TDA Vertical Articulation
2019-2020 GRADES 4-8 TEACHER WORK GROUP (NEWSLETTER #2)
A Big "Thank You" to Everyone!
TDA is not the most engaging of topics to work with for an entire day of professional learning.
However, you would never know that from the conversations, questions, sharing, gap filling, and beginning alignment that was occurring the first day of our work.
It speaks volumes to your dedication to your students, your passion for the subject you teach, and the professionals that you all are even when faced with the challenges of standardized testing. It also speaks to your interest in creating a "glass box environment" from grade level to grade level through vertical articulation rather than the "black box environment" that we have experienced for so many years.
We are both so very grateful to have the opportunity to work with you this school year.
Thank you for all you do every single day in your classrooms and in our school district. Teaching can sometimes feel like a thankless job.
Never forget for one minute that you make a difference every single day in the lives of your students.
Kind regards,
Crystal and Donna
So...What Are We Working on Next?
From Now until Thanksgiving....
From now until Thanksgiving, we are going to be engaging in beginning to use the Sibme platform for personal self reflection, a closer view at students, and getting familiar with the platform.
See the "task" section for particulars about what we will be doing.
TDA Vertical Articulation Day #1 Survey
Tasks
Item #1--Read "Recording with a Purpose"
It is an easy to follow guide to help you use video as a professional learning tool so that you record better video with a targeted purpose.
Item #2--Talk to Your Students about Video Recording
It is really important that you talk to your students about video recording in your classroom before you start doing it between now and Thanksgiving.
Students should understand "why" you are doing it, and reassure them that it for you to examine your own teaching in order to improve their learning.
Tell them that sometimes you will be carrying the iPad / phone around with you to get a closer look at their work and to hear their student conversations.
Ask them to ignore the iPad / camera and to continue working as normally as possible.
Explain that in order for you to improve your teaching, you have to understand where they are in their learning.
Share with them that the video is on a platform for teacher use only. This is not something that is going to randomly appear somewhere other than with the teachers.
Answer any additional questions they have.
This is a really important step to beginning to desensitize them to the video recording process.
Task #3--Classroom Teaching Video
It is important that you are logged into Sibme either on your iPad or cell phone and record from the app. This way, it immediately goes into your private workspace on Sibme and you don't have to finagle any additional upload steps.
This video is just for you. You are not sharing it with anyone.
Video with the ability to make time stamped comments is a powerful way to self-reflect.
It is important that you begin to desensitize yourself to video. There is amazing power to watching yourself teach and your students learn.
The challenge is getting over being uncomfortable with how you sound and look. It is not a vanity thing. There are real reasons why you may feel uncomfortable with video, but there are so many more reasons to do it even though it is uncomfortable.
Sibme has a wonderful blog about this very thing. I will attach it below. It begins, "3 Reasons Why It's Hard to Watch Yourself on Video."
For this first video, tape yourself and some of the students in a "teaching" situation.
Aim for a 10-15 minute video.
You may want to tape the entire class and then crop it in Sibme to a 10-15 minute time frame.
On the video, go through and create time stamped comments. Page 5 of the "Recording with Purpose" PDF above has a hyperlink on using the notes feature for time-stamped annotations.
As you make annotations for yourself, use the worksheet on page 6 to comment about bright spots, ideas, and questions.
If you need any help, please reach out to either of us to assist!
Task #4--Student Learning Video
It is important that you are logged into Sibme either on your iPad or cell phone and record from the app. This way, it immediately goes into your private workspace on Sibme and you don't have to finagle any additional upload steps.
This video is just for you. You are not sharing it with anyone.
You may wish to carry the iPad / cell phone around as you are recording student work and conversations.
Or, you may want to focus the recording on student pairs or students working in small groups.
You want to see what student learning looks like and sounds like regarding something you taught or a task they are working on.
For this second video, tape some of the students in a "learning" situation.
Aim for a 10-15 minute video.
You may want to tape the entire class and then crop it in Sibme to a 10-15 minute time frame.
On the video, go through and create time stamped comments. Page 5 of the "Recording with Purpose" PDF above has a hyperlink on using the notes feature for time-stamped annotations.
Note bright spots, ideas, and questions as you watch the student learning video.
If you need any help, please reach out to either of us to assist!
Task #5--Student Focus Group Video
What about with TDAs and PSSAs?
Text-dependent analysis writing instructs students to provide specific evidence from the passages they read, while demonstrating the ability to interpret the meaning behind the evidence they provide.
What about when it comes to all the things you teach as part of TDAs (reading comprehension, analysis, and essay writing) what really resonates with students that they actually use and implement on the PSSA, and what don't they use?
What things would you want to ask students about that?
In this rush to solve problems quickly, we often fail to truly understand the problem itself. Too often these proposed solutions are not responsive to the conditions that actually define the problem or sensitive to the ways that the system contributes to or enables the problem. The education field has a culture of "solutionitis," constantly jumping to implement solutions before fully developing a clear sense of what is creating the problem.
While we know that we are aiming at a TDA bullseye that is partially hidden by many factors beyond our control, talking to students about what they perceive as the strengths and weaknesses in our preparation for them to do the TDAs on the PSSAs is an important piece that we often overlook.
We need some student voice to better understand the TDA challenge.
Between now and Thanksgiving, we are going to do just that. We are going to get some student perspective on what really prepares students for those TDAs, and what really happens from their perspective when they open those testing booklets.
Crystal will be reaching out to teachers at the intermediate building, and Donna will be contacting teachers at the middle school to set up a time to interview a student focus group.
- You will select 5 students from one class to sit on a student focus panel. (Ideally, try to pick students with varying abilities when it comes to ELA and TDA work.)
- You will write 5 to 6 questions that you want us to ask the students.
- Crystal and Donna will interview and video record the student focus group and put it in a coaching huddle for you to view your students.
- The teacher and coach will engage in an asynchronous conversation about the student focus group within the coaching huddle.
Optional:
If you are interested, each of the three teachers within a respective grade level could share the student video within a collaborative huddle. If you do that after you reflect with a coach, you will be able to see and to hear the thoughts and perspectives of 15 students rather than just your 5 students.
Optional Opportunity for TDA Teachers Grades 4 and 5
Community Service Students
These students would like to visit the intermediate building and to work occasionally with students in the classroom providing an extra pair of hands, eyes, and ears to the students.
Crystal and I wanted to see if any of you might be interested in having a few students visit your ELA or WIN classrooms once in awhile to sit with your students and help students with their work as student helpers / student mentors.
If this is something that any of the six of you would be interested in, please let Crystal know and she will contact Donna.
Thank you in advance for considering this student opportunity.
Information
MEMBERS OF THE 2019-2020 TDA VERTICAL ARTICULATION WORK GROUP
8th: Renee Owens & Stevie Hegge & Abby Eggert
7th: Greg Eckert & Kate Frentz & Caroline Shearer
6th: Kim Pegher & Sarah O’Brien & Kathy Mack-Hoover
5th: Stacey Patrick & Brandi Termin & Karen Westervelt
4th: Biz Mark & Heidi Prestidge & Justin Edwards
Coaches: Donna Spangler & Crystal Paukovitch
Next Two Pull Out Days & Locations
Administration has kindly arranged the next two pull out days that we will be doing this year:
Feb. 5, 2020--Room 2 Intermediate Building
April 15, 2020--Room 2 Intermediate Building
We will meet each day from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.
Please put in for substitutes at your earliest convenience for these professional days.
Questions? Please contact CRYSTAL PAUKOVITCH or DONNA SPANGLER
Donna Spangler
Email: dspangler@hershey.k12.pa.us
Website: https://hmsinstructionalcoaching.weebly.com/
Location: Hershey Middle School, Homestead Road, Hershey, PA, USA
Phone: (717) 531-2222
Twitter: @DonnaSpangler1