FRANK LEDESMA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
"Learn Like a Champion" September 7-11, 2020
Monday September 7th!
LCAP Goal 4 Parent Involvement - Virtual Back to School Night
LCAP 2 Proficiency For ALL – Essential Standards are Critical for Distance Learning
We started the school year with online distance learning. This is challenging for everyone. Teachers recently held ‘Vertical’ Grade Level Team PLC Meetings. Grade levels discussed which Essential Standards were taught or were not covered last year due to the school closure. We need to remember that the work we do preparing students to master the grade level Essential Standards is the key to the academic success of each student. In this newsletter I am providing some advice from experts in education on the importance of PLC and Essential Standards during online distance learning.
Brian Butler – Solution Tree (Aug. 2020)
“Don’t retreat to traditional thinking and practices just because of the new reality of online learning. The PLC at Work Model is the ‘equity’ model. If we don’t stay focused on the PLC model, the learning gap will widen and widen. We need to use SMART Goals and hold ourselves accountable. There are ways to measure, at the team level, what the kids are learning.”
Ken Williams – Solution Tree (Aug. 29, 2020)
“The WHY is more important now than ever! How you establish the WHY at your school or revisit the WHY is critical. WHY are we doing this?”
Richard DuFour, et al. (2016) From Learning by Doing - Solution Tree
“We argue that the benefits of using team-developed common assessments for formative purposes are so powerful that no teacher team should be allowed to opt out of creating them.”
Paula Maeker – Solution Tree (Aug. 26, 2020)
“We can’t abandon the right work. Rally the troops. We must cling to the PLC process for dear life. Teacher Teams know the value in doing the right work. Now more than ever they need leaders to support collaboration around those 4 Critical Questions.”
Chris Jakicic – Solution Tree (Aug. 25, 2020)
“How will the ‘Covid Slide’ affect your Essential Standards? Make sure you have discussed which Essential Standards weren’t taught, assessed, and responded to last year. Then take time to teach any important prerequisites students will need for this year.”
For the 2020-2021 school year, even though we are online, teachers continue to meet in grade level teams for PLC, identify Grade Level Essential Standards, create Common Formative Assessments, track student learning, and provide Essential Standards based intervention. Unpacking the Essential Standards into SMART Goal Learning Targets will be the key to success. Learning Targets may have to be unpacked carefully to provide some background knowledge or foundational skill based on the prior year Essential Standard, but students will still receive Grade Level Rigorous Essential Standards Tier 1 instruction and work. Teachers will narrow the focus to a manageable number of Essential Standards in order to ensure deeper understanding. Teachers will build in time for Tier 2 intervention (Essential Standards-Based) and consider individual students for Tier 3-remediation intervention outside of Tier 1 CORE instructional time.
Important Events This Week:
September 7 - Labor Day Holiday - No School!
September 8 - Staff Meeting @ 3:25 pm
September 8 - 1st & 2nd grade Back to School Night @ 6:00 pm
September 9 - Virtual IEP MarathonSeptember 9 - Virtual Board Meeting @ 7:00 pm
Upcoming Events:
September 16 - Virtual IEP Marathon
Frank Ledesma Elementary School
Soledad, Ca. 93960
(831) 678-6320
(831) 678-8029 Fax
Principal,
Richard Radtke