Monday, November 30, 2015

Formative Classroom Walkthroughs by Moss and Brookhart

Hot Topic!
A favorite for 2015 from the ASCD, the Formative Classroom Walkthroughs: How Principals and Teachers Collaborate to Raise Student Achievement book was the source of a day long workshop from the Delaware Literacy Institute. Here's the gist. 




About This Book

Revolutionize the walkthrough to focus on the endgame of teaching: student learning.
Authors Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart present the proven practice of formative walkthroughs that ask and answer questions that are specific to what the student is learning and doing.
Learn the value of having the observer examine the lesson from the student’s point of view and seek evidence of seven key learning components:
  • a worthwhile lesson
  • a learning target
  • a performance of understanding
  • look-fors, or success criteria
  • formative feedback
  • student self-assessment
  • effective questioning
Drawing upon their research and extensive work with K–12 teachers and administrators, Moss and Brookhart delve into the learning target theory of action that debuted in Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson and show you how to develop a schoolwide collaborative culture that enhances the learning of teachers, administrators, coaches, and students. 
They present detailed examples of how formative walkthroughs work across grade levels and subject areas, and provide useful templates that administrators and coaches can use to get started—now.
Grounded in the beliefs that schools improve when educators improve and that the best evidence of improvement comes from what we see students doing to learn in every lesson, every day,Formative Classroom Walkthroughs offers a path to improvement that makes sense—and makes a difference.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Friday, November 20, 2015

American Education Week Comments


This week has been dedicated to people who work with children in schools but my most memorable moment centers around something that I saw on the way to school. I was waiting opposite a bus that was stopped to pick up a student. 

Something on the bus must have rolled to the floor and a student came forward to pick it up from the front of the bus. Just then, the driver reached over and gave the child a big hug.  How good that must have felt for that child! Sometimes a hug is all you need to see you through!

Here's to all my colleagues who support children every day! 
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Learning Look Fors



The Delaware Literacy Fall Conference featured Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart, authors of Formative Classroom Walkthroughs.  As I listened and participated in the workshop on Tuesday, I kept thinking, this is what I've seen in classrooms across the Cape Henlopen School District. Talking to other teachers, we agreed that this work fits well into what we already use from our LFS training.  

Here's my short list of what we as teachers need to know:

  1. Good lesson plans with objectives including "what they will learn..."
  2. Students' essential knowledge, skills, reasoning through the lessons
  3. A strong performance understanding that links to a formative assessment
  4. Learning Targets - what it is? and how will I know?
  5. Look-Fors - the learning the students are asked to demonstrate


Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Nov 16-20 Let's Celebrate!



American Education Week
THANKS TO ALL TEACHERS AND EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT!
Click here to learn what good things are planned across the country and in your backyard!

Monday, November 9, 2015

Literacy Standards for History/SS in Grades 9-10

Taken from the Delaware Department of Education website
Common Core State Standard Initiative

Today’s students are preparing to enter a world in which colleges and businesses are demanding more than ever before. To ensure all students are ready for success after high school, the Common Core State Standards establish clear, consistent guidelines for what every student should know and be able to do. The Common Core focuses on developing the critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills students will need to be successful. The standards establish guidelines for literacy in history and social studies. Because students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, the standards promote the literacy skills and concepts required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines. Beginning in grade 6, the literacy standards allow teachers of ELA, history/social studies, science, and technical subjects to use their content area expertise to help students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language in their respective fields. It is important to note that the grade 6–12 literacy standards in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects are meant to supplement content standards in those areas, not replace them.


Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.3 Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

Craft and Structure: 
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.5 Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.6 Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

Literacy Standards for History/Social Studies in grades 9-10 

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.7 Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.8 Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.9 Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.10 By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Friday, November 6, 2015

The Great Thanksgiving Listen

This Thanksgiving weekend, StoryCorps will work with teachers and high school students across the country to preserve the voices and stories of an entire generation of Americans over a single holiday weekend.

Open to everyone, The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national assignment to engage people of all ages in the act of listening. The pilot project is specially designed for students ages 13 and over and as part of a social studies, history, civics, government, journalism, or political science class, or as an extracurricular activity. All that is needed to participate is a smartphone and the StoryCorps mobile app.

Not a teacher or a school? You can still participate! Click here to learn more.

Scenarios for Opening Schools

This is the most well thought out article that I have read about possible scenarios for opening schools.  Jennifer Gonzalez - Cult of P...