A great resource that several of you already receive is Pat Quinn's RTI News weekly email. Pat Quinn is a classroom teacher who works with educators across the country to help them better understand and use strategic and planned interventions to meet the needs of students academic skills and behavior. He also sends out a weekly email that I recommend everyone sign up for today! My suggestion is that when it comes each week, if you have time, read it. If you don't have time, file it away or even delete it...but I would bet just skimming it would help you pick up some SIMPLE and useful ideas for your classroom, PLC team and building.
Several district staff members attended Pat Quinn's RTI (Response to Intervention) workshop in Des Moines on March 26. During this time, Pat touched on responding to behavior and academic needs of students. The Iowa Core team will help support this team's work in working toward a district-wide behavior support system.
Here is today's tip:
To subscribe visit:
http://thertisite.learningtodayonline.com/Newsletter.htm
Greetings from "The RTI Guy"!
Last week's dip into the mailbag barely scratched the surface...so let's head back to the question bank...
Gina from California writes:
"Everyone at my school hates RTI...it is a four-letter word around here because we talk about students for years in our problem-solving teams! Help!"
Well, Gina...if you are talking about your students in your problem-solving teams "for years", you are not really solving a lot of problems are you?
Contrary to what many people seem to think, RTI was not designed to delay the special education referral process. It actually can speed up the process if designed and implemented correctly.
It should not take a year to determine whether or not full class instruction is working with a particular student. It should take about six weeks, if you are monitoring progress correctly and graphing the data. (For a free copy of my special report on Progress Monitoring just send an email to theRTIguy@gmail.com and request the special report.)
Once you choose a small group Tier 2 intervention it should only take about six weeks to determine if that is working or not. If it is working...great! If not...you need to move on. Don't keep a student in an intervention that is not working.
Even if you need to do yet another small group intervention (Tier 3 in some states) that will only take another six weeks. At the most, we need 18 weeks to get through this process...that is one half of the school year. Keep it moving...you are not helping students with the stalling!
Frustrated that your school is moving slowly? The solution is usually to have a better graph. Data that shows an intervention is NOT working will really help the team move to the next step.
Greg in Washington writes:
"Hi, I am looking for some information on RTI in physical education. Any suggestions?"
Well, although I am not familiar with any "programs" for RTI in physical education, the same concepts apply to your subject as to any other subject area.
Start by teaching to the full class.
Monitor the progress of students.
Those who do not grow under full class instruction need additional instruction.
So, you can easily see how this would look in a skill like serving in volleyball. Begin by teaching the full class how to serve a volleyball. Measure each day on a simple rubric how students are doing. After a week of this most students will get it.
For Tier Two, allow those who "get it" to move on to playing games, while you work with those who did not grow in full class instruction.
In the end, most of RTI can be boiled down to three steps: Try something, measure to see if it worked, and if it did not try something more.
Hope this helps!
Finally, Laura from North Star Elementary answers a question that many people have...How do you find time for Tier Two interventions?
Laura writes to me:
I enjoy your emails and wanted to share what I am doing with my first grade students to ensure their progress.
One way that I find time for Tier 2 interventions is to have the whole class working independently for a 20 minute block, during which they are usually doing an open-ended writing activity that includes an opportunity to illustrate. Once they get going, I pull a few students for interventions and/or progress monitoring. Since these are typically the students who don't have strong independent study skills yet anyway, they aren't missing out on key experiences. In fact, they are working toward specific learning targets during time that might commonly be less productive for them. Since I vary who I work with, students receiving Tier 2 interventions still have some opportunities to practice independent study skills, too.
I also use stations daily (literacy/integrated content area stations in the am and math/integrated content area stations in the pm), so I have at least 2 hours available to work with small groups or individuals during a typical school day. Interventions right now are in the areas of reading, math, writing, and oral language development.
Thanks so much for sharing Laura, and remember...If you have a question or a suggestion - send it to me! You can simply reply to this email!
You do not want to miss next week's newsletter...we are going to discuss Universal Screening - a topic of much confusion and a place where many schools stumble. PLUS, I have the details about a NEW Universal Screener for Middle Schools and High Schools that is GREAT! Don't miss it!
Thanks!
Pat Quinn
"The RTI Guy"
http://www.totalrti.com/
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Iowa Core Curriculum Update – Feb 1, 2010
Iowa Core Curriculum Update – February 1, 2010
Our ICC team attended a regional meeting on Monday. The work centered on three points:
- Alignment work for the ICC is about each and every student. Our team answered the three questions posed:
- What evidence do we have that shows our district's intended curriculum? This is the guaranteed curriculum for all students at any given grade level or grade span.
- Curriculum guide, mapping, lesson plans, curriculum staff development - ICC team and curriculum teams are building capacity about Iowa Core standards & benchmarks
- Curriculum guide, mapping, lesson plans, curriculum staff development - ICC team and curriculum teams are building capacity about Iowa Core standards & benchmarks
- What evidence do we have that shows our district's enacted curriculum? This is the delivered curriculum and is the "what is happening in my classroom."
- Lesson plans (with notes on how it went/changes/etc.), walkthroughs, student work, implementation data, PLC logs
- Lesson plans (with notes on how it went/changes/etc.), walkthroughs, student work, implementation data, PLC logs
- What evidence do we have that shows our district's assessed curriculum? It needs to assess the curriculum that is intended and enacted.
- Lesson plans, student work, testing data (classroom assessment, district wide and building assessments)
- Teachers are going to be asked to document what they teach…and it is possible.
- We were introduced to a tool the state is rolling out to self report – Heartland Curriculum Alignment Toolkit (HCAT). Teachers would enter their data when a 'course' is over. This will usually occur at the end of school year, but may happen at other times during the school year.
- We were introduced to a tool the state is rolling out to self report – Heartland Curriculum Alignment Toolkit (HCAT). Teachers would enter their data when a 'course' is over. This will usually occur at the end of school year, but may happen at other times during the school year.
- Alignment work will extend beyond the initial roll-out.
Other news & notes….
- Deb Johnsen, AEA Core Curriculum Consultant, talked about the Race to the Top (RttT). It appears we will find out if Iowa receives their $160+ million grant July 1, 2010.
- We began work on Self Study for Outcome 4.
Team Work for the PM
Decision about February 3rd PD
- Options: Prep for Anthony Muhammad's Feb 15th OR Complete curriculum work
- Decision: Complete the curriculum work and then have teachers complete a preassessment survey before Anthony Muhammad's visit
Finalizing SIAC
- Finalized the presentation for the February 15th SIAC meeting.
- Created a graphic organizer to allow members to work through 21st Century Learning Skills and provide feedback to our ICC team & district.
Friday, January 22, 2010
PLC Changes!
From: Doug Barry
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:37 AM
To: AllStaff
Subject: PLC Changes!
ROCSD Teachers,
Changes to the PLC schedule are below. A reminder to begin/continue reading your copy of Transforming School Culture in preparation of Anthony Muhammad’s visit in February. If you have questions next week about what needs to be completed, please see the posts on the ROCSD Curriculum blog.
Jan 20 –Curriculum – Postponed to 1/27
Jan 27 –Bldg PLC – Curriculum POSTPONED
Feb 3 – Bldg PLC
Feb 15 – Anthony Muhammad (all day @ HS)
Feb 24 – Bldg PLC
March 3 – See Bldg Admin: Bldg PLC and/or Technology - Online PD
March 12 – Indv PD/Technology
Someone mentioned to me that Spring Break is only 36 school days away, but after this winter’s weather, we cannot guarantee a snow-and-ice-free week in March either! Be safe!
He who laughs, lasts
DB
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:37 AM
To: AllStaff
Subject: PLC Changes!
ROCSD Teachers,
Changes to the PLC schedule are below. A reminder to begin/continue reading your copy of Transforming School Culture in preparation of Anthony Muhammad’s visit in February. If you have questions next week about what needs to be completed, please see the posts on the ROCSD Curriculum blog.
Jan 20 –
Jan 27 –
Feb 3 – Bldg PLC
Feb 15 – Anthony Muhammad (all day @ HS)
Feb 24 – Bldg PLC
March 3 – See Bldg Admin: Bldg PLC and/or Technology - Online PD
March 12 – Indv PD/Technology
Someone mentioned to me that Spring Break is only 36 school days away, but after this winter’s weather, we cannot guarantee a snow-and-ice-free week in March either! Be safe!
He who laughs, lasts
DB
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
February 15 Professional Development Activity
1.13.2010
To: Professional Staff – Red Oak Schools
From: The Teacher Quality Committee
Subject: February 15, 2010 Professional Development Day
******************************************************************************
The Teacher Quality Committee for ROCSD will sponsor a valuable day of learning for all teachers and invited guests on Monday, February 15, 2010. The day is designed to take our professional knowledge to even a greater level. The TQC appreciates the tremendous growth in our staff through the professional learning community endeavors. The TQC is committed to even greater growth in the months ahead.
Anthony Muhammad, a noted expert in building successful professional learning communities, will be our guest on Monday, February 15. He is the author of “Transforming School Culture – How to Overcome Staff Division”. He will work with all educators to help us grow, learn, and adopt even stronger principles of professionalism through an enhanced school culture.
In preparation of this special learning day, the Teacher Quality Committee has purchased individual copies of the Anthony’s book. He would like for everyone to have read this book prior to February 15 in addition to a short document called “Getting Serious About School Reform: Three Critical Commitments” by noted school reform expert Robert Marzano. The TQC has also provided this reading item for you. If you are working in a paraeducator role in our district and would like to voluntarily attend this special professional growth opportunity, please visit with your principal or any member of the Teacher Quality Committee.
Thank you in advance for helping our district “set the stage” for quality learning on February 15.
The Teacher Quality Committee Membership
Barb Sims - Buck Laughlin - Curtis Adams - Deb Blomstedt - Doug Barry
Jedd Sherman - John Gambs - Kim Walford - Sonia Kunze - Terry Schmidt
To: Professional Staff – Red Oak Schools
From: The Teacher Quality Committee
Subject: February 15, 2010 Professional Development Day
******************************************************************************
The Teacher Quality Committee for ROCSD will sponsor a valuable day of learning for all teachers and invited guests on Monday, February 15, 2010. The day is designed to take our professional knowledge to even a greater level. The TQC appreciates the tremendous growth in our staff through the professional learning community endeavors. The TQC is committed to even greater growth in the months ahead.
Anthony Muhammad, a noted expert in building successful professional learning communities, will be our guest on Monday, February 15. He is the author of “Transforming School Culture – How to Overcome Staff Division”. He will work with all educators to help us grow, learn, and adopt even stronger principles of professionalism through an enhanced school culture.
In preparation of this special learning day, the Teacher Quality Committee has purchased individual copies of the Anthony’s book. He would like for everyone to have read this book prior to February 15 in addition to a short document called “Getting Serious About School Reform: Three Critical Commitments” by noted school reform expert Robert Marzano. The TQC has also provided this reading item for you. If you are working in a paraeducator role in our district and would like to voluntarily attend this special professional growth opportunity, please visit with your principal or any member of the Teacher Quality Committee.
Thank you in advance for helping our district “set the stage” for quality learning on February 15.
The Teacher Quality Committee Membership
Barb Sims - Buck Laughlin - Curtis Adams - Deb Blomstedt - Doug Barry
Jedd Sherman - John Gambs - Kim Walford - Sonia Kunze - Terry Schmidt
Monday, January 18, 2010
January 13 & 20 - Curriculum PLC Work
Task:
1. Review MISIC standards as a team; answering the questions in the final three columns.
a. Remember to think about whether the benchmark is currenly being taught in EVERY class/classroom.
- If it is not being taught in one classroom at a given grade – it should be marked “NO.” This should not be debated as there is no wrong answer – we are using this as baseline data to help with planning and support.
- If it is not being consistently taught to all sections (for example, all 6th grade math classes), then it should be marked “NO”
- The benchmarks will be implemented the fall of 2010 so if it is not being taught at the identified grade level now, the team/individual should make plans to implement it for the upcoming year. This is our curriculum.
b. Do not spend too much time deciding what level you’re currently teaching the benchmark at: Introduction, Develop or Mastery. If you have time after going through all the benchmarks, you can come back to debate.
c. This document is our baseline and good data/information for your team and our Iowa Core Curriculum team as we look at our implementation plan, alignment and future planning with the Iowa Core process.
2. Save the document when complete and email it back to me.
Your team will have the next two PLC dates to complete this. If it looks like more time will be needed after Day 1, please let me know so we can plan for adjusting the schedule.
MISIC - http://www.misic.iowapages.org/
Links to check out on MISIC
Member Documents – List of Stan & Benchmarks
Our Purpose – background information
Links: MISIC Ladders Data Base (Error will come up - must click on ‘continue’
We will spend the next two Wednesdays’ PLC time working in grade level teams (K-5) and curriculum teams (6-12) with the main purpose of allowing teachers the time to become acquainted with the standards and benchmarks we are adopting from the Mid-Iowa School Improvement Consortium (MISIC).
The MISIC benchmarks have already been aligned with the Iowa Core Curriculum, thus reducing the time, energy and money we would have spent aligning our own curriculum with the Iowa Core. As you and your team move through the curriculum, you will note very few differences from our current ROCSD curriculum - except that it is already aligned with Iowa Core. :) This is why we believe it will be a smooth transition to fully using the curriculum next fall.
The basics of what you'll be doing is looking at the curriculum and asking/answering:
1. Do we currently teach this?
2. Do we currently assess this?
3. If we don't currently teach this - how/where will we implement it at our grade level (K-8) or within our required curriculum offerings (9-12)?
The team lists by building are attached - please review to make sure I didn't miss anyone! Facilitators will meet with me before Wednesday and will have more specifics for each team on Wednesday. Teams and individuals "outside" the core (science, literacy, math & social studies) will get additional directions prior to Wednesday via email.
As always - questions...please ask!
He who laughs, lasts
DB
Core Curriculum/ Grade Level Facilitators will identify location of meetings. A projector may be very handy if one is available!
K - Smits
1st - Dentlinger
2nd - Pfeiffer
3rd - Vannausdle
4th - Haufle
5th - Braymen
MS:Literacy - Reeve
MS:Math - Sonntag
MS:Science - Hietbrink
MS:So.Stds - Clausen
HS:Literacy - Gilbert
HS:Math – Berry
HS:Science – Blomstedt
HS:So.Stds – Gambs
1. Review MISIC standards as a team; answering the questions in the final three columns.
a. Remember to think about whether the benchmark is currenly being taught in EVERY class/classroom.
- If it is not being taught in one classroom at a given grade – it should be marked “NO.” This should not be debated as there is no wrong answer – we are using this as baseline data to help with planning and support.
- If it is not being consistently taught to all sections (for example, all 6th grade math classes), then it should be marked “NO”
- The benchmarks will be implemented the fall of 2010 so if it is not being taught at the identified grade level now, the team/individual should make plans to implement it for the upcoming year. This is our curriculum.
b. Do not spend too much time deciding what level you’re currently teaching the benchmark at: Introduction, Develop or Mastery. If you have time after going through all the benchmarks, you can come back to debate.
c. This document is our baseline and good data/information for your team and our Iowa Core Curriculum team as we look at our implementation plan, alignment and future planning with the Iowa Core process.
2. Save the document when complete and email it back to me.
Your team will have the next two PLC dates to complete this. If it looks like more time will be needed after Day 1, please let me know so we can plan for adjusting the schedule.
Useful Sites
Dept of Ed’s Iowa Core - http://www.corecurriculum.iowa.gov/ MISIC - http://www.misic.iowapages.org/
Links to check out on MISIC
Member Documents – List of Stan & Benchmarks
Our Purpose – background information
Links: MISIC Ladders Data Base (Error will come up - must click on ‘continue’
------------------------------------------------------------
We will spend the next two Wednesdays’ PLC time working in grade level teams (K-5) and curriculum teams (6-12) with the main purpose of allowing teachers the time to become acquainted with the standards and benchmarks we are adopting from the Mid-Iowa School Improvement Consortium (MISIC).
The MISIC benchmarks have already been aligned with the Iowa Core Curriculum, thus reducing the time, energy and money we would have spent aligning our own curriculum with the Iowa Core. As you and your team move through the curriculum, you will note very few differences from our current ROCSD curriculum - except that it is already aligned with Iowa Core. :) This is why we believe it will be a smooth transition to fully using the curriculum next fall.
The basics of what you'll be doing is looking at the curriculum and asking/answering:
1. Do we currently teach this?
2. Do we currently assess this?
3. If we don't currently teach this - how/where will we implement it at our grade level (K-8) or within our required curriculum offerings (9-12)?
The team lists by building are attached - please review to make sure I didn't miss anyone! Facilitators will meet with me before Wednesday and will have more specifics for each team on Wednesday. Teams and individuals "outside" the core (science, literacy, math & social studies) will get additional directions prior to Wednesday via email.
As always - questions...please ask!
He who laughs, lasts
DB
Core Curriculum/ Grade Level Facilitators will identify location of meetings. A projector may be very handy if one is available!
K - Smits
1st - Dentlinger
2nd - Pfeiffer
3rd - Vannausdle
4th - Haufle
5th - Braymen
MS:Literacy - Reeve
MS:Math - Sonntag
MS:Science - Hietbrink
MS:So.Stds - Clausen
HS:Literacy - Gilbert
HS:Math – Berry
HS:Science – Blomstedt
HS:So.Stds – Gambs
Monday, December 14, 2009
Free Audio & Video Downloads
Happy Monday! I hope you all made it in safe this morning and are geared up for the final week of 2009! I wanted to share another free resource I ran across this morning on a site called 100+ Sites to Download Everything Online.
Learn Out Loud. This is a one-stop destination for video and audio learning resources. You can browse through over 15,000 educational audio books MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos. The site also contains various free resources which can be found by clicking this link: http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video#directory
Use for a whole class assignment, enrichment opportunities or audio books for special education students. Many of the audio downloads can be put onto a student/teacher’s iPod, MP3 player or phone! They may be also posted as links on your own webpage or blog for students to access in the media center, at home or the local library.
Samples:
- I Have a Dream Spea (audio & video)
- Romeo & Juliet (audio, RSS Feed)
- General Biology (iTunes & video)
Learn Out Loud. This is a one-stop destination for video and audio learning resources. You can browse through over 15,000 educational audio books MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos. The site also contains various free resources which can be found by clicking this link: http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video#directory
Use for a whole class assignment, enrichment opportunities or audio books for special education students. Many of the audio downloads can be put onto a student/teacher’s iPod, MP3 player or phone! They may be also posted as links on your own webpage or blog for students to access in the media center, at home or the local library.
Samples:
- I Have a Dream Spea (audio & video)
- Romeo & Juliet (audio, RSS Feed)
- General Biology (iTunes & video)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Useful Google Tools from "The Lab"
I came across a couple useful Google tools today while visiting a great site (http://www.freetech4teachers.com/). These would be useful for teachers and students alike – they are pretty cool so check them out!!
Image Swirl - http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/
Google Image Swirl organizes image search results based on their visual and semantic similarity and presents them in an intuitive exploratory interface. To use Image Swirl, just enter your search term as you would in the regular image search service. The results of your search will be displayed in a grid similar to that with which you're probably familiar. Click any image in the grid a web of more, related, images will appear. Click an image in the web and another web of images will appear.
Educational Use: Images for PowerPoints or to show students examples of concepts. It may also be used as a writing prompt starter.
Google Squared - http://www.google.com/squared
Fetch and organize facts from across the web. Google Squared automatically constructs a table of facts about any category you specify. Google Squared displays the results of a search in a spreadsheet format. This spreadsheet format allows users to quickly compare the results of a search. Users can alter the fields in the spreadsheet to further refine a search. For example, I searched using the term "US Civil War," the results were displayed in a spreadsheet containing the columns "image," "description," "date," and "result." I then eliminated the "result" column and replaced it with "location." The new "location" column displayed results based on location.
Educational Use: Easy organization for students and teachers to compare concepts, people, properties, animals, etc.
Image Swirl - http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/
Google Image Swirl organizes image search results based on their visual and semantic similarity and presents them in an intuitive exploratory interface. To use Image Swirl, just enter your search term as you would in the regular image search service. The results of your search will be displayed in a grid similar to that with which you're probably familiar. Click any image in the grid a web of more, related, images will appear. Click an image in the web and another web of images will appear.
Educational Use: Images for PowerPoints or to show students examples of concepts. It may also be used as a writing prompt starter.
Google Squared - http://www.google.com/squared
Fetch and organize facts from across the web. Google Squared automatically constructs a table of facts about any category you specify. Google Squared displays the results of a search in a spreadsheet format. This spreadsheet format allows users to quickly compare the results of a search. Users can alter the fields in the spreadsheet to further refine a search. For example, I searched using the term "US Civil War," the results were displayed in a spreadsheet containing the columns "image," "description," "date," and "result." I then eliminated the "result" column and replaced it with "location." The new "location" column displayed results based on location.
Educational Use: Easy organization for students and teachers to compare concepts, people, properties, animals, etc.
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