Proficiency Scale for this Year's Expectations for Learning Goals

This week, I am publishing a proficiency scale for this year's expectation for posting learning goals: All teachers will post a learning goal every day in every class.  I added one more piece to this expectation: not only that you post, but that you use the goal as part of the learning and part of your teacher talk.
The proficiency scale is my best draft so far and has 5 levels, 0-4.  Each level contains a descriptor and some examples.  Remember, that Level 3 is the target: applying.  Level 4 represents the next level: paring learning goals and proficiency scales.  Three teachers shared drafts of their scales for us.
I tested this scale by walking around the building and rating the goals I saw.  I was in 46 learning spaces, including the library and the clinic (both of which have posted learning goals).  The pie graph below will give you a sense of where we are a school.

Proficiency_Scale_for_Learning_Goals,_8-2012.pptx Download this file

Thank you to the teachers who suggested I share a proficiency scale, gave me feedback on multiple drafts, and practiced using it with me.
To see the scale, please click here.

Compelling Quotes from this Summer's Department Chair Meeting

Before school began, our department chairs met with me to anticipate the curricular work of this year (and beyond).  In addition to setting an expectation, I wanted to create an understanding of compelling whys beyond just an expectation set by me.  Department chairs worked in groups at centers that included MAP data, compelling quotes from Breaking Free from Myths about Teaching and Learning (Zmuda, 2010), working learning principles, and a template of what I want faculty to know, understand, and be able to do as a result of our work this year.
Following are six quotes from Breaking Free that emerged as compelling to the department chairs:

• When the teacher's job in effect becomes the management of the curriculum and the students, the ensuing work that results often is unsatisfying for all parties involved.  There is no space for joy, wonderment, intrigue, fascination, or contemplation when there is not time to breathe (p. 50).
• School curricula should be governed by powerful inquiries that serve as the conceptual spine of the discipline, concentrating focus and organizing new information around a handful of big ideas (p. 54).
• An important part of the instructional habit of challenging students, then, is creating space for them to struggle (p. 117).
• The challenge for educators is to devleop innovative ways to engage students in the exploration of conceptual threads and develop fluency with key rules and skills that define the discipline (p. 138).
• Learners need the space to breathe, to think, to reflect, and to reconsider (p. 158).
• Students need consistent opportunities to fail and then succeed withouth causing permanent damage to their grades (p. 163).

I hope that you see connections between these quotes and part one of the curriculum audit post under Learning Designs, and I hope these quotes help to clarify more reasons why our focus on essential curriculum is so important.
Not every day of the academic year is available for teaching.  Creating space by focusing on what is essential gives us more time to ensure that more students understand the content of our classes.  It also gives us time to intervene or accelerate should a student benefit from either (or both).  And in some, perhaps rather oblique ways, these quotes offer support for us: as we stand back and analyze conceptual threads, create more space for learning what is essential, and due more teaching (and less managing) of the curriculum, we may, perhaps, feel less anxiety or urgency about "getting everything done".
These are powerful quotes.  I trust the author and believe that they can how a powerful effect on our work together.

August 27, 2012

On Friday, 45 parents attended the PTO-sponsored Parent-Principal Coffee.  This is the most attendees we have ever had.  The parents who attended overwhelmingly agreed that their students were excited about middle school.  Thank you for all the ways you contribute to this.
Things are already feeling busy, so I am glad that we will have time on Friday to do some catching up and some thinking ahead.
Open House
Open House will be this Wednesday, August 29th, 2012, at 7pm. Parents will follow their student's schedule as they did last year (please do your best to remind your parents and students of this).  Click here for more notes about this event.
Thinking Strategy for September
Connecting to the text is important for students in any subject area. Although the update in the Quick PD section is mainly focused on instruction for Discovery, all student can benefit from this thinking strategy.  Please take some time to read this update and consider how you can implement this strategy in your teaching.
PD Day: 8/31
Friday, 8/31, will be a full day of PD: 8:30am-3:30pm. If you did not participate in any edline.net training this summer, you are in the A Group; if you were able to participate this summer, you are in the B Group.  You will need your laptops for the day; all meetings will be in the cafeteria.  Here is the plan:

• 8:30: Brief Faculty Meeting
• 9:00-11:00
  • The A Group (plus any interested B Group teachers) will participate in edline.net training.
  • The B Group will work together or alone on the following:
    • View an "Adding Students to Classes" video,
    • Work on your calendar, groups, and/or folders, and
    • Post any questions for Jason to answer on a TBD site.
• 11:00-12:00: Lunch
• 12:15-1:15
  • The A Group will work alone or in groups to practice their new traning.
  • The B Group (plus any interested A Group teachers) will meet in the cafeteria to discuss the video and any questions.
• 1:30-3:30: Meet as departments and/or teams to:
  • Practice with edline.net,
  • Review building data (to be shared this week alon with directions, explanations, and expectations), and/or
  • work on team or department business.

Edline.net
Click here to read a blog post I shared with parents on our web site transition.
Due Dates

• Begin implementing Discovery expectations: Tuesday, 9/4
• PDPs are due: Monday, 9/10
• Required staff training sheets are due: Monday, 9/10
• All staff using edline.net's calendar feature: Monday, 9/17 (this is a new date)

Discovery's Thinking Strategy for September

The documents below will help you implement the reading expectation in Discovery for the month of September.

“Connect to the Text” PowerPoint

This PowerPoint presentation provides detailed information about this month’s thinking strategy. This may be used as background information for the teacher or as a prompt for classroom discussion. Feel free use whatever slides will be most helpful to you and to your students. Thanks to Elkhart Community Schools for producing such a resource.

Discovery Strategy Mini-Lesson and One-Pager

This document contains background information for teachers, suggested activities for a mini-lesson, the monthly one-pager, and possible feedback teachers may provide to a completed one-pager. Remember, there is an emphasis on this being a MINI-lesson.  Most students are familiar with the strategy. They just need to be reminded to use it as they read. The mini-lesson should be conducted at the beginning of the month during the first twenty minutes of Discovery.

The one-pager should be completed in Discovery class at the end of the month. Teachers may choose to have students submit the one-pagers digitally or as a hard copy. Most students should be able to complete the one-pager in the first twenty minutes of Discovery; however, there are some, especially struggling readers, who may need additional time. Students should always complete the one-pager in class to ensure an authentic response.

September Bookmark

 This month’s bookmark should be able to be copied double-sided so that the back may be used as a reading log.

Reader’s Toolkit

This document contains tools that can be utilized in your content area classes to assist ALL students in using this month’s strategy. During Discovery intervention time, those students who have been identified as struggling readers will benefit from explicit instruction with using these tools. Teachers should choose at least one tool and use assigned reading from their content to teach students how to utilize the tool.

Please contact Jen or Aimee if you have any questions or are in need of support. (Please refer to last week's “How to Use Your Reading Specialists” post to determine who is best to contact.)

Connect to the Text.ppt Download this file

Discovery Strategy Mini-Lesson & One-Pager - Sept..pdf Download this file

September Bookmark.pdf Download this file

Reader's Toolkit - Sept..pdf Download this file

August 20, 2012

Last week was remarkable.  Thank you.  Your powerful actions contribute in so many ways to our success, and I am energized and excited for what is to come.
We must work together to stay well-paced, connected, and optimistic.  So, please, if you have questions or concerns, are confused or frustrated, or just need support, contact me so that you can be heard.
More notes follow:
Open House
Open House will be on August 29, 2012, beginning at 7pm. Parents will follow their student's schedule as they did last year.  Click here for more notes about this event.
Learning Designs Update
I have some quick clarifications about learning goals posted here as well as a table that charts our progress this week.  I apologize in advance for its being a bit longish.
Quick PD Updates
How to Use Your Reading Specialists

We have talented reading specialists who want to be helpful to us. See the "How to Use Your Reading Specialists" post under Quick PD. Click the "view fullscreen" link to enlarge the table.
Thinking Strategies for Discovery
The reading specialists have also posted a list of the Thinking Strategies used for the year in Discovery.  Next week, they will post the background, one-pager, bookmark, and strategies to be used in September to frame the month's reading.

SSD
This year we have slightly less staffing than last year for our SSD staffing.  This makes it difficult to have every IEP or parent meeting during team or planning time.  Therefore, please be prepared for the occassional before- or after-school meeting.
Blackboard Engage (Edline)
Please be explicit with parents and students as we navigate this transition from School Center to Blacboard Engage (Edline).  You may consider using the parent portal to post homework, or you may consider having all team homework posted using Edline or School Center until the transition is smoothed out.  Whatever your plan, please communicate this to parents.  They are very interested in accessing our homework pages.
Collegial Learning Walks
This year, I would like to invite you to participate in Collegial Learning Walks with me.  The focus of a collegial learning walk is to look for what is working in a classroom. The whole process will take one class period, each visit lasting 5-10 minutes followed by a short debrief outside the classroom. We will learn the process together and improve on it as we practice it. Please click here for more information about Collegial Learning Walks.
Due Dates

• Begin Implementing Discovery Expectations: Tuesday, 9/4
• PDPs: Monday, 9/10
• Required Staff Training: Monday, 9/10

How to Use Your Reading Specialists

Last year we took a new approach to the use of reading specialists’ time during the school day. We are no longer operating under the previous push-in model, as this would only allow us to provide support to a handful of teachers in the building. We thought this might be a great opportunity to review how the reading department can best support you.
Both teachers teach three classes of Read 180 and use the remainder of the day to: support teachers with the planning and implementation of reading strategies in their classrooms, attend IEP and team meetings, read assessments to struggling readers, assess new students, research interventions and strategies to share with the staff, organize and share student data, support the reading expectation in Discovery, and provide other support to the building.
Below is a table that describes how you may access the support we provide. This is not an exhaustive list, so if there is else you would like support with, please let us know. 

How to use your reading specialists (table).docx Download this file

Thinking Strategies for Discovery Overview

Many define reading as an act of engagement between the reader and the text.

What do our students need in order to engage with text?

•Strategies to think about the text when reading wordsalone doesn’t produce meaning.

•Accessible text that is near their reading level.

•Purpose and relevancy so they know that their time is being used wisely.

While we often provide the text and purpose, it is up to our students to choose the strategies necessary to comprehend the text. Our work this year in Discovery will provide our students with an introduction to eight thinking strategies they may usewhen reading the words alone doesn’t produce meaning.

Below are two documents. One is an overview of the thinking strategies we will address in Discovery this year. The reading teachers will monthly post to the Network a detailed explanation of a specific strategy, a bookmark that can serve as a reminder to your students to use the strategy as they read, a one-pager to hold students accountable for their reading in Discovery, and activities you could use either in Discovery or your content area classes to support students with using the strategy.  The second document contains models of how students can use these strategies when conducting a mathematical, scientific, or social scientific reading. You may consider posting one (or both) of these documents in your classroom.

(Tovani, 2010)

Thinking Strategies.pdf Download this file

Proficient Reader Models.pdf Download this file

Thinking Strategy for October

The documents below will help you implement the reading expectation in Discovery for the month of October.

“Questioning” PowerPoint

This PowerPoint presentation provides detailed information about this month’s thinking strategy. This may be used as background information for the teacher, or as a prompt for classroom discussion.

Discovery Strategy Mini-Lesson and One-Pager

This document contains background information for teachers, suggested activities for a mini-lesson, the monthly one-pager, and possible feedback teachers may provide to a completed one-pager The mini-lesson should be conducted at the beginning of the month during the first twenty minutes of Discovery.

The one-pager should be completed in Discovery class at the end of the month. Teachers may choose to have students submit the one-pagers digitally or as a hard copy. Most students should be able to complete the one-pager in the first twenty minutes of Discovery; however, there are some, especially struggling readers, who may need additional time. Students should always complete the one-pager in class to ensure an authentic response.

October Bookmark

This month’s bookmark should be able to be copied double-sided so that the back may be used as a reading log.

Reader’s Toolkit

This document contains tools that can be utilized in your content area classes to assist ALL students in using this month’s strategy. During Discovery intervention time, those students who have been identified as struggling readers will benefit from explicit instruction in using these tools. Teachers should choose at least one tool and use assigned reading from their content to teach students how to utilize the tool.

Please contact Jen or Aimee if you have any questions or are in need of support.

Questioning.pptx Download this file

Questioning Mini-Lesson & One-Pager.docx Download this file

Asking Questions Thinkmark.docx Download this file

Reader's Toolkit - Questioning.docx Download this file

Clarifying Learning Goals

"Arguably the starting place for all effective instruction is designing and communicating clear learning goals" (Marzano & Brown, 2009, p. 9).
This week, I shared e-mails noting our progress toward the expectation that all teachers will post learning goals each day.  Part of Design Question 1 in The Art and Science of Teaching is to track progress.  You can see on the table below our progress throughout the week. 

You will notice there are two lines.  The blue line tracks how many learning spaces had posted learning goals when I dropped in. The red line tracks how many learning goals were both posted and specific to the curriculum of the learning space.
There is a difference between learning (or curricular) goals and goals for behaviors.  Learning goals can be traced back to district curricula or other established standards (TILS, CCSS, GLEs, etc.).  Behavior goals can be traced back to established expecatations (PBIS expectations, team or classroom rules, etc.).
In order to precise to the framework in The Art and Science of Teaching, goals should be viable.  Viable goals are connected explicitly to the curriculum and can be taught to understanding in the time given.
So, what about goals for things like behavior, learning expectations, and community building (particularly given that design question 6 is about teaching processes and procedures explicitly)?
Posting a goal, any goal, meets the expectation surrounding learning goals at this time (so if you posted behavior goals this week, you were not wrong); however, I encourage you to make posting learning goals that are tied to curriculum your habit.  Already this week, I have had conversations with teachers about the difference between the two, and I will begin offering feedback now that I have made this clarification.
So, where do you account for expectations regarding behaviors? If you are planning to teach behaviors, all of which are in support of learning, make them a part of your agenda.
Yes, but . . . I understand that at the beginning of the year teachers may chose to focus on community building, procedures, and expectations; however, classrooms that focused on curriculum day one did not appear, from my observation, to suffer any lack of community or understanding of procedures and expectations.
Quick Quiz
Which of the below are learning goals per The Art and Science of Teaching (AST) framework?

1. Students will understand the importance of team community.
2. Students will be able to construct tables, graphs, and equations to represent linear patterns of change.
3. Students will understand how words work together in a sentence.
4. Students will be able to state Hixson's three PBIS expectations.

Tips

• Work as a department and with coordinators to determine the best learning goals for your curriculum.
• Include an objective with your goal to account for any behaviors you may be teaching.
• Note in whatever sub plans you may leave the learning goal the sub should post and/or review.

(Numbers 2 and 3 in the Quick Quiz above are learning goals that are most precise to the AST framework.)

The First Day of School

It's Monday morning, the day before school.  I sit down at my desk, and, already, it is covered with papers, bulletins, books, a DVD, sharpies, pens, and post-it notes. Sigh. I was determined not to begin the school year in this way . . . cluttered, seemingly unorganized, and with my favorite pencil burried . . . somewhere. So rather than pursue the pen and begin to work, I am thinking about our staff and updating the Network.
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "Out of clutter, find simplicity," so I am trying to think beyond my desk(s) and into the year.  I am trying to consider how the nuanced and complex practice of teaching could ever be made simple.  And I am trying to think of ways to support and attend to us as we navigate all that is new or different this year.
The principle is simple, I suppose: academic and personal success for every student.  The methods, however, are many.  The strategies for effective teaching can be collected into a 221 page book, but the art of connecting the right strategy to each student requires a precision that can render simple strategies complex.  This can be daunting.
And so to find simplicity in the clutter, we must rely on and learn from and with one another. On Friday, we engaged in a prime example of this as we learned about design questions 1 and 6.  You were also invited to learn about and to share strategies for using Discovery better. This will take all of us, within departments and teams and across the faculty as well.
If the year seems big, if you feel like you are begininng in the middle of chaos, if you wonder at all how we will manage this, I ask that you rely on what I rely on: the commitment and talent of our teachers and the principle that every student will find success.
My thoughts, support, and best wishes are with you as you lean into the 2012-2013 school year!
With great expectations,
Jason
P.S.Two more things:

• I divided Friday's PowerPoint into five sections and posted them under the Quick PD section of the Network.
• You may still access the Welcome 2012-2013! and the Beginning of the Year Business, 2012-2013 posts by clicking the links.  Don't forget that you can subscribe to updates to these "From the Principal" posts so that they come right to your inbox.

August Discovery

Those of us who worked on Discovery this summer thought that setting an implementation start date of Sept. 4^th might serve two purposes:

1. Give teams time to determine how they'd like to organize and manage Discovery and Officer Davis time to schedule Project Alert.
2. Provide time for teams to conduct community building activities, PBIS lessons, team expectations and other beginning of the year lessons, if desired.

If you find that you have extra time to fill during August, I have the following ideas for lessons to prepare students for the 20 minute reading expectation beginning Sept. 4. You could also start reading sooner than the 4^th – there’s no harm in that! J

1. Conduct a mini lesson on choosing a “just right” book. Visit http://bcove.me/zyr2gihk for a short, informational video to help you prepare (it isn't a very student friendly video, unfortunately). Attached is a bookmark you may provide students as a reminder. I have also attached a “one pager” for August if you would like students to practice completing these.

2. Conduct one (or several) of the Reader’s Workshop lessons from previous years (see attached; make sure you click on the view menu in Adobe to rotate the scanned documents clockwise). The book talk could be centered on a book read this summer or last school year.

3. Give students the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) (attached) to survey students’ use of reading strategies.

4.  Ask students to take a self assessment on their interest in reading (also attached).

Please let Jen or I know if you are in need of more suggestions!

Aimee Vogt

just right bk.pdf Download this file

What Were You Thinking - Choosing the Right Books.pdf Download this file

RW - Abandoning a Book.pdf Download this file

RW - Book Talk.pdf Download this file

RW - Checking Out Books.pdf Download this file

RW - Listening Skills.pdf Download this file

RW - Reading Rate.pdf Download this file

RW - Silent Reading.pdf Download this file

RW - Stuck Reading.pdf Download this file

RW - written directions.pdf Download this file

RW- Book Tasting.pdf Download this file

RW- Rules and Routines.pdf Download this file

RW-QAR.pdf Download this file

MARSI_2002.pdf Download this file

student_reading_assessment.docx Download this file

Discovery Powerpoint

 (info page) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nPXeiOvVODheIJ4OlDo5wK_M5ChU0HmFX5Jpk6ZPNxU/edit 

(PPT) https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HK7_f1pwOrEd2jNPrlZM6EiIVUUD8ANO-T5G6klRdbA/edit 

Power Point Slides from the 8/10/12 Faculty Meeting

Overview for The Art and Science of Teaching
Design Question 1: Establishing and Communicating Learning Goals
Design Question 6: Establishing and Maintaining Classroom Rules and Procedures
Discovery Expectations
Active Shooter Training
If you have any questions or concerns, you can submit them by clicking here.  Eventually, we will publish and maintain a series of FAQs.