Selma Unified School District Department of Curriculum and Instruction

1. Selma Unified School DistrictDepartment of Curriculum and Instruction Kindergarten Release Day Day 2 February 10, 2011

2. Welcome Norms The Big Picture: Switch in agenda Goals for this session Thank you to ______________________________She and ________________________________are our Administrative team. They will be joining us at each of our release days. They will help us to answer those questions that I do not have the authority to answer and to carry those that they can not answer forward for answers. They introduced the district norms which are going to be used for all district level meetings�I have placed those on your table along with a picture of Norm from Cheers�.he is there to remind us to keep faithful to the spirit of the norms�.if you feel someone it violating a norm all you have to do is to hold Norm high into the air and we will resolve the issue. So use Norm as a comical way to help us remember the commitments we have made to conduct these meetings in a professional manner that values all participants�to enter into the spirit of the day with a positive attitude and to focus us on our primary target which is student leraning. Ready or not here we go��.. I hope you brought you�re A game today as we have a lot of crucial information to share. If you haven�t heard yet let me be the first to inform you that this is a year of change�Today will be no exception. Audrey Taylor will be joining us later to review District documents and information. You have a new adoption, some changes to your assessment, a few modificaiton on your report card and Audrey will introduce an updated At Risk criteria we are going to pilot this year. We need to find out where we are in the ELA Adoption�.this will help me to plan for what you need in the next two sessions. We will talk about the new DRA protocols as well as setting up our DRA binders. So that is the Big Picture�.our focus this year while still on writing is taking a turn to supporting the new adoption, getting everyone on the same page with regard to district assessments, timelines, and procedures, and finally on writing to achieve. With that said I invite you to join me in the work of today�.Thank you to ______________________________She and ________________________________are our Administrative team. They will be joining us at each of our release days. They will help us to answer those questions that I do not have the authority to answer and to carry those that they can not answer forward for answers. They introduced the district norms which are going to be used for all district level meetings�I have placed those on your table along with a picture of Norm from Cheers�.he is there to remind us to keep faithful to the spirit of the norms�.if you feel someone it violating a norm all you have to do is to hold Norm high into the air and we will resolve the issue. So use Norm as a comical way to help us remember the commitments we have made to conduct these meetings in a professional manner that values all participants�to enter into the spirit of the day with a positive attitude and to focus us on our primary target which is student leraning. Ready or not here we go��.. I hope you brought you�re A game today as we have a lot of crucial information to share. If you haven�t heard yet let me be the first to inform you that this is a year of change�Today will be no exception. Audrey Taylor will be joining us later to review District documents and information. You have a new adoption, some changes to your assessment, a few modificaiton on your report card and Audrey will introduce an updated At Risk criteria we are going to pilot this year. We need to find out where we are in the ELA Adoption�.this will help me to plan for what you need in the next two sessions. We will talk about the new DRA protocols as well as setting up our DRA binders. So that is the Big Picture�.our focus this year while still on writing is taking a turn to supporting the new adoption, getting everyone on the same page with regard to district assessments, timelines, and procedures, and finally on writing to achieve. With that said I invite you to join me in the work of today�.

3. Selecting Essential Standards in Selma Unified School District �All Standards are not Created Equal� 2010-11

4. How Do Each of Us Choose What is Essential to Teach? Who among you has ever been able to teach and assess all the standards and indicators for which you are responsible? So how do you decide which standards are the important ones to teach and assess? Do we all use the same selection criteria?

5. �In absence of an agreed-upon set of criteria for prioritizing the standards and indicators, educators will, out of necessity, make up their own.� -Power Standards: Identifying the Standards that Matter the Most, Larry Ainsworth, 2003

6. Goal - Moving From This Model�

7. To This Model

8. What are Essential Standards? Essential Standards are the agreed upon standards that have endurance, leverage and develop readiness for the next grade level.

9. Criteria for Selecting an Essential Standard Endurance � Will this standard provide students with knowledge and skills of value beyond a single test date? Leverage � Will proficiency in this standard help the student in other areas of the curriculum and other academic disciplines? Develop readiness for next level of learning � Is it essential for success in the next unit, course or grade level?

10. Why Are Essential Standards Important? �By focusing on essential skills, teachers prepare students for 80% to 90% of the content that will be addressed on state tests.� (Doug Reeves, 2002)

11. How Many Essential Standards? �We recommend that teams start by identifying 8 to 10 most essential outcomes students will be expected to achieve in the subject area for that semester (trimester).� (DuFour, 2006)

12. Clarifying What Students Must Learn The essential learning must be aligned with state and district curriculum guides. The essential learning must ensure students are well-prepared to demonstrate proficiency on state, district and national assessments. DuFour, 2006

13. Directions for Activity Each group has been assigned a strand of the ELA content standards. Step One: Using the criteria of endurance, leverage and developing readiness, classify each standard as either a primary or secondary standard. -Resources provided include: Standards At A Glance Grade level ELA standards Individual standard cards Group poster

14. Criteria for Selecting an Essential Standard Endurance � will this standard provide students with knowledge and skills of value beyond a single test date? Leverage � will proficiency in this standard help the student in other areas of the curriculum and other academic disciplines? Develop readiness for next level of learning � is it essential for success in the next unit, course or grade level?

15. Directions for Activity Step Two: With your group go to one of the other strand posters to review and provide input. If you have questions or think there should be a change, please use a sticky note to record and post your ideas. - Please don�t move the standards that have been classified already by the group. - You will be signaled when it is time to move to the next poster. - If your group agrees with something recorded on a sticky note by another group, please place a check mark on the same note.

16. Next Steps Each site will provide teacher representation for a districtwide vertical articulation team. Team will meet after contract hours (supplemental pay) to look for gaps, overlaps, and omissions in first draft of essential standards. Team will also look for the correlation to CST/CELDT/CAHSEE/Common Core Standards and make any revisions. Second draft for current grade, grade above, and grade below will be shared at Day 3 of WTA. Is there a particular standard or indicator needing to be taught to students in more than one grade that is missing from a particular grade�s list (gap)? Is there a certain standard that is being redundantly taught in two or three grades that could be thoroughly taught in one grade (overlap)? Is there a particular standard likely to be state-tested that is completely missing from two or more grade levels (an omission)? Is there a particular standard or indicator needing to be taught to students in more than one grade that is missing from a particular grade�s list (gap)? Is there a certain standard that is being redundantly taught in two or three grades that could be thoroughly taught in one grade (overlap)? Is there a particular standard likely to be state-tested that is completely missing from two or more grade levels (an omission)?

17. District Priorities Daily time for writing in classrooms (WTA) Small group reading instruction use of DRA2 as Summative Assessment Use of Running Records as Formative Assessment Math

18. Summative vs Formative Assessment Summative Assessment Culmination Assesses student mastery of what was taught/learned DRA: Mastery level: 94%+ with Independent level comprehension. Formative Assessment On-going Diagnostic May be performance based Used to drive instruction Guided Reading: Running Records: Instructional level, 90-93% It is essential if we are to talk about assessment data in any useable way that we all understand clearly the difference between Summative Assessments and Formative Assessments�. I have placed a copy of a higher level DRA in your folder. Be sure you review the comprehension pices prior to giving the test once you reach levels 4 + �watch the video of support, call me if you have questions. The Comprehension portion is in depth so be sure you revie wthe questions you are allowed to ask, check how it is scored so you know what to make note of . Remember we are only doing test level with Indep comprehension. You do not need to use the DRA to test fluency, CAP, or anything else. If we don�t the data will be invalid. If we let the focus slip back to teaching/instruction as opposed to student learning the data will be invalid. When we think it is more about us than about what the student has learned the data becomes invalid. So let�s see what we can do to clarify these foundational terms. If you attended the PLC conference they constantly talked about all districts having powerful mission statements but it is what you do with those that is important�the same is true of testing�We all have summative and formative assessments, most of you can offer some superficial definition of those terms�you may be sitting there thinking why do we need to go over this again???? Having the assessments isn�t enough�going through the motions isn�t enough�If it was we would all be out of PI�there is something deeper that we are missing� Summative assessments are assessments you give at the end of something�That are rarely used in any way to drive instruction �more often they are somewhat punitive�We talk about the results like the assessment police are going to be on our doors any day� Their purpose is to assess mastery �.We want to know what the child can do alone�We rarely have the opportunity to re-teach after these exams and they occur after a long period of instruction�ie a trimester, the year�In Kinder you are unique in that your summative has really been on going assessment�so you realy haven�t had a summative assessment..did you realize that??? Formative assessment is assessment that is on going�done at short intervals to assess the learning of a specific amount of information recently taught . The results are used to drive instruction, to form intervention plans, and to diagnose what is going well and what isn�t . �.It is essential to quality teaching and may be preformance or project based where summative assessments are more often multiple choice. Which are more useful�.the asnwer may surprise you because it is BOTH�on a daily basis you should be using formative assessment�quick checks, thumbs up, thumbs down, tell your neighbor, guided reading, centers all are formative assessments if you use them that way� You should constantly be grouping and re grouping students for specific purposes due to your on going assessments� The summative assessment ie DRA2 which we will talk about soon, the summative test you will administer this year�.will be valuable in knowing what students can do by themselves� We have to own how powerful that is if we are to have quality summative assessments�.especially at the k-1 level�We have to be willing to let the student fail if that is truly where he or she is along the journey to proficiency�.We can�t give them hints, we can�t look the other way�If we do we are letting our egos interfer with the students learning�we are potentially handicapping the student�.Think if teachers give the child the �benefit of the doubt��year after year�isn�t that just as bad as inabling a drug addict by making excuses for their behavior�How does it prepare them to be resourceful and persistent, to dev. stamina??? On the other hand there are those of us in the room who are too punitive and that can be just as damaging�so as we take this new journey this year be very aware of your feelings when you are assessing�..what you are thinking about assessment�You have to be able to be neutral. If you find you can not then you should get someone else to assess your students. It is essential if we are to talk about assessment data in any useable way that we all understand clearly the difference between Summative Assessments and Formative Assessments�. I have placed a copy of a higher level DRA in your folder. Be sure you review the comprehension pices prior to giving the test once you reach levels 4 + �watch the video of support, call me if you have questions. The Comprehension portion is in depth so be sure you revie wthe questions you are allowed to ask, check how it is scored so you know what to make note of . Remember we are only doing test level with Indep comprehension. You do not need to use the DRA to test fluency, CAP, or anything else. If we don�t the data will be invalid. If we let the focus slip back to teaching/instruction as opposed to student learning the data will be invalid. When we think it is more about us than about what the student has learned the data becomes invalid. So let�s see what we can do to clarify these foundational terms. If you attended the PLC conference they constantly talked about all districts having powerful mission statements but it is what you do with those that is important�the same is true of testing�We all have summative and formative assessments, most of you can offer some superficial definition of those terms�you may be sitting there thinking why do we need to go over this again???? Having the assessments isn�t enough�going through the motions isn�t enough�If it was we would all be out of PI�there is something deeper that we are missing� Summative assessments are assessments you give at the end of something�That are rarely used in any way to drive instruction �more often they are somewhat punitive�We talk about the results like the assessment police are going to be on our doors any day� Their purpose is to assess mastery �.We want to know what the child can do alone�We rarely have the opportunity to re-teach after these exams and they occur after a long period of instruction�ie a trimester, the year�In Kinder you are unique in that your summative has really been on going assessment�so you realy haven�t had a summative assessment..did you realize that??? Formative assessment is assessment that is on going�done at short intervals to assess the learning of a specific amount of information recently taught . The results are used to drive instruction, to form intervention plans, and to diagnose what is going well and what isn�t . �.It is essential to quality teaching and may be preformance or project based where summative assessments are more often multiple choice. Which are more useful�.the asnwer may surprise you because it is BOTH�on a daily basis you should be using formative assessment�quick checks, thumbs up, thumbs down, tell your neighbor, guided reading, centers all are formative assessments if you use them that way� You should constantly be grouping and re grouping students for specific purposes due to your on going assessments� The summative assessment ie DRA2 which we will talk about soon, the summative test you will administer this year�.will be valuable in knowing what students can do by themselves� We have to own how powerful that is if we are to have quality summative assessments�.especially at the k-1 level�We have to be willing to let the student fail if that is truly where he or she is along the journey to proficiency�.We can�t give them hints, we can�t look the other way�If we do we are letting our egos interfer with the students learning�we are potentially handicapping the student�.Think if teachers give the child the �benefit of the doubt��year after year�isn�t that just as bad as inabling a drug addict by making excuses for their behavior�How does it prepare them to be resourceful and persistent, to dev. stamina??? On the other hand there are those of us in the room who are too punitive and that can be just as damaging�so as we take this new journey this year be very aware of your feelings when you are assessing�..what you are thinking about assessment�You have to be able to be neutral. If you find you can not then you should get someone else to assess your students.

19. Running Record TrainingDebbie JuraSelma Unified School District �If Running Records are taken in a systematic way they provide evidence of how well children are learning to direct their knowledge of letters, sounds, and words to understanding the messages in the text.� Marie Clay, 2002

20. Table Talk How comfortable are you with taking and analyzing Running Records? What is your experience with Running Records? How often do you use them? How often do you fully analyze the MSV section of the Running Record? How do you use them?

21. Binder Overview Marie Clay�s book Purposes Conventions Calculations charts Blank running records Guidelines for what to teach next

22. Purposes of the Running Record Formative Assessment To help in the placement of children To decide what text is appropriate To capture reading behavior To keep a record of change over time To help make critical decisions about an individual student Running Records are the single most powerful tool you have for assessing literacy. The only thing missing is writing. Running Records are the single most powerful tool you have for assessing literacy. The only thing missing is writing.

23. Having taken a running record the teacher can review��. 1.What happened , what the student used to read the text, leading to a praise and teaching point during the lesson. 2. Strategies used and neglected to plan for the next lesson (ZPD). 3. How well the student is putting it all together to develop a self extending system.

24. Remember� �Taking Running Records should be as relaxed as sharing a book with a child. Teachers who have practiced with a wide variety of children and are at ease in taking Running Records will be the teachers who get the most informative records and will make the fairest interpretations.� Marie Clay, 2002

25. Steps In Taking a Running Record Conventions or �ticking� Calculating accuracy Calculating Error rate Calculating Self Correction rate Praise points and teaching points Analysis of m/s/v Planning what�s next

26. Some basic information� Running Records allow for a standard way of recording A Running Record does not require a special form for recording errors. Mark each word in a line of text. Record all trails by the child Wrong response: CHILD text/teacher response

28. Break Please return in 15 mins.

29. What is an Error Words left out Words added Tolds Multiple attempts by the child =1 error Contractions I will SC�s are NOT scored as an ERROR Always calculate to the least number of errors.

30. Calculating rates Count the words read from the text, omitting titles. (A minimum of 100 is best) Total the number of errors Divide words read 77 =18 1:18=94% errors 4 Use the conversion chart to find rates for accuracy, errors, and self corrections. SC + E = 2+4 =3 SC 2

31. Discussion/Questions/Challenges Talk at your table about your experiences. Were there any surprises? Challenges?

32. Analysis of the Running Record Reader�s of text appear to make decisions about the quality of the message they are getting. One theory is that they are recalling or attacking words. Another theory is that the student is working to get the best fit possible with the limited knowledge he has. It is the last theory that guides teacher decision making. (Marie Clay, Running Records For Classroom Teachers)

33. 3Cueing Systems

34. Steps Analyze errors for m,s,v. Read up to and including the error. Ask yourself: does that make sense? Read up to and including the error.Ask yourself: Does that sound right? (Correct English grammar) Read up to and including the error. Ask yourself: Does it look like the word in the text? Is there visual similarity? Look at the sc�s and ask �What further information did the student use to correct the error?

35. Steps continued 5. Total all the columns . 6. Decide which cues the child used and which he/she neglected. 7. What did the child do well? 8. Determine what�s next for this child? What does he/she need to learn to do? Best praise points: sc�s and previously taught strategies because you want them to use those again. Best teaching points: high freq words, strategies they are missing ie reading to the end of a word, making senseBest praise points: sc�s and previously taught strategies because you want them to use those again. Best teaching points: high freq words, strategies they are missing ie reading to the end of a word, making sense

36. Let�s Practice Select one of the Running Records. Calculate all missing information Fully analyze the m, s, v�s and the sc�s. Find what the child used and neglected. What would your praise point be? What�s next for this child?

37. YOU DID IT!! Remember practice is the only way to become proficient. You should take at least 1 running record daily. (Focus student) Don�t over think any one error. You are looking for a pattern. In the future, the District goal is that you will have a minimum of 2 fully analyzed running records for each student below grade level.

38. Writing To Achieve �Writer�s don�t improve their craft unless they have a real purpose, a real audience, and a real investment in their writing.�Mem Fox

39. Goals Share results: What do you need to do to get 80% prof. or advanced by the end of the year? Clarify expectations for descriptive writing Share best practices

40. KindergartenTrimester 1 Results(1/2 of students are EL students) Looking at your rubric�Proficient score 3�.what do you think you need to do to ensure that you have 80% proficient by the end of the year?Looking at your rubric�Proficient score 3�.what do you think you need to do to ensure that you have 80% proficient by the end of the year?

41. Descriptive Writing Defined Trimester 2: describing a person. We are looking for the use of adjectives. Size, shape, number, color, texture, etc. Trimester 3: describing a food using sensory description. We are looking for how the food looks, taste, feels, sounds, smells, etc. Describing the food. Students must be writing regularly. MODEL, MODEL, MODEL. Read volumes of great literature and help students fall in love with words�Create grow lists of great words�Encourage students to use those words daily in journals, story writing, speaking�Celebrate the use of great words. They must learn to evaluate their writing and the writing of their peers. Use a kid friendly rubric with your kids to decide on a students grade and what they need to do to get a higher score� [] each sentence begins with a capital letter [] each sentence ends with .,?,! [] space between words [] nice handwriting []descriptive words []correct spelling of words I know [] use sounds to figure out words I don�t knowStudents must be writing regularly. MODEL, MODEL, MODEL. Read volumes of great literature and help students fall in love with words�Create grow lists of great words�Encourage students to use those words daily in journals, story writing, speaking�Celebrate the use of great words. They must learn to evaluate their writing and the writing of their peers. Use a kid friendly rubric with your kids to decide on a students grade and what they need to do to get a higher score� [] each sentence begins with a capital letter [] each sentence ends with .,?,! [] space between words [] nice handwriting []descriptive words []correct spelling of words I know [] use sounds to figure out words I don�t know

42. Lunch Please return in 1 hour

43. Sharing Ideas You will have 5-10 minutes to share your sites best practice for teaching descriptive writing. I will be timing you! Indianola, Washington, Wilson,Jackson, Roosevelt, Garfield, Terry. Me? Grow charts, poetry�.snail activity , sentence expansion. Me? Grow charts, poetry�.snail activity , sentence expansion.

44. ESGI Opportunity ESGI is a computer based assessment of letters, sounds, sight words and more. Teacher created. Saves time Students enjoy testing Customizable Many support materials created for you: parent letters in Spanish and English, Intervention materials by student and more. www.esgisoftware.com to sign up, free. Let me know if you are interested in piloting.

45. Closure Fill out the evaluation form by completing the following stems.. I learned� I wish� I need�. Thanks for today. It is always a pleasure to be with you. Mark your calendar for our next date: Kindergarten: April 7, 2011