education4500

This week I had a pleasure of working in Aaron Grossman 's classroom. We engaged in 'Keep It or Junk It' using 4th Grade OUT materials on Mountain Men. You can read about  the experience below, where I have copied the post from Mr. Grossman's blog (  roomd4  and an excellent one to follow). Mountain Men and Keep It, Or Junk It POSTED ON  DECEMBER 9, 2015 Today we continued our study of Nevada State History and Mountain Men by employing an instructional strategy called  Keep It or Junk It . What made today special is that  Kate Crist , an Implementation Specialist with the district, was the lead teacher as we worked with complex text—well above grade level—and identified words and phrases to support the claim that Mountain Men lived of the land and “opened of the West.” You can look over the resources we are using by clicking  here  and learn a bit more about Mountain Men for yourself!

Educators from various Washoe County high schools gathered for their second day of training on Social Emotional Learning. As part of training, they engaged in a session designed to bridge SEL and Common Core instruction with a focus on the instructional move Question  Quads.   Materials for the session can be found below. Presentation deck Question Quads directions & handouts SEL Skills & Competencies Article,  "Educators' Social and Emotional Skills Vital to Learning" Text Annotation Guide

WCSD leaders gathered this afternoon for the third session of the course, "Principal's Instructional Leadership Team". This year-long inservice supports school site principals and a small team of instructional leaders to collaborate throughout a year of study to develop and articulate a vision of instruction and build capacity for this vision at their school sites.  This afternoon's session continued the work started in the previous session , focusing on the role  of school leadership in Common Core implementation and tools   available to support this work .  Leadership teams began by discussing an  excerpted portion of  Learning to Improve  and later  explored content on the  Instructional  Shifts in Mathematics. Educators then moved to using the  Instructional Practice Guides  paired with video content, focusing on how to  support collaborative inquiry and create a common vision for instruction.  Participants ended the session by planning how to implement this

Educators from various Washoe County elementary and middle schools gathered for their second day of training on Social Emotional Learning. As part of this day, Mandi VanDellen and I facilitated sessions to help bridge SEL and Common Core instruction. Mandi's session focused on mathematics, providing the instructional moves Number Talks and You-Y'all-We. The ELA/Literacy session provided the instructional move Keep It or Junk It. Materials for the session can be found below. Math CCSS & SEL Deck Smile Mile Worksheet ELA/Literacy CCSS & SEL Deck   Vicki Zakrzewski Article , How to Integrate Social Emotional Learning into the Common Core Keep It or Junk It worksheet

English Language Arts educators gathered Thursday morning for the second session of 'Focus on the Core for All', an Options Area cycle of professional learning designed to support teaching and learning aligned to the CCSS.  During this session, educators began by reviewing a modified version of the  EQuIP Student Work Protoco l, applying print and video lesson materials from a student-led Socratic Seminar in a Washoe County classroom (see materials at  teachingthecore.org , search for 'Moffat'). Participants then used the modified protocol to share and review work from their implementation of last session 's instructional move, Modified Fishbowl Discussion, and determine next steps when using the instructional move in the future. Participants then engaged in a new instructional move for classroom implementation, Jigsaw Socratic Seminar, and planned for its use with their students. During session 3, participants will again review student work from this latest impl

Options Area science educators gathered this morning for their first session of   'Focusing on the Core for All' , the Options NVACS professional learning cycle for the 2015-2016 school year. This group includes teachers from Options Area schools, Implementation Specialists from MTSS and Student Support Services departments, Student Support Services area administrators, and Options Area school site principals, each of whom has chosen a content focus for the year (English Language Arts, History-Social Studies, Science, or Mathematics). The professional learning cycle for this year builds on that of past years (namely, the   High School Core Task Project   and   Shifting Instruction to the Core ) and is focused on  supporting teachers, implementation specialists, and administrators in the Options Area to expand and deepen alignment of instruction, materials, and programs  Common Core Standards  and  Instructional Shifts  so that all students are prepared for college and career.

I had the pleasure today of spending time in kindergarten - 5th grade classrooms at the Ross Valley School District's Multi-Age Program (MAP). You can find information on MAP on their website here . This afternoon MAP teachers explored resources to support increased CCSS-aligned teaching and learning in their classrooms. Materials for the session are linked below. Presentation deck . 2nd Grade DBQ: War of 1812  Illustrative Mathematics task for 3.NF, "Naming the Whole for a Fraction" 4th Grade Mini-Assessment for Basic Archeology  

Options Area science educators gathered this morning for their first session of   'Focusing on the Core for All' , the Options NVACS professional learning cycle for the 2015-2016 school year. This group includes teachers from Options Area schools, Implementation Specialists from MTSS and Student Support Services departments, Student Support Services area administrators, and Options Area school site principals, each of whom has chosen a content focus for the year (English Language Arts, History-Social Studies, Science, or Mathematics). The professional learning cycle for this year builds on that of past years (namely, the   High School Core Task Project   and   Shifting Instruction to the Core ) and is focused on  supporting teachers, implementation specialists, and administrators in the Options Area to expand and deepen alignment of instruction, materials, and programs  Common Core Standards  and  Instructional Shifts  so that all students are prepared for college and career.

WCSD leaders gathered this afternoon for the second session of the course, "Principal's Instructional Leadership Team". This year-long inservice supports school site p rincipals and a small team of instructional leaders to collaborate throughout a year of study to develop and articulate a vision of instruction and build capacity for this vision at their school sites. The course focuses on identifying and facilitating core instructional methods that promote a discussion-rich classroom where students are accountable for reasoning and application of skills.  The g oals of this year-long course include: Increase shared leadership and teacher efficacy  Develop a vision of instruction to inform the 2016-1017 school performance plan Identify the agreed upon processes that  will shape a culture for student centered  learning Clearly articulate best practices for Tier 1  instruction throughout the school  This afternoo

As part of their ongoing work with WCSD Fundamentals, North Star educators engaged in professional learning this morning focused on MTSS. The session began with an overview of the MTSS system and the bulk of the morning was spent in decision making, as educators reviewed their site-based flowcharts and tier descriptors, determined their consistent agenda & decision rules for data, and began drafting PBIS expectations and matrixes. Materials for the session can be found below. More information on WCSD's MTSS practices can be found here . Presentation deck MTSS Principles and Notetaker  

As a continuation of last month's post ' Planning for CCSS-Aligned Teaching: Part I' , this post is focused planning to use aligned ELA and Literacy instructional materials.  When looking for lesson and units aligned to the  CCSS , an excellent place to start is with the  EQuIP  Rubrics. These rubric, developed by New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts with the support of  Achieve  , can be used to evaluate the quality and alignment of instructional materials to the Common Core. To support a deeper understanding of how the rubrics can support your selection or development of aligned lessons and units, the EQuIP  website  contains the  rubrics  (in ELA/Literacy for grades  K-2  and  3-12 ) and feedback forms, an explanation of the  Peer Review Panel , and rubric training  materials . (There are also EQuIP Rubric training materials available on this blog  here  and  here .) Additionally, there are more than 1 00  exemplar lessons and units  posted to the EQuIP site fo

Teachers at RISE Academy for Adult Achievement gathered this evening for professional learning on the RISE Instructional Expectations, this time focusing on objectives. Teachers engaged with a variety of print resources to collaboratively learn about the purpose and application objectives to support student learning. Materials for the session are linked below.  Presentation deck in PDF and Keynote   Reading: " The Educational Value of Course Learning Objectives " Annotating for Claim-Reasoning-Evidence Session Notetaker  

Options Area educators gathered this morning for their first session of   'Focusing on the Core for All' , the Options NVACS professional learning cycle for the 2015-2016 school year. This group includes teachers from Options Area schools, Implementation Specialists from MTSS and Student Support Services departments, Student Support Services area administrators, and Options Area school site principals, each of whom has chosen a content focus for the year (English Language Arts, History-Social Studies, Science, or Mathematics). The professional learning cycle for this year builds on that of past years (namely, the   High School Core Task Project   and   Shifting Instruction to the Core ) and is focused on  supporting teachers, implementation specialists, and administrators in the Options Area to expand and deepen alignment of instruction, materials, and programs  Common Core Standards  and  Instructional Shifts  so that all students are prepared for college and career. More det

Washoe County educators gathered again Tuesday evening for the second of a two-session inservice, "CCSS: Writing to Sources". The focus for these sessions is how teachers might better support students to use evidence from text and media to write opinion and informative pieces.  Over two evenings participants will explore the CCSS Instructional Shifts, Standards for Writing, instructional activities, and CCSS-aligned resources that support teaching and learning focused on writing to sources.  This second session began as participants collaboratively reviewed their between sessions task (drafts a writing lesson using a resources from session one).  Participants then explored instructional moves to support classroom writing, engaged with the Nevada DOE and SBACC writing rubrics, drafted mini-lessons for writing, and read various published materials on how to better support formative assessment of writing.  Materials for this session are linked below.  Presentation deck in  PD

I was delighted to find the following announcement from LINCS in my email this morning: We’re happy to announce the recent addition of fifteen resources to the  LINCS College and Career Standards Resource Collection . They include eight College and Career Readiness (CCR) resources in mathematics and seven in English language arts/literacy. These exemplary teaching and learning resources were recommended and reviewed by coaches and staff from OCTAE’s Implementing CCR Standards in Adult Education project. You’ll find a range of tools aimed primarily at instructors responsible for providing instruction aligned to CCR standards including some to assist instructors with students with limited English proficiency.  These resources complement the ELA/Literacy  and Mathematics  professional development materials available from OCTAE to support CCR Standards alignment in adult education classrooms and programs. The recently posted teaching and learning resources are sure to be a welcome a

Washoe County educators gathered Tuesday evening for the first of a two-session inservice, "CCSS: Writing to Sources". The focus for these sessions is how teachers might better support students to use evidence from text and media to write opinion and informative pieces.  Over two evenings participants will explore the CCSS Instructional Shifts, Standards for Writing, instructional activities, and CCSS-aligned resources that support teaching and learning focused on writing to sources.  This first session began as participants used print and video content as well as student writing samples to explore the Instructional Shifts and Common Core Standards for Writing. Participants then reviewed instructional supports to move from reading to writing and an instructional move, Think and Write, that supports students to use evidence from text when writing to inform and writing to persuade. Between this first and second session, teachers will draft (and perhaps teach) a lesson that fo

North Star Online School teachers and administrators gathered this morning for their second professional learning session focused on Student Learning Objectives . During the hour together, participants reviewed the expectations for learning content and assessments within SLOs. Materials for this session are available on the Washoe County District Website under the Student Learning Department (protected materials require a district log-in to access).  Session 2 - Learning Content & Assessments  Presentation deck  Deciding on Learning Content  Developing Quality Assessments

Options Area educators gathered this morning for their first session of 'Focusing on the Core for All' , the Options NVACS professional learning cycle for the 2015-2016 school year. This group includes teachers from Options Area schools, Implementation Specialists from MTSS and Student Support Services departments, Student Support Services area administrators, and Options Area school site principals, each of whom has chosen a content focus for the year (English Language Arts, History-Social Studies, Science, or Mathematics). The professional learning cycle for this year builds on that of past years (namely, the High School Core Task Project and Shifting Instruction to the Core ) and is focused on  supporting teachers, implementation specialists, and administrators in the Options Area to expand and deepen alignment of instruction, materials, and programs Common Core Standards and Instructional Shifts so that all students are prepared for college and career. More details on t