A presentation at the 52nd Annual Convention

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Welcome to Sargent Parks Literacy Journey

• A presentation at the 52nd Annual Convention
• International Reading Association
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• May 16, 2007

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Developing School-Wide Strategic Instruction

• The Sargent Park Experience

Presented by Jessica Kowall Melody
Woloschuk Rebecca Decter Gail Giasson Rita
Ward Irene Zoochkan
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Agenda

• 900 905 Introduction
•  
• 905 955 Sargent Parks Journey
•  
• 955 1015 Coffee
•  
• 1015 1115 Breakaway Sessions
•  
• 1115 1125 Conclusion
•  
• 1125 1145 Questions and Answers

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Sargent Park School Demographics
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Enrolment

• Nursery-Grade 6 464
• Grade 7-9 368
• Total 832

Practical Arts/Home Economics 392 Stability
rate 97
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Profile of Student Population

• EAL students 181
• Special Education students 43
• Students receiving adapted
• programming 65
• Enrichment students 41

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Staffing

• Teaching Staff 51
• Educational Assistants 13
• Child Guidance Clinic 4
• Administrators 2

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The Nature of Change
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Common sayings related to change

• Change is difficult
• It is painful to change

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Reframing ideas around change can lead to
more positive outcomes

• Change is a normal part of life
• Change is constant, not an event with a beginning
  and end
• Toll, 2005

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Approaches to Educational Change
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Destructive View

• Practices already in existence have no value
• Results in pendulum swings
• Repetitive Change Syndrome
• Abrahamson, 2004

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Constructive View

• What is working?
• What current practices can be
• combined with new initiatives?
• Creative Recombination
• Abrahamson, 2004

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Moral Purpose

• Education for all that raises the bar
• as it closes the gap

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Triple P The Inner Core Components
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Six Core Functions
Breakthrough Model
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Leadership and Coordination
Breakthrough Model
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Functions of leadership and coordination are
shared amongst

• Administrators
• Lead teachers
• Consultants

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• Schools have a moral and intellectual
  responsibility to learn from other schools and
  agencies and to contribute what they know to
  others.
• Fullan, Hill Crevola 2006

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Sargent Parks Literacy Journey
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Factors That Influenced Sargent Parks Moral
Purpose

• Research trends
• Provincial standards test results
• Divisional professional development
• initiatives

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• Research Trends
• A changing concept of literacy
• Increased demands due to technology
• Literacy proficiencies required for multiple
• sources
• Increasing literacy demands in industry

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The Real High Stakes Issues Impacting Literacy

• 70 of workplace reading is written at a grade
• 10 12 level (L. Mickulecky, Indiana
• University 1998)
• Nearly 50 of Canadians have serious difficulty
• dealing with printed materials (Reading the
• Future A Portrait of Literacy in Canada,
  1996)
• 68 of the inmates in federal penitentiaries
  have
• limited skills (John Howard Society of
  Canada,
• 1996)

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Research Trends Specific to Reading
Comprehension

• Teachers need to explicitly teach reading
• comprehension strategies in all subjects
• Informational text must be introduced at
• earlier grade levels

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Additional Literacy Facts

• Grade 5 students abilities to locate information
  in textbooks is virtually nonexistent. (Dreher
  Sammons, 1994)
• Students who experienced a fourth grade slump
  on achievement measures continued to show
  declines, scoring at the 25th by grade 11.
  (Chall, Jacobs Baldwin, 1996)

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Provincial Assessment Results

• Research trends reported in the field were
  borne out locally
• Manitoba standards tests administered at grades
  3, 6, 9 12
• Students comprehension of narrative text was
  strong
• Their comprehension of expository text was much
  weaker

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Project Read

• Comprised of 4 full day workshops over the school
  year
• Goal to instruct teachers in the use of
  content-area reading strategies
• Schools were invited to participate
• Project Read Teams included an administrator,
  reading clinician and up to 6 teachers from
  intermediate to senior high

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Sargent Park and Project Read

• Many staff already explicitly teaching
  comprehension strategies
• Focus primarily in Language Arts
• Project participation viewed as an opportunity to
  inservice content teachers who did not view
  themselves as teachers of literacy

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Creating a Vision

• At years end Project Read Teams were asked to
  develop literacy plans for their respective
  schools
• Sargent Parks team so enthusiastic that they
  envisioned a similar whole staff workshop
• Proposal brought to the Professional Development
  Committee and accepted

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Professional Learning in Schools
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Breakthrough Model
Professional Learning Communities
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Professional Learning in Schools The new
emphasis in educational change is based on
creating the conditions to develop the capacity
of both organizations and individuals to learn.
Fullan 2001
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Attributes of a Learning Community

• Supportive and Shared Leadership
• Supportive Conditions in the School
• Shared Vision
• Collective Learning and Shared Practice

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Supportive and Shared LeadershipThe
emphasis on the principal as instructional
leader has been a valuable first step in
increasing student learning. Fullan 2002
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• Administrators in a learning community
• Build and sustain collegial relationships
• Share power and decision making
• Promote and nurture leadership in staff

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Sargents Administration

• Are part of our learning community
• Question, investigate, and seek solutions
• Encourage staff initiatives
• Recognize and reinforce staff efforts
• Support staff leadership skills

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Supportive Conditions in the School The
conditions determine when and where and how the
staff regularly come together as a unit to do
the learning, decision making, problem solving
and creative work . SEDL 2006
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Supportive Conditions Staff need

• Time for learning, sharing practice,
• problem solving, and decision making
• Communication to enhance learning
• process and teaching practices
• Providing resources and funds for
• continuous learning

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• At Sargent supportive conditions include
• Meeting times timetabled
• All teachers and classrooms linked by
• internet and intranet
• Classrooms arranged with grade/subject
• teachers in close proximity
• Representation from each grade on PD
• and Literacy committees
• Critical roles such as the reading clinician
• Financial support for staff development

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Shared Values and Vision A core characteristic
of the professional learning community is an
undeviating focus on student learning.
Shirley Hord, 1997
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Shared Values and Vision

• Achieve a coherent focus to increase
• student learning and achievement
• Staff involved in developing a shared vision
• Use the vision to make decisions for
• teaching and learning in school
• Involves commitment and accountablility to
• students, parents, community, and one
• another

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• At Sargent
• Began with goal of students comprehending
  expository text
• Project Read group initiated a literacy plan
  endorsed by our PD committee
• Commitment by staff evidenced by dedication to
  project

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Collective Learning and Shared Practice

• Teachers need opportunity to engage in
  continuous and sustained learning about practice
  in their own setting.
• 
  Elmore 2004

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• Collaborative relationships support development
• of strategies by
• Encouragement and feedback on shared practice
  with mutual trust and respect
• Reflection and assessment of teaching practice
  based on new learning
• Renewed focus on students learning reflected in
  teaching practices

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How to Get Started

• Create a new focus by using a catalyst such as a
• recognized problem
• new curriculum
• At Sargent it was both
• students struggle with expository text
• new ELA curriculum introduced

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• Begin with Collective Learning
• At Sargent in fall 2000
• PD committee committed to the project
• Main PD goals
• build common knowledge base of expository text
  structure
• choose best strategies to meet student needs and
  content being taught

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• Staff Readiness
• Elementary teachers focused on literacy
• Project Read people on board
• Middle school content area teachers needed to
  shift focus from teaching content to teaching
  literacy
• Students must become strong readers so that they
  can read to learn

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Learning Together Day One

• Presented current research on role of teachers to
  teach skills for
• problem solving
• human relations/ teaming
• technology
• Underpinning it all literacy/ communication
  skills
• Students must be explicitly taught the structures
• Content becomes the vehicle to teach skills

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Learning Together Day Two

• Overview of text structures and signal words
• Students need to internalize structures
• Students learn to comprehend and
• construct new meaning
• Staffs goal to choose strategies and text

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Problems Are Part of Change

• Next PD planned for fall 2001
• 20 hour reading course on expository text
• Granted as additional PD by superintendent
• Delivered in small sessions during fall term
• Unfortunately, instructor unavailable with
• no replacement

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A New Direction

• Development of a school wide Expository Text
  Strategies Continuum
• Subcommittee of PD committee created to oversee
  the literacy activities
• New Literacy Committee comprised of some PD
  members and other interested staff

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School and Classroom Organization
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Breakthrough Model
School Classroom Organization
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Administration
School Priority Committees
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• Literacy Plan
• Literacy Committee was formed with a
• representative from each grade team
• Plan was to create a school-wide
• Expository Text Strategies Continuum
• Plan was to have each grade level choose
• and commit to 1 or 2 expository text
• strategies

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• Choosing Strategies
• Each grade chose 2 or 3 strategies for
• their grade level
• Teachers used various resources

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Language Arts Curriculum
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Success for All Learners Document
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DLC Strategies
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Commercially Made Materials
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• Creating the Continuum
• 2 or 3 strategies submitted from each
• grade level
• In-service day for plotting strategies and
• text structures onto continuum
• Continuum reviewed by grade teams

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Classroom Teaching
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Breakthrough Model
Classroom Teaching
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Implementation of Strategies
Strategies Lessons In-service

• School-wide in-service modeling grade level
  strategies with content from the curriculum,
  chosen by teachers

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Gallery Walks
Displayed student samples viewed by staff
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• Development
• of
• Teaching Aids

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Strategies Flip Chart
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Teachers Instructional Binder
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Blackline Masters for Graphic Organizers
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Strategy Posters
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Rubrics for Strategies
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Text Structure Paragraph Samples
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Commercially Made Materials
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Assessment
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Breakthrough Model
Assessment
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Cycle of Assessment
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In the Beginning

• Student assessment initiated in 2003-
• 2004
• Strategies included in portfolios
• Helped to embed strategies in regular
• practice
• Gallery walks of student work displayed
• and shared at staff meetings

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The Next Step

• Process of developing rubrics initiated in 2004,
  completed in 2006
• Generated discussion of formative and summative
  assessment
• Rubric format linked to either standardized tests
  (CAP) or curricula structure

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Sort and Predict Frame Rubric - Grade Five
CONTENT
EFFORT
INDEPENDENCE
CREATIVITY
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Grade 2 Word Splash Rubric
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S1 Expository Text Strategy Rubric OUTLINE
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Personalization

• Differentiation
• Strategies support differentiation by
• developing student tool kit
• Rubrics define and assess mastery

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Precision

• Assessment for learning to support individual
  student progress
• Assessment criteria given in advance
• Assessment is formative and ongoing
• Time given for mastery
• Students develop array of strategies, can pick
  and choose as they get older

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Professional Learning

• Assessment part of ongoing learning process
• Teachers supported with inservicing, (Ruth
  Sutton, Anne Davies, Ken OConner, Caren Cameron)

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Intervention and Assistance
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Breakthrough Model
Intervention and Assistance
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Our whole school literacy model provides

• Instruction using expository text strategies
• Consistency across grade levels and
• subject areas
• A framework for long term change

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Student Interventions
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• Researchers have stressed the need

• For sufficient practice to develop independence
• in strategy use (R. Brown, 2002)
• To study whole school models of strategy
• implementation (M. Pressley, 2006)

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Students are provided with materials developed
by Sargent Park staff

• Flip chart
• Agenda book
• Rubrics
• Posters
• Technology Software

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httpfreemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_
Page
www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Products/SMARTIdeas
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• Staff Interventions

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Staff has received professional development
through

• A common learning community (classroom teachers,
  resource teachers, educational assistants,
  specialist teachers)
• External educational consultants
• Divisional reading clinician and content
  consultants
• Peer Coaching
• Gallery Walks

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School administrators provided staff with the
necessary

• Professional development time to achieve project
  goals
• Timetabled team meetings for instructional
  planning
• Money for materials
• Sharing circles at staff meetings

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Home, School andCommunity Partnerships
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Breakthrough Model
Home, School Community Partnerships
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Ways in which the goals of theSargent Park
Literacy project have been shared with the home
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• Meet the Teacher Night

• Parent Survey

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Partnerships that were developed with the
community through our project

• Accessing of external educational consultant to
  provide PD
• Reading Clinician liasing with feeder schools
• Orienting student teachers to the project
• Training new staff
• Providing PD for other educators
• Facilitating research on QAR for graduate
  students at local universities
• Articles written for local journals

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Thank you for being such good listeners! Guess
What? Its Coffee Time. Me First!
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• Developing School-Wide Strategic Instruction
• The Sargent Park Experience
• Some Final Thoughts
• And
• Key Conclusions

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• Common moral purpose motivates teachers to change
• Schools build vision and develop ownership
  through the process of quality shared learning
• Daily professional learning ensures that goals
  are relevant to both staff and students
• School learning communities support change and
  continuous growth
• Lateral capacity building increases
  stakeholders learning and commitment

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Creating a Climate for Change
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Essential Points to Consider When Planning for
School-Wide Change

• Use both Top Down and Bottom Up processes
• Identify Your Key Players
• Make Change Safe
• Take it One Step at a Time

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Products vs. Process
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Product Outcomes from the Project

• Expository Text Strategies Continuum
• Teachers Instructional Manual
• Flipchart
• Classroom Posters
• Blackline Masters
• Rubrics

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Process Outcomes from the Project

• Engaging teachers in best practices dialogue
• Supporting teachers in their learning
• Matching content to strategies and outcomes
• Aligning instruction and student evaluation
• Enhancing students active engagement
• Developing life long learning and critical
  thinking

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Change is a journey, not a blueprint.
Fullan 1992