Leadership & Learning Update

This week started off with a positive, energetic learning environment set up during Waukesha ONE on Monday. Waukesha highlighted over 200 of our very own staff members presenting various sectionals that day. This is a true testament to the distributed leadership we have cultivated throughout our district over the years. A special thank you to Steve Schlomann, Brian Yearling, Wendy Liska and Mollie Heilberger as they worked with the extended Waukesha ONE planning team to make this professional learning a huge success!

This week, in collaboration with Human Resources, the Teaching and Learning Department has conducted a paper screening as well as digital interviews for our Hillcrest Elementary Principal position and our Director of Educator Development position. We had 78 applications for Hillcrest and 66 applications for the Director position. We will be conducting finalist interviews over the next week with staff teams from Hillcrest and the district and hope to have a final recommendation for both of these positions to our Board of Education at their February 8 meeting.

Key Characteristics of Effective Literacy Instruction - AWSA Article

In this article in The Reading Teacher, Danielle Dennis (University of South Florida) says the two most positive shifts supported by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) are

(a) moving away from scripted curriculum packages (these were encouraged by Reading First) to balanced literacy, and (b) moving from punitive accountability models to more-effective use of assessments. She quotes Cunningham and Allington’s 2015 synthesis of research on the most effective literacy teaching:

-   Large amounts of balanced comprehensive instruction;

-   Lots of reading and writing;

-   Science and social studies integrated with reading and writing;

-   Meaning is central and teaching emphasizes higher-order thinking;

-   Skills are explicitly taught; children are coached to use them while reading and writing;

-   Teachers use a variety of formats and a wide variety of materials to provide instruction;

-   Classrooms are well managed and have high expectations.

“Learning from the Past: What ESSA Has the Chance to Get Right” by Danielle Dennis in The Reading Teacher, January/February 2017 (Vol. 70, #4, p. a395-400), http://bit.ly/2jpuGfP; Dennis can be reached at dennis@usf.edu. 

Three Focus Areas Article

As we begin 2017 and reflect on the first half of the year, I am reminded of the statement, "Keep the first things first." Recently Mike Schmoker wrote an article entitled “The Power of Focus” in Principal Leadership, January 2017 (Vol. 17, #3, p. 42-45), where he summarized the need for schools to focus on prioritizing the most importing actions. In a summary of the article linked below, Schmoker reflects on his three high-leverage area for schools to consider. Enjoy the quick read.

The Power of Focus Summary from AWSA's Marshall Memo

   Where should the focus be? Schmoker believes three areas have the strongest track record of success, are easy to understand when presented in professional development, and lend themselves to being continuously refined as they are implemented by teacher teams:

            • Consistent, schoolwide implementation of a coherent, content-rich curriculum – Teachers should have clear, specific direction on which skills and concepts to teach – the what and when – with discretion on the how to and some room each week for teachable moments and personal passions. Curriculum focus “may be the single largest factor that affects both student achievement and reading proficiency,” says Schmoker.

            • Mastery by every teacher of the components of effective, explicit instruction – Of paramount importance is ongoing checking for student understanding (minute by minute, day by day, week by week) and adjusting instruction based on assessment insights. This is especially important for project- and problem-based learning.

            • An intensive, curriculum-wide emphasis on fairly traditional literacy – “We have overcomplicated instruction in reading, speaking, and writing,” says Schmoker. “To succeed, students simply need vastly more time to purposefully read, discuss, and write about worthy, substantive literature and nonfiction across the curriculum (as often as possible, in the interpretive and argumentative mode).”

            Only a small fraction of schools are implementing these practices, but those that are (like Brockton High School in Massachusetts) are making dramatic gains. The common factor in Brockton and other successful schools is a leadership team working with colleagues in a way that is highly focused and relentless and provides plenty of opportunity for review and practice. “To the greatest extent possible,” says Schmoker (who is critical of the way teacher-evaluation rubrics are being implemented in many districts), “this should occur in a climate that emphasizes helpfulness and growth, rather than evaluation.” 

“The Power of Focus” by Mike Schmoker in Principal Leadership, January 2017 (Vol. 17, #3, p. 42-45), e-link for NASSP members; Schmoker can be reached at schmoker@futureone.com. 

Teaching & Learning Update

The school year 2016-2017 is at our halfway point.  It is a great time to reflect on where we are with our Literacy Curriculum and where we are going.

During the summer of 2016 many teachers, coaches and directors worked together to deepen our Literacy Curriculum in the areas of Units of Study, Language Workshop and Literature Discussion Groups.  Here is a review of what curriculum and resources on Bb9 that you have to support your intentional planning for your learners in these three areas:

As we have moved into the 2017 half of our learning year, we have taken the time to listen, reflect and plan for where we need to deepen and provide more support/direction in our Literacy Curriculum.  Over this coming semester and summer here is some of the work that will be taking place to support Language Workshop and Literature Discussion Groups in both English and Spanish.

Language Workshop K - 7:  

1. five Language Workshop Planners for each Unit of Study
2. four copies of each of the Language Workshop Mentor Texts will be provided per building

Literature Discussion Groups:

1. four Literature Discussion Group Planners for each Unit of Study
2. four sets of multiple copies of the Literature Discussion Group texts will be provided per building