Focus For Classroom Visits

Teachers,

After Steve Dunn returned to provide staff development around Writers' Workshop and the nonfiction reading strategies of summarizing and paraphrasing. There were a few high impact strategies I wanted to focus on when giving feedback in quick visits during the upcoming months.

1) The continued use of clear learning targets for mini-lessons that students interact with.

2) Frequent use of pair shares to allow teachers to assess students' thinking and increase engagement. There are three levels of pair share experiences.

• Level One:  one word answer or thumbs up/thumbs down
• Level Two:  a complete sentence answer
• Level Three:  an explain your thinking/defend your answer (think why or how cues)

3) The use of the gradual release process without skipping the guided practice phase. The following link has a nice visual to remember all four steps. Gradual Release of Responsibility This visual uses the language demonstration instead of think aloud and shared practice in place of think together. 

These are all high impact strategies as a staff we've implemented, but we can continue to get better at our utilization of these strategies. Feel free to let me know which of these strategies you'd like the most feedback on. 

This Thursday our Day 6 collaboration will be focused on progress monitoring and making decisions on what students need Tier II reading or math interventions. 

The MAP Continuum

FYI:  On Wednesday, the lock down drill will occur at 10:45am. 

During Day 6 collaboration on Tuesday, we will take a look at your classroom's MAP reading data. I will have the class breakdown reports by goal for each classroom teacher. This report will allow us to look at students' current instructional level through the MAP assessment lens. 

The MAP assessment provides its own learning continuum. Through going through this process on Tuesday, it is my hope you'll see how this information aligns with the F + P continuum, allowing you to also use this resource to plan for your next steps in reading instruction. Here's a link to the MAP Website.

Please view my short webcast below for a little front-loading before our Day 6 Collaboration.

Day 6 Collaboration and Conferences

Classroom Teachers:

Tomorrow at your Day 6 Collaboration, you'll have the flexibility to focus on Tier I instruction, Tier II or your own learning. I have placed in the your Google Doc Day 6 folder the following template to guide your work:  Day 6 Protocol. Each Day 6 please make a copy of this protocol and rename it with that day's date within your Day 6 folder. Then focus on the area of need your team feels is the most important on that day.


Also leading into Parent/Teacher Conferences, I wanted you to have some helpful assessment information/resources shared by Ann Mitchell. Please know it is not my expectation you discuss PALS and MAP data at conferences. Especially for those of you just learning about these assessments for the first time this fall. These reports will go home in first trimester report cards.

PALS Parent Letter sample

NWEA MAP Talking Points for conferences

NWEA MAP Parent Letter (results)

How do I share assessment information with parents/guardians?

Hudson student-parent-teacher conferences should be meaningful conversations focused on student strengths, struggles, and next steps in learning. We want students to know themselves as learners, to understand steps they can take to practice areas of struggle, and to share goals with parents to help them focus their efforts.

Be thoughtful about using fall assessment data to communicate student learning with parents. Whether referencing NWEA MAP, F&P, PALS, or other assessments, please consider sharing the following:

§  Specific areas of strength and struggle (rather than a score or level). Highlight with students and for parents steps each can take to support the student making progress in their learning.

§  Explain the value of the assessment as an instructional tool designed to help you (the teacher) plan the best (literacy) instruction for their child.

§  If helpful to parents, provide an overview of the tasks that are assessed, the benchmark scores associated with each task, and the scores obtained by their child.

§  Identify the literacy instruction you have in place, and how you are planning to address their child's strengths and needs as indicated by the assessment.

§  With a focus on literacy and reading, encourage parents or siblings of emergent readers to read with each other, sing songs and rhymes, look through pictures in a book, and so on. Encourage parents of all students to explore books with their children, expand into a variety of genres, and talk about what they read.

If you are looking for additional guidance on how to conduct productive, literacy-rich meetings with parents, view the following webinar that is available on DPI’s Read Wisconsin (www.readwisconsin.net) website here.

The The Continuum of Literacy Learning and Planning for Guided Reading

Staff,

During this week's staff meeting, you'll have time to look at the current guided reading groups you've developed through the lens of the F+P Continuum of Literacy Learning. Please bring your groupings to this meeting.

On Tuesday turn to the guided reading tab/area of your continuum and focus on behaviors and understandings to notice, teach and support (within, beyond and about the text) within the specific instructional levels you'll be using with your reading groups. I'll have a graphic organizer available to assist you with your planning.

I also wanted to remind you of the Planning for Word Work after Guided Reading section found inside the guided reading area. These demonstration ideas can assist you in putting word work in context while allowing students to apply these skills.

Finally each instructional level within the guided reading section lists suggestions for selecting guided reading texts, as well as the characteristics of these texts at each instructional level. I'm looking forward to our time together to dig more deeply into this resource while planning for guided reading.