Grades 3-5 PLC Work 3-5 PLC WORK

Team Members Debbie Knodel Grade 3 Teacher Janis Behrens Grade 4 Teacher Connie Field Grade 5 Teacher Susie Strohmaier Title Coordinator and Title Teacher Primary Classrooms and Grade 5 Math Janet Sanger Educational Assistant Title (Reading and Math) Grade 4 and Librarian

Our Focus for MATH Our focus for the school year of is Math. We are focused on helping students achieve higher scores on daily classroom performance and the Measurement of Student Progress (MSP) by developing Assessments that will identify students who are not achieving mastery on individual State Standards and establishing a plan of action to ensure all students are making gains. Our long term goal is to be ready to transfer from the in place State Standards to the Common Core State Standards in 2014.

NORMS 1.Be on Time - 8:20 Start Time 2.Bring materials – Be prepared 3.Respect each other 4.Attend to goals and objectives 5.Accomplish work 6.Consensus decision-making 7.End on time

State Standards and Common Core Cross grade level understanding of the Common Core Standards Review new math curriculum My Math. Using the understanding that State Standards are in affect for 2 more years, develop cross grade level Assessments. First common cross grade level assessments will cover Multiplication and Division units of study. Assessments will be given in January. A study of student Data will take place and a plan of action will be developed for low scoring students.

1/14/2013 Handed out and went through the PLC 3-5 Grade Team Notebooks; Established over-due Norms for 3-5 Grade Team; Worked on the remaining January dates on our Calendars, setting goals for those dates; Will complete table for standards test by 1/28. 1/21/2013 No School We will try to meet one day after school to work on tables. 1/28/2013 Figure % of Multiple Choice, Completion, and Short Answer questions for grade level Standards being tested for multiplication and/or division. Know how many questions are needed for each standard in MC, C, and SA. Work on developing Test using Exam View.

Targeted Work for February: Finish Unit Test and Give Start work of Common Core Check Lists 2/4/2013- Complete the Unit test for Multiplication/Division 2/11/2013- Look at the Data given by the Unit test and plan what will be done to help students who have fallen below the 80% Mastery level. Put plan into action. 2/18/2013- No School 2/25/2013- Work on check list for Common Core State Standards which can be used with the in place State Standards.

February 11, 2013 Our team finished working on the common (across grade level) Multiplication/Division tests. We did not realize the amount of time it takes to prepare a test, revise, and label the state standards. This is huge and we have many more to come. We certainly appreciate the time we are given to work on these assessments. February 25, 2013 Mrs. Knodel was absent from school today, and Mrs. Strohmaier was at the H.S. working on TITLE. Mrs. Field, Mrs. Sanger, and I worked on putting together our check list for Common Core which will be on the Year Long Plan, in the student working file and sent home in students’ report cards. We made our March calendar.

March 2013 Targeted Work: Look at DATA from common assessments and take a look at last year’s MSP results. We think that by looking at the results now, it gives time to go back and reinforce what students were low on last year in hopes to bring those scores up with this years classes. This will also take looking at DATA collected over the year for those areas, if they have been taught. March 4, 2013: Look at common assessment and MSP scores. Have discussion as to where students scored low, how they have performed this year in those areas, and what can we do to help this years group of students do better. MSP. March 11, 2013 : Discuss a Plan of Action. March 18, 2013 : Talk about how the plan is working, do we need adjustments made, what’s next? March 25, 2013: To Be Determined _____________________________________________________________ Notes: Continue developing unit assessments for each grade level.

March 4 - Whole PLC meeting with Mr. Ellis to set Elementary goals on how to meet the district goals. Elementary Goals Promotion Rate: Goal – All students will meet standard at 80 percent or higher. Grades P-2 will meet standard with year-end benchmark assessments at a score of 80 percent or higher. Common assessments Progress monitoring Testing on a regular basis DIBELS, Chapter Tests, Spelling Tests, etc. Intervention for reading and math Common Curriculum Math: Goal – All students will meet standard at 80 percent or higher. Reteach Retest Basic Skills - Math Facts Intervention Common Assessments – Fall, Winter, Spring progress monitoring

Language Arts: Goal – All students will achieve 80% in all Language Arts classes. QRI DIBELS Use the five components of reading. Writegroup Class Writes Common Curriculum Vocabulary Content structure and mechanics of writing at grade level. Interventions Across content areas. Science Improvement: Goal: All students will be introduced to vocabulary, critical thinking and experiments. Introduce terms Introduce science subjects Make science fun

March 11 - Our PLC team 3-5 picked up on what we were going to do on the 4 th. We went over our Multiplication assessments and looked at where students were low on their MSP scores last year. We discussed the low percentages that the state had set 2 years ago and how they had raised the meeting standards scores last year. We also questioned what the CCSS meeting standard scores would be or where to find this information. We talked about the sample test for CC and who has looked at it or taken any part of it for their grade level. We looked at how to use Microsoft Office to make tables to chart our information on. March 18 –Goal Setting Meeting at the Middle School. All staff from Elementary and Middle School met with Mr. Ellis to hold discussion about the goals we set and how we would meet these goals. We offered ideas and suggestions. We are still left wondering where “time” will come from to do all the things we need to do.

March 25- Our 3-5 PLC team met in the Library along with Mr. Ellis. We discussed what we wanted to present to our School Board, about setting a few of our remaining meetings aside to get together whole staff and discuss how to approach our writing program next year, and planning our schedules for the school year. We understand that what we plan may have to have a few changes or alterations made, but we feel it is important to start planning our schedules to fit in Writing and Interventions for Reading and Math. What will our Interventions look like P-2 and 3-5? We also feel we need to discuss whether to remain on a quarter system or change to a tri-semester.

Targeted Work for April: Turn the emphasis to Writing and planning for , if everyone is in agreement. April 8- to be sent to all staff to meet in the Library to discuss writing. Mr. Ellis has been invited and said he would love to be in attendance for the discussion. Some things to look at: 1)Language 2)Where to start and what will each grade incorporate, or do we all begin with the same integrations and add each year. We have been doing some strategies in our classrooms, but are we doing the same? Will they build on each other? 3)Posters? 4)Mr. Roettger and Mr. Ellis were in attendance. April 15- Will continue looking at next years writing program built on the new Common Core State Standards.

Ms. Behrens will find and hand out sample year long plans already created by other school districts across the U.S. As a staff we will explore these year long plans to see what other school districts are doing. We will be working with the Ritzville Grade School and grade level teachers to make sure our year long plans are coordinated during our collaboration days. It was determined that we needed to see a scope and sequence of common core skills across the grade levels and after trying to list out the new writing tools we are using from Step Up to Writing, we tabled this and decided to write down all the tools we are using and bring it to the April 22 meeting. Everyone should bring a list of the Step up to Writing Activities you are using in your classroom. Since we have our CCSS books for ELA now, it might be a good thing to bring those. We also discussed have a document that showed everyone's standards. I will try to find one. We will be looking at what we can use across the grade levels beginning next year. We might want to look at some common vocabulary also.

April 22: Mrs. Knodel and myself were not present. Mrs. O’Neil reported that she handed out the scope and sequence documents. A list of tools used by everyone in their classrooms from Step Up to Writing was made. Using common vocabulary was discussed, and agreed upon that it was very important. UPDATE: List of tools used by grade level: PK: Topic/Main Idea/ Details (few times model) Emotion books, Writing Center, Holding A Pencil K: Draw, Write, Think What Am I thinking Label Journal Writing Writing Center 1: What Am I Thinking Narrative retell (Poster-Beginning Part) Sentence book – topic, details, Closing Personal Narrative 2.Narrative Circle Chart Vocabulary Book – reading, math, science Topic/ Main Idea/ Details

3.Vocabulary Narrative Retell- Beginning/Middle/End 2 Column Notes Highlighting Dash and Dots 4.Story Frames 1-8a Summary 2 Column Notes Transition Bookmarks Narrative/Expository T * - : for summary Writing 5.Story Frames Explanatory Paragraph R * - : I’m not sure what was determined for our next meeting date. April 29: All Present It had been determined at the April 22 meeting that we would discuss the tools we use and make posters, run things off, etc. Kind of a make and take meeting. Mr. Roettger came in with the list of Principal candidates for us to preview along with the questions for us to look at and make suggestions. We spent most of our meeting doing this. We were able to look at the Step Up to Writing Posters that were purchased and test them for lamination. We made no plans for our first May meeting. Mr. Ellis has a surprise for us!

May 6: What a wonderful surprise we had this morning. The EA’s threw us a wonderful breakfast for Teacher Appreciation Week. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for us.