FEBRUARY 2009

KNOWLEDGE BUILDING

 Time for Learning – design schedules and practices that ensure engagement in meaningful learning  Focused Instruction – close monitoring of classroom and school activities and system activities  Academic Press – setting high, but achievable system and school goals and classroom standards  Collective Efficacy - it is the level of confidence a group feels about its ability to organize and implement whatever educational initiatives are required for students to achieve high standards or achievement  Trust - it is a belief or expectation that all support the system and schools’ goals for student learning and will work toward achieving those goals

Leading the Instructional Program The principal is able to: -demonstrate the principles and practice of effective teaching and learning -initiate and support an inquiry-based approach to improvement in teaching and learning The principal has knowledge and understanding of: -strategies for improving achievement -effective pedagogy and assessment -curriculum design and management

1. What does it mean when students are “making Connections”? 2. How are our previous understandings of this different? 3. What are we expecting in terms of criteria when looking at open responses to making connections? 4. Should we be using frameworks to assist students in their thinking? 5. Are the questions we are asking eliciting higher level of thinking? 6. How can the Ministry document/curriculum map support the teaching and learning of higher order thinking skills? 7. How do we develop questions that support/ensure content integration and differentiation?

1. How do we inform parents and our community about our teaching focus in literacy? 2. Do our parents know what “making connections” means and why it is identified as our board goal? 3. Do our parents have information on how they can be asking higher order questions to support thinking and extending understanding? 4. How can we communicate the focus at the school level, classroom level and student level? 5. What is the difference between moderated marking and teacher moderation? 6. What is the greatest difference between achieving a level 2 and achieving a level 3? 7. How can we use questions to personalize next steps for students? 8. How do we develop instructional next steps from student work and patterns in the feedback provided?

SMART Goal #2: By June 30 th, 2009, HPEDSB boys will independently produce non-fiction writing for an intended purpose and audience. Why is SMART Goal #2, SMART Goal #2?  2008 EQAO Primary results were below the province by 15% in writing  2008 EQAO Junior results were below the province by 15% in writing  Over the past five years, the gender gap in favour of females has remained relatively consistent, particularly in reading and writing. Female students performed better than male students on all three writing tasks.

The Reading-Writing Connection What is SMART Goal #2 asking us to consider in terms of our literacy instruction and student learning? Reading and writing non-fiction to elicit higher- order thinking. Refer to: A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4 to 6, Volume 1  Page 57: “Taxonomy to Promote Higher- Order Thinking” and Page 58: “Application of the Taxonomy”  Note the alignment between the writing tasks and the higher-order thinking taxonomy

How are SMART Goal #1 and #2 related?  Read pages 9-13 of A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Volume Six, Writing  Pay particular attention to pages 9 and 10.

MONITORING AND COACHING

SHARED PRACTICE AND LEARNING

 Collective Efficacy - it is the level of confidence a group feels about its ability to organize and implement whatever educational initiatives are required for students to achieve high standards or achievement  Trust - it is a belief or expectation that all support the system and schools’ goals for student learning and will work toward achieving those goals  Time for Learning – design schedules and practices that ensure engagement in meaningful learning  Focused Instruction – close monitoring of classroom and school activities and system activities  Academic Press – setting high, but achievable system and school goals and classroom standards

Building Relationships and Developing People The principal is able to: -develop, empower and sustain individuals and teams -challenge, influence and motivate others to attain high goals The principal has knowledge and understanding of: -the significance of interpersonal relationships, adult learning and models of continuing professional learning -strategies to promote individual and team development

Developing the Organization The principal is able to: -collaborate and network with others inside and outside the school -foster a culture of change The principal has the knowledge and understanding of: -building and sustaining a professional learning community

Leading the Organization The principal: -ensures a consistent and continuous school-wide focus on student achievement using system and school data to monitor progress -develops professional learning communities to support school improvement The principal is able to: -access, analyze and interpret data The principal has the knowledge and understanding of: -tools for data collection and analysis

Securing Accountability The principal: -measures and monitors teacher and leader effectiveness through student achievement data The principal is able to: -collect and use a rich set of data to understand and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the school The principal has knowledge and understanding of: -the use of a range of evidence to support, monitor, evaluate and improve school performance

WHAT DID WE FIND OUT? - - As in previous years, when responding to the writing tasks, students scored higher on Writing Skill 3 (using conventions—spelling, grammar, punctuation—in a manner that does not distract from clear communication) than on Writing Skill 1 (developing a main idea with sufficient supporting details -e.g., they provided a list of ideas without supporting details or provided too few ideas or supporting details or repeated the same idea over and over) and Writing Skill 2 (organizing information and ideas in a coherent manner and use knowledge of form and style in writing) in their responses to the short and long writing tasks.