Using Teams to meet needs of all students

1
Using Teams to meet needs of all students

• Candace Warren
• (cwarren_at_sisd.net )
• Michelle Luna
• (mluna12_at_sisd.net )
• Denisa Morales
• (dmoral14_at_sisd.net )
• Americas High School

2
Americas High School

• Socorro I.S.D.
• El Paso, Texas
• Approx 2900 students
• Approx 90 Hispanic
• Title 1 School
• Diverse student body
• AYP population for LEP, special ed. and
  economically disadvantaged
• AB schedule
• Nine week grading period

3
Math department

• 31 members (including special ed teachers)
• 3 new teachers
• 3 teachers with 1 year experience
• 7 teachers - MAT mathematics
• 1 teacher Masters Instructional specialist
• 2 - other master degrees
• 2- currently attending classes for instructional
  specialist

4
Why learning communities?

• Math scores for special populations were low
• Desire to see all students succeed
• What was currently in place wasnt working
• Incoming students had low scores
• Diverse population needed unique strategies
• Strong math faculty
• Research shows value in teaming

5
Results

• Improved SAT and ACT participation and scores
• Improving AP exam scores on Calculus AB, BC, and
  Statistics
• Improving Benchmark scores (by as much as 50)
• Math TAKS scores on the rise
• Incoming students have scores lower than state
  average (46 passing - LEP 24)
• By junior year, Americas students are close
  state average (75 passing LEP 45)
• 10th grade overall student population 61
• LEP scores improved 22 in 1 year (42 passing)
• All special populations are growing
• Scores are increasing 5-10 a year for each sub
  population

6
Other Benefits

• Faculty is educated with LOTS of great ideas
  now sharing those ideas
• Gives teachers who are afraid to try new things a
  safety net and a push
• Great for new teachers
• Creates the idea that we are a team NOT
  individual teachers (WIN together/LOSE together)
• Improves morale
• Carried over to work with other teams in
  department, school district
• Teachers more willing to ask for help from fellow
  teachers
• Teacher feel they have a voice about
  implementation of the curriculum. They are
  invested in the success of their students.

7
How were teams formed?

• Math department began working in teams in 2003
• Teams are formed of approximately 5 8 teachers
  in a subject area
• 2 algebra 1, 1 geometry. 1 algebra 2, 1
  precal/cal
• Each team has a team leader who schedules
  meetings, facilitates discussion, and assigns
  roles
• Teams are free to address needs of their students
  in they way they feel is best

8
When do teams meet?

• Meet every week during common planning period
  or common lunch
• Meet weekends when needed, 1 half day planning
  every quarter, and 1 day at the end of each nine
  weeks.
• Weekend meetings (paid) planning, writing
  assessments, analyzing data, looking at available
  technology (sketchpad, Agilemind, TI interactive,
  CBRs, CBLs, websites, etc.), sharing ideas
  learned through various inservices, etc.

9
Time line

• First year time was spent gaining trust and
  fostering communication
• Second year beginning of professional teams
  start looking at assessment results and sharing
  lesson ideas
• Now teachers use data to develop assessments,
  lessons, and evaluate effectiveness
• Teachers are sharing lessons and creating common
  nine week exams
• Currently, only teachers comfortable with sharing
  and working in teams are hired

10
Objectives of subject team meetings

• Utilize data to diagnose areas of weakness TAKS
  data, pretests, old benchmarks, etc
• Create an assessment that will show if a student
  understands the concept.
• Create a lesson / activity that utilizes
  different learning styles and levels of critical
  thinking to address the area of weakness
• Deliver lesson and assessment
• Look at data from assessment to determine next
  step.
• Fill out lesson log

11
Examples of lesson logs

• To start with. Teachers focused on improving LEP
  scores SIOP, Cornell Notes, Posters, Flip
  Charts, Peer Tutoring, 4 corner worksheets, word
  walls/ceilings, etc.
• Now focus on higher order thinking and student
  engagement

12
Other examples of P.L.C.

• Department chairs at Americas also have a sense
  of team
• Cross curriculum group working to start
  SAT/ACT/PSAT workshops
• Socorro math council math department chairs of
  all district high schools and math instructional
  leader
• Development of our Blazer word of the day
• All departments work with tech pilot to develop
  technology staff development

13
Extensions

• Round tables for topics of importance how to
  address LEP students, how to increase level of
  critical thinking
• Feeder patter meeting with 6th algebra 1
  discussed ways to address integers
• PreAP/AP math meetings- vertical alignment,
  discussion on what rigor and high expectations
  look like
• Math teachers are observing their fellow teachers
  and evaluating their own classrooms

14
Challenges

• Personality conflicts
• Time to meet
• Lack of trust in others in the beginning
• Some teams are stronger than others

15
English Department P.L.C

• 23 members
• 5 first year
• 2 second year
• 1 third year
• ESL department
• Special Ed.

16
Example of Learning Log

• English learning log

17
history of the department

• Second year as department chair
• Was assigned to a team by principal
• Made up common assessment because we had to
• No real direction
• Start to hear about things in math

18
Math department influence

• Meeting regularly with a lot of focus
• We really arent doing that
• Liked the collaborative aspect
• Sent to workshop
• Started questioning problems
• Moved in the direction of math
• Applied to be department chair

19
Results

• English has a new distinct community.
• The leaders are varied, one team is run by a
  third year teacher, the others by the veterans
• The community has evolved as a mentor
  collaborative for our new teachers.
• Each team has specialists where questions and
  concerns can be directly addressed.

20
Results

• Overall scores went up from 54 to 80
• Economically disadvantaged increased from 49 to
  76
• LEP scores improved from 15 to 40
• SPED scores grew from 27 to 51

21
Adjustments

• We need to meet at lunch due to lack of the
  common conference
• Looking at a bigger picture for student
  achievement while keeping the state and federal
  government requirement in sight
• Vertically aligning has become automatic
• Teams are well-adjusted so I can stay in place on
  one team, Im a member not the leader
• While we are experiencing success we are reminded
  that it has to be all of our students

22
How our tech pilot fits in

• Helps with staff development with technology
  related to subject (ie. TMDS, Destination Math,
  powerpoint, resources, etc)
• Responds to needs of departments and teams
• Read posters

23
Are we there yet?

• NO!!!
• We are not where we need to be yet
• We are continually improving
• We are letting the needs of our students guide us

24
Were getting closer

• Teams have authentic discussions
• All doors are open
• Learning a lot from each other
• LEP and SPED populations making significant gains

25
Credit goes to

• All faculty members and students at Americas High
  School
• Richard DuFour Professional Learning
  Communities
• R. Marzano
• Dr. Mike Schmoker- Results and teaming ideas
• TIMMS study and the Teaching GAP James Stigler
  and James Hiebert

26
Questions?