check-in with students in all subject areas in order to assess their level of understanding before moving on to the next stage of my plan. My “interim assessments” come in many forms: formal (written), my own observations, effective and purposeful questioning, exit slips, and more. Often I ask students to express their level of comfort or understanding as a way to self-assess their readiness to move on or go deeper. They let me know if they could use some re-teaching, extra practice, etc. In this way, I do collaborate with students also.

2.3: Teacher uses summative assessments to measure student performance of World Class Outcomes at the end of the learning process

I consistently collaborate with students in most subject areas - in the choice of, assessment of, and use of summative assessment results. I co-design rubrics with students (with our learning targets as a guide) that can be used in an open-ended way. I do this so that they can choose the way in which they demonstrate their mastery/understanding of outcomes. I also consistently build in opportunity for self-assessment, along with student-generated (and sometimes guided by me) next-steps or goals.
This artifact represents two different rubrics for performance assessments (summative) – both with built-in self assessment.

1.1Teacher selects World Class Outcomes from the Douglas County Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum including the 4 Cs (Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking).

  This piece of evidence illustrates the way in which I plan. I am constantly looking at what I want my students to know, and especially be able to do, in order to be competent, happy, responsible people. I then visit the GVCs and adapt my intentions to fit one or more of them. At this point, I decide which (or all) of the 4 Cs the kids will need to be competent in in order to be successful. I construct learning targets that use student-friendly GVC and the 4 Cs rubric language. These learning targets form the foundation of my communication with students in terms of what we are doing and why. Because I intentionally leave the learning targets open and not specific to our specific learning experiences, I am able to refer to them repeatedly in terms of how these skills will help students in different situations and throughout their lives.

1.2 Teacher selects World Class Outcomes that integrate content with other disciplines

Because I see effective learning as stemming from authentic, high-interest, real world issues and experiences, integration is a natural result of my planning. I have to intentionally look at the GVCs for different “subjects” in order to make this way of planning “official integration”. But I don’t naturally think of the concepts I am helping students learn as being exclusive to a particular academic subject. (I also tell students that only in the “academic” world do people categorize subjects as separate.)

The attached piece of evidence provides an example of the ways in which I integrate disciplines. This case study (Mountain Pine Beetle) is an integration of science, social studies/civics, literacy, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. In order for students to be able to build background knowledge on this local, ecological topic – and then research and understand a specific “stakeholder’s” perspective - they needed to be able make sense of complex, informational text. The first three pages illustrate some of our planning in order to scaffold students toward participating successfully in a performance. The last page shows the long-term learning targets we developed around the literacy portion of this science expedition. Please also see my CITE 1.1 evidence.

Have a great weekend!

Deborah

January 17, 2014

Building on Culture

After our discussion last week, about how we have become so effective at creating a strong culture, I've been doing a lot of thinking about it. I've been pulling out resources, surfing the net, consulting peers and wondering about next steps and in search of answers.

 Looking at the table of contents in the EL Core Practices book, my eye drifted over the subtitles in the area of instruction. After a quick scan my eye was drawn back to the wording, "creating a culture for differentiated instruction'. I looked down to the next category. "Creating a culture of reading." Again my eyes went down to the next category, "Creating a culture of writing; creating a culture of numeracy and mathematical thinking; creating a culture of science inquiry; creating a culture of social studies inquiry; creating a culture of Art; and creating a culture of fitness and wellness."

"In Expeditionary Learning Schools, differentiation is a philosophical belief...Each classroom builds a culture that honors diverse needs...at a school-wide level....by integrating....teachers in EL schools develop and teach a common language for the writing process and the traits of good writing....math is taught with rigor and integrity...mathematical thinking and learning is showcased and discussed throughout the building..."

Here's what we identified through our analysis of how we've become so effective at creating culture - Hmmm - I see some overlap.

* Rituals

* Shared language to talk about it

* We live it as a staff/ model it

* Intentionality

* Consistency

* Expectation that it be strong and the expectation doesn't change

* Professional Development around it

* Shared values and shared philosophy

* Relevancy

* School-wide

Don't overlook the resource that the Core Practice book can be. Just taking a minute to use it as a springboard into thinking about CITE and what effective teaching would look like is here. It's a place to build on our philosophical beliefs. It's a place to develop the common language of being an Expeditionary Learning teacher. It's a place that defines expectations, intentionality and consistency. It pounds purpose and relevancy to the learner. And it's all school-wide!

I invite you to take 5 minutes - yes! That's all it will take (!) to read just the top paragraph of each section starting on page 34. Just 8 small paragraphs to read at the intro of each one.  One small step building on the practices we have done with culture to build strong instruction.

Correlation: Performance to Practice

Connections to CITE rubric

Best for Students:

They…

·      know what and why they are learning (CITE 1)

·      have active participation in their learning (CITE 3)

·      track their own learnings (Cite 2 &3)

·      are growing (CITE 2)

·      are reaching mastery

Best for teachers:

They…

·      know what and why of instructing and assessing (CITE 1 &3)

·      engage students in learning/assessing (CITE 3)

·      track who is growing (CITE 2)

·      target and instruct for mastery (CITE 2 & 3)

Evidence of Standard 4: Culture

Samples from Inspired Innovation

* Some of you saw that I had not rated your evidence in Standard 4 - there were glitches with the software. So...I will look at them all again on the weekend (as well as Standard 2) and I'll talk with you personally if there is anything for you to do.

* Also, remember that if you upload some evidence, but you aren't ready for me to rate it - please write that in the explanation box and I'll leave it unrated  for now.

Element 4.1
At the start of the year, I have students create a "checklist" of how they would like for students to act and behave in the classroom. This establishes a set of norms for behaviors and expectations. STudents also create norms for the teacher behavior and this establishes for me how the crew would like for me to address them on a daily basis.

An example of standard 4.1 is: at the start of the school year I decided to have the students set up the room as one way of developing crew community. We used the structure of the circle (multiple times) to meet and decide how to set up each area. I modeled by telling my idea about where something might go in the room. Then each child shared his own idea. The crew voted together to choose the most popular idea. Next, each child who voted differently expressed his opinion. The crew did not make a decision until every child had been heard and had decided that he could live with the decision. The crew often compromised in order for every child to feel safe and respected.
The evidence is how the children in the crew always involve everyone in decision making when we come together to discuss and work anything out.

I collaborated with students to create gym norms and rules. Each crew created their own protocols for going to the bathroom, getting a drink, dealing with sportsmanship issues, and how and when to use the safety zone. We recorded our norms on butcher paper and we all signed the norms, and they are all hanging on the wall in the gym. Multiple times already this year a student has asked a question about a norm and I have to respond with, " I do not know, lets go check the norms we came up with."

4.1 & 4.2
To start off the year we collaborate as group sharing what we need to help us feel safe and take risks in this classroom. After everyone has a chance to share we talk about how norms help a group support each other in what they need to feel safe. We also establish that norms are promises that we make to each other about things we will do to create a physically and emotionally safe classroom. After the norms are set we collaboratively develop language that we can use when someone is not meeting the norms and we need a change to happen. Once the language is established everyone now has the power to feel safe and the responsibility of maintaining a safe and responsive classroom. I know this has happened because of the following conversations:

"Landon when you ran and slid into the ocean I didn't feel safe. Next, time will you please walk and sit down next to me?"
"Sorry Lexi, I didn't mean to make you feel scared and not safe, I will walk and sit next time."
"Thank you Landon."

"Dax you are interrupting my learning when you are being loud, will please be quiet so that I can learn?"
"Sorry, Kaiya I will be quiet so that you can learn."
"Thank you."


Element 4.3:
The above picture and document are examples of socratic circles. Socratic circles establish an environment where students collaborate, explore and use different points fo view to construct meaning and problem solve around various content and issues. Students bring forth their own unique experiences and backgrounds during the discussion. Their ability and comfort level to do this demonstrates a continuous atmosphere of respect and tolerance where students feel accepted and safe. More importantly student continuously strive to find places to put forth their different points of view.

We discuss at length (during Morning Meetings, Closing Circles, and throughout the day while sharing opinions, exploring multiple perspectives in fiction and non-fiction text) the value of being exposed to different points of view. We also check in often to make sure that our culture is one in which students (and teacher) feel safe enough to take the risk of sharing opinions and perspectives that others might not agree with. This photo shows students sharing their strengths and points of view in order to complete a task.


Element 4.4
Parent email: 9.12.13 - "Aidan just loves you – you push him, but you also ‘get’ him and I am very thankful for that! Thanks for your patience and help getting him a tad more organized "

Additionally I would like to use the way I do listening conferences as my 3rd example. I learn about each student before the year even begins and I take that knowledge into the school year. Each student is different and is treated differently.

Knowing student A's sensitivity level, progress, and growing confidence, I didn't want my progress report assessment of her writing (a "1) to derail her momentum. So, my comments to her were very carefully chosen.

Calendar

January 20 - 24th:

Monday:

No School

Tuesday:

*NO RTI meeting

* 5th grade leave for Winter Voyage

Wednesday:

* Choir Performance 9:15 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.

* Professional Development 1:30 Library - CITE Standard 1

Friday:

* Choir Musical in evening

January 27 - 31st:

Monday:

* Leadership Team meeting 4:15 p.m.

Tuesday:

* RTI 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday:

* New Parent Orientation

* All School Meeting

* Professional Development 1:30 Library- CITE Standard 3

Chloe can't be at school, so Neil has her included her via Skype, in the literature discussion group .

What you see highlighted in yellow on the left page is the learning target
that this writer is shooting to do independently on the right side.

Job Alike Professional Development

I'm looking forward to hearing the Keynote Speaker, Marc Prensky. I know he'll push my thinking! Please join me in keeping a balance between hearing new ideas and the tendency to get frustrated that I don't know how to do it...yet. I'm not sure he does either!

You won't see me on the bus at DCHS as principals are required to meet at Mesa Middle School and ride the bus from there. I hope to be able to find you and the Event Center and sit with you for the keynote. Principals are required to return to Mesa for the rest of the day. I hope your sessions will prove to be valuable learning for you.

Have a great three day weekend! (Woo hoo!)

Deborah