Close Reading and Instructional Rounds IMPLEMENTING COMMON CORE STRATEGIES AT MEDIA, VISUAL, AND PERFORMING ARTS CARLO ROBLEDO

DemographicsFinancial support District Policies/school financial support (Expenditures per pupil): Total expenditures per pupil: $7,377 Expenditures per Pupil (Supplemental): $2,715 Expenditures per pupil (Basic): $4,662 SCHOOL DATA EthnicityNumbersPercentage African American 349 Hispanic or Latino White Multiracial155.4 Total378

Free/Reduced Lunch  All of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch at San Diego High School Complex Attendance YearMVPA Average Daily Attendance % % % SCHOOL DATA

English Language Learners YearTotal English Learners/% of population Spanish Speakers Non-Spanish Speakers /34.9%33.8%1.1% /32.6%30.7%2% /33.4%32.3%1.1% /31.2%30.1%1.1% Special Education Population Year# of Students in Special Ed % of Population SCHOOL DATA

API/AYP YearAcademic Performance Index (API) Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP Yes NO; AYP not met in math and ELA NO; AYP not met in Math EL AP! MVPA Base MVPA Growth District

10 TH GRADE ENGLISH SCORES

 MVPA has a total of 23 Certified staff members  17 Classroom teachers  4 Special Education Specialists  Teachers are fully credentialed  Average years of service: 16 years  Average years teaching at MVPA: 6 years TEACHERS

 How can we support our students’ learning and increase their depth of knowledge?  How do we support teachers in the common practice of Close Reading?  How do we increase attendance rates? ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM Role CounselorInterventions PrincipalDistrict focus/ PD planner ELL CoordinatorPD Coordinator/data collector Electives Department ChairPR director CounselorScheduling Math DepartmentRevolution coordinator English DepartmentUnion AR, Common Core curriculum developer History/ Social ScienceCommon Core curriculum developer Science DepartmentPresent Special EducationCoordinate the Special Ed Needs THE LEADERSHIP TEAM

 If we have students interact with complex text and complex questions they will improve their depth of knowledge and be more engaged in lessons.  This is based on the three main requirements of a theory of action.  It must be a statement of what I do and what is a good result in the class.  It must be able to be analyzed based on evidence.  It must be open ended and never fully developed. (City et al., 2010) THEORY OF PRACTICE

 We were introduced to the process  Student centered learning  It’s purpose is to have students work closely with text.  Annotate  Reread  Ask questions and look for answers from the text.  Increase the Depth of Knowledge for students “Accountability begins in the tasks that students are asked to do”(City, et al., 2010, p. 38) “Increases in student learning occur only as a consequence of improvements in the level of content, teacher’ knowledge and skill, and student engagement.(City, et al., 2010, p. 24) CLOSE READING

 We were also asked to participate in instructional rounds within our complex We use the model described in Instructional Rounds in Education  Identify a problem of practice  Observe the practice  Debrief the observation  Look to the next level of work (City, et al., 2010) INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS

 Implementation of Close Reading  Students interacting with text and finding evidence from text  Work on questioning to increase the DOK  Instructional Rounds  Teachers given a specific problem to work on  Teachers/Principals observing practices with a focused eye to a specific problem  Teachers and Principals debriefing the practices we see and student engagement  Creating a network of educators  Visiting a model school  Visit from area superintendents and principals “Keep the purpose in mind. Setting up the network and, indeed, conducting rounds are not ends in themselves, but means to helping districts and schools make large-scale improvements in the instructional core to best serve the learning of all students. ”(City, et al., 2010, p. 80) STRENGTHS

 Expanding lessons beyond Close Reading  Spend time improving assessments  Improve our instructional round format to allow teachers to watch more practices often.  Make partnerships with other schools to observe practices in the district.  Improve ELL strategies to help scaffold  Better debriefing protocol. “It is not just what you do, but how you do it that matters.” (City, et al., 2010, p. 81) AREAS OF NEED

 Increase student engagement  Improve on Close reading and multimedia instruction to engage students.  Cultivate trust within the staff at MVPA  Continue to observe and help develop good practices among staff member and members of a growing network.  Build a collaborative learning culture  Look to increase participation of parents within the school. Look to diversify the network of people that influence student learning. “The rounds network models the “safe space” necessary for personal and organizational learning and helps leaders understand what’s necessary to achieve it. “(City, et al., 2010, p. 174) ACTION PLAN

City,E., Elmore,R., Fiarman,S., & Teitel, L.(2010). Instructional Rounds in Education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Frey,N.,& Fisher,D. (2013). Rigorous Reading: Five access points for comprehending complex texts. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. REFERENCE

 It is a technique for reading text closely.  Teachers create a purpose and model what they want out of the text  Ex. Annotate with the students as they read  So there are six details for close reading Guided Practice; 1.Short, worthy Passage- No more then a page with high Lexile number or difficult content. 2.Students rereading- Students read then ask simple questions. Then reread and DOK increases in the questioning. 3. Limited frontloading- Let the students find the information. They need to break down the text. 4. text-dependent questions- questions should make the student find the answer in the text. 5. annotation- breaking down the text is a skill that is used by students in college, and is a good skill to have. 6. After- reading task- A writing assignment or group project where they have to use the text as a source is always important. 7.(Fisher, Frey, 2013) WHAT IS CLOSE READING

 This year the principals at San Diego Unified School District had a number of professional development meetings to discuss and teach the principals the focus of the district as it pertains to the Common Core Standards.  The directives  Focus on the Classrooms.  Implement Close Reading strategies as it described Douglas Fisher work  Instructional rounds would be used to develop good practices.  This information came from my Principal. COMMON CORE STANDARDS PREPARATIONS

 We are given a directive during our pull out Professional Development that we will focus on during the next few weeks.  Ex. Annotation, Questioning Process  We are asked to pick a period and day we would invite people to come and observe our practice  The teachers get coverage for their class for 30 minutes and go observe the class. They take notes on the specific practice we are trying to master.  The people who observe leave the room and debrief.  The Principal debriefs with the teacher at a later date and teachers on their free time debrief with the observed teacher. HOW OUR OBSERVATIONS WORKED

 On Thursday March 13 th San Diego Unified School District Chief of Staff, two Area Superintendents, a mentor principal and 8 principals came to visit MVPA to see our implementation of Close reading in our classrooms.  They visited 5 teachers to see how students were engaged.  It provided teachers with a lot of pressure to perform and create exceptional lessons.  Students understand the importance of the visits. VISIT FROM AREA SUPERINTENDENTS AND PRINCIPALS

 During one of our Common Core Standards Professional development we visited Health Science High & Middle College  This school was started by Nancy Frey PhD and Douglas Fisher PhD.  The teachers use close reading strategies and incorporate Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher’s vision of what education should look like with a demanding population.  We saw sample lessons and examples of question building for close reading lessons. VISITING A MODEL SCHOOL