1. Welcome Teachers and Assistants! August 14 th District In-Service Presented by: Johnnie Boatwright, Jan Joines, and Erica Bissell

2. All About Me Jan Joines Last year, I was the literacy coach at Forts Pond Elementary. Prior to last year, I was the literacy coach at SGE. I have 21 years experience teaching. I have taught grades K-3 with my experience primarily in first grade. Traveling with Sandi and Sherell jjoines@lexington1.net

3. Photo Gallery

4. Getting to Know You! Tell your new friend – Something you did during summer vacation The story of your name What you value in a colleague What is one goal you have this year

5. Teaching with a Sense of Urgency

6. Passion Definition: A driving motivation or attitude; strong, forceful devotion to a cause; a deep overwhelming feeling/emotion. Life without passion is simply existing, not living. How would you describe your teaching last year? Did you have a passion for teaching?

7. Passion Killers DISTRACTION – Did all the other requirements of your job distract you from your passion of teaching your students? Did your personal life distract you ? APATHY – Did you become apathetic in doing what is best for your students? Did you simply exist each day at work? Was there no joy or excitement in your teaching? Did you teach with a sense of urgency?

8. Motivation When we as educators attempt to cover too much content too quickly… by sacrificing deep, rich teaching, we begin chipping away at our students’ motivation. Isn’t this also true for teachers? Authentic interest is generated when students are given the opportunity to delve deeply into an interesting idea. --Kelly Gallagher Readicide (2009)

9. Teacher Effectiveness Having a good teacher versus having a poor teacher, particularly in the early years, can determine whether a young student is put in an honors track or a remedial track. As Haycock notes, a student’s teacher may determine the difference ‘between entry to a selective college and a lifetime at a burger joint.’ ---Readicide (2009)

10. Haycock Studies Haycock highlights the long-term effects of teaching when she notes that ‘even two years after the fact, the performance of fifth-grade students is still affected by the quality of their third-grade teachers’ (1998).

11. The single most important element of any classroom program is a knowledgeable and effective teacher. Richard Allington & Cunningham 1997. 59 percentile to 76 percentile with effective teachers. 60 percentile to 42 percentile with ineffective teachers. 32 point difference

12. National Institute of child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network (2007) The typical child “stands only a 1 in 14 chance of having a consistently rich, supportive elementary school experience. Teachers are spending way too much time on drill-and-kill activities. As a result, students are not getting enough time developing deeper problem-solving and reasoning skills.

13. Study Continued The typical teacher scored only 3.6 out of 7 points for “richness of instructional methods” and 3.4 for providing “evaluative feedback” to students on their work.

14. More Disturbing Facts One of three high school students in the U.S. drops out of school 50 percent of Latinos and African-Americans will not graduate 55 percent of people who read at a “below basic” level are unemployed. Half of the adults in this country do not read either to themselves or to their children. To Read or Not to Read (2007)

15. What Can We Do? Discover your purpose for teaching! Make it your passion! If you have a passion, you will teach with a sense of urgency! To keep the passion alive, be involved in continuous professional development with your colleagues!

16. Literacy Specialist Role Focus of the Visits Grade Level Planning – how will this look? Core Support – Common Assessments-Oct.19, Pacing Guides, Resources Resources – electronic website for each grade level Data Analysis Observations Coaching in the Classroom – 2 nd, 4 th, 5 th. You may make a request to observe one of the classrooms. We do not have one for kindergarten, but I will be able to recommend a kindergarten teacher for you to observe. Professional Development – Discuss later today

17. First Quarter Visit See handout for the dates Please do not schedule conferences on these dates. Parenting sessions can be held during my visit to your school. (Let me know if your school is interested in me providing these workshops.)

18. Dominie Nancy Lind’s role /Dominie Trainer Testing Windows: 1.September 9-30 2.January 5-26 3.April 28 – May 19

19. Teacher: Kindergarten Aug. Concepts About Print (THE SHOW ME BOOK) Repeat in Dec. if below 8 in Aug. /Repeat in May if below 12 in Dec Oct. - May to Guide Instruction Informal running records with MSV in small group guided reading Jan. & May (Benchmark running record using Dominie with MSV) Oct., Jan., & May Writing samples dated End of Year Text Level: Tier 1 2 3 (circle one) End of year minimum text level expectation = 2B

20. Our ELA program is standards driven. The core curriculum is based on the 2008 academic standards for ELA. Our core instructional model is meant to support standards instruction through balanced literacy and by providing differentiated instruction. Our core materials for the district are the adopted texts Rigby Literacy (K-2) leveled texts, trade books, units of study, and Riverdeep reading. Rigby reading materials are to be supplemented, not supplanted by these other core materials.

21. Pacing Guides Common assessments is a district focus-Oct. 19 get training experts from Solution Tree. Pacing Guides are designed to keep your team focused so you can make common. assessments. Highlight the statement-the previous 9 weeks that are explicitly taught indicators should be taught continually throughout the year. We will follow the pacing guides. Use Rigby, trade books, and leveled texts to supplement teaching the indicators.

22. The following indicators should be introduced to students during the first nine weeks. Teachers are expected to continuously address the stated indicators throughout the remainder of the school year.

23. Getting Started with Reading Workshop… First, you need to get your literacy procedures in place before any assignments begin. RESOURCES: Notes are posted on our literacy website. The Literacy Workstations – Debbie Diller The Daily Five – Gail Boushey & Joan Moser

24. Getting Started with Writing Workshop… About the Authors – Katie Wood Ray and Lisa Cleaveland Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten – Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover Ralph Fletcher’s Craft Lessons

25. Observation Tool For each balanced literacy component there is an observation tool that we’ll be using. Questions to Consider What is your instructional purpose? How did you determine your instructional purpose? What did you observe in students that helped you know your purpose was accomplished?

26. Observation Focus for First Visit Purposeful Read Alouds We will be looking for evidence of purposeful read alouds during our first visit. Purposes can include: Building community Comprehension Strategies Explicitly teach the reading and writing indicators To support the writing workshop RESOURCES: Interactive Read Alouds Laminack’s Unwrapping the Read Aloud

27. Instructional Strategies/Classroom Expectations Teacher Evidence Activates prior knowledge Sets purpose for reading Provides model of fluent and expressive reading Teaches a focused ELA skill or strategy Models comprehension strategies Does a Think Aloud Engages in questioning beyond recall Follow with some oral/written response Turn and talk, Pair/Share Observation of Read Aloud Anchor Charts Student Conversations Agenda Displayed literature Sticky notes on the books read aloud Hall Displays

28. Evidence of Writing Stages of writing Building Confidence Introducing the Basics Steps 1. Drawing 2. Guided Phonics-Based Spelling (kid writing) 3. Underwriting (Adult Writing) and Individual Mini-Lessons Model writing Making Books

29. BREAK!

30. ADVERTISEMENT KINDERGARTEN LITERACY BOOK CLUB

31. Professional Development There will be two kindergarten literacy book clubs in the district to accommodate for travel. The book clubs will meet for one hour a month after school on a Tuesday starting in October. We will be studying Debbie Miller’s new book – Teaching With Intention. The book will be provided for the participants.

32. Debbie Miller says… “My wish for you can define your beliefs and align your practices to these beliefs: How do you go about teaching kids something new? What principles guide you? How do you know if kids are getting it? What do you do when they don’t?”

33. “When getting done takes precedence over doing, when finishing becomes more important than figuring out, we’ve lost sight of why we became teachers in the first place, we’ve lost sight of what we know to be true…we’ve forgotten that children learn by doing. And learning by doing takes time. I believe learning is maximized when the lesson I design are purposeful, interactive, and engaging with real- world applications.”

34. Questions? Contact me at jjoines@lexington1.netjjoines@lexington1.net I am looking forward to working with you this year!

35. Celebrate Life!