HOOD RIVER COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWSLETTER October 2016 Welcome to an exciting edition of the HRCSD Instructional Newsletter! HRCSD Instructional Support WE ARE HERE TO HELP! Please contact us to help support your instruction and classroom management needs!! Instructional Coaches and Teachers on Special Assignment Name Role Ask me for support with: Jane Osborne Math Instructional Coach [email protected]541-387-5711 • All things Math--instructional support, assessment support, curriculum needs • Performance Tracker, elementary report card, tools to analyze data and inform instruction • iPad apps and technology to enhance learning • PLC process and student learning growth goal setting, Educator Effectiveness goal setting support • Science Adoption process K-12 • State Math Assessment Support Vickie Schmidt Literacy Instructional Coach [email protected]541-387-5712 • Instructional support and curriculum needs for ELA (Elementary and Secondary) • Wonders & Wonderworks Curriculum implementation • Adding more non-fiction reading and writing in your classroom • DIBELS Assessments • RTIi Supports and Implementation • Leveraging technology to motivate students • Using iPads in the classroom to build strong readers and writers • State ELA Assessment Support Garrett Apland ELD Instructional Coach AVID Coordinator Title III Director [email protected]541-387-5704 • Supporting English Learners in ANY classroom • Sheltered Instruction Strategies • 100% Engagement Strategies • English Language Production (ELP) Standards • ELPA21 -- ELD State Assessment Support • Title III -- Services for English Language Learners • AVID -- Middle and High School
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HOOD RIVER COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWSLETTER
October 2016 Welcome to an exciting edition of the HRCSD Instructional Newsletter!
HRCSD Instructional Support WE ARE HERE TO HELP! Please contact us to help support your instruction and classroom management needs!!
Instructional Coaches and Teachers on Special Assignment
• Instructional support and curriculum needs for ELA (Elementary and Secondary)
• Wonders & Wonderworks Curriculum implementation
• Adding more non-fiction reading and writing in your classroom
• DIBELS Assessments • RTIi Supports and Implementation • Leveraging technology to motivate students • Using iPads in the classroom to build strong
readers and writers • State ELA Assessment Support
Garrett Apland
ELD Instructional Coach AVID Coordinator Title III Director [email protected] 541-387-5704
• Supporting English Learners in ANY classroom
• Sheltered Instruction Strategies • 100% Engagement Strategies • English Language Production (ELP) Standards • ELPA21 -- ELD State Assessment Support • Title III -- Services for English Language
• Supporting teachers learning from one another • CDT (Collaboration Design Team) • Compensation Pilot • Facilitating Professional Growth Coaching • Hood River Academy • PDOs (Professional Growth Opportunities) • Instructional Rounds Process logistics • Helping promote teacher leadership
Other • Brent Emmons, District TAG Coordinator [email protected] 541-387-5044
• Sarah Braman-Smith, District Migrant Coordinator [email protected] 541-354-5100
Science Curriculum Renewal Process The Science Curriculum Renewal process has begun this month with some professional development around the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Kathryn Davis, a HRVHS Science teacher who has been part of the National Teaching Channel NGSS Teacher Cohort is leading the professional development activities for the K-12 group.
Check out the representatives from your building.
School Board representative: Corinda Hankins-Elliott
The work of this group includes:
● NGSS Professional Development ● K-12 Curriculum Mapping ● 6-12 Course Progressions ● Curriculum Materials Review and Recommendations by May 2017
After each meeting, please look forward to the school representatives sharing out their learning and information from the Science Renewal Process meetings. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Jane Osborne at [email protected].
Math Helpful Hints K-12 Teachers and Specialists have been working really hard to implement the new math programs with their students. Check out the support pages for:
● iReady/Ready Math ● Big Ideas Math
Remember you can find grade level math support documents on our website by hovering over TEACHERS, then clicking on MATH on the district webpage. At the left find, MATH GRADE LEVEL RESOURCES. Just click on your grade level to the left.
You will find: ● HRCSD priority standards ● flip books (showing examples and explanations of standards) ● pacing guides (math calendar) ● lessons learned from Pilot Teachers
For K-5 iReady/ReadyMath Ideas and Support, click on this hyperlink and scroll down to General HRCSD Math Ideas and find your grade level for specific lesson support. This is set up with pictures and links to materials to help support teachers and students.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports: An Update
As we embark on our second year implementing Positive Behavior Intervention & Supports (PBIS) in
all elementary and middle schools, as well as exploring how PBIS may look at the high school level, it is an appropriate time to reflect on what has been accomplished and look towards our goals this year. PBIS is a framework that guides us in addressing students’ social and emotional learning needs as we approach academic learning needs. Key Components of PBIS:
• Common behavioral expectations (think… learning standards) • Explicitly teach expectations to all students • Systems for providing consistent positive and corrective feedback • Data reviewed regularly to ensure that these instructional and feedback systems are working for
the majority of students. (at least 80% of students are proficient) • Implement targeted evidenced- based interventions when students are not meeting expectations and
monitor student progress to ensure these interventions are improving student outcomes. • For a small number of students, targeted interventions will not meet their needs, and we may develop
and implement individualized plans. (no more than 5% of students)
Just like academics, we need to have strong core instruction established; otherwise we overwhelm
the targeted and individualized interventions and student needs are not efficiently or effectively met. To this end, the focus at the elementary and middle levels has thus far focused on establishing our
Tier 1 (aka universal or core) instruction. Based on the School-wide Evaluation Tool, a measurement of Tier 1 implementation, all of our elementary and middle schools have developed the key components of Tier 1. Supporting this data, review of Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs or Majors) indicates over 90% of our students are considered proficient, as measured by having no more than one ODR in the school year. Of course, there is always room for improvement (growth mindset anyone?) and now teams are working to improve and refine systems, ensuring they continue to meet student needs. This success at Tier 1 also means we can begin to turn our attention to implementation of Tier 2 (targeted interventions) and this will be the work of elementary and middle schools this year. At HRVHS, we are just coming together to explore what PBIS looks like at the high school level and to consider implementation. It is exciting to consider how far our implementation has come in just a few short years and this is
truly a credit to the staff leaders and support of administrators! For More Information:
• On efforts in your school or PBIS resources, contact Mara Lynaugh, PBIS Coach ([email protected])
2016 AVID Summer Institute Student Speakers Video - Click here
What's Up Next?
Up Next is a mobile messaging system launched by Better Make Room that sends fun and timely text messages to young people to help them stay on track with important activities like signing up for Financial Student Aid and applying and paying for college. You can sign up too! They have services for parents and educators.
AVID Professional Development at HRCSD – Click here to see presentations you may have missed on in-service day.
Students have Multiple Reading Levels, Not Just One.
As I traveled to Bend this weekend to attend the Oregon Association of School Libraries Conference, “Lexile” was on my mind. An educational safeguard on reading implemented in our k-8 libraries “recognized as the most widely used reading metrics” (lexile.com 2016) and a constant conversation with regards to students tested reading ability and how students have been guided and at times mandated to select books from.
There are many factors both positive and negative about the “Lexile” framework that we currently use and many injustices that it causes that we must be aware of. I hope that this letter brings you good hearted guidance into reading fluency and the many levels that we as educators need to factor in before we decide upon how we limit or predetermine the right materials for our students. Before I get into the peer reviewed research I want to illuminate the fact that limiting any type of child’s reading is a step in limiting a child’s reading. Just take a moment to step back and think what if I was told, “You can’t read Shel Silverstein, the Hobbit, or the encyclopedia because it doesn’t fit within your reading score?” Just think about what happens when a student who has an extremely high “Lexile” is limited to only high “Lexile” books but the library only has a limited amount? These are real scenarios happening here in our schools reported by students, teachers, librarians and parents, and therefore should be reflected upon as we consider what is best for our students who are in the process of building comprehension and a love of reading.
I visited the MetaMetrics website, the founders of “Lexile” and read how the “Lexile” came to be, the coding process, the Rauch analytical scoring guide that involves over 6 million factors when it considers a “Lexile” score. Through this reading I grew a greater appreciation of the complexity of the quantitative scoring process and how amazing that such an equation exists. But I also found that “Lexile” is not determined by score alone (quantitative), it is just one of three parts to the “Lexile” framework. The first part is Task and Reader which takes into effect the background knowledge, familiar reading structures, and vocabulary of the reader. The last part is the Qualitative which needs an attentive human being to unpack the complexity of the book being read. Neither task and reader or qualitative are part of the “Lexile” score. They are separate parts which need their own attention and play an equally important roll into how students should choose books when using the “Lexile” framework.
During one of the morning sessions of the conference titled “Text Sets” for the elementary level, the teacher and librarian spoke to how a variety of materials preselected for students, such as picture books, graphic novels, biographies, non-fiction, journal articles, podcast and videos brought a greater breadth, interest and understanding to the students enabling multiple entry and viewpoints into the topic of study. The fascinating part of this presentation was not only how well this worked for the classroom teacher and librarian (let me know if you want to build text sets) but the research that was done through the The Baseball Study by "Recht and Leslie (1988), which is summed up in this rubric, and more fully in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP6qpSrr3cg
Students with a High reading ability and high knowledge of baseball,
Students with a High reading ability and low knowledge of baseball,
Students with a Low reading ability and high knowledge of baseball,
Students with a Low reading ability and low knowledge of baseball.
So what does this mean? It means that prior knowledge of a topic has more validity then reading ability when it comes to a reading task involving comprehension. It means “A student doesn’t have one level, they have multiple levels depending on topic and knowledge” (Schwartz 2015). As we continue teaching with passion as professionals, we must remind ourselves to be mindful of our students’ backgrounds and interests, to be able to provide multiple entry points into unfamiliar waters, and to not hold a child back because of what a number says they are. The more familiar our students are to us, the better the accommodations we will provide, the more successful we all will be. Matthew Gerlick, District Librarian
The HRVHS English department has found success integrating instructional technology, engaging students, and improving student learning utilizing Chromebook Carts with Printers as a part of their teaching strategy. The team has been able to grow their Chromebook deployment a little every year, creating quick and convenient access for students to Google’s platform and other available resources on the World Wide Web. Here is a summary look at the hardware and software being used:
• Dell Chromebooks, 11” screen, laptop form factor
• The Chromebook carts are similar to most any other laptop cart. They accommodate a wireless printer on top. Depending on the model, they can hold and charge 20 or 40 Chromebooks. The English department has carts containing 15 or 30 Chromebooks.
• Google G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps). The apps primarily used by the English department:
o Docs – word processing o Google Drive – storing student and teacher documents o Google Classroom – assigning work, setting due dates, retrieving drafts and
final draft, grading, returning graded work back to the student, creating and issuing quizzes
o Google Cloud Print – print securely through the internet to the classroom printer or the cart printer
• Kyocera wired or wireless classroom printer
Here is what the team had to share with us:
Q1) How does the Google G Suite, Google Drive, Google Classroom, and Google Cloud Print help prepare and deliver your instructional plan? R1) We use Google Classroom to post instructional videos, to create an online space for students to submit work, and to communicate with students about what they missed if they missed class. Google Drive allows students the opportunity to give and receive peer and instructor feedback on drafts they are working on.
Q2) On a scale of 1-10, how much stress, or extra hassle does integrating technology into your instructional plan bring you when compared to preparing and delivering that plan using a zero-technology classroom tools and techniques? R2) Zero stress. The integration of the Chromebooks and the Google products has made the process of teaching writing more efficient and effective. Also, students can work on assignments from home. In the past, students would save their assignments on the district network, and they would not be able to access these documents from home. Now they can access their documents from anywhere that there is internet.
Q3) What feedback have your students provided you? R3) Students love it. They are convenient and reliable. Teachers report that the turn-in rate for work has increased, and they allow teachers the opportunity to require that students turn in work that is typed and formatted to specific standards, leading to better preparation for college-level assignments.
Q4) What is your instructional technology vision for the department? R4) We would like to have a classroom set of Chromebooks for each English classroom.
Send any questions about this article or requests for future articles to [email protected].
A Tale of Two Compensation Pilots – The learners are leaders compensation pilot is for teachers who are hoping to earn salary advancement for learning and leading. A full 25% of HRCSD teachers are in the pilot! They earn in-district credit for all of the extra hours that they put in taking Hood River Academy Classes, meeting with their professional growth coaches, participating in instructional rounds, and peer-observing on their prep time. Each hour equals .1 in-district credit. These partial credits, when added together will move them closer to the next lane (BA+15, BA+30, etc.) on the salary schedule. The great thing is that they’re actually accruing professional learning AND salary advancement at the same time. The tough part is that for opt-in teachers, they will not receive curriculum rate for any of the leadership or learning activities in the pilot. There is a cap of 5 in-district credits a year, or 50 hours of learning and leading outside of contract hours. These credits are also in-district credits only, so you won’t be able to take them to another district in the future. The instructional specialist compensation pilot is for teachers who are hoping to earn extra money as well as professional skill. Teachers step out of their comfort zone (possibly) by teaching their colleagues in a traditional ten-hour course of professional development. These instructional specialists will propose a course in Active Engagement, for example. They will write out the objectives and learning tasks for each of the ten hours that are approved by the Collaborative Design Team’s PD Subcommittee. After five teachers enroll and participate in the course, the instructional specialist earns $750. The participants can earn compensation through the Collaboration Grant this year, but we are hoping to make Hood River Academy more sustainable without grant funding through this different payment model. The participants, most importantly gain skill in teaching from their colleagues.
• Teacher-led reform gives HRCSD the best chance of sustainable positive change. • Collaboration with peers is essential to develop, apply and share our skills as a profession. • Educators are intrinsically motivated, reflect on educational practice, and believe learning is a
growth process. • Effective evaluation is a collaborative process focused on student and professional growth,
dialogue and reflection. • Non-evaluative peer observation can be a powerful strategy for improvement. • Peer mentoring and coaching are essential elements in any professional growth process.
Your Professional Growth Coach is working to help make these things a reality in your school. Talk to them about teaching. Talk to them about learning. Talk to them about observing someone else. Talk to them about being observed. Talk to them about your professional evaluation. Talk to them about your professional goals. Talk to them about improving your school. Talk to them about improving education.
