Welcoming the Wisconsin Seal of Biliteracy in the School District of Waukesha

What is the Seal of Biliteracy?

https://youtu.be/OiZg2XbuVBo

How will seniors in Waukesha Earn this Honor?

Learners are honored for their Global Competency. Global Competency is defined as the ability to Recognize Perspectives, Communicate Ideas in two or more languages, Investigate the World and Take Action.

Seniors must demonstrate Biliteracy through proficiency in English on the ACT or Access Test for English Learners, and proficiency in their partner language measured by the AAPPL test scheduled February 23 and 24 at each high school.

In addition to demonstrating linguistic skill, seniors also need to demonstrate that they can Recognize Perspectives.  Seniors will do this by submitting two essays, one in English and the other in their partner language, on specific topics related to multilingualism in their lives, their future and society at large.

Seniors will also demonstrate their ability to Communicate Ideas and Take Action through a Service Project.  The Service Project will require seniors to take action in a multilingual environment to improve local or global conditions for people and communities.  While in 2017, there will be no specific requirement for hours that must be fulfilled, in place learners must demonstrate that criteria has been met through their project in the time it takes them to fulfill the project goal.

Seniors will submit a portfolio of evidence that demonstrates these three capacities and achievements by May 1st.  Announcements of students who qualify will occur around May 15.  Qualifying students with a guest will attend a recognition dinner on June 6th.

What exactly will be awarded?

Seniors who earn the award will dress with their Seal of Biliteracy Medal of Honor (think Olympic Medal) and graduation cord.  On Graduation day these honorees will receive an embossed diploma with the Seal of Biliteracy Seal.  Official Transcripts will reflect the award and be a form of public communication of achievement to colleges and employers throughout the seniors lifetime.

How can I learn more?

A Web EX is scheduled on Friday February 10 for administrators to learn more and ask questions.  Updated timelines will be shared during this WEB EX.

A parent information session is planned on Saturday February 11 at 10:30 in English and 11:30 in Spanish.

Student Information Sessions are Planned for Monday February 13th during homeroom (between 9:24 and 10:10) at each high school.

D Garcia will be facilitating at South, Angela Jurish at West and Maria Barreras at North High School.

Director of Educator Development named starting July 1

It is my pleasure on behalf of the Teaching and Learning Team to announce that we have hired Sharon Thiede as Director of Educator Development to officially start July 1, 2017. Sharon will replace Sara Behrendt in this role as Sara announced her retirement from the School District of Waukesha at the end of this year.

With close to 70 applicants for the position, Sharon became the number one selection this week after finalist interviews.

In this role, Sharon will lead educator development work including Educator Effectiveness, PI-34 requirements, TDP's and professional learning across our system. She will also oversee Advanced Learning/Gifted and Talented as well as continue her SAIL coaching work with STEM Saratoga, East, and Meadowbrook.

As a former English teacher, at the core, Sharon wants to customize learning for the adults in our system so that they can maximize their work with our students. Sharon was also an AP in Kettle Moraine, at Waukesha West HS and serves currently in her role as Director of Student Services.
Please share in welcoming Sharon to the Teaching and Learning Team!

PLC's....working smarter, not harder.

Todd Gray is constantly reminding us to be the tortoise and we are seeking ways as a system that we can continue to work smarter, not harder...to maximize our own resources in order to positively impact student learning. PLC's are a high leverage distributed leadership model that we all need to take a closer look into.

Professional learning teams provide a powerful mechanism for improvements in teaching and learning. Developing successful PLC's is difficult and it requires intentional effort from teachers and administrators. We know that different teams, develop at different rates and with different personalities, and most pass through the continuum of a focus on teaching to a focus on learning.

Novice PLC teams are likely asking questions such as, "what exactly do they want us to do?" PLC's can seem pointless especially for teams who lack clear guidelines. Setting norms might be step one for a PLC in this stage.
A common next question teachers ask is, "what are you doing in your classroom?". There is great value in these conversations as sharing practice helps to make instruction transparent. Sometimes teams fail to move past this sharing of instructional practices that focuses on individual efforts rather than a collective effort of effective instruction.
As PLC's learn to work together, different members will take on responsibility for lesson planning and sharing of the work. This is a great step, built on trust, and it helps teams lighten the load. At this juncture, teams can grow comfortable with sharing planning but the next critical step would be to focus on results. This is where we ask the question, "are students learning what we want them to learn and how do we know?"

New thinking related to student outcomes forces teams to ask, "what does mastery look like?" What evidence is necessary for documenting success? Using data effectively is not an intuitive process and many of us need experience and support with this. Schools that provide structures and tools for effective data analysis are rewarded with highly successful PLC teams driven by results! On highly functioning PLC teams, collective intelligence provides a never-ending source of support and allows the talents of our SDW colleagues to help us work smarter in the best interests of each learner in our system.

As we all take a collective responsibility for student success, we understand the value of not doing things alone or in isolation any longer. This professional ownership is what defines accomplished educators. It is what every PLC team should be striving for in the School District of Waukesha.

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