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Options Area mathematics teachers and Options Area administrators gathered this morning for the fourth and final session of Shifting Instruction to the Core.  This session focused on next steps educators might take this year and during the 2015-2016 school year. Participants began the session by using the  EQuIP  Student Work  Protocol  to review students performance on  mini-assessment s from various classrooms. (Link to Session III: Next Generation Assessments for Math Teachers .) Educators then moved to investigating instructional implications based on this student-work evidence. These implications were used by participants to created a focused answer to the question, "What professional support would best serve CCSS-aligned teaching and learning for the 2015-2016 school year?". This educator-generated work will form part of the basis for professional support provided to all Options Area teachers during the 2015-2016 year. Materials for the session are linked below. Pres

Educators at Inspire gathered for their last professional learning session on integration Social Emotional Learning and the Common Core. Teachers and administrators began the session by reflecting on implementation of last session's Activators, Philosophical Chairs and Four Corners . Participants then planned for implementing three Activators into their classrooms for the 2015-2016 school year. The session concluded with a look-back at the year's various professional learning sessions and support methods in order to make recommendations for next year's professional support work. Materials for this session include the deck linked here .

Options Area ELA, history, and science teachers and Options Area administrators gathered this morning for the fourth and final session of Shifting Instruction to the Core.  This session focused on next steps educators might take this year and during the 2015-2016 school year. Participants began the session by using the EQuIP Student Work Protocol to review students performance on  mini-assessment s from various classrooms. (Links to Session III: Next Generation Assessments:  ELA , History , and Science ). Educators then moved to investigating instructional implications based on this student work evidence. These implications were used during a Keep It or Junk It during which participants to created a focused answer to the question, "What professional support would best serve CCSS-aligned teaching and learning for the 2015-2016 school year?". This educator-generated work will form part of the basis for professional support provided all Options Area teachers during the next scho

As part of Shifting Instruction to the Core, computer-based instruction teachers and administrators gathered again today to explore how CCSS expectations around writing to sources might be reflected in their classrooms. Participants began by reflecting on their implementation of last session's materials around note-taking and moved onto exploring the Anchor Standards for Writing . Participants then engaged in instructional resources designed to support writing to sources.  Resources for this session include: Presentation deck in PDF Reflection notetaker Washington Post Article, How Innovations can Help Us Reverse the Impact of Stress Cornell Notes Paragraph writing frame

Timothy Shanahan has an excellent post today called, " How Much Text Complexity Can Teachers Scaffold?" . If you work with struggling readers in your classroom setting, I cannot recommend the post enough. (If you are interested in literacy in the classroom, Shanahan's focus on best practices for reading and writing instruction will be very relevant to you. You might start by following his blog here .)    In this most recent post, Shanahan details not only the theory of what is possible in bridging the gap between a student's reading level and a complex text, but also how this might practically be done in a classroom. Of particular interest to me was Shanahan's assertion mid-way through the article that, "...by pre-teaching vocabulary, providing fluency practice, offering guidance in making sense of sentences and cohesion, requiring rereading, and so on, I have no doubt that teachers can successfully scaffold a student across a 300-400 Lexile gap--with soli

Educators at Inspire Academy gathered this afternoon to explore resources that support the Common Core and Social Emotional Learning in the classrooms.   Participants began by continuing their cycle of inquiry with reflection on and collaboration around strategies they have tried in their classroom based on our  previous session.   Participants then build off the previous session's content materials on growth mindset to engage with a philosophical chars activity. Materials for the session are linked below .  Presentation Deck  in PDF Professional Learning materials on Research Based Discussion Methods from Angela Orr Guidelines for Philosophical Chairs  Rules of Engagement  and  Accountable Talk  developed by Angela Orr

This morning, Washoe County School District Options Area administrators and math teachers engaged in the third session of  Shifting Instruction to the Core , this time focusing on  Next Generation Assessments . Throughout the session, participants made connections between the  Instructional Shifts  and Next Generation Assessments. Participants began by comparing traditional assessment to CCSS-aligned assessment, then engaged with and  reflected on  mini-assessments  from Student Achievement Partners. Materials for the session are linked below. Presentation deck Reflection : Open Questions & Parallel Tasks Session III  Notetaker , problem sets for Focus , Coherence , and Rigor Mini-Assessments for SAP & WCSD: 6th Grade 6.EE.A , 8th Grade 8.EE.C , Algebra 1 , Algebra 2 Student Handout & Answer Key , Geometry Student Handou t & Answer Key