Impacting One Teacher and One Classroom at a Time

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ImpactingOne TeacherandOne Classroom at a
Time

• Akron Public Schools
• Summit on Urban Education in Ohio
• May 5, 2005

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Presenters

• Sharon Hall, Gifted and Talented Education
• Dorothy Lewis, Instructional Specialist
• Barb Mezenski, Instructional Specialist
• Mary Dean, Principal, King Elementary School
• Jennifer Larkey, Teacher, Hatton Elementary
  School
• Barb Baltrinic, Teacher, Ellet High School
• Carol Peter, Instructional Specialist

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Change

Begins
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Standards Based Instructional Design
Standard Benchmark(s) Indicator(s)

• Pre-Assessment (Prior Knowledge)
• Progress
• Monitoring
• Summative
• Assessment

Intervention Next Steps
What are the students learning?
Assessments FOR and OF Learning
Reflection
How do we know when they have learned it?
Instructional Strategies
Revision
How will we respond when they have not learned
it?
Re-Assessing The Lessons Strategies Extent of
Student Learning And Student Progress
Differentiated Instruction Student
Groupings Needs Modifications Higher Order
Thinking Skills Learning Styles Real World
Connections
Instructional Process
Activities Materials/Resources Vocabulary
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SHOW ME

THE MONEY
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Akron Leaders and Visionaries
? Eisenhower Funds become Professional
Development funds for all content areas

• Teachers by grade and content levels develop
  benchmarks based on National Standards

? Akron, Cuyahoga Falls and Woodridge for
Tri-City Consortium

• Teachers from three districts work on common
  content standards

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• Akron Public Schools
• Lead Teachers
• Site-Based Improvement Teams are formed in
  all buildings
• Elementary Instructional Specialists
• Middle School Instructional Specialists for
  Math and Science (who later become Generalists)
• NSF Mae Jemison Grant for Math Science

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• Start training the Curriculum and Instruction
  staff in
• SIP process
• Malcolm Baldrige
• Victoria Bernhart (data)
• Thomas Gusky
• Quality Tools
• Richard Stiggins
• Understanding by Design

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• PRINCIPAL INSTITUTES
• JUNE AUGUST (2002)
• Training Principals to be Curriculum
  Leaders
• Trainings and Activities included
• Where are you (principal) with regard to
  Standards?
• Compare Math and Language Arts Standard Book
  formatting through Scavenger Hunts and Venn
  Diagrams
• Maps and Timelines of Standards Step Outs
• Aligned a Standard, Benchmark and Indicators
  through growth stages from Kindergarten through
  Twelfth Grade
• Comparison of Standards to the old state Pupil
  Performance Objectives

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Summer Principal Institutes
Trainings
Standards,and Benchmarks,and IndicatorsOH
MY!!!!!!
HELP ME !
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• Waiver Days become part of the school calendar
  
• to explain NCLB, Standards and their effects on
  teachers, parents, and students, and
• to offer professional development on standards
  and other topics.
• The first Waiver Day (2002) summarized
  previous principal training to all building
  staffs and was led by the Teaching and Learning
  staff.

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So now we are off and running with our plan
MODULES
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Where are we going?

• Module Development
• Sample Activities

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Learning Process for Curriculum and Instruction
Staff

• Information coming in from many sources
• ODE, Battelle for Kids, Stiggins, etc.
• Questions coming in from all stakeholders
• What are standards?
• How will I implement standards?
• How does this change what I do?
• Will this go away?

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Developed by Curriculum and Instruction Staff

• Writing teams created
• Information and activities collected
• Unit 1 delivered to staffs

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SAMPLE ACTIVITY
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Review of Modules

• Module I
• Unit 1Getting Ready
• Unit 2Unwrapping the Standards
• Unit 3Making the Transition

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Review of Modules (cont.)

• Module II
• Unit 4Differentiating Instruction for
  Learners
• Unit 5Assessing Learners
• Unit 6Designing Standards Based
  
• Lessons
• Each unit was written following SBE lesson
  design.

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MODULE IUnit 3 Making the Transition

• UNIT GOALS
• Educators will have a better understanding of the
  characteristics of a learning system.
• Educators will have a self-awareness of their
  position on the continuum as they transition
  toward a learning system.
• Educators will recognize the sequence of the 5
  Essential Questions for Lesson Planning.

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Unit 3 (cont.)

• EVALUATION OF THE UNIT
• Educators write and implement learning system
  goal statements.
• Tally, by written ballot, those
  attempting/meeting their learning system goal at
  the next staff meeting.
• Educators will apply the 5 Essential Questions
  when lesson planning.

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Unit 3 (cont.)

• UNIT ACTIVITIES
• Participants survey and score individual Teaching
  Style Indicator.
• Participants sort Teaching and Learning System
  Characteristics and discuss.
• Participants order steps for lesson planning
  through 5 Essential Questions.

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Unit 3 (cont.)

• TOTAL UNIT SUGGESTED TIMEFRAME 1.5 hours
• Present according to staff needs

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SAMPLE ACTIVITY

• Step 1
• Describe, to a partner, how you plan a lesson.

Step 2 Discuss how your planning compares to
the 5 Essential Questions. Do you currently
design lessons using the order of the 5 Essential
Questions?
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5 Essential Questions

• What content needs to be taught?
• What is the best way(s) to assess students
  knowledge of content?
• How should the data be analyzed?
• How should teaching and learning be designed?
• How should materials and resources be
  evaluated/selected?

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How Will We Get There?
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Trainer of TrainersThe Year in Review

• June 2003
• Held TOT meetings to introduce Units for staff
  development
• August 2003
• Waiver Day in the buildings
• October 2003
• First TOT network meeting at Roswell Kent
• Assessment of and for
• Differentiation and Assessment notebook additions

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Year in Review (cont.)

• December 2003
• Second TOT network meeting at Litchfield
• DuFour video
• Learning Styles and Differentiation Strategies
• Lesson Design with Steve Miller
• Stiggins video
• January 2004
• Citywide Inservice

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Year in Review (cont.)

• February 2004
• Third TOT network meeting at North
• Classroom reading strategies
• Learning Stem
• Differentiation video by Jennifer Larkey
• March 2004
• Waiver Day in the buildings
• April 2004
• Fourth TOT network meeting at Hyre

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Standards Network Meeting

• Sharing with Colleagues
• What have you implemented since we met?
• Questions You Asked
• Making Connections in the Classroom
• Reading Strategies Chart
• Learning Stem
• Differentiation in ActionJ. Larkey
• Final Comments
• Planning for Waiver Day
• Exit Ticket

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Standards Network Questions You Asked

• 1. Many of your questions dealt with the comfort
  level, curriculum and time management of using
  differentiated instruction.

• 1. For answers to these types of questions,
  refer to the book (plaid cover) you received at
  the June training, Differentiating Instruction in
  the Regular Classroom, by Diane Heacox, pages
  13-17. The author provides a Q A format that
  you could place on an overhead at a staff meeting
  or during waiver day.

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TOT Standards Network Program Evaluation

• Staff attitude regarding the implementation of
  
• standards
• Initially 1 2 3 4 5
• Currently 1 2 3 4 5
• What has your building accomplished this year in
  regards to the implementation of standards? How
  well do you think this has gone?

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Evaluation (cont.)

• I attended _________ of the TOT network
  meetings.
• On waiver day I
• On inservice day I
• On waiver day I
• Other

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Evaluation (cont.)

• Prioritize for your building the items from the
  Next Steps overhead.
• I think that my building needs
• Where are you in your own professional
  development as a result of serving as the
• TOT from your building?

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Where are we now?

• Pacing Guides, Lesson Design, Assessments, and
  Curriculum Mapping

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How do Pacing Guides Help?

• Lesson design aligned to pacing guide
• Align content, skills and assessments so all kids
  are getting the same material
• Pace instruction over time
• Help discover gaps and repetitions
• Decide how lessons can be integrated to make
  teachers more efficient

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Lesson Design Using the Indicators

• What are the students expected to know and be
  able to do by the end of the lesson?
• What key questions will trigger the students
  interest?
• How will the students knowledge of the concept
  be evaluated?
• Complexity of Questioning

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District Assessments

• Link skills and content to standards and time
• Provide a framework to evaluate student work
• Expand the understanding of what the students
  know and are able to do
• Provide data to address strengths and weaknesses
  and promote student achievement

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Curriculum Mapping

• Mapping is a tool for
• Communicating - teachers, students,
  administration, parents, community
• Planning curriculum, assessments, reforms,
  resource allocation (space, time, materials) and
  staff development

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Its All About the Process

• Teachers have started talking.
• The on-going process is a working document.
• Teachers have a common language to discuss what
  they do.
• Teachers have an occasion to learn.
• Higher level thinking is modeled.

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Teacher Comments

• We needed a common process to follow, it makes
  us so much more effective.
• We should all be teaching it, for the sake of
  the kids.
• With the transient kids in our district, it has
  made a big difference to have them come almost
  always, on the same page.

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Principals Perspective
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Staff Development not Staff Meetings

• Monthly meetings are now professional
  development, not housekeeping time
• Agendas are driven by School One Plan
• Led by staff members trainer of trainers,
  examples of best practices, instructional
  specialists

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Finding Staff Development Time

• Monthly staff meetings with required attendance
• Used Title I professional development funds for
  speakers and stipends for attendance after school
• Collegial planning and grade level meetings
  focused on School One Plan and review of data

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Strategies Implemented for Building Staff
Development

• Trainer of Trainers -- staff on site
• Professional Literature Discussions
• read and discussed during meeting time
• Staff Book Clubs
• Professional Learning Communities
• Attend conferences and then facilitate
• staff meetings

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Signs of Progress

• We never have time at meetings anymore to just
  sit and talk. We always have something to cover
  or review.
• -conversation overheard by principal
  
• 
  between two teachers

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Trainers at Work
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A Building Trainer in Action

• Concept emerged from staff need
• Based on a real classroom in a public school
  setting
• Teams were able to see what differentiated
  instruction looked like
• in a real and practical way

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Class Data

• Third grade classroom
• Ten boys and five girls
• Two students who have Limited English Proficiency
• One student with an I.E.P.
• Class reading levels ranging from mid-first grade
  to mid-fifth grade, as determined by school and
  district assessments

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What You Will See

• Flexible grouping based on learning styles, needs
  assessments, and overall strengths
• Real, unscripted life
• Disruptions
• Students working independently and in guided
  groups to meet the standard for Phonemic
  Awareness, Word Recognition and Fluency

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High School Plans
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High School Staff Resistance

• Too many initiatives
• No Child Left Behind
• Inclusion
• High Schools That Work
• Content Literacy
• Pacing Guides
• School Improvement Plans
• Mandated Testing
• OGT
• District-wide Assessment Testing

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So Much New Vocabulary

• Resistance is often due to new terms which are
  really old practices! (Standards, Benchmarks,
  Indicators just replaced Objectives and Pupil
  Performance Objectives.)
• It is essential that everyone (administration,
  support staff, teachers and students) have the
  same vocabulary.

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High School Teachers Tend To

• Fear change are not known as risk takers in
  curriculum design.
• Do the Same Thing, But Expect Different Results!

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Change CAN happenwith one teacher, one classroom
at a time!

• Provide staff development through staff meetings
• Build a community of learners
• Provide model classrooms for staff to visit
• Encourage professional dialogues looking at
  promising practices in differentiated
  instruction, alternative assessments, examination
  of learning styles, cross curriculum, and
  assessment for learning practices

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Where are we going next?
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Back to the Future

• Moving toward more collaboration
• Developing a community of learners among
  educators
• Providing staff development for Content Literacy,
  Differentiation of Instruction
• Adding programs (100 Book Challenge)

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Standards Based Instructional Design
Standard Benchmark(s) Indicator(s)

• Pre-Assessment (Prior Knowledge)
• Progress
• Monitoring
• Summative
• Assessment

Intervention Next Steps
What are the students learning?
Assessments FOR and OF Learning
Reflection
How do we know when they have learned it?
Instructional Strategies
Revision
How will we respond when they have not learned
it?
Re-Assessing The Lessons Strategies Extent of
Student Learning And Student Progress
Differentiated Instruction Student
Groupings Needs Modifications Higher Order
Thinking Skills Learning Styles Real World
Connections
Instructional Process
Activities Materials/Resources Vocabulary
59
Standards Based Instructional Design
Staffs analyze Assessment results Content
Networking

• Pre-Assessment (Prior Knowledge)
• Progress
• Monitoring
• Summative
• Assessment

Units 1, 2, 3
Standard Benchmark(s) Indicator(s)
Intervention Next Steps
What are the students learning?
Assessments FOR and OF Learning
Reflection
Unit 5 District
Assessments
Staffs analyze Assessment results Content
Networking
How do we know when they have learned it?
Units 4 6
Lesson Design
Revision
Instructional Strategies
How will we respond when they have not learned
it?
Re-Assessing The Lessons Strategies Extent of
Student Learning And Student Progress
Differentiated Instruction Student
Groupings Needs Modifications Higher Order
Thinking Skills Learning Styles Real World
Connections
Instructional Process
Pacing Guides Content Networking
Activities Materials/Resources Vocabulary
60
Presenters E mails

• shall_at_akron.k12.oh.us
• dlewis_at_akron.k12.oh.us
• bmezensk_at_akron.k12.oh.us
• mdean2_at_akakron.k12.oh.us
• jnickoso_at_akron.k12.oh.us
• bbaltrin_at_akron.k12.oh.us
• cpeter_at_akron.k12.oh.us