Life in the Middle
Lee County School ELA Curriculum and Instruction
Welcome!
I am thrilled to welcome both our returning and new teachers to the Lee County School District for the 2017-2018 school year. I trust that you have had a restful and enjoyable summer and that you all have had a great start to the school year. I recognize that your dedication, hard work, and constant attention to meeting our students’ needs will continue to grow our students academically. Periodically, I will send a newsletter out to keep you informed, celebrate successes and provide professional growth opportunities. On behalf of Lee County Schools, we are all proud of what has been achieved in our district, and we look forward to even greater accomplishments in the coming year. Below you will find more information about the LCS Secondary Literacy Framework, 2017-2018 Writing Portfolio Guidelines for Implementation, StudySync Information, North Carolina Check In Benchmark Assessments and Instructional tools you can use in the classroom.
Secondary Literacy Framework - Focus for Year 2
“Our Literacy 20/20 vision for Lee County Schools is to inspire students and staff to open doors to “more than a diploma” through reading, writing, and inquiry (the three basic skills of literacy).”
The Secondary Literacy Framework provides the infrastructure that is required for literacy to be supported, sustained and refined in the educational setting of our district. The Framework is based on instructional components required in a successful literacy program for adolescents. Each component is accompanied by an abstract describing it, the research base that supports it as essential to literacy instruction, and a classroom example of a strategy to promote learning with the component. The 2017-2018 areas of focus are in bold print below.
Direct and explicit instruction for comprehension
Appropriate integration of technology and programs
Pre-During and After Reading Model
Promoting independent reading
Writing to learn, learning to write and writing in the disciplines
Balanced use of speaking, listening, reading and writing in the instructional cycle.
Engagement
Vocabulary acquisition
- Improving fluency
Writing Portfolios
The primary purpose of a writing portfolio is to document student learning on specific writing curriculum outcomes. This portfolio is a showcase of the student’s proficiency in teaching the Common Core Standards. The writing portfolio should contain samples of student writing that are aligned with the Standards and the Lee County School District’s curriculum. The standards require that students at each grade level write in the modes of argumentation, informational/explanatory, and real or imagined narrative (learning to write). An informal piece of student work will be required this year. The informal writing sample will focus on writing to learn. Teachers will be given new folders for this school year. Below you will find the overview of expectations for writing portfolios for the 2017-2018 school year.
From every certified teacher
Three pieces of student work (learning to write), one example of each genre per common core standards (argument, explanatory, and narrative)
One informal piece of student work (writing to learn).
Middle Grades ELA folders should contain:
Three pieces of student work (learning to write) in each folder for each student, one example from each genre per common core standards (argument, explanatory, and narrative)
- One informal piece of student work (writing to learn)
Some things to consider
- We explicitly asked for no graphic organizers or worksheets, unless teachers included the prewriting, drafts, and final copies. Final copies can be handwritten or typed. Three samples must be printed and in the physical folders this year.
Copies of rubrics with final grades and original directions were also encouraged to be included.
A mixture of timed writing / constructed response and process pieces are to be expected. We left that very open for teachers on purpose
Target Dates:
- First portfolio piece completion target - 10/27
- Second portfolio piece completion target - 1/5
- Third portfolio piece completion target - 5/4
StudySync
Instructional Strategies and Tools
Formative Assessment
- Create new assignments or simply upload & transform a pre-existing pdf or doc, then tag with any standards & assign to anyone.
- Live responses provide the alerts needed to intervene. Give feedback and easily score or auto-grade student work.
- See where your students are struggling. Now you can easily visualize student performance across every assignment or assessment your students complete.
Classroom Library Organization Made Easy!
ReadWriteThink
ReadWriteThink http://www.readwritethink.org is a Literacy resources for K-12 teachers.You can easily integrate lesson plans and activities into classroom use. Teachers are provided with lesson plan guides with a focus on effective performance based tasks with an emphasis on reading and writing across content areas. Everything is so well-organized that you'll know exactly how to find what you're looking for and exactly which standards are being met. ReadWriteThink provides educators with a huge number of resources. This resource also provides calendar activities, professional development, and videos.
North Carolina Check-In Benchmark Assessments
For the 2017-2018 school year, Lee County Schools will participate in NC Check-Ins for 3 out of 4 benchmarks. NC Check-Ins will be assessed in the 6th and 7th grade ELA for this school year. The 4th comprehensive benchmark will be given through Mastery Connect. Below you will find additional information about the NC Check-Ins.
- Students will be administered three NC Check-Ins and a stand-alone assessment at the end of the year. The end of year assessment will be the standard end-of-grade (EOG) assessment that includes embedded field test items.
- Several reports will be available to teachers following each administration of an NC Check-In. These reports provide individual student data as well as an overview of how well the class performed on the Check-In items. Parents will also receive an individual student report on their student’s scores for each Check-In. Following are descriptions of the reports available to teachers and parents
- Each ELA/reading NC Check-In will contain 20 questions. Students will see four-response- option multiple-choice questions. Each question is worth 1 point.
- Each ELA/reading NC Check-In will include three selections. The charts below provide the anticipated number of selections (i.e., poetry, informational, literature) for each NC Check-In by grade level.
Text Complexity
NC Check-In 1, 2 and 3 will assess the same ELA/reading standards. All students are expected to be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through a grade. The text complexity of the selections chosen for the NC Check-Ins study will increase throughout the year. I have included an example of the 2016-2017 progression of text complexity. I have not been able to locate the 2017-2018 testing specifications to include this information, but I will get this information to you as soon as I have it.
2016-2017 Check-In
Lexile 6th Grade Text Complexity
Check-In 1- 880 L-980L
Check- IN 2- 900L-1050L
Check-In 3- 980L- 1100L
NC Check-Ins Assessed Standards
The NC Check-Ins are aligned to the NC Standard Course of Study (NCSCS) for English Language Arts, adopted by the North Carolina State Board of Education in June 2010. The Standards that will be assessed in the NC Check-Ins are listed below. Although all standards are not addressed on the NC Check-Ins, it is imperative to prepare your students will all of the standards before the end of the school year.
Middle School Curriculum Specialist
I am excited to about my new role as Middle School Curriculum Specialist for Lee County Schools. My goal this school year is to ensure that you are supported in all aspects of teaching and student learning. My role is to coach and support you this year. I encourage you all to reach out to contact me at any time. My email is sshuey@lee.k12.nc.us and phone number is 919-775-7351.