Curtis Elementary
The Work
Problem of Practice
According to Powerwalk data, teacher observations and feedback, students’ critical thinking and writing tend to be shallow and lack evidence of higher level thinking. We struggle with asking higher level questions because we feel all students must grasp the foundational understanding before we can ask higher level questions. We also run out of time for students to critically write. Over the last three years, we have had some professional development in sentence stems, questioning strategies (question stems, bloom levels), and thinking maps (graphic organizers). We are trying to figure out which learning tools would be better utilized in order to support all students to develop their higher level thinking.
In looking at STAAR data, we have found that our root cause for ELL, SPED, and ECO students not performing as high as other student groups is because they lack background knowledge and vocabulary.
Thinking and Writing Across the Curriculum
PLAN:
Tutors will be hired to support small group instruction in the classroom. These tutors will work with the teacher to build background knowledge/vocabulary using High Yield Strategies. A team of teachers will help to develop and create this plan so that the tutors are trained before pushing into classrooms.
We will also provide Question Stems and Sentence frames to support learning in the classroom so that students are aware of the expectation for each lesson and support their thinking processes.