A staff presentation for the language arts/reading department DWT. Topics include our new pacing guides, culturally responsive instruction, information about our new state assessment and our SIP.
2. North,South,
East,West
Activity
Remember:
North – Like to act, try things and plunge in
South – Caring, likes to know that everyone’s feelings are being
taken into account
East – Likes to look at the big picture and the possibilities before
acting
West – Pays attention to detail, likes to know the who, what, when,
where and why before acting
Who was in each category?
What is the breakdown in our departments?
3. CommonCore
andCurriculum
Maps
Important People:
Head of Middle School Language Arts: Chastity Downing
Head of Middle School Reading: Beth Anderson
SMS Reading Coach: Barbara Shannon
There will not be a printed curriculum guide this year. Everything
will be posted in Focus, including the new curriculum maps, the
Core Connections lessons and lists of suggested readings.
Core Connections trainings are continuing.
Grades 6,7,9 and 10 have two lessons/trainings
Grades 8, 11 and 12 have three lessons/trainings
Our first trainings: (dates subject to change)
6th grade: 10/9 @ Safety Harbor Middle
7th grade: 11/20 @ Osceola Middle
8th grade: 10/24 @ Seminole Middle
4. Core
Connections
News
Core Connections Lessons are mandatory, and should be
completed before each training so you can bring student work to
analyze.
New this year: Both language arts and reading teachers will get
separate lessons to do that compliment each other.
The lessons are meant to be done at the same time.
Language arts and reading teachers should coordinate to teach
these lessons around the same time.
Teachers should also meet to share results of lessons.
The lessons will now be much more detailed and come with two
pieces:
A lesson to do with your class (3-5 days)
An assessment piece for the students to do alone (1-2 days)
Don’t worry 7th grade teachers, the lessons are going to be new!
Lessons will be posted online in Focus.
5. Curriculum
Maps
New this year: Curriculum maps!
Maps will be posted in Focus, and you have a paper copy in your
handout (and I e-mailed one to you a few weeks ago).
Maps are organized by quarters and tell you which standard to focus
on at what time. These are aligned to the Core Connections lessons.
The language and speaking/listening standards are not on the map.
You are expected to cover them throughout the year at your
discretion.
Also included in your handout are theme ideas for each nine weeks.
These go along with our new textbooks.
They are optional.
Also being posted on Focus are a list of recommended readings to go
along with the theme ideas. They are also completely optional.
You must follow the pacing guide and teach the specified standards at
the right time. However, the way you teach those standards and
the materials you use are still your choice.
6. Progress
Monitoring
News
FAIR is now FAIR-FS
Will be given three times again
Only testing 1s and 2s
Testing through reading classes this year
Test is updated to go with the new standards. No Maze or Word Analysis
anymore. More info will be given through the reading department.
Write Score is the LA common assessment
Will be given two times – once in September and once in January
Will be given to all grade levels
The LA final assessment will be the new Florida StateAssessment
Write Score is now aligned to the new standards and test specifications.
Practice lessons will be available on the website.
One of our tests will be an explanatory writing and the other will be an
argumentative writings.
Narrative writing is part of the standards, but apparently won’t be on the
new state assessment.
Student data is being scrutinized more closely this year than ever
before. Please be aware of where your students are and align your
instruction accordingly.
7. Florida
Standards
Assessment
News (FSA)
The FSA replaces the FCAT Reading andWriting tests.
A practice test was recently released online (I e-mailed you all
about this the day it came out).
View the practice: http://www.fsassessments.org/
The new test includes:
Multiple choice
Short answer
Grammar/Spelling/Editing
Listening
Essay writing (the writing portion is still given earlier, in March)
Please note, the practice test only simulates the testing tools and
question types. It is not an example of the rigor students will face.
Chastity says: practice resources for this will be coming soon.
Some additional test info located in your packets.
Testing window for the reading portion:April 13-May 8
8. New
Standards
Coding
When we switched from the Common Core to the LAFS, the
coding of the standards changed.
A cluster number was added (everything is still in the same order
and has almost the exact same wording).
For example, the code for RL Standard 1 (8th grade) would be
written like this:
LAFS.8.RL.1.1
Subject Code Grade Strand Cluster Standard
LAFS
(Language Arts
Florida
Standards)
6, 7, 8,
&
910, 1112
RL (Reading Literature)
RI (Reading Informational)
W (Writing)
SL (Speaking and Listening)
L (Language)
RL: 1-4
RI: 1-4
W: 1-4
SL: 1-2
L: 1-3
RL: 1-7. 9-10
RI: 1-10
W: 1-10
SL: 1-6
L: 1-6
9. Culturally
Responsive
Instruction
Culturally responsive instruction is a pedagogy that recognizes the
importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects
of learning.
All teachers should be usingCRI in their classrooms. The district is
really pushing this idea.
CRI must be a way of work.This is more about a state of mind than
a list of strategies you pick and choose from.
CRI stresses getting to know students and building relationships
with them.
Demonstration of CRI will have a positive impact on your
appraisal.
More Information: http://www.brown.edu/academics/education-
alliance/teaching-diverse-learners/strategies-0/culturally-
responsive-teaching-0
10. Culturally
Responsive
Instruction
Cont.
Some characteristics of CRI are:
Positive Perspectives on Parents and Families
Communication of High Expectations
Learning Within the Context of Culture
Student-Centered Instruction
Culturally Mediated Instruction
Reshaping the Curriculum
Teacher as Facilitator
In your packets, take a few moments to read the list of ideas for
each characteristic of CRI. As you read, star a few that you think
would be nice to focus on for the upcoming school year. We need
to pick three as a department that we want to consciously do this
year and turn it in.
11. New Features
on Focus
Focus is undergoing a major update. The plan was to have it live
by today.
You should be accessing Portal using Firefox or Chrome. Internet
Explorer doesn’t work.
We will have a thorough training during pre-school.
Major features of the new update:
Pacing guides,Core Connections Lessons, suggested reading lists,
etc. will all be posted online.
Lesson planning tools
Ability to upload lesson plans (it will be a site-based decision as to
whether we HAVE to upload them – I have not heard anything about
this)
Can share uploaded lesson plans with colleagues or parents.
Administrators can see what you upload.
“Year at a Glance” feature will allow you to see what’s going on in
each quarter.
Teacher course pages will be nicer and more user-friendly
Teachers can make tests and assignments and put them online
12. Textbook
News
Books are here!
I e-mailed instructions on how to sign up for our online accounts.
Let me know if you need help.
Student accounts are coming,Chastity will e-mail more
information.
One textbook per child will be delivered. No extras. Chastity
recommend checking them out to students on an as-needed basis.
I went to the textbook training. If you have any questions about
how the online stuff works, let me know and I can help.
Books will be delivered to our rooms next week. Mrs. Lurie is still
stamping them. She will try to get us our teacher editions on
Tuesday.
13. School News
Open house is coming:
6th Grade:Thursday, 8/14 @ 6:00 p.m.
7th and 8th Grade: 9/8 @ 6:30 p.m.
The language arts and reading departments will now be meeting
TOGETHER for our department meetings. Meetings will take
place in room 302 (Mrs. Marn’s room)
All Read 180 students now have a regular LA class as well
Accreditation
SIP
14. Accreditation
Over the summer, a small team of teachers met and rated the
school’s performance in several categories.
Basically, the team completed a pre-assessment for accreditation.
Now, each department is going to look at a section of those
standards and see if we agree with the team’s rating or not.
We rate each standard on a scale of 1-4
1: No evidence of this practice in our school
4:We are completing this standard to perfection
21. SIP
We are responsible for:
Creating a writing goal
Listing data sources that will measure that goal
Four top actions we will take to accomplish our goal
Four plans to implement our actions
22. SIP –Goal and
DataSources
Our goal from last year:
To improve the number of students scoring a 3.5 score on the FCAT
Writes test in February of 2014 from 53% to 80%
Possible goal for this year:
80% of students will write to proficiency on the writing portion of
the Florida Standards Assessment in March of 2015.
Data Sources:
Writing FSA results data
Write Score results data
Other ideas?
23. Actions and
Planning
Action 1:Teachers will use formative assessment data to guide
instruction.
Plan to Implement:
Teachers will participate in two Write Score practice assessments in
September and January.
Teachers will view their students’ Write Score results and use those
results to focus on teaching areas of weakness and reinforcing areas of
strength.
Action 2:Teachers will implement appropriately rigorous writing
lessons aligned to the Florida Standards.
Plan to Implement:
Teachers will attend Core Connections Trainings and learn effective and
rigorous writing strategies for their classrooms.
Teachers will implement Core Connections lessons in their classroom
and receive feedback on their students’ writing progress via trainings.
Teachers will use the knowledge gained from their Core Connections
training to design their own writing lessons aligned to the Florida
Standards.
24. Actions and
Planning
Action 3:Teachers will pair close reading of texts to writing
assignments using a variety of research-based strategies.
Plan to Implement:
Teachers will attend training on the Cornell Way and implement the
process in their classrooms.
Teachers will use strategies such as Cornell Notes, collaborative group
structures, and WICOR to encourage close reading, text marking, citing
textual evidence and writing from texts.
Action 4: Language arts and reading teachers will collaborate to
improve the writing instruction of their students.
Plan to Implement:
Language arts and reading teachers will meet together as departments
to coordinate instruction and stay informed of county directives
regarding their subject areas.
Language arts and reading teachers will share student data at PLC
meetings to diagnose areas of difficulty and design writing lessons.
Teachers will participate in lesson studies to create effective, rigorous
lessons with writing components.
25. ExtraActivities
Use blank calendar pages in packet to plan out a time to work on
the first Core Connections lesson.
Remember, LA and Reading should coordinate with each other to do
their lessons around the same time.
You should allow 3-5 days for the lesson and 1-3 days for the
assessment.
Both parts should be completed by your Core Connections date.
Explore the online practice tests for the new assessment
http://www.fsassessments.org/
Explore the new features on Focus
Work with grade level colleagues to plan.