Conrad/Thomas Jefferson Tribune
WEEK OF DECEMBER 16-20, 2019
SCHOOL LEADERSHIP/NORTHWEST GOALS & CORE VALUES
HOLIDAY MESSAGE!
A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Illustrious Leaders,
I hope that each of you rest and rejuvenate during the holidays. Find time to spend with loved ones and friends as this time of year is made for just that. May each of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
As always...."WE ARE IN IT TO WIN IT...GO FOR THE GOLD!!
Ms. Torres
Emmett Conrad/Thomas Jefferson Executive Director
DALLAS ISD INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT RESOURCES
PRINCIPALS OF LEARNING FOCUS
BILITERACY CAMP
The Bilingual ESL Department is excited to pilot Biliteracy Camp - an innovative feeder pattern tutoring program targeted at struggling English learners in grades 3 – 5. We will meet for four (4) intensive sessions in which students will experience hands-on, engaging activities and lessons to promote listening, speaking, reading, writing, and metalinguistic connections for TELPAS. All expenses and logistics, including the selection and confirmation of host campuses, have been provided for by the Bilingual ESL Department. Transportation will be available from home campus to host campus.
One thing we do need from individual campuses is assistance with reaching out to identified students and facilitating (online) registration. We ask that you identify a campus contact person to assist with parent communication and student registration by Thursday, December 19, 2019.
THE LEADER IN ME
INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO RESOURCES
Thinking Maps ~ January ~ The Brace Map
CONRAD & JEFFERSON ES CLUSTER'S SHINING STARS
CONRAD & JEFFERSON ES CLUSTER WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION RECAP!!!
Special thanks to community partners, United to Learn,, for sponsoring such a joyous event.
AP and CIC Holiday Celebration at McShan
AND THE WINNER IS...............
WINNING TEAM.........CONGRATULATIONS!
THE CORE 4
Dallas ISD is 20,000 staff members strong, and each one is vital to the work being accomplished in the district. Through the district’s commitment to exemplary customer service, each member is focused on serving 157,000 students and their families by delivering professional, high-quality service in everything we do.
At the heart of great customer service for each district employee are the four tenets of customer service--the Core 4: focused, fast, flexible, and friendly. These principles, also, are key to forging a positive culture within the organization as they are applied, internally, colleague to colleague, as well as to students, families, taxpayers, and the entire community.
It is a strong commitment that goes beyond the conversation about what exemplary customer service looks like becoming the norm for the way we operate in the district every day.
Thank you Highland Meadows Lead Custodian - Mr. Abiah Woods- Core 4 Proud
FUTURE IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
CIC Conference January 2020
2020 LEADER IN ME SYMPOSIUM
BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT SYSTEM (K-2)
SWAG NIGHTS (K-5) & Specials Teachers
SWAG SPECIALIST TEAM LEADS
COMMON ASSESSMENT TIMELINE
Reading ILC Corner
Math ILC Corner
Grade 3-5 Math Focus
Properties of Multiplication to Generate Strategies
Expiration Rules in Division
Science ILC Corner
FALL 2019 TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
Oracle Finance Systems and Payroll classes are also available. ATS is now offering a new Open Lab for iExpense. The attached schedule of classes is on our website at: https://www.dallasisd.org/ATS.
See the WAIP 7/18/2019 for more information
IMPORTANT LINKS & INFORMATION TO READ
JANUARY, 2020
6-Staff PD on campuses
9-Northwest Network day @ Saldviar
FEBRUARY
21-State of the District Address @ Omni Hotel-@10:00
27-Network Day
MARCH
28-United 2 Learn-Community day
APRIL
16-Network Day
JUNE
4-Network Day
10-Principal Luncheon
Marshall Memo #816
A Successful Program for Long-Term English Language Learners
(Originally titled “Research in Action: Ramping Up Support for Long-Term ELLs”)
In this article in Educational Leadership, teacher/author Larry Ferlazzo reports on an action research project at his 1,650-student California high school. The focus was on improving the school performance of long-term English language learners – students who have been officially classified as ELLs for at least six years. Students in this category, who make up between one-quarter and one-half of the 4.9 million ELLs in U.S. schools, are usually proficient with spoken English but aren’t succeeding academically. (Six years is the maximum time that experts say students with adequate support need to acquire English proficiency.)
During the 2018-19 year, Ferlazzo’s school launched a pilot program for 20 ninth-grade long-term ELLs. The key components:
• The 20 students were “cohorted,” attending academic classes together. In all but one of their classes, the cohort was joined by 12 non-ELL students.
• Ferlazzo taught the daily cohort-only support class (his time was freed up by teaching one less elective class and slightly increasing the size of several other classes). He gave the ELL group a leg up by using information he received from teachers on the topics they planned to cover and key background knowledge.
• Cohort students were closely monitored, with the support class serving as an “advisory on steroids.” Ferlazzo (who speaks Spanish) stayed in close touch with families, making at least one call a month, with the student present, focusing on positive developments. “I would also throw in one thing they could improve on,” he says, “like do some of the extra work available.” Ferlazzo also pulled students out of academic classes to have short “walk and talk” check-in conversations, asking about their hopes and goals and next steps.
• Teachers identified students from the school’s International Baccalaureate classes to serve as peer mentors for intervention students. They had 15-minute discussions of goals, challenges, and non-academic topics, and submitted a weekly report.
• Ferlazzo prepared brief social-emotional learning modules for the academic teachers, and taught key SEL concepts in his support class, including growth versus fixed mindset.
• Ferlazzo introduced a daily warm-up in the support class, asking students to write in their “retrieval practice notebooks” important knowledge or skills they’d acquired the day before, then sharing with the group.
• Teachers occasionally allowed especially responsible cohort members to leave academic classes and work independently in the ELL support center.
What were the results? While the 20 students in the intervention cohort outperformed a control group by only a small amount on academic assessments, they did far better on what Ferlazzo believes is the most important measure: performance on California’s English Language Proficiency Assessment, which tells if an ELL can be reclassified as English proficient. Intervention students scored 22 points higher than their pretest on the ELPAC, while control-group students scored only 14 points higher. In addition, intervention students had nine percent higher attendance, eight percent fewer behavior referrals, and nine percent fewer suspensions than the control group.
At the end of the school year, cohort students were asked which components of the program made the biggest difference. Students ranked the peer mentors first, independent work in the support center second, lesson and knowledge “previews” third. The support class was also rated high, with Ferlazzo earning an A- from students. Lowest-rated were retrieval practice and “walk-and-talk” conversations. Most participating teachers were positive about the experiment, especially that students came to class better prepared, that teachers could send students to the support center to do independent work, and that Ferlazzo helped them work with students and parents.
The success of the pilot led the school to continue it the following year with one significant tweak: the support class is being taught by the regular-education ELA teacher, closely supported by Ferlazzo. His closing words: “We hope other schools can build on our successful experience by trying this approach to supporting long-term English language learners.”
“Research in Action: Ramping Up Support for Long-Term ELLs” by Larry Ferlazzo in Educational Leadership, December 2019/January 2020 (Vol. 77, #4, pp. 16-23),
https://bit.ly/38MBBq8; Ferlazzo can be reached at laferlazzo@aol.com.
EMMETT J. CONRAD/THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
- Jack Lowe Elementary: Principal, Sandra Barrios
- Jill Stone : Principals, Rosalinda Pratt & Selena Deboskie
- Highland Meadows: Principal, JoAnna Bahena
- David G. Burnet Elementary: Principal, Sonia Loskot
- Leonides Cigarroa Elementary : Principal, Douglas Burak
- Stephen C. Foster Elementary: Principal, Irma De La Guardia
- Joe May Elementary: Principal, Rosseven Nava
- K.B. Polk Elementary: Principal, Kourtnei Billups
- Julian T. Saldivar: Principal, Edgar Jaramillo
- Walnut Hill Elementary: Principal, Phillip Potter
- McShan Elementary: Principal, Joseph Medaris