January 2019 TDP Course Registration!

Hello Everyone,

Please see January 2019 TDP courses offered and the link below for registration:

January 2019 TDP Registration - CLICK HERE

All courses are held on January 8, 15, 22 and 29 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. unless noted otherwise.

• Connecting Language Workshop to Reading and Writing
• Comprehension Strategies
• Guided Group Instruction in Math
• Differentiation of AVMR Games and Activities
• Data focused PLCs
• Writing in Math
• Special Education Behavior and Academics
• Teaching Math in the Dual Classroom
• Success with ALLs: Curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on Why we are ALLs

Registration will close at 12pm on Friday, January 4th.

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There are also Self-paced TDP courses available on BB9. You can register for those classes at any time through this link:  http://goo.gl/VkW76t

• BB101
• BB102
• BB103
• Google 101
• Google 102
• Google 103
• SAMR 101
• Literacy Foundations
• Math Foundations
• Standards Based Grading
• Understanding Educator Effectiveness

Thank you!

Human Literacy

A recent article by Thomas R. Hoerr on Human Literacy recently caught my eye as I have had many conversations around the district lately on our work surrounding cultural awareness and socio-emotional development.  While this may be viewed as an increasingly new “thing” in Waukesha Schools, I am not convinced it isn’t THE thing we should be prioritizing.

A few excerpts that stood out to me include;

-if we consider what is essential in every situation, regardless of what technology or the workplace may require—it’s the ability to know oneself and work with others, our human literacy, that is essential for success-

-“formative five”—empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit—comprise these intrapersonal and interpersonal success skills and become human literacy-

-Teachers and principals should look for opportunities to help children understand their backgrounds and biases as a first step in appreciating and celebrating others who are different than themselves-

As leaders for our district, school or classroom, what does our work in this area look like?  Have we started? How could it change our daily experience and ultimately our achievement? How do our own backgrounds and biases impact what “we bring” to school each day?

I encourage us all to keep the idea of “human literacy” in mind as we continue our planning for classroom instruction and 100-day plans in the months ahead.


https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/12/12/the-five-success-skills-every-student-should.html




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It's all about the Experience!

Building background knowledge is not new to education, but with hustle and bustle of the classroom it can be forgotten. We have to think of the additive approach to language acquisition. What do my students, specifically our English Language Learners, already know that can help them access the information in their classroom.

This is easier said than done. Recently, many of us have noticed that students come with less language. This does not only refer to our ELs. The truth is that students might not be presented with the same experiences they once were. It is up to us to create these experiences for them to acquire the language they need to be successful.

Previewing the Unit and/or Text:

In order to be more successful in our language workshop lesson, it is recommended to preview the unit or text that may present unfamiliar language. We can do this by building our students background knowledge. 

In the district, we are fortunate to have some lessons created. If you have seen the form below, you might already be using them.

The one seen above is a unit overview for second grade. This is a quick mini lesson that you would present before beginning this unit. All of these planners include vocabulary and building background presentation. They also highlight language oral strategies you can use. They have not been created for all units nor for all grades. You may find a link to the template here. A sample lesson is linked here. If you are interested in these supports, contact you building coach or ESL teacher leader, they can provide you with more information.

Additional Tips:

1. Showing a visual (an image, a presentation, a film) on a related topic.
2. Conducting an experiment or hands on activity.
3. Going on a field trip (physically or virtually).
4. Asking students to bring something related to "show and tell."

Resources:

• Colorin Colorado
• Teaching Channel- Activating Prior Knowledge

Environmental Education Newsletter

This fall we worked with kindergarten students as they learned what it means to be a "Community Helper" and fourth grade students studying glaciers and erosion at Lapham Peak. We worked with fifth grade students as they explored and studied the marsh and river ecosystems in Waukesha. We travelled to Camp Whitcomb Mason with sixth grade students who participated in a variety of outdoor activities including archery, canoeing, and fire building. Finally, we welcomed many middle school classrooms who participated in a variety of learning experiences including team building, water testing, stream table modeling, and our new Hatchet Survival Challenge. It was a wonderfully busy and engaging fall season for everyone involved!

As we gear up for the winter season, we are looking forward to welcoming first grade students who will be learning about animal adaptations at E.B. Shurts. We will also spend time traveling to 4K classrooms across Waukesha to help students explore the concept of living vs. non-living. Finally, we are crossing our fingers for snow so that we can deliver on the promise of snow-shoeing for several middle school classrooms.

Check out our December newsletter: 

https://www.smore.com/e7r2t-sdw-environmental-education 

Celebrating 2018

I wanted to announce that our state administrators organization is highlighting Banting Elementary in their SAIL promotional materials. This image and testimonials below were sent this week across Wisconsin to all AWSA and WASDA members. I am so proud of Banting's focus and we are seeing the positive trajectory on student achievement. 

Following suit with tight SAIL teams and positive student impact, I also want to give special mention to Meadowbrook, Lowell, Rose Glen and Heyer Elementary. I am working closely with these Principals to see how we can replicate these intentional strategies across our system. My next challenge is to bring a tighter coherence to our secondary schools which, by sheer numbers of staff and moving parts, is always a complex beast.

I also want to recognize eAchieve Academy who had a team presenting at the AVID National Conference that I attended last week. Their session presentation was titled, "Breaking Down the Walls: AVID in the Virtual World." In this interactive session, participants discovered how a virtual secondary school created an AVID elective course and successfully implemented AVID school wide.

Lastly, going into the New Year in the spirit of celebrations, I am proud of the SAIL framework that is bringing coherence to our entire district. Our Principals and their SAIL teams have embraced the work of the coherence framework and our system is understanding the true value of bringing to action the phrase, less is more. The presentation that I gave at Learning Forward, the other conference I attended last week, gave proof that developing a focused direction for our system and providing a common framework and language for teacher clarity about the impactful work, does positively move the dial on student achievement. 

A special Happy Holidays to you and yours! 

Viterbo Registration/Payment Due Today!

REMINDER - Viterbo registration/payment forms are due today, December 14, 2018.  We cannot accept late submissions. Once payments are sent to Viterbo, the payment window is officially close. Thank you for your attention to this. Have a great weekend!

Not Bilingual, but I Teach for Biliteracy!

Teaching for Biliteracy when you speak NO SPANISH

By Chris Knutson, Horning Middle School

School District of Waukesha WIsconsin











When my principal needed someone to teach in Dual Language this year, I said YES!  I speak no Spanish at all, but  I had gone through GLAD training, which is a teaching model that supports students with language acquisition.  I have been using GLAD strategies for the last four or five years and felt like I should step up to the plate for this.  The assignment was teaching 6th grade social studies for biliteracy.  Being a Social Studies teacher and having the GLAD background really just made me feel as if it was the right fit for me to do.  I also taught 6th grade last year for the first time and really enjoyed it, so I thought it might be kind of fun.  I was not sure if not being bilingual myself was going to hold my students back and frustrate me.  This is what I have learned!

 

My Dual Language Bilingual students are amazingly talented young people.  They surprise me everyday.  Teachers naturally make assumptions all of the time, without even realizing it and often, these kids show me that some of my assumptions were dead wrong.  Sometimes, when I am front loading with a mini-lesson prior to a group activity or independent reading or writing time, students will tell me things that they already know that I wouldn't have believed they could have.  Sometimes, this draws us off course a little, but the discussions that we have really build a lot of understanding and we learn from each other.  They have taught me some Spanish and they like being able to explain their language to me.  They are really good teachers too!  They are very patient with me.  They also have impressed me so much with their organization skills.  They always ask what they should bring to class and to me this shows that they are not only ready to learn, but want to learn.  Lastly, they are a very kind bunch.  They support one another both socially and academically.

 



My bilingual students are very gifted. One obvious gift is the fact that they are becoming proficient in two languages.  I always tell them how great what they are doing is, because it is preparing them so well for their futures.  They will have such an advantage over peers who are only proficient in one language.  I want them to know that what they are doing is special and sometimes I don't think they necessarily know that and they should.  Aside from this, they bring the gift of curiosity.  This particular group is the most inquisitive class I have ever had.  I look forward to the class everyday because though I know what the topic and objective is, I never know exactly where it will lead us to.





When I heard that I would be responsible for "Teaching for Biliteracy" I was definitely anxious.  I was confident in my GLAD training and experience and I knew I had a good support system, but I also knew that I had a lot to learn.  I wondered if I could learn enough, fast enough to be able to do for the kids what I needed to be able to do.  The first few weeks didn't feel great, because at times I felt inadequate and I wasn't understanding the methodology well enough.  My coaches have been excellent though.  Not only have they helped teach and guide me, but they have also been very encouraging along the way.  Things felt better, very fast, which was a relief.



Teaching for Biliteracy it means that your job is to help students gain the essential speaking, listening, reading and writing skills that they need to be successful in both languages, in addition to learning essential content.  These kids are pursuing a very unique asset and the protocol for attaining it is different than monolingual teaching.  Not that different, but different.  It is critical that these learners can transfer their academic skills from one language to the other and this requires real intentionality.

 

It means that I have to work harder to be able to help them because I don't know my students partner language (Spanish), so the most important thing is to make sure that they know that I honor the language.  It's important for them to feel that their learning of both languages is important to me.  Beyond that, it means that I have to be resourceful and to take advantage of the help that I can get.  I've had to lean on people a little bit more than I am used to, but there is nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it.

I have learned that it is better when they know you are vulnerable.  Sometimes we feel like we have to be superstars, but really we just have to be human.  They want to see us this way and they can relate to us better when they do.  They feel me learning, not just "teaching" and I think that models learning for them.  When my coaches are in, they kind of see me as a learner and I can feel that, which is cool.  In those moments, it is almost like I am just truly in the trenches with them.  This helps me think differently with all of my classes and really pushes me to try to understand them better than I thought I could.



Any teacher could do this, absolutely.  My advice would be to seek the appropriate coaching out right away.  If you are not an experienced biliteracy teacher, you will not be able to figure it out sufficiently on your own.  You have to see it modeled.  My ESL Teacher Leaders, Shannon Kay and Jamie Dittman, have planned with me and co-taught and modeled for me.  Seeing various strategies and approaches executed in real time helped me a lot.  Without coaching and support, it would be difficult to be successful and the kids could be shortchanged.  I have also been able to apply a number of things I have learned to my other classes as well.  It has been a lot of work, but I have grown a lot professionally as a result.  I am glad I did it and I've also gotten to know awesome kids that I wouldn't otherwise have known.

Inclusive Environments

In recent years, many of us have spent increased time and focus working to provide inclusive environments for all students.  Many staff have attended professional development or have created their own learning opportunities in their schools to support this important work.  Many teaching teams have attended the summer Inclusion Summit, which has been offered the last several years. The three day Inclusion Summit is very applicable for any teacher or leader, at any level, and is very well done.  When you see this advertised through email, please consider registering and attending.  You will not be sorry; it’s just that good.

Just as we open our hearts and our minds to our students, let’s remember to also open ourselves up to the adults who work alongside us every day.  Are we working just as hard to create inclusive environments for adults?  The community we build will serve as the foundation for the collaboration that is absolutely necessary to moving students forward.  This community-building requires listening to each other, understanding each other, appreciating each other, and building bridges.  Not just with the staff who each of us identifies with, and not just with the ones who are easy.   What if we all reach out to someone today...someone that we typically avoid, or even ignore a little bit?  What if we take one action today to include a student and an adult who has been marginalized or excluded?  Each of our efforts, multiplied, are the steps toward truly inclusive environments.

We Get What We Model!

After annotating Chapter 4 of Culterize by Jimmy Casas (a must-read), Melissa Yow and Dan Keyser led us through a carousel writing activity. At a writing reflection spot, our group contemplated the quote, “We Get What We Model.” 

We get what we model - it quickly became my new mantra. It made me stop in my tracks, take full ownership, and profoundly reflect on what we truly model for all learners - students, teachers, families, and community.

If we want to see rich, highly engaging discussions from students and also more solution-based, pro-student discussions from teachers, how are we modeling that?

1. How are our faculty learning sessions modeling this behavior/belief for teachers, students, and families?

One of the ways we are reaching this goal at Horning Middle School is by having teachers read, annotate, and think of powerful questions about texts, related to our “Pillars of Practice.”

For example, when we met as a staff at the Retzer Nature Center for school year launch, staff members read articles by Eric Jensen and Pedro Noguera. If we want to have honest conversations and planning around equity and culturally responsive practices, our goal was to first trust and empower teachers to read and reflect more deeply on equity and excellence. 

Our staff then actively participated in Socratic Seminars, prompting each other to interact more deeply with the texts, learn about each other’s perspectives, and begin to trust each other more through the discussion process. Our ultimate goal = having all teachers experience thoughtful reading, questioning, trusting demeanor, high expectations, and learner-based discussions to create transfer into each and every classroom…for all learners.

2. How are we modeling leveraging leadership within our student body in relation to student-led discussions?

One of the ways we are working together toward this goal is by having 7th and 8th grade students teach, advise, and facilitate student-led discussions in our 6th grade classrooms. During these student-led teaching/coaching sessions, the 7th and 8th grade students modeled the discussion and peer feedback, had a panel discussion around informational writing ideas, and then ultimately had a whole class Socratic Seminar. Thank you to Mara Morita, Clair Mitchell, and Maureen Knudson for creating such positive learning environments where this magic happens! 

3. How are we modeling discussions (speaking and listening) with our families and community?

One of the ways we are planning for this is through Family Book Discussion nights. Just last night at HMS, 60 participants (students, families, Waukesha Rotary Club members, and HMS teachers), discussed the rich, poignant story of Pablo Neruda in The Dreamer. One of the most moving questions was from an HMS student, who asked, "I kept thinking the father was going to change. But he didn't. I kept asking myself, 'Why?'" A Waukesha Rotary Club member also discussed the importance of the uncle as a mentor to young Neftali. We could feel the love and humanity in the room.

What do we see and feel around us in our schools? Everything that teachers, students, and families experience is based on what the collective "WE" model. WE get what WE model! What are we modeling? 

Through the three modeling examples listed above, HMS educators are intentionally planning for a strong school that embraces the humanity in all, listening and learning from everyone around us. 

Through these practices, our pillars assemble, strengthen, and have deep roots.

How Assessing Elementary Science Has Changed

One of the biggest shifts we have made in elementary science is how we assess students.  Moving from only assessing students' knowledge of content to assessing how students process science content through definable science skills is difficult, but vital.

NSTA’s position statement on assessment states: “Quality science assessments should be mechanisms for accessing information on students’

• understandings of science content and process knowledge and skills
• abilities to think critically and solve simple to complex problems
• capabilities of designing scientific experiments, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions
• capacities to see and articulate relationships between science topics and real-world issues and concerns
• skills using mathematics as a tool for science learning”

As a science leadership team, we have chosen to use four main categories of scientific skills to assess and provide feedback: ask questions & define problems, plan & carry out investigations, analyze & interpret data, and construct explanations & design solutions.  These are rigorous skills that will allow students to demonstrate science content knowledge through scientific thinking and application.  

It has been exciting to see all of the amazing science thinking students have been doing this year through the use of the teacher-created planners.  Students of all ages are actively reading, writing, and speaking about relevant science topics and more and more students are designing their own investigations and analyzing the results.  This is the science knowledge that will carry with them throughout their education, and I look forward to building great assessment tools that provide students with high quality feedback on those skills.

Celebrating AVMR in Classrooms and Opportunities for Continued Learning

Celebrations

As I take time to reflect this holiday season, I am beyond thankful to work with an amazing group of educators who are committed to their students and continuing their own learning. This year Rose and I have been able to offer more AVMR professional development than ever before.  During the first trimester alone we had teachers continuing their learning in AVMR Course 1, AVMR Course 2, Fractions, a purple book study, and a TDP course that revisited AVMR Course 1. (If you are interested in continuing your own learning around AVMR or math, check out the end of this post for upcoming professional development and coaching opportunities.)

Showcase of AVMR in Classrooms (Bonus app and website to check out!)

A 3rd grade student uses equal grouping and a representational model to understand division. The phases of instruction for multiplication and division can help guide the teacher and student to more sophisticated strategies for solving this problem.

Two kindergarten students play Uno Mas (One More) by rolling a dot die, counting the number of spots on the die and then adding one more. What a great way to practice regular spatial patterns and counting during application time!

A kindergarten student works on sequencing numerals during application time. What do you notice about the way this student has placed the numbers on this worksheet so far?

A first grade classroom uses ten frames during a mini lesson around bridging to ten as an addition strategy. Student’s shared their ideas regarding how to fill the ten frame with the blue counters.  For an easy to use ten frame check out this web app! All students should also have this app available to them in self service shortly.

Continuing the Learning

If you would like to continue your own learning about AVMR this year please consider joining one of the upcoming professional development sessions we will be offering.  Still to come this year are:

• AVMR Course 1 (Starts April 9th)
• AVMR Course 2 (Starts February 20th)
• Fractions Course (Starts January 9th)
• TDP- Differentiation of AVMR Games and Activities (January)
• TDP- AVMR Course 1 Revisited- Planning for Instruction (February)
• TDP- AVMR Course 2 Revisited- Planning for Instruction (March)Red Book Study (Starts January 31st)

You can sign up for one or more of these PD’s by filling in the google form at the bottom of this CONNECT blog post.

Also remember that my role is a district wide AVMR coach which means that I am here to help you!  Some of the ways I have worked with teachers in the past have been:

• Attending grade level meetings to plan for upcoming instruction
• Observing a student who is struggling in class and providing possible next steps for instruction
• Modeling a small guided group or an intervention using AVMR
• Co-planning for AVMR instruction
• Observing AVMR instruction and providing feedback

If you would like to set up a meeting time to discuss one of these options or anything else AVMR related, please just email me at rkozicke@waukesha.k12.wi.us.

~Rachel Kozicke

Where we have come and we are we going

During this time of year, we give pause to remember and reflect on the events such as Peral Harbor as well as events happening around us today. In making a better tomorrow, we must reflect on what we have done and determine what has worked and what has failed to work the way we wanted. Making adjustments, applying new knowledge, and coming back for a second attempt demonstrates what Anglea Duckworth calls perseverance, or grit.

As we get closer to winter break, we look toward a new year with new opportunities and beginnings. We all have the ability to thinks about where we have come since the start of school and make the second half of the school year even better.  In the video below, one line jumped out; "One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world." - Malala Yousafzai

So many great stories in the Connect have been written, I look forward to all of the great stories yet to be written in the new year. Create a world of limitless opportunities for our students. #WeAreWaukesha #WeAreLimitless

The Power of the ASW

The ASW tool has circled around the district many times and has become an extremely valuable tool for many teams as they have embarked on a regular and consistent PLC.  ASW stands for “Analyzing Student Work”. The ASW process is intended to help teachers learn about and better understand their students’ strengths and needs in order to develop instruction that is best suited for each individual student or specific small group learning opportunities.

The process of using the ASW tool, in relation to a PLC, looks like this:

The best thing about the ASW tool is that it can be used with summative test data (i.e. MAP, FORWARD, STAR) or it can be used with something that the students are doing in everyday instruction (i.e. Thoughtful Logs responses, process or published writing pieces).  Most recently, the Dual Language teachers at Horning used the ASW tool to assess their students’ writing in regards to literacy standards RI6.1 and RI7.1. Based off of their results they are planning strategy groups to meet the needs of their students.  Kindergarten teachers from Bethesda used the ASW tool to analyze their students ability to rhyme and then formed small group instruction based off of their results. Sixth grade Science teachers and 7th grade Literacy teachers at Les Paul use the ASW tool consistently to gauge the understanding of their students and immediately plan small group instruction with the infusion of additional supports and scaffolds to meet their students needs. See some of their examples below.

Never used the ASW tool before?  The ASW Template will walk you through the process.  Here is an additional article with a protocol for analyzing student work.  Also, reach out to your instructional coach. They would love to be a part of the process! =)

Note: There are many ASW tools floating around and all of them are valuable. It’s not about using the exact tool but it’s about the process.

Credit: To all the wonderful PLCs that I have been a part of including the Horning DL, Les Paul Literacy and Science, and Bethesda Kindergarten.  Keep up the great work!

The Importance of Social Emotional Learning

Many schools in our district have chosen to build Social Emotional Learning into their SAIL plans this year.  For many, this work has been at the forefront of their practice for many years, for some, this has been a new area of focus.  Schools have traditionally prioritized literacy and math and have embraced the idea that if we provide "good instruction" we will address the needs of all of the students in our class; that "good instruction" will automatically equate to high levels of engagement and thus limited behavior problems and improved student growth and achievement.

For teachers, student services staff and principals, the idea that "good instruction" is enough is not necessarily true.  While it is essential to teaching and learning, those of you who work daily with students of trauma and hunger, you know there is another layer that must be in place for students to be successful. 

The article The Future of Education Depends on Social Emotional Learning: Here's Why, Giancarlo Brotto discusses the importance of Social Emotional Learning not only on student achievement but also in their lives beyond school.  As you work with your grade level teams and as SAIL teams are planning for the remainder of this year and beyond, how are you or how is your school incorporating Social Emotional Learning into daily, weekly or 100-Day plans?

The Future of Education Depends on Social Emotional Learning: Here's Why

Reaching all Learners' Families

http://talkingpts.org/

This FREE APP allows any educator to communicate directly to students families in the language families most access.  Click on the link above to find more-share with your staff and colleagues!

Taking PLC's to the Next Level

Taking PLC's to the Next Level By: Marisa Nathan

Professional learning communities can be defined in many different ways. Dufour, Dufour, Eaker, and Many (2010) state that “a professional learning community is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective action research to achieve better results for the students they serve”. This cycle often includes a plan, do, study, act series that is focused around student learning. This is an example of Confianza’s action cycle that is used to help support schools and systems that we work with. 

This resource will focus on the do and study phase of the action cycle. By doing we develop a deeper understanding and make meaning of new learning more easily. I have had the opportunity to work in different schools where there are systems put into place in order to do and to study “strategies” that support ALL learners. 

An example that I would like to share with you is from South High School in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The staff at South High School has created a “Now Showing Board”. The “Now Showing Board” highlights strategies that the staff plan to try out through their PLC process. Every Friday a google form goes out to all staff that asks for a strategy that they will try out in the week to come. It is up to the staff member whether or not they would like to invite others in their room to see the strategy in action. Notice the apple on the “now Showing Board”. If the apple is present that means that the strategy will have technology incorporated in some way. The Waukesha School District is a one to one school district and prides itself on differentiating with the support of technology. 

In order to celebrate the high leverage strategies that are being seen each week, a strategy is chosen to be highlighted in the school’s Monday Memo. This is called the Strategy Spotlight. The strategy spotlight includes the teacher’s name, the strategy and a description along with pictures of the students in action with the strategy.

Another recent phenomena around sharing practice is the idea of hanging a pineapple on your door. Did you know that a pineapple is a sign of welcoming, friendship, and hospitality? I have seen this sign used in other buildings that I have visited. It this resource, How Pineapple Charts have Revolutionized Professional Development by Jennifer Gonzalez, it digs deeper into this idea of sharing practice with one another in order to boost student achievement. 

There are so many great things going on in our schools. I challenge you to think outside the box in order to build capacity in others and highlight the amazing work going on in your building.

Equity through Language

Equity through Language

Equity. We have been hearing this word more and more. Whether from the news, books, or
professional development, everyone is talking about equity. But have you ever thought about
equity within language? As an educator, are you being equitable in the way you use language
supports when teaching content?

Comprehensible input is the
only way we can give equitable
access of content to ALL learners.
Comprehensible input is exactly
that: sharing any input in a way
that all learners can comprehend.
Comprehensible input requires
intentional planning on the part
of a teacher, but can be done
meaningfully with things like
pictures, diagrams/charts
and realia; just to name a few.

Some simple steps a teacher can take will make a world of difference for students'
understanding and ultimately achievement. Valentina Gonzalez demonstrates this beautifully.

As Ms. Gonzalez states towards the end of her demonstration some of the most important
things she did for students were: pointing, using props (realia) and also repeating the words
several times while giving time and space for students to repeat the words themselves. These
multiple points of exposure are huge for all learners. Marzano's research shows that students
need anywhere from 4-40 exposures to a word before being able to use the word themselves.
Four times for those who have a broad vocabulary and forty for our language learners. This
research demonstrates that comprehensible input is a need for ALL our learners.


How do you make your teaching
comprehensible? How do you
ensure ALL learners have
access to what you are saying?
What strategy will you try out or
begin to use to meet the
needs of ALL learners?

Resources:

Comprehensible Input in the Classroom

Oracy Development and Reading

A Game Plan for Meaningful Exposures

Rounding Feedback

I feel like we were just celebrating the day off in October and now in the blink of an eye, November is two weeks away from being over! Sheesher!

I am happy about our rounding progress so far. Although, we have been in twice as many classrooms as is recorded here, we have received feedback from 104 employees across our system.
Please feel free to continue to give us input on the 3 questions we will be asking all year long:

(1) What is working well for you?

(2) Who has been helpful to you?

(3) What ideas do you have for improvement?

The word cloud below shows all of us the top 50 words you used when talking about what is working well for you. AVID is resoundingly gaining positive momentum, teacher teams in schools have been a support to working smarter, and students are celebrated at the center of our work.

As I reflect on my responsibility in our system to relentlessly maximize the leadership capacity of all of us, I am inspired by your passion to ensure educational excellence across our system. Together, we can increase student growth and achievement and change young lives forever!

The Importance of Struggle

What is productive struggle? Why would we want students to struggle?  How do we engage students with productive struggle?  These questions are important to consider when planning for instruction.

There are a variety of definitions when it comes to productive struggle.  According to Heibert and Grouws, "productive struggle - effortful practice that goes beyond passive reading, listening, or watching - builds useful, lasting understanding and skill."  Productive struggle occurs when students do not immediately know an answer and need to work through a problem and think about it in a variety of ways. In Principles to Actions, "Effective mathematics teaching uses students' struggles as valuable opportunities to deepen their understanding of mathematics.  Students come to realize that they are capable of doing well in mathematics with effort and perseverance in reasoning, sense making, and problem solving."  Students are excited and thrive when they have the right amount of productive struggle. 

In math, one of the ways to have this productive struggle is by providing students rich mathematical problems.  In the video below, Diane Briars, past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, emphasizes the need for teachers to offer students daily opportunities to engage in problem solving that requires reasoning. 

Students in Kindergarten through high school should be engaged in rich mathematical tasks.  Often times you will hear the terms "low floor, high ceiling" when describing various problems.  This means that all students should be able to find an entry point into the work, and yet allow for students to excel at high levels. As Diane Briars mentions, we are creating inequities if we all are not engaging students in reasoning and problem solving.  

At the elementary level, one way we are making sure all students experience productive struggle is by having grade levels complete various Fosnot units throughout the year.  These units are designed to foster deep understanding of the content by engaging students in solving multiple tasks in a real world context.    Earlier this year, first graders at Whittier were busy working with a unit entitled Double Decker bus.  In this unit, students used the context of passengers getting on and off a bus and modeled the situations with a bead rack.    In addition, students started to write their own addition and subtraction problems that could be solved.

At the third grade level, the Whittier students completed a unit called Groceries, Stamps, and Measuring Strips.  This unit served as an introduction into multiplication, and students were encouraged to find efficient strategies to find the total of a variety of groups. The students started with finding the total number of objects in a grocery store and then moved into working with stamps of different values.  By the end, students were using their multiplication (and measurement skills) to determine the size of buildings if they knew the size of a boy.

While the Fosnot units allow for productive struggle and enable students to make meaning of a variety of concepts, there are many other wonderful problem solving tasks that can be found on Blackboard.  

Jo Boaler describes it best as to why we need our students to productively struggle.

As you continue through this year,  engage your students with productive struggle as they solve a variety of math problems and see their excitement as they gain new understandings.  Even consider how you as a teacher productively struggles as you solve a variety of problems that come your way!