Sign Up for Fall Grade Alike Sessions in WCSU!

Click here for more information on Semester 1 dates and offerings and to sign up for sessions.*

One thing, I hear frequently from teachers (especially at our smaller schools) is how much they value having opportunities to collaborate with other teachers who teach at their grade level.  Last year, we changed things up and piloted three kinds of district-wide collaborative professional learning opportunities: Curriculum Topic Study, Benchmark Calibration & Revision, and Lesson Study.

In case you're unfamiliar with these activities:

• Curriculum Topic Study involves: (1) Looking in depth at a topic of choice as a grade level cluster across schools; (2) Provides participants structure to address their needs and interests. See the video below for an example of the nerdy goodness we produced:

• Lesson Study involves: (1) Looking at student data and planning a lesson collaboratively using backwards design; (2) Observing the lesson and collecting data; and (3) Debriefing the lesson, looking at the data and deciding instructional next steps.  See the video below to see an example of an upper elementary lesson study:

 

• Benchmark Assessment Calibration involves: (1) bringing examples of student work on benchmark assessments, (2) using a calibration protocol for scoring; (3) tuning/revising tasks and instructions as needed.

Teachers appreciated and valued these opportunities, but noted some difficulty with arranging substitutes and the timing of the sessions. Based on feedback from WCSU teachers, I created a schedule for district-wide collaborative professional learning opportunities for semester 1.

The opportunities are designed to be modular and open to all teachers across the supervisory union who are interested in attending.  Teachers can opt to participate in half days or full days depending on availability and individual goals.  I am hoping that by providing this flexibility and the dates well in advance, I can make these opportunities accessible to all teachers.

I made a google form that teachers can use to sign up for sessions.  Please note:  The first one is for grades 3-4 and is on October 23.

Click here for more information on Semester 1 dates and offerings and to sign up for sessions.*

Once you've signed up, please enter the dates into Aesop as soon as possible to give your building administrator and assistant the best chance to get you a sub.

If you have any questions/concerns or need any clarifications.  Please don't hesitate to let me know...  And thanks to all of you for providing me with the feedback I needed to put this together!  I look forward to collaborating with you...

*Lesson study participants may recognize that this communication tactic makes use of the primacy-recency effect!

STAR 360 or Bust! - (Part 2) So What?

With a few bumps in the road, we made it through the fall screening window for STAR 360.  Now that we've got the data, what can we do with it?

In this post, I will address these topics:

• What is the purpose of this assessment?
• What is the relationship between RtI (or MTSS) and STAR 360?
• How to use various reports to access the data and use it to formulate an instructional response?
• How to use STAR to monitor progress for students receiving interventions?

STAR 360 or Bust! - (Part 1) Fall Screening for Math and Reading

I apologize in advance that this is not an exciting post, but it is a necessary one.  Next week, I promise to share something exciting that the Berlin Grade 4-6 team is cooking up around personalized learning. For now, the purpose of this post is to provide WCSU teachers in grades 1-10 with the information they need to administer the STAR Math and Reading screening assessments for our fall window.

The Nitty Gritty

Here are the basics, see the embedded links for more detailed info.

• When? The screening window is Tuesday, September 5 - Monday, September 18, 2017. 
• Where? The STAR 360 link for both students and teachers can be found here and also under the "Staff" links on any of our school websites (see the screenshot included at the top of this post).
• Who? All students in grades 1-10 will take the STAR Math assessment.  All students in grades 3-10 will take the STAR Reading assessment.  Any teacher or special educator can administer the assessment.
• How? Last year I created this site (WCSU STAR 360 Training Site) with modules 1 and 2 explaining how to log in, verify that your class is there, etc.*
• Why? STAR 360 is "universal screener" that is part of our balanced and comprehensive assessment plan for WCSU (for more info you can find the plan linked here).  It is used to identify students who are experiencing difficulty (or are likely to) and who are in need of further diagnostic assessment or possibly additional support within the MTSS-RtII.**  

*Just a note on organization... For elementary multi-age classes, I have created two "classes" in STAR 360 one at each grade level, for example Cindy Gauthier's 3-4 class shows up as "Gauthier 3" in grade 3 and "Gauthier 4" in grade 4.  At U-32, each grade is organized by team, for example "Porthos 7" in grade 7 and "A" in Grade 9.

**Later STAR can also be used to diagnose difficulties and progress monitor interventions.  You can check out how to access reports in module 4 on the training site (linked here).  I'll post more on this later.

Questions?

If you have any questions/concerns/difficulties, please contact Michelle Ksepka at central office or me (edorsey@u32.org).

Additionally, resources at the building level are:

• U-32 - Kendra Christiana
• Berlin - Kimberly Farone
• Calais - Mary Carpenter
• Doty - Sonya Rhodes
• East Montpelier - Anne Carter
• Rumney - Chip Hedler

WCSU "Effective" Practices for Math Instruction and Other Odds and Ends

I don't know about you, but once I see my first leaf tinged with orange, my runaway summer brain begins turning the corner back towards school.  This morning, I was running in the woods behind my house and stumbled upon the little beauty pictured in this post.  So, I guess it's that time, again.

As you're turning your own corner back towards school, here is a quick update on mathy things afoot in WCSU that might help you ease into things with your math instruction...

Instructional Coaching schedule

First, here is the draft plan and schedule for math coaching residencies in WCSU this year:  Proposed Instructional Coaching Plan and Cycles for 2017-18.  It's a draft.  So, if you have any thoughts or comments (about what is happening and when) please comment or send me an email.

Effective Practices in Math Instruction

Second, here is a link to the draft WCSU Effective Practices in Math Instruction document that the Math Steering Committee worked on in June.  Again, this is a draft.  If you have comments, questions, ideas please comment or email them to me (edorsey@u32.org).

You may want to pick one or two of these practices to focus on this year in coaching and/or evaluations by your administrator.

Curriculum Maps and Planning Guides

In grades k-8, we have completed WCSU Curriculum Maps and Planning Guides. Please check out the Curriculum Map and Planning Guide on your respective grade level tab on this blog (it is the second link).  Here is a third grade example.

As always, please send me your thoughts, feedback and questions.  I hope you're enjoying these precious last weeks.

All About Oneness @ Rumney School

Composite shapes are a prerequisite for our lesson on fractions.

It's a dreary, rainy Monday morning, but I'm still basking in the afterglow of a fabulous lesson study that I feel so lucky to have participated in this past Wednesday in first grade at Rumney School.  In this blog post, I will provide:

• An overview description of the lesson study.
• A fly on the wall perspective of the lesson.

If you're wondering: "What the heck is lesson study?"  You may want to check out this blog post first: Decimal Madness: Anatomy of a Lesson Study.

First grade teachers in WCSU will want to check out the changes to WCSU PI 1.7, the proficiency scale for a new performance indicator (WCSU PI 1.8) and the new June benchmark assessment.

Digging Deeper Presentation - April 10, 2017

This presentation accompanies a video presented at Digging Deeper on April 10, 2017.

Here's the video:

Here's the prezi:

Crazy About Maps

Note: If you'd rather skip my rambling free write, go on ahead to the bottom of this post for information about how to access curriculum maps and planning guides for grades K-6 (7-8 are coming soon!).

Since I was a small child, I have been crazy about maps.   My parents were some serious outdoor enthusiasts to the tune of multi-week canoeing excursions in parts of Ontario only available to those willing to bump along class four roads for several hours.  When Nixon resigned, we didn't hear about it until weeks after the news went viral (before that was even a thing) in the United States.  In 1978, my mother wrote the book pictured in this post providing advice for those looking to do extended wandering in the woods with their toddlers.  It is long out of print (if you can imagine that...), but highlights two principles that have shaped my outlook in so many ways: the importance of exploring (and savoring!) wild places, but also the need for planning ahead and knowing where you are.

I remember my father meticulously slicking waterproofing over our maps months in advance of a trip.  Then he would pour over those maps for hours.  On the river, he would keep the maps between his ankles in a watertight cartridge box that he purchased for this purpose from an Army-Navy store in Boston.  Although we kept the maps close by, we didn't look them over constantly.  We didn't need to- my parents had studied them enough to have a feel for how the river progressed through the terrain.  And we couldn't - we had to keep our attention on aspects of river that can never be mapped: the mainflow, the chutes, the swirling eddies that hint at a rock just below the surface.  There are two viewpoints: one at the water level and another at the map level.  Good navigation requires shifting focus between the two levels fluidly at just the right time.

Recently, I had a conversation with Lisa (a sixth grade teacher with whom I am lucky to work) about this balance between the water view and the map view when solving math tasks.  She told me about one of her students.  The girl was madly (in a good way) solving a problem at the water level and paused with a puzzled expression.  She told Lisa that she couldn't remember where she was.  Lisa pulled out her figurative map... "What did you just do?  So what was the problem all about?  What was your plan? What did you do first?  Why?  And then what?"

We both agreed that it's important for students to have a sense of adventure, to explore the wilds of math.  Yet, it's also important to be able to pull back, pause their progress to reflect, to get the picture of where they are, where they've been and where they're going.  

I shared with Lisa how overwhelmed I was at the zoo in Washington DC last April vacation with the heat and the herds of strollers.  Just when I thought I would go mad (in a bad way), I would hit an intersection punctuated with a sign line this one:

And aaaaah.  I could regroup, reflect and return to exploring.  The river rolled on.  I think graphic organizers like this one can be so good for facilitating these pauses during problem solving.  

As math teachers, we need a balance between the water view and the map view, too.  We also need to reflect, to shift our focus between the two perspectives.  I have been hearing from teachers that they would appreciate some help with their navigation.  I've been working like mad (in a good way) over the last few weeks to make some curriculum maps that (I hope) will help.  The idea is to make a document that balances the two views.

Okay, enough rambling!  On to the real news...

To access the WCSU Curriculum Map and Planning Guide for your grade level, go to the respective tab on this blog and click on the second link under planning (see below).

 

Enjoy the journey.