DreamBox Acknowledges Waukesha's February Implementation

This past week, we received this flyer from DreamBox to celebrate the fantastic implementation and impact they have seen from our students.  Congratulations to the buildings, grade levels, and students! 

The DreamBox trophy is traveling to Bethesda for the month of February! Here are pictures of Bethesda's happy classrooms who had the most lessons overall for the month.

Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy (PCL) Features 10 & 1 Highlights

Over the next several months we are excited to incrementally share a quick overview of the 10 features of the PCL model and how the features are seen across our district. This post highlights features 10 and 1. Be on the lookout, on April 1st (no fooling!) we will highlight features 2 and 3.

 

Feature #10 Spotlighting and Advocacy
Impact of Feature: Helps stakeholders understand what we are doing, why we are doing it, and the positive impact our work is having on students. This feature is a celebration of our hard work and the results so we can shine a spotlight on the impact and results.
Elementary	Secondary
Principal, Jessica Barry, PCL/literacy coach Erica Maurer, and model classroom teacher Melissa Spellman share their PCL journey with the school board.	Sharing of powerful student discourse and teacher co-planning/co-teaching from Mike Deml’s English class at Waukesha North High School across multiple platforms (Twitter, Secondary Literacy Update, and CONNECT).
“Spotlighting and advocacy are techniques for dissemination of information on the model, including school visitations, news releases, research articles, conference presentations, and other advocacy efforts.” -Changing Minds, Changing Schools, Changing Systems pg 4

Feature #1 Framework for Literacy
Impact of Feature: When teachers learn and develop evidence-based instructional strategies rooted in research and collect evidence of the impact on student learning, we ensure the needs of all learners are met while adhering to an inquiry-based curriculum.
3rd Grade Literacy Curriculum Framework Our SDW Elementary Literacy Frameworks provide literacy teachers with an overview of each unit of study along with the necessary curriculum, content, and resources to effectively teach all areas of literacy.	8th grade At-A-Glance Curriculum Resources Our SDW Middle School At-A-Glance Curricular Resources provide literacy teachers with an overview of each unit of study (common pre- and summative assessments, reading and writing mini-lessons, background knowledge building ideas, and literature discussion group plans).
“An aligned curriculum enables students to notice relationships among knowledge sources, while simultaneously providing opportunities for repetitive practice that leads to automaticity and deeper understanding.”  -Changing Minds, Changing Schools, Changing Systems pg 3

AVID Champions

What does it mean for work to be meaningful? What does it mean for work to be manageable?

Have you ever had this conversation with your grade level team, your PLC, your SAIL team, your school?

AVID represents the visual in this framework. When educators believe in students, learning and confidence are activated. When schools and teachers focus on rigorous instruction and believe in students' potential, student outcomes improve.

What does it truly mean to have our students Write, Inquire, Collaborate, Organize and Read?

Our Principals engaged in learning today with Brett Bowers from AVID and we hope you are able to have this conversation in the near future to answer the essential question: 

How can your AVID implementation have as meaningful an impact on students' college and career readiness as possible while still being manageable for staff?