From your friendly neighborhood IFs
for the week of December 6, 2015
This Week
Monday - 2:30-3:45 Teacher Directed Collaboration in the Library
Tuesday - 3:45-4:30 Teacher Directed Collaboration in the Library
Tuesday - 3:45-4:30 Teacher Directed Collaboration in the Library
- Please see the Outlook Invitation from Maria about these two times
The potluck sign up for the following week will be up by the end of this week. Please take a look and sign-up if you are interesting in sharing some calories!
Saturday - 7:00-9:30 Christmas Party at Nob Hill Bowl - We have reserved lane space for the 40 people who RSVPed but feel free to come and socialize even if you didn't RSVP to bowl!
ELPA 21 Testing (the new WELPA)
ELPA 21 Testing will begin the second week of February (2/8) and run through the second week of March (3/11) - including make-ups. We have worked with administration to develop a schedule with minimal interruption to the normal schedule and no interference with Math and ELA blocks. You will soon be receiving Outlook invitations for your grade level's assessment days that include information about the test and testing environment. Currently, there is little information to share but we want to give you as much notice as possible so your team can plan around these dates. You will also receive a paper copy of the schedule for the entire school so you are aware of when the lab and COW will be unavailable.
How H.O.T (higher order thinking) are your questions?
I was surfing Pinterest the other night and stumbled across this resource - Bloom's Taxonomy and Costa's Levels of Questioning. It lays out question prompts for you to use when planning your questions with an #intentional focus on the level of thinking required. It also gives examples after the prompt page. If you would like support planning your questions, please let us know.
3 data points = time for a change
After 3 data points from Progress Monitoring you should be asking yourself the following questions (these should look familiar to the ones you reflected on for PM analysis for ILT data collection!):
- What have I been doing instructionally for this student and is it working?
- If the 2 or more points are below the line or accuracy isn't improving, what refinements need to be made?
- Based on this data and error analysis, how are am I tailoring small-group instruction to meet the needs of my students?
- If students are consistently above their aimline, is it time to focus on a different measure such as retell quality or move up to the next level of materials?
If you need support in a process like this, please ask us! We'd be happy to sit and work through this with you.
Pop and Drop forms
IFs and administration have looked at several pop and drop forms lately and have given many back to teams/teachers for more information. A move is justified when a student is no longer being as successful as they could be in the group they are in. This goes for both a move up and a move down. Please make sure to include as much data as you have on the forms and speak to the "Accommodations/Differentiations" at the bottom. This piece is vital for the move because it allows all parties involved to know exactly what has been tried and what worked or didn't work. Many teachers write "small group instruction" in this section. However, every student in the building receives this instruction. What you write here needs to be specific such as the activities/concepts that the students are being taught during their small group instruction. A good question to ask yourself and the team when discussing moves is "what instruction will this student be receiving differently because of the move and how will it help to support or enrich their needs?" It is also helpful to invite your IF and administration to the meeting your team has about moves to speed up this process. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask.