This will be quick.
During our PLC meeting today, we were considering the best way to assess our students on some non-fiction writing standards. As we discussed this, we realized that even within one standard, there were about fifty different vocabulary words, skills, etc. to which students (and teachers!) are held accountable. Since the new standards come in a smaller package, it seems as though any talk of deciding on your "power standards" and providing focus has completely disappeared. There are a lot of things our students need to know and quickly.
Do you ever feel like it is just too much??
Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of standards. I absolutely agree with standards-based teaching and assessment. There would indeed be chaos without it.
There are just some days when it feels like our students are asked to learn a lot in one year, and the task of teaching and assessing each standard we are given feels like attempting to do the impossible.
There. A quick snapshot of what I am currently pondering.
Any suggestions?
- How do you find focus in the new standards within your department?
- What are some ways you have found to minimize the stress of assessing all standards?
- In what ways do you hold students and teachers accountable to your standards?
- Other ideas?
Okay. It's been a while.
We have been writing memoirs with our students and it has been inspiring to watch our sixth graders realize they have a story to tell and to watch their eyes light up as they watch their stories be put into print. Some teachers have their students do a "rambling autobiography" to brainstorm some ideas for their memoirs; I have been out of the blogging world for a few months, so I thought I would get back in the swing of things with a "reflective rambling autobiography"...
I have been developing professionally by working on my final capstone project on co-teaching for my Master's degree. The literature review was one of the most difficult projects I have come across to date (and the reason I have been out of blogging world...), but I was fascinated to learn how my EL students acquire language and how to collaborate with another teacher to help facilitate this process. During second quarter, we added many sections of co-teaching and I found myself with a new co-teaching partner, so we have been working to blend our teaching styles into one classroom. I am learning a lot about leading a PLC and facilitating discussions so they are productive and meaningful for everyone in the department. We have completed many data protocol discussions this year, which have been eye-opening as we continue to struggle toward common assessments and grading practices. Along with my Master's, leading a PLC and co-teaching, or perhaps because of all this, I am learning a lot about myself as a teacher and have been forced to learn the importance of balance and of building good relationships with my colleagues. Side note: my colleagues are truly a blessing. This quarter, I am looking forward to a professional book club, new read alouds with my students, and heading to Seattle and Vancouver over spring break where I am excited to explore Pike's Place Market and do a zipline tour of the mountains of Canada.
Phew.
Now, you ramble...
*What are your thoughts on productive PLCs? What do they look like? What do they accomplish? What is awesome or difficult about them?
*How do you implement balance in your life as an educator?
*What do you appreciate most about your colleagues?
Back in November, many IC’s, LC’s and intervention teachers had the opportunity to attend the LiRN (Leadership in Reading Network) conference in Shoreview, MN. The afternoon sessions provided many pieces of insight upon which to reflect and below are my thoughts...Matt Burns, PhD, from the University of Minnesota gave a presentation on “Using Data to Navigate the Ocean of Interventions”. As you all know, there are MANY interventions available on the market. He ascertains that it is critical to individualize the intervention for each student and to stray from “one stop intervention”. For example, use MAP, MCA, or TOSCRF scores to identify students who need interventions. From those who need interventions, provide additional testing to identify specific areas (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocab/comprehension). Then, if a student needs support in Fluency, to select a research-based program that focuses on Fluency. Likewise, if a student needs support on comprehension to select a research-based program that focuses on developing comprehension. Dr.Vicki Weinberg from the Department of Education also gave a brief session on “Multi-tiered Systems of Support”. She talked about how to change the system of assessments, interventions and practices to better meet the needs of all students. She focused on how sometimes there are pools of money from different areas (Title I, ELL, Special Ed) and often, in many districts, it is practice to exclude certain students from certain interventions because of these pools of money (he/she can’t enroll in the reading support class because he/she is already getting special ed services). She offered the idea to first identify the needs of the students, then to identify the staff’s capacity to meet those needs regardless of job title or label (i.e. if there is a staff member who is stellar at reading interventions, he/she should administer interventions to whomever needs reading interventions). I will be the first to admit, that I have NO IDEA how funding works in our district with regards to this topic but the presentation really made me reflect on how we best meet the needs of our students regardless of which category they may fall into and the idea of better aligning our interventions based on the identified needs and not “robbing Peter to pay Paul” (she used that quote a few times). Questions I walked away from the conference with:
- What does intervention look like in Shakopee schools?
- How does it support all students regardless of labels/categories?
- How do we offer interventions systematically across schools?
- And, as we grow into a larger district, how to do we ensure all staff (especially the intervention/reading specialists) are on the same page with the process of offering interventions?
So many big questions are in front of us and even bigger opportunities for growth and change.
