Introduction to Communication Arts

1. Introduction toCommunication Arts Dr. Rebecca Langrall Secondary CA Coordinator New Teacher Orientation, 8/5/08

2. Essential Questions • What does it mean to be literate in the 21st Century? • What are the implications for my teaching?

3. 1. Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction 3 Stages of Backward Design

4. Stage One: Desired Results Unifying the Communication Arts community through a backward design approach to curriculum Articulating the curriculum across grades and divisions Implementing a guaranteed and viable curriculum Empowering students and teachers to reach their potential as learners and leaders through best practices Communicate and partner with members of the larger educational community through technology

5. Stage Two: How are we doing? -- ACT Data 5

6. Parkway ACT 6

7. AYP 7

8. Quick Write How much control do schools have over the student achievement of children living in poverty?

9. From Research: “An effective teacher enhances student learning more than any other aspect of schooling that can be controlled.”  -- Marzano

10. Schools that are Beating the Odds:Elmont Memorial Junior-Senior High School

11. Elmont Memorial Junior-Senior High SchoolElmont, New York 1,966 Students in Grades 7-12 75% African American 12% Latino Source: New York State School Report Card, http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/reportcard/

12. Higher Percentage of Students Meeting Graduation Requirements than the State, Class of 2004, Regents English Source: New York State School Report Card, http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/reportcard/

13. University Park Campus School

14. University Park Campus SchoolWorcester, Massachusetts 220 Students in Grades 7-12 9% African American 18% Asian 35% Latino 39% White 73% Low-Income Source: Massachusetts Department of Education School Profile, http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/

15. University Park Results: 2004 100% of 10th graders passed MA high school exit exam on first attempt. 87% passed at advanced or proficient level. Fifth most successful school in the state, surpassing many schools serving wealthy students. If they can do it, WE can do it!

16. Stage Two: Assessment • Baseline Data (PARS) • Know your students’learning preferences • MBTI (green)

17. Kiersey/Bates and the MBTI

21. Distribution of Type Among Teachers

22. Distribution of Types Among Teachers

23. Get into MBTI Groups • Favorite way to prepare for test • or assignments? • Pet peeves? • -If you were music, what would it be?

24. Stage Two: Assessment • Baseline Data (PARS) • Know your students’learning preferences • MBTI (green) • Know your students’reading needs– • Burke Inventory (pink)

25. Stage Two: Grading and Feedback “FAQs on Grading and Assessment” from Kent and Newkirk (2007). The Neglected R: Rethinking Writing Instruction in Secondary Classrooms • Key sentence • Key phrase • Key word

26. Stage Three: Best Practice Learning Experiences “….students can explore concepts, make connections, conceive ideas through writing if every piece of writing isn’t supposed to be formal, complete, and correct, a caricature of what is published in academic journals.” -- Jerry Herman in William Zinsser’s, Writing to Learn “The process of writing is the best means for overcoming the mind’s natural resistance to logic, order, & precision.”-- Jacques Barzun (1991)

27. Stage Three: Learning Experiences • Units of Study • HS – Department-based • MS – District-based • Online Curriculum Guide

28. About Curriculum… "It seems that no matter how radical restructuring talk may otherwise be, it almost never touches upon the curriculum itself. Much of what passes for restructuring is, in a sense, new bottles for old wine that has not gotten better with age. How is it that we claim to speak of school reform without addressing the centerpiece of schools, the curriculum?” -- Best Practice by Zemelman, Daniels and Hyde

29. Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Units of Study: Understanding by Design

30. Curriculum Timeline • Curriculum Writing -- ongoing uploads and revision • Common Assessments: • End of Course Exams – English II (09) English I (10) • District Writing Sample (9th) • MS Reading Assessments (new this year) • Fiction • Nonfiction

31. Stage Three: Learning Experiences • Best Practices in Reading • Read widely • $100 Classroom libraries • Read a lot • Have volume expectations, rewards • Act on the research about Boys

32. What motivates boy readers? • Competence and Control • Appropriate Challenge • Clear Goals and Feedback • A Focus on the Immediate • The Importance of the Social

33. Making it Matter in the Here and Now • Boys read when there is a pay off now… • What are the real questions of the discipline of English? • It’s real if it’s a live question within the discipline, you revisit it repeatedly with new ideas, and it allows you to differentiate instruction without embarrassing your students.

34. Examples • EQs should be energizing: • Is Huck Finn a racist text? • What makes me, me? • Are we responsible for our destinies? • Can authors write convincingly about characters very different from them- selves?

35. Competence and Control • Self-efficacy doesn’t transfer across contexts • You may need self-esteem to be willing to engage, but you really can’t develop it, without engaging and having success. • Helping students gain conscious control and independent application of reading strategies is the goal. (O’Henry, Bobby)

36. Stage Three: Best Practice Learning Experiences Interactive “Think Alouds” Using “Rules of Notice” for Comprehension Monitoring

37. 21st Century Literacy • The information age places higher-level literacy demands on all of us….these demands include synthesizing and evaluating information from multiple sources. American schools need to enhance the ability of children to search and sort through information, to synthesize and analyze the information they encounter. -- Literacy expert, Richard Allington, 2001

38. Technology Demonstration Classrooms • One classroom per HS and MS in each academic content area –SmartBoards, document cameras, recording equipment…. • Exploration of new relationships of “digital • natives” to knowledge, other students, • and the teacher through WIKIs, • BLOGs, Podcasting….

39. Brain Research & Technology V = Varied instruction & assessment I = Immediate, specific feedback S = Safe (physically, psychologically) A = Active involvement Emotion + Meaning = Long Term Memory

40. On-Going Professional Development for Best Practice • Fontbonne Institute– July 2008 • Parkway Literacy Institute– Summer 2008 • Salary Credit Courses (UbD,Inquiry, Grammar-in-Context) • Curriculum Coordinator Summer Workshops • Teacher-led Summer Workshops

41. Resources • Communication Arts Homepages • HS Professional Learning Communities • HS Professional Libraries • MS Literacy Libraries • MS Learning Communities • MS Literacy Coaches

42. Implementation of Researched Best Practices Literacy Coaching (Prop R) “Effective literacy coaches support teachers in becoming more thoughtful and knowledgeable about their instruction and help significantly improve student outcomes.”  -- National Council of Teachers of English

43. Role of the MS Literacy Coach • Support implementation of district curriculum and best practice instructional strategies in all reading, writing, vocabulary, listening/ speaking, informational literacy. • Classroom modeling • Collaborative planning • Facilitate Data Driven Dialogue -- state data, district data/benchmark assessments, building data/common assessments, and student work samples • Facilitate building & district level staff development • Provide input for (classroom perspective) • Specialize in grade level spans (K-2, 3-5, 6 – 8 … eventually, 9 – 12?)

44. Pathways to 21st Century Literacy 44

45. Quote to Ponder “The question is not, ‘Is it possible to educate all children well?’ But rather, ‘Do we want to do it badly enough?’” -- Matthews, 2004 quoting former Central Park East principal, educational reformer, writer, and activist Deborah Meier