TEACHER LEADER TEAM

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TEACHER LEADER TEAM

• Amory School District

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District Mission

• The overarching mission of the Amory School
  District is to create opportunities for ALL
  students to achieve at the highest level
  possible.

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5 THINGS EVERY TEACHER SHOULD BE DOING

• Designing lesson plans that require students to
  use Higher Order Thinking (HOT) skills
• Create opportunities to actively engage all
  students in each lesson
• Make good decisions about texts used in class,
  stressing thematic connections and text
  complexity
• Use effective questioning to create discussions
  WITH and BETWEEN students
• Teach the concept of argument in all content
  areas.

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Collaboration

• Both horizontally and vertically
• To discuss/compare/share strategies and ideas
• To plan lessons for overlapping of content
• To create or tweak common assessments
• To analyze data from formative and common
  assessments

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Professional Learning Communities

• Learning community with a focus on and a
  commitment to the learning of ALL students
• Composed of collaborative members working
  together to achieve common goals linked to
  helping ALL students learn
• Focused on continuous improvement
• Must use RESULTS to determine next steps
• Must use ongoing assessment to determine
  effectiveness of program

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PLCs

• MDE emphasis
• ASD use of PLCs
• Common planning times
• Departmental/Grade level meetings
• Data meetings
• Principal meetings
• Teacher Leadership Team

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Why PLCs

• The creation of a guiding coalition or leadership
  team is a critical first step in the complex task
  of leading a school (Marzano, Waters, McNulty,
  2005)
• None of us know as much as ALL of us
• Learn from each other
• Determine where we want to go, where we are, and
  how we are going to get there

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English Language Arts Overview

• Over the last few decades, textbook reading
  levels have decreased.
• K-12 reading is more narrative in nature than
  informative, which is required in college and the
  workplace. K-12 reading content is not very
  challlenging.
• K-12 teachers give students a great deal of
  coaching and support

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Todays Text Gap
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Current Lexile Levels vs. CCSS Lexiles
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Non-fiction Must Become Focus
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Writing Requirements Argument and Evidence
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Evidence-based Writing

• Writing and answers should be based on what has
  been read in the text, not opinions or
  experiences.
• 80 of teacher questioning doesnt require
  students to read anything in a text to be able to
  answer
• Supporting details from the text being read
  should be used when answering evidence-based
  questions

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TEAM NORMS

• Be at meetings and be on time. Plan to stay for
  the entire meeting. Appointments should be
  scheduled around meetings whenever possible.
• Prepare for meetings. Review materials given and
  be ready for next meeting so that we dont waste
  time
• Collaborate!!
• Take knowledge gained back to schools and help
  others put it into practice
• Be a team player, even when it means agreeing to
  disagree at times

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College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards

• Four Strands
• Reading
• Literature (RL)
• Informational (RI)
• Writing
• Speaking and Listening
• Language

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Key Areas of CCRAs and ELA Standards

• Reading Informational Text
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Technical Manuals
• Historical Non-fiction
• Science
• Biographies

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Key Areas of CCRAs and ELA Standards

• Reading Literary Texts
• Fairy Tales
• Folklore
• Historical Fiction
• Poetry
• Drama
• Fictional Novels

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Key Areas of CCRAs and ELA Standards

• Reading Complex Texts
• Complexity should build as students progress in
  reading skills
• Students must be exposed to reading that is above
  their current reading levels to help them grow.

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Key Areas of CCRAs and ELA Standards

• Close Reading and Citing Text Evidence
• Students are expected to use what has been read
  to answer questions and prove or justify their
  answers.
• Teachers must ask questions that require students
  to refer to the text to find the answers.
• Inductive reasoning should be required as
  students progress
• Teachers should use graphic organizers and
  activities that ask students to provide
  quotations from text as evidence.

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Key Areas of CCRAs and ELA Standards

• Writing Arguments
• Many standards ask students to develop and
  evaluate formal, logical arguments based on
  evidence from text.
• Persuasion uses the credibility or character of
  the writer and emotions to convince the audience.
• Logical arguments use merit and reasonableness of
  claims to convince the audience.
• Teachers must require students to analyze
  exemplar argumentative writings and require
  students to use argument in writing and speaking
  and listening assignments.

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Reading Strand

• Two domains
• Reading standards for Literature- RL
• Reading standards for information- RI
• Four Headings
• Key Ideas and Details
• Craft and Structure
• Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
• Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

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CCRA for Reading
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Implications for Reading CCRA

• Requires Close Reading strategies to analyze or
  evaluate texts.
• Requires citing of evidence to support
  conclusions drawn from text.
• Requires analysis and synthesis of information to
  determine how plot, characters, structure, and
  word choice effect the text.
• Requires use of summary, comparison/contrast to
  validate analysis.
• Requires repeated exposure to Complex Reading
  text and independent comprehension.

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Writing Strand

• Types and Purposes
• Arguments are used to support claims using
  evidence and supporting details.
• Informative/Explanatory writing is used to convey
  complex ideas.
• Narratives are used to develop real or imagined
  events or experiences, based on text read.

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Writing Strand

• Use short and sustained research projects based
  on specific questions
• Assess of credibility of resources and integrate
  information found without plagiarizing
• Use evidence to support analysis, research, or
  reflection
• Write over both short and sustained time frames
  for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences

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Speaking and Listening Strand

• Must begin developing speaking and listening
  skills in Kindergarten and continue through
  graduation
• Students must learn to collaborate with others to
  prepare and present information to an audience
• Students must learn to critique presentations of
  others
• Students must develop and organize effective
  argumentative and informative presentations
• Must use multiple resources, both written and
  digital
• Students must learn to use language and word
  choice appropriately

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Language Strand

• Students must demonstrate knowledge of
  appropriate English when both writing or speaking
• Students must use language to clarify meaning of
  words and to convey thoughts appropriately
• Students must use language to acquire a wide
  range of vocabulary, both general and domain
  specific

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Enterprise Change

• If Constancy of Purpose is the first step to
  quality, Motivation to Change is the first step
  to Organization Development (Lewin
• Not everyone will change
• Resistance is ugly
• Use High Fliers to help others believe that
  change is necessary

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Motivation for Change

• Lexile level changes we looked at earlier
• Students are not adequately prepared for college
  or career with current standards being used
• College and Career Readiness standards require a
  change in both teaching strategies and learning
  strategies

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Anticipate Survival Anxiety

• Some educators will cling to the old, now invalid
  thinking
• Leads to defensiveness and resistance due to pain
  of having to UNLEARN and RETHINK
• Three stages Denial, (wont happen),
  Scapegoating and passing the buck (its others
  fault, or Im retiring), making excuses (my kids
  cant do it, I dont have time), and guilt (its
  not developmentally appropriate)

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Common Core Fears

• Requires Enterprisal Change- it involves everyone
  and requires change from everyone
• Big Steps- increases rigor for all teachers and
  students
• Scary Change- requires use of new strategies and
  new ways of thinking
• Skills Fear- especially in math, where concepts
  are pushed down into earlier grades
• Consequences- Fired?

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How We Approach the Change

• The change is not only necessary, its required
• It is best for students
• Focus on those receptive to the change
• Determine benchmarks to determine progress
• Maintain change Constant Push
• Communicate positively
• Gradually release helping relationship to
  others
• We must address the EMOTION of change

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The Key Fear to Address

• As much as we fear the NEW We fear giving up the
  OLD even more.
• This is because of our Habits and Mastered
  Content and Practices
• We must provide comfort, support egos, and
  support others self esteem issues
• Organize structure and coherence

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Appendix A

• Text Complexity Triangle
• Qualitative Measures- levels of meaning or
  purposes, structure of text, language used, and
  knowledge demands of text
• Quantitative Measures- word length or frequency,
  sentence length, text cohesion
• Reader and Task Consideration- motivation,
  knowledge, and experiences of reader. Purpose and
  complexity of assigned texts and questions

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Appendix A

• Lexile Level Increases
• Reading Standard 10 Progression
• Argumentative Writing
• Read- Alouds
• Vocabulary Acquisition
• Tier 1- general, everyday words
• Tier 2- general academic words used in multiple
  content areas
• Tier 3- content area specific words,
  circumference, aorta, compound predicate

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Appendix B/C

• Text Exemplars by grade level- B
• Performance-based tasks- B
• Writing Samples- C
• Informative
• Argument
• Narrative

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M-STAR

• Planning
• Artifacts
• Common Core lessons
• Levels
• Pre-, Post
• Piloted next year, live 2014-2015

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Close Reading

• Gettysburg Address

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Rigor/Relevance Framework

• Introduce Quadrants and assign for next session

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Next Meeting

• Close Reading of Standards of Mathematical
  Practices
• Rigor/Relevance Framework