The Oskaloosa "Syllabus"
March, 2015 - "News YOU Can Use"
Reading Summit "Instruction Matters" - Review and Reflect
We heard from some very smart people over the course of two and a half days. Some names you might recognize, while others may be new. The keynotes were from: Ruth Culham (author of Traits Writing), Nell Duke, Patrick Daly, Freddy Heibert, Adria Klein, Mike Smith, Cindy Puryear, Enrique Puig, Kelli Cedo, and Laura Robb (FANTASTIC lady!) These were just the keynotes - we also heard from many other practitioners in breakout sessions.
Here are some one-liners from their keynotes - reflect on them as you read - do you share their belief or philosophy? Ask questions, make comments, or generally let me know your thoughts.
Hunter - "Now is the time for all of our students to read well by nine!"
- Reading achievement across the country correlates with poverty levels
- "Is it dyslexia or distautia?" - in other words, was our core instruction effective or did we identify a learning "disability" because our core was not sufficient?
- "Talk to students using academic language"
- "When you're done changing, you are through!"
Duke - "Summer Reading"
- Students need to read six or more books over the summer to make a large impact on reading
- 2 months in reading achievement are lost over the summer if they don't read
- Reading volume helps explain reading gap
- Avoid 1-size fits all programs
- Summer reading programs should have no more than 13 students per classroom
Cedo - "Research in Action"
- "Isolation is the enemy of progress"
- Establish goals for your reading program, measure those goals and then share those results
Daley - Lexile Levels
- Kids need at least 12 books at their Lexile level so they can read them independently
- To read a standard apartment lease, students must read at a 1080 lexile level
- Construction workers, labor, or fast food managers need to read at a 1000 lexile level
Hiebert - "Vocabulary Matters: Five Facts and Five Actions
- Do not cherry-pick words from text - instead teach students how to figure out the meaning - through context clues and word origin meaning
- Vocabulary is NOT about teaching students vocabulary lists, rather tell/show them there will be complex words they will encounter and then show them how to learn what they mean
Culham - "Becoming a Writing Thief: Using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing"
- "Reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out"
- "When teachers read they get better at reading - students need to read in the classroom!!"
Klein - "Strategic Guided Reading using short texts"
- "Short passages can be just as complex in a required close read" - you don't have to read the entire book, article, etc. to get the benefit of complex texts
- Education is not the learning of facts, but training the mind to think" - Einstein
- If we pay attention to only one thing [during guided reading], we do not see all the other elements
Scholastic Reading Summit
Location of the Reading Summit
Each table had a quote from someone noteworthy
March PLC To Watch - MS Science PLC!
100% of students will achieve a 2 or higher for all grade level benchmarks and 80% of students will achieve a 3 or higher on all grade level benchmarks.
Action Plan for 2014-2015
1) Use differentiated instruction techniques to teach all key concepts
2) Provide accommodations to all students with IEP's or show the need
3) Provide reteaching opportunities for students who struggle with key concepts
4)Allow retakes for summative assessments.
5) Create data walls that track the entire class's progress on GLB's.
February DLT Update
1) Determine if comments should be canned or not
2) Use the Tool for Improvement to understand Formative Assessment
- Canned comments will still be used, but we will look at the existing comments and update them as needed
- Looked a the "Tool for Improvement" - Formative Assessment
- Clarify Intended Learning—Learning Targets
- Elicit Information—Anecdotal Information, observe, checklist
- Interpret evidence—Who’s getting it, who needs more support, (1-4) rubric
- Act on Evidence- what will you do with the information gathered?
Announcing the 1st High School Exhibition Night!!
In addition, there is a ping-pong tournament and food for sale from the Life Skills students
Tuesday, Mar 10, 2015, 06:00 PM
Oskaloosa High School, Oskaloosa, IA, United States
Iowa Assessment Time!
Please be sure to let students know why we give these important assessments!
March Challenge Question
What are the 5 Characteristics of Effective Instruction? START is your clue.
Bonus: Make a connection to the Tool for Improvement - how are each connected?
Updating Grades on the Parent Portal
If you are working on a project and have not put any grades in the grade book in over a week, let parents know through the comments or creating and activity with the dates of the project - keep them informed on what is happening in the classroom.
Standards-Based/Referenced Grading requires a different level of communication and feedback. So, update your grades every 7-10 days please!!!
Spring Registration Coming Soon!
Be on the look-out for 2015-2016 Registration coming soon!!! More details to follow.
Elementary Math Night!
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment News!
"Traits of Writing" Purchased
Training will be provided in the fall as well as 10 follow-up sessions during the school year. Elementary training will be the following year.
Reading Resource Pilot Taking Place
An extensive research based rubric will be used to identify strengths and areas of concern of both resources. Our goal is to:
- Ensure our Foundational Skills (5 areas of reading) are being taught consistently K-3 - with the Early Literacy Initiative (ELI), it is critical our students have the proper foundation.
- Provide consistency from classroom to classroom on what is being taught and have consistent vocabulary/terminology K-6 and beyond
- Provide some structure for you as they implement Reader's and Writer's Workshop and incorporating the ideas from the Iowa Core in regard to reading across Genre. Not necessarily the same Genre studies they are doing currently, but to assist with the structure of teaching genres and the 5 areas of reading. It is important our students are reading at both grade level (Mentor texts/exemplars) and at their instructional level (book room for small group instruction).
The purchasing of this resource will be made later this spring
Curriculum Teams on Resource Purchasing Cycle
Reminder - all Purchase Orders for these teachers are due to ME by April 1st!!!
TLC Update - Facilitators and Mentors
- Professional Learning Community (PLC) Facilitator
- Vertical Team Facilitator
- Mentor for a 1st year teacher
Tool for Improvement Focus and Data
Tool for Improvement - Bloom's
- Scaffold the Level of Bloom's Taxonomy in Instruction - focusing on the top levels
High levels of thinking - or rigorous thinking - takes place when we have students at the top 3 levels of Bloom's Taxonomy
- Create - Highest
- Evaluate
- Analyze
- Apply
- Understand
- Remember
Students must also be provided time to think about their thinking - or meta-cognition. Reflection, talking about why or how they thought about something, or talking through or thinking through something helps students to be able to focus specifically on the content and make it relevant to them.
Look at the Tool for Improvement as you plan a lesson - do you move students from simple remembering to working with the content in a critical way each day? Do you build on that content or skill each day as well? Collaborating with your colleagues when planning rigorous, scaffold tasks will help you to design the best learning experiences for your students!
Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy
Bloom's connected to Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
Tool for Improvement - Implementation Data
The graphs are what the Administrative Team looks at monthly - we then compare the overall implementation of the entire year to that month. You might say this is our "data wall".
We discuss the areas we need to provide better feedback and coaching. We have been focused on Learning Targets and Formative Assessment this year - the month of February had wonderful data to discuss!!!
Levels of Thinking of Bloom's
Instructional Technique
Walkthrough Categories - Tool for Improvement
Common Core Ideas for Your Classroom - Increasing Rigor!
Coaching Connection!
During our time in the class, we learned there are four types of coaching:
- Consulting
- Collaborating
- Cognitive Coaching
- Evaluation
Our class focused on having quality conversations around the role "cognitive coaching".
What is Cognitive Coaching? Glad you asked!
- Cognitive Coaching's purpose is to transform the effectiveness of decision-making, mental models, thoughts, and perceptions; habituate reflection.
- Cognitive Coaching's intended outcome is to enhance self-directed learning, self-managing, self-monitoring, and self-modifying.
We did a LOT of practice with the reflection and planning processes - we learned a new paraphrasing technique and how to ask questions so the person being coached is the problem-solver and person reflecting.
An Instructional Coach may approach you to practice their newly learned skills!!!
Would you like more information on Cognitive Coaching - the link below takes you to an article from "Educational Leadership".