Greetings from the Oakland Schools Literacy Team. We hope you had a relaxing holiday break that allowed you to recharge. The newsletter for this quarter is packed with information about upcoming literacy events, conference presenting opportunities, and useful resources that will support your teaching this winter. We hope you find these helpful and encourage you to get in touch if you have any question. (kim.adragna@oakland.k12.mi.us)

Some details about the M-STEP have been released. The new assessment meets all of the requirements put into law by the legislature; that it be: an online assessment, with a paper-and-pencil option; aligned to the state standards; expanding writing assessments to additional grades; providing an increased number of constructed response test questions so that pupils can demonstrate higher-order skills, such as problem solving and communicating reasoning; and pilot tested before statewide implementation.

The ELA Spring 2015 M-STEP is a comprehensive ELA model:

• Grades 3-8: Smarter Balanced content plus Michigan-developed field-test items. This will include a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT), a Classroom Activity, and a Performance Task.
• Grade 11: Smarter Balanced content plus Michigan-developed field-test items. This will include a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT), a Classroom Activity, and a Performance Task. This is in addition tothe ACT plus Writing and Work-Keys.
• The M-STEP (grades 3-8, 11) will include items from the following Michigan Standards: reading, writing, language, listening.
• Academic growth will be measured using Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs), a well-established measurement of student learning that has been piloted and implemented in several states. SGPs describe a student’s learning over time compared to other students with equivalent prior test scores. To learn more about SGPs, click here.

Helpful Links

• The most current assessment transition document outlines the details for the M-STEP.
  
• For additional details, visit the Oakland Schools Literacy website page dedicated to M-STEP updates.
• To get up to date news on the state assessments, subscribe to MDE’s Spotlight on Assessment and Accountability Newsletter.
• M-STEP Sample Items

Supporting Low Level Readers in the Content Area Classroom

Facilitators : Dalyce Beegle and Darin Stockdill, PhD

Dates: Winter cohort - February 3 and 25th, 2015

Format: 2-day series

Formative Assessment in Action with James Popham

Date: February 6, 2015, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Format: 1 day workshop

Literacy & Technology Leadership Lab, Cohort 2

Facilitators: Delia DeCourcy & Paul Morsink

Date: Winter Cohort begins February 10

Format: 2 full days and 3 evening sessions

The Art of Teaching Argument

Facilitators: Delia DeCourcy, Darin Stockdill, PhD, and Susan Wilson-Golab

Dates: Winter Cohort begins February 12

Format: 2 full days and 1 evening

How Student Blogs Support Literacy Learning & the Common Core

Facilitator: Stephanie Dulmage, Technology/Curriculum Integration Specialist

Date: Monday, February 16, 2015 7-8pm (one-hour optional follow up discussion)

Format: Webinar

This year's Effective Practice's Conference sponsored by the Learning Achievement Coalition of Oakland County will be held June 23 – 24 at Lake Orion High School. The call for proposals focused on student engagement, literacy, mathematics and early childhood is open. Presenters can present a traditional conference session or facilitate an unconference session. The conference organizers are seeking about 20 presenters on literacy. We encourage you to submit a proposal!

To apply, visit https://jfe.qualtrics.com/form/SV_e9dF69hRK1pyWRD

Oakland Schools Literacy and The Oakland Writing Project kicked off a new literacy webinar series on October 16. Archived webinar recordings and materials from our first three sessions can be found below:

Small Bites: Research in the K-5 Classroom

Facilitator: Professor Kristin Fontichiaro, University of Michigan School of Information

Small Bites: Research in the 6-12 Classroom

Facilitator: Delia DeCourcy, Secondary Literacy Consultant, Oakland Schools

Digital Technologies and Expectations for Writing in College
Facilitator: Professor Jeff Grabill, Michigan State University

REGISTER for one or many upcoming events in the series. All sessions are FREE. SCECHs are available for Michigan educators who attend two or more of the two-hour sessions.

The Literacy Research Association has a YouTube Channel with a growing collection of videos related to a wide range of literacy topics and research. In particular, there is a series of video-taped panel discussions concerning Research to Practice. Each panel includes university researchers and practicing teachers discussing the research to practice connections related to the topic of the episode.

The Research to Practice videos are listed below with the number in the series and the title/topic:

Episode 1 - Disciplinary Literacy
Episode 2 - Graphic Novels
Episode 3 - Multimodality and Writing
Episode 4 - Gender as a Lens
Episode 5 - Multiliterate and Polyglot Friendly Educational Spaces
Episode 6 - Design Based Research
Episode 7 - Academic Vocabulary
Episode 8 - Gaming

If you're looking for an accessible entryway into learning more about current research, this is a great place to start. There are many other videos on the channel as well, so feel free to visit, and if you watch videos and leave a comment, give a shout out to Oakland Schools Literacy!

During the 2013-14 school year, teams of teachers from 5 districts gathered multiple times to craft and then implement and revise interdisciplinary units focused on research writing. Some of the results from this initiative are below. The units are aligned to the Common Core Standards and include:

• a unit overview
• scope and sequence
• lessons from each content area
• additional resources
• student work samples

Units are published to Atlas Rubicon and are downloadable via Google Drive. Though each unit was written for a particular grade, they can be adapted for other grade levels.