Let's Travel in a Group

A common question heard by middle school interventionists is, “Why is this student missing my class for a reading intervention?” Let me attempt to give you the long and short of it and lay out how it fits here at Wilson.  

The last two years have brought a great deal of hard work and change to Wilson Middle School.  Anytime there are changes in routine or practice, there are growing pains. This particular pain is being felt by everyone.  I’m confident that with time, we will embrace it as a part of our culture.    As we travel together in that direction, here’s what you need to know. Comprehension Focus is a small-group reading intervention offered to our most striving readers.  Its name gives away its purpose, but there is more to know about the role it plays in middle school.  Students identified in Language Arts as below basic across multiple data points need layered interventions in order to close the achievement gap and ultimately accelerate.

Dr. Linda Dorn and Carla Soffos designed this intervention to look very similar to classroom instruction, “organized around units of study that require readers to apply higher-level comprehension strategies to analyze relationships within and across texts.”  The groups follow the themes and standards, just like the classroom. What looks different is that the instruction is centered around strategic processing. This intervention works best when it can be applied daily for 30 minutes.  

The next question that usually follows is, “So,why not take students out of reading, since that’s where the struggle lies?” Great question! We know that best practice tells us that we need to have spiraling or tiered intervention on top of strong core instruction.  So the first line of defense cannot be pulled away.  Picture two cups stacked on top of one another and set atop a table.  If you pull the table away, the cups cannot stand alone.  They would come crashing to the floor without the support of the table.  For our striving readers, the core is an integral component to closing the gap. We also have to have additional lines of defense, or interventions. The goal is that these interventions are temporary. This line of defense is intended to be intense and focused to accelerate the learning. In addition to your strong core and guided instruction in the classroom,  Comprehension Focus groups are a beneficial intervention.

We need to also consider the Common Core State Standards and how they are calling for students to be able to read to learn in all content areas in order to be successful, which indicates to us that we must all support our students in their reading development.  Our team at Wilson decided that the best way to do that was to stagger the schedule of the intervention so that students were being pulled out of something different each day with as little overlap as possible. As we continue to grow and change, there will no doubt be additional discomfort to be experienced, but please keep in mind it is for the greater good of our students and we are helping them to be successful in all classrooms.

I want to thank everyone for their flexibility in making this work here at Wilson, providing strong core and guided instruction to support our students, and helping them catch up when they are out of the classroom for this or any intervention.  It is a testament to our ability to work together and put the needs of our students first. As this practice becomes commonplace, the pain will ease.
As we move into the third trimester, consider how you might use your team time to reach out and have conversations about students needing a high degree of support and how we can all pitch in to support them.

Wilson Goes Worldly

Imagine fifty-two sixth-grade students working simultaneously on one giant puzzle. You may be asking, “How is that possible?”

On Wednesday, February 12, Mr. Marty Fetch’s social studies students filed into the library, opened up their Chromebooks and old-school paper maps, and then turned their attention to the projector screen. Connection was made to Broxton Park School in Alberta, Canada via Skype. - the catch? Students at each school did not know the location of the other school. Over the course of the next hour, students at each school asked yes/no questions in order to determine the location of the other school. 

Mr. Fetch brought life to GLE 5-B-2 (describe major physical characteristics -natural features, such as land and water forms, climate, natural vegetation, and native wildlife) by asking students to use this as a guide for formulating questions. For example, students at Wilson asked their Canadian partners if they live in the Boreal forest and if they live in the mountains. Drew Ashcraft, 6th grade student, compared the Mystery Skype activity to playing 20 questions. She also explained, “It is like a road. You just keep driving until you find the right way.”

This activity is a perfect example of the capitalization of opportunities available via content team meetings. Mr. Nick Davis’ expertise as Curriculum and Instructional Coach was utilized when collaboratively planning this activity. The work done to align the GLE’s with the I Can statements and proficiency table focused the plan around what students need to know and be able to do in order to demonstrate mastery. Considering the level of thinking as mapped on HESS’ matrix (analyzing and strategic thinking) resulted in a highly engaging and interesting activity.

As teachers at Wilson Middle School, you have learned much this year. Time and again, Mrs. Kazmierczak as commented in this blog about the evidence of growth and implementation in your classrooms. This is a perfect time to reflect on how you are putting together the plethora of learning you have done in content team meetings from August until today, into your daily practice. Are you capitalizing on your learning and your opportunities within your content team?

Teamwork in Action: Flying in Formation At Wilson!

The Wisdom of Geese

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. Vince Lombardi

     It's so appropriate that I write the blog about last week's walkthrough on Superbowl Sunday because the two teams who arrive to this game are the year's exemplars of teamwork.   It is a process of working together  to achieve a goal.  Your work and effort was clearly visible throughout the building.   It is evident that Wilson is flying in formation as a team.  Specifically, evidence of learning team, collaborative planning and collegial support were in every classroom we visited. 

Consider the following statements from our Look For document 2013-2014

• I can utilize the workshop model
• I can collaborate in learning teams
• I can use the curriculum to plan differentiate, meaningful tasks
• Student work displays will have a clearly posted focus,rubric and student and/or teacher comments.
• Teachers will confer and give written and/or oral feedback based on rubrics.  

It is exciting to see these elements in your classrooms. You've demonstrated that executing our SIP plan is making a difference. You are realizing the impact you are having on student achievement and the influence you have on reading/writing behavior. The focus on the curriculum, quality of task and monitoring through assessment will be the difference in the achievement at Wilson.

Teachers and teams are flying in formation. We saw 100% compliance with student work display. On each display teachers had posted feedback that was directly aligned to the work posted. Teachers cited specific evidence from the work and tied it to the GLE of the unit. For example, we saw five social studies displays that student feedback specifically mentioned 'citing evidence from the text to support concepts like the role of Thomas Jefferson in US history. In sixth grade both displays indicated high level of integration of language arts standard in their display. The work display gave strong indication that students were getting a double dose of reading and writing. Their feedback directly related to the rubric posted and content that students were expected to learn. Next steps will be for you to focus on the learning target and lifting the DOK or expectation on Bloom. Ask students to Analyze, synthesize or evaluate. It is the next step. Challenge yourself and your students with higher expectations for thinking and display that in your classrooms. Make sure your feedback is specifically tied to the learning target. Consider using a question to lift their practice through reflection.

Level Key Words

Analysis compare/contrast, deconstruct, 

infer, discriminate

Synthesis categorize, compile, compose

rearrange, summarize, modify

Evaluation appraise, conclude, critique, interpret

relate, evaluate, describe, explain

Evidence of collaboration in learning teams was another highlight. The learning team structure asks teachers to backward plan using the curriculum and planning instruction accordingly. These elements are critical first steps; but without formative assessment and implementation it would be unlikely it would be observed. Simply stated: You planned, assessed and implemented. We saw this in your classroom providing clear evidence of your work with your learning team. Dr. Mausbach and I observed elements of the workshop (GRR) model in various stages, again 100% in formation. The collaborative effort was obvious in the four language arts classrooms that were working on close reading and citing evidence. They specifically referenced skills Iowa data asking students to use a shared text in guided practice to write support for an inference. Their intentional language like "Can you take us back to the text?" "Point to the line or work that supports your thinking." When the students couldn't complete the prompt the teacher immediately went into a think aloud demonstrating the strategy. Similar statements of purpose were heard in all four classrooms. Collaboration in action. Fisher and Frey state, "Establishing a clear purpose for learning content serves as a priming mechanism for new learning and results in increased student understanding of the content." Basically when your students understand the purpose of the lesson , they learn more and achieve higher. Next steps will be to state your purpose clearly and then ask students for clarification or application.

We are stronger together.

Schools that fly high are mush like a flock of birds, they fly farther and faster because of their tightly knit collaboration and ability to keep focused on a distant goal. 

Karen Chenoweth  Getting It Done:  Learning Academic success in Unexpected Schools

Prompt for response:    Our eye is on a target that we intend to reach, higher achievement.   All of us need to take turns supporting each other as we fly.  What is your role in the formation?  What evidence are you collecting and how will you know you've done your part?  

Your Values are Clear

Dear Wilson Staff-
What a great way to start a week-- spending the morning at Wilson Middle School! Walkthroughs are a critical process in my role. First, they allow me to see the real work of teaching and learning in classrooms, sometimes my chair can seem far far away from what matters most. Second, walkthroughs are a way to help me identify patterns and trends of both successes and areas of improvement across the district. Finally, since I only conduct these annually I can observe the progress/ improvements the school has made from the previous year.  And it is this last piece that I want to celebrate with you. I know Mrs. K will be providing specific feedback on what we saw so I am just going to share some general observations.

As I walked through your school it was clearly evident that this is a school that puts students at the center of everything. How did you communicate this to me? Consider the following.

• Use of authentic/ relevant work- Students at Wilson aren't doing busy work they are engaged in reading, writing, and thinking about things that have relevance in their lives. For example, after a unit of student in 8th grade social studies students wrote about why or why not a school should be named after Thomas Jefferson. In Language Arts students were using a poem about a family struggling to stay together as an entry point into their new unit.  It's not hard to capture kids attention or motivate them when they can connect to the content. 
• Literacy Rich Environments- Students have ample opportunities throughout the day to read and write about their learning. Students are  learning important content, while they are also learning to write like a scientist or historian. 
• Use of Feedback- Someone once said feedback is the breakfast of champions and if that is the case given the amount of rich feedback I saw, your students are definitely in the winners circle. Individual feedback can be seen in classroom displays and in one on one discussions teachers conduct with students during independent work.

Wilson students are in good hands. The value you place on their role in the instructional process is very clear. I appreciated the opportunity to observe all of your good work. Thanks for all you do.

The New Year is a time when many of us naturally take a look back at the previous year. Reflecting on our relationships, health, finances and professional life commonly results in the creation of resolutions with the intent to better ourselves during the next 12 months. A clear focus, solid action plan, and the ability to adjust that plan are essential for the success of a New Year’s resolution.

Just like resolutions, the specificity and intentionality of the work educators do will largely predict the outcome. Through the learning cycle, Wilson teachers are engaged in a cycle of planning instruction, assessing students and responding to that assessment data. All of these steps are essential for us to reach our goal of improving student achievement.

I recently visited two eighth grade science classrooms in which this was artfully implemented. Students were engaged (ALL students in both classes) in completing an assessment that involved reading, formulating an opinion and writing a conclusion with cited evidence. Students were given the following prompt:

• Mrs. Schmidt believes that keeping endangered tigers in a zoo is helpful.
• Mrs. Richards believes that keeping endangered tigers in a zoo is harmful.
• Use evidence to support both claims. (several articles were provided)
• Write a paragraph supporting which teacher’s claim you agree with the most.

Phase 2 of the Learning Cycle (Assessment/ Student Work/ Feedback) as printed on the Wilson Look Fors states, “Students will respond to teacher’s comments, edit the product, justify their responses,and self assess using rubrics.” All aspects of this Look For were observed in both of these science classrooms that day. Students were engaged in writing, editing and justifying their thinking with cited evidence.

When I asked a student why they were doing this assignment, he told me that it is important to know that the decisions we make can have an effect on an entire ecosystem. Now that is big picture thinking! The perfect alignment of the I Can statement with the activity (I can evaluate the impact that human interactions have on an ecosystem.) undoubtedly communicated a clear rationale for the activity.

Another example of Phase 2 evidence came from asking a student the following question. “How do you know if you are writing a good paragraph?” He responded by referencing the rubric that was among the assignment documents and explaining how to use the rubric to judge his work. Again, another example of evidence pointing to intentional planning.

Mrs. Richards took this process one step further. The Wilson Look Fors has the following description of teacher behaviors that will demonstrate implementation of Phase 3 (Response to Data). Teachers will use a variety of the following in order to respond to non-proficient students: guided groups, reteaching in groups, use assessment data for grouping, refer to backward plan, implementing Tier 1 interventions. During my visit to Mrs. Richards’ classroom, I observed her conferring with a student, one-on-one as he completed his assessment.  It was clear that because of her formative assessment data, she was aware of this student’s need for additional support and determined how she would support him.

In the words of Ellen DeGenerous: “You shouldn’t be allowed to make any New Year’s resolutions until you finish your old ones.” All the teachers at Wilson Middle School are engaged in the learning cycle: there is no need for a New Years’ resolution. We continue to focus on our current resolution...to improve student learning through the continuous cycle of planning, assessing and responding through purposeful guided grouping based on the formative assessment data.

Content team meetings are perfect for continuing this work. We must not only look at the data, but be intentional about our guided groups. James-Ward, Fisher, Frey and Lapp wrote in their book Using Data to Focus Instructional Improvement, “No student should have to wait until the first reporting period is over before being noticed as a struggling student.” How long is it before you know that a student is struggling and what are you doing about it?

There is great work happening at Wilson! Reflect, celebrate the successes and adjust as necessary to reach all students so we can reach our goal.