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Lincoln/Wilmer-Hutchins Feeder
Legendary Leadership * World-class Scholarship
Week of September 7, 2015
Our Vision
The Lincoln/Wilmer-Hutchins Feeder Pattern prepares scholars to lead, think, communicate and compete as responsible citizens who are college and career bound.
Literacy and Critical Thinking
Professional Learning Communities
Social-Emotional Supports
Mike Schmoker, in his book, Focus, states, "What we teach- a guaranteed and viable curriculum- matters immensely. Curriculum may be the singe largest factor that affects learning outcomes in a school." Many of you brought teachers in early this summer to ensure that the standards were agreed upon. Now, teachers need time to develop lessons, appropriate texts, good questions and prompts with "ample amounts of reading, discussing and writing," according to Schmoker.
This week, as I visited classrooms, I did see evidence of grade-level teachers teaching common standards. There is still work to be done regarding developing effective lessons. My question to each of you is, "When do teachers have time to plan and develop effective lessons on a weekly basis?" Prior to teachers standing in front of students, they should have the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues and ICs around effective questions, lesson activities, appropriate texts and other resources to ensure that students are engaged with "ample amounts of reading, discussing and writing."
One school has decided to use the 90 minute, weekly PD time for vertical team planning. Teachers break out into grade level teams and the experts (Principals,ICs, APs, AFs)rotate through the groups to provide feedback or suggest resources.
Please do not leave this to chance. As a leader, ensure that this time is provided for teachers. Your involvement becomes evident when, during spot observations, the administrators are aware of what should be going on in a teacher's lesson because they have been involved in the planning.
Curriculum alignment means a connection between the written, taught and tested curriculum. Have your teachers seen how the curriculum will be tested? Have they studied the written standard? Have they collaborated on how the standard should be taught? As a leader, you should be able to answer those questions and so should your teachers. Are we there yet?
PLC Excellence at Rhoads
Kudos go out to each of the schools who started their PLC cycle this week. I observed several PLCs, and was pleased with the efforts to establish norms and clear expectations for the purpose and intended outcome of each cycle of your PLC. A special commendation goes to Latoya and her Leadership Team at Rhoads. The PLC cycle this week was "Thinking Through the Lesson Plan," but teachers had presented the principal with questions regarding how to write the "essential question" which was embedded in the lesson plan template. The principal's response to that request was a well-planned PLC which included a Lesson Objective, MRS strategies, opportunities to collaborate and time to practice writing essential questions as the DOL. The team did a great job of engaging the teachers in the learning, and I fully expect to hear higher order questions that engage students in critical thinking at Rhoads!
Classifying Essential vs. Non-Essential Questions
Powerpoint on 4 Types of Questions
Balanced Literacy
We are moving towards the halfway mark for our first six weeks of school, and our students are becoming stronger readers and writers everyday because of our expectation that students read and write daily. In visiting this week, I saw balanced literacy schedules posted outside of nearly every teacher's classroom door at the elementary level. Please support teachers as they use their istation data to move students into their guided reading groups. Celebrate those teachers who make the effort and work with your ICs to identify those teachers who need further support. I am most pleased with how teachers are really trying to utilize the writer's workshop structure to get organized to write.
At the secondary level, we should have made decisions with the teachers regarding which days to focus on the writer's workshop and which days to focus on literature with the understanding that each day, students will read and write. If you have not had this discussion, then your teachers may be struggling with how to get it all done within a 45 minute block.
I look forward to seeing the literacy tasks with evidence of critical thinking during the last part of this six weeks. Please be prepared to bring samples to our feeder meeting in September.
As you can see from the picture below, Rice is Ready for the Literacy Task! Nice job Alpher!
Rice is Ready for the Literacy Task!
Leadership Framework
Principal's Focus Group
New Tech Teacher Scot Pankey Spreads Joy in New York!
On the Horizon
. Aug. 31-Sept. 25-ISIP Reading Inventory (BOY)-Grades K-2
· Sept. 3, 9, or 11-Principals’ Schoolnet Training
· September 7-Labor Day Holiday
· September 9-Start of School Enrollment Call-in Date
· Sept. 9 or 10-SST/ RtI Trng. for Div. 5 Asst. Principals-Tentative
· September 11-Division 5 Data Meeting – All Schools
. September 11- NEW TEACHER SUPPORT PLAN & IC COACHING CYCLE DUE (upload in google)
· September 11-CEOP due to Emergency Op. & Division 5
. September 11 New Teacher Support and IC Coaching Cycle uploaded
· September 14-Assistant Principal Focus Group Meeting
· Sept. 15-Oct. 15-Hispanic Heritage Month
· September 14- Monthly Districtwide Principals’ Meeting
· September 23-Districtwide College Fair-Ellis Davis
· September 23 & 24-Safety Coordinators’ Mandatory Trng.
· September 25- Feeder Pattern Meetings
· Sept. 28-Oct. 8-Initial Elementary G/T Testing-Grades 1st-5th
· September 29-ACT School Day Program-Grade 12
Our Feeder Leaders
Michael Gipson- Wilmer-Hutchins Elementary School
Dr. Sharhonda Pruitt- J. N. Ervin Elementary School
Nikia Smith- Wilmer Early Childhood Center
Latoya Jarvis- Joseph J. Rhoads Learning Center
Chanel Howard-Veazy- Lincoln High School
Alpher Garrett-Jones- Charles Rice Learning Center
Tamika Barnett- Wilmer Hutchins High School
Dennis Taylor- Kennedy Curry Middle School
Lisa Deveaux- A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School
Wendy Hawthorne, Executive Director
Email: whawthorne@dallasisd.org
Location: 408 North Haskell Avenue, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: 972-925-3005