Strategies for ELL

Strategies to Bridge the Gap and Meet the Needs of ELL Students
Presented by: Catherine Demarest
Woodside, NY

Catherine Demarest is an ESL teacher at IS 125 Thomas J. McCann. She travels with her group of 30 students daily to each of their classes to help scaffold instruction.

During the session, we explored various strategies for reading and writing that can be translated into any grade level. Most of the strategies can be used for various subject areas as well. Pictures are used as clues to help learners. The “target language” (English) is always modeled. Examples of the sheets used in class can be seen in the slide share below.

Strategy 1: Warm Up Activity. Students are asked to read a paragraph and predict the meaning on unknown words. Turkish was used in the sample. For example, one of the sentences stated, “They hunted bizonlar.” Students are asked to list pre-reading predictions as well as predictions after they read.

Strategy 2: Making Predictions Using Objects. The sample activity involved using the Polar Express. Relia was used to help students make predictions. Students were asked to list the name of the item, describe it using adjectives, describe its purpose, and predict what the story would be about using the object.

Strategy 3: Defining a Haiku. Students were asked to look at several Haiku’s to determine a definition. Picture clues are used with the Haiku’s. Questions asked of students include: What is this poem about? Does the poem rhyme? How many lines does the poem have? How many syllables are in the first line? In the second? In the third? Finally, students are asked to formulate a definition using what they discovered about the Haiku.

Strategy 4: Using Adjectives. In this activity, students are asked to group adjectives by personality traits or appearance. Students were given a graphic organizer of a child. If the trait was a personality trait, students were asked to place it inside the child. If the trait was an appearance trait, students were asked to place it outside the child. This activity was divided into two levels. Level 1 would be the students who have the most need or are least proficient in the language. This version includes using pictures with the vocabulary words as cues. Level 2 would be students that are a little more proficient. This includes just listing words, not pictures. Words are listed as opposites to increase vocabulary.

Strategy 5: Hands-On approach to Building Vocabulary. Students were given two bowls. One bowl contained fig Newton bars. The second bowl contained figs. Students were asked to describe each using their 5 senses.

Literacy through Rhythm, Rhyme, Poetry and Presentation

Literacy Through Rhythm, Rhyme, Poetry, and Presentation

Yesterday I attended a session of Literacy through Rhythm, Rhyme, Poetry, and Presentation. This group of presenters was from Powers Ferry Elementary School in Marietta, Georgia which included Carol Bradley (Primary Literacy Coach), Donna Byrd (Kindergarten Teacher) and Kim Pennington (First Grade Teacher). Their school has 450 – 500 students K-5 and are in their 5th year of being an America’s Choice School.

They believe in the importance of Providing Oral Language Activities. They began by reviewing the Five Areas of Reading – Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension. They remind us that a fluent reader is able to:
-read accurately
- read smoothly through the words
- move along at a comfortable rate
- show appropriate expression
- phrase the words
- attend to punctuation and text features
- demonstrate comprehension

In order to build fluency they list 5 types of oral performance:
Shared reading – the teacher and students read together in unison from a shared text so that the readers’ processing of print is highly supported.
- Enlarged text and individual copies help to provide this opportunity
- Use a white board
- Big books
- Shurley English Program Method
Echo reading - an activity where a skilled reader reads a text, a sentence at a time, as the learner tracks. The learner then echoes or imitates the skilled reader.
- They also use chants for this type of fluency building.
Texts for two voices – texts (poetry or prose) that lend themselves to being read aloud by two voices (sometimes alternating, sometimes simultaneous) are ready by two or more readers. - Similar to choral reading
(Example with Expressive Alphabet chart with punctuation marks)
Readers’ theater - involves children in oral presentation through reading or telling parts on scripts. Resources for Readers’ Theatre:
- 25 Just-Right Plays for Emergent Readers (K/1)
- Readers’ Theatre (Grade 1 or 2) by Evan – Moor Educational Publishers
Poetry - expands listening and speaking vocabulary, knowledge of complex syntax of language, internalizes of memorable literary language, recognizes high frequency words, and builds a sense of community through sharing common language experiences. Resources for poetry:
* The Poetry Foundation
* BBC
* Giggles Poetry
* Sing a Song of Poetry


If you get the opportunity here are a couple websites they recommend for building fluency.
* Larry Ferlazzo
* BBC
* Scripts for School

Alumni Schools Leadership Team Forum

Alumini Schools Leadership Team Forum

Our Head Learning Leader, Susan Phillips, participated in a Panel Discussion for Alumni Schools along with four other alumni principals. This session was meant to kick off a new era and “take the pulse” of active alumni schools and those who don’t currently have a relationship with America’s Choice.

The discussion was lead by Peter Heaney, America’s Choice resident superintendent, and the panel members included:
Michael Moore, Principal of Highlands, 7 years in the design
Faye Ogilvie, Principal of Honaunau in Hawaii, began the design in 1999
Susan Phillips, Principal Chets Creek Elementary, entered the design in 1999
Joe Miller, Principal from #77 in Queens, New York, began in 1999
Joe Lisa, Principal of #61 in Queens, New York, entered design in 2000
Bob Petit, National Model School Lead for America’s Choice

Peter asked the panel...

How have changes in your school district helped or hindered your work?
Panel members mentioned that funding is key to support literacy coaches, programs, and the purchase of new text. Some panel participants felt they had been supported financially even when there was a change of leadership at the district level. On the other hand, another panel member mentioned that there was a lack of district support and they had to manage a delicate balance to try to keep distractions at a minimum. In addition, in New York City, the district has empowered the principals to make their own school based decisions. A NY principal pointed out that the school leader needed to stay committed to the design and model to continue to show results.

How do you keep it fresh?
The panel reemphasized how important the Leadership Team is to keep the focus of the school on their vision, action plans, and professional development, and to avoid getting bogged down in managerial issues. A panel member mentioned that staff development needs to remain on-going for the leader, coaches, and teachers, and everyone should celebrate successes along the way. The consistent collaboration and monitoring must remain the central focus. Leaders of schools must spend time in classrooms looking at best practice. Principal Faye Ogilvie shared that they have refocused on visiting other schools so they can reflect on their own practice, borrow ideas from others, and know what her school can do better to move their work forward.

Fidelity to Program is critical. Schools must take ownership. What is the balance? The panel agreed that teachers must have input and there must be teacher buy-in. To keep fidelity, leaders must remain committed on the school’s vision, on staff development, and must offer financial support. Thinking about having different planning times to mix up content area plans.

Peter then turned over the discussion to table groups to discuss:
1) What are we currently doing that is most helpful to your school?
2) What areas/services need improvement?
3) Briefly describe the kind of support that you would like us to develop with you for your school. Structures? Workshops? Institutes? Professional Resources? Tech support? Data Analysis?
4) Please describe strategies that you have put in place that may not have been mentioned by our panelists today.
5) Would you be interested in working with ACI on the development of this support? Is so, please provide name, school, position, and email address.

The audience agreed that there has not been enough done to develop coaches and principals that are new to the design. They suggested a new principal boot camp with an experienced America’s Choice principal as a peer partner to assist them with the design.

Teacher capacity continues to be a problem with high turn over of teachers. Panelist, Susan Phillips, shared that at Chets Creek, they run a Boot Camp for teachers over the summer including three days of intensive training on the design. Joe Lisa also emphasized that common planning time is important for beginning teachers to have on-going support from their grade level teams.

Peter Heaney suggested that America’s Choice could think about:
Developing a way for colleagues to visit schools.
Content based coaching. Which teachers are movers and shakers? Work with them as change agents.
Help support presentations for national conferences—IRA, etc...
Provide more distance learning. How could we do a better job to share presentations?
Offer certification for in-service.

Additionally, the audience suggested the following ideas:
--Array of services to alumni schools—menu of services in a timely manner.
--On-line services for new principals and new teachers.
--Could we have a membership for those of us who don’t have access through extended contracts? Continue to have conversations.
--What is the cost of alumni services? ($10,000 minimum) What comes in the $10,000 package? (Answer: 2 on site focus walks with a follow-up day and creating an action plan. Leadership Training.) There should also be other ways to keep in touch with us. Are there district contracts at discounted rates?
--Cost effective ways to be connected on-line through webinars that have menus to select from.
--Cross district networks.
--Set a partner principal network where an experienced principal helps mentor a new principal.
Principal Academy or training session at regional levels with alumni schools that are at similar levels of implementation.
--What is AC’s plan for schools that have a long term relationship? Year 10, 11, 12?
--What does AC plan to do when they have so many intensive schools to take care of alumni schools?
--Consistency of staff from AC.
--When we ask people to come in and provide services, it is hard to get things scheduled.

The audience seemed sincerely interested in continuing this dialogue that has just begun. America’s Choice said their team would meet to discuss the conversation and create an action plan. If you have any further suggestions or questions, you can contact Peter Heaney at pheaney@americaschoice.org.

Sign of the Times

Environmental Print: Sign of the Times
Presented by Cynthia Martin
Rochester, NY

My second breakout session of the afternoon was titled Environmental Print: Sign of the Times. Again I struggled with wanting to be selfish and attend The Real Work of a Professional Learning Community presented by Debbie Harbour from Chets Creek Elementary, but once again our committment to blog and our flight to the west coast told me to do differently.

The environmental print session was presented by Cindy Martin from Rochester, New York. She demonstrated many ways to use environmental print as a vehicle to produce better readers and writers. The presenter highlighted ways to use ads, coupons, labels, and packages. She showed us that using free phamplets from area attractions is a great way to create activities for students. We were introduced to a website at http://www.nwt.literacy.ca/, where you can find games that use environmental print. Cindy also shared ways that she uses packages, wrappers, and boxes to teach different language skills. It was a well received session that the participants walked away from with many ideas on how to include the use of environmental print in their classroom instruction.

The "Cranberry"!

Although I've never cared much about cars, there are some in our party that care VERY much! When we arrived in LA we had to rent some wheels to get around town. Now, we stayed at a hotel in downtown Hollywood where the cars pulling up for valet service were Jaguars, Lambourginis, Bentleys, Mazaradis, Rolls Royces... We however, pulled up in our cranberry colored Ford 10-passenger van! Definately not the vehicle to impress! In fact, Susan Phillips, our principal and driver for the trip, begged for a red van instead of a white van at the rental office so at least we wouldn't look like we were robbing a bank!

The "Cranberry," as it was christened, had a GPS system that our driver talked to like it was a real person! When we got lost, which wasn't often, or when SHE said to turn on a street when our driver thought she knew a short cut, SHE took verbal abuse! However, SHE didn't seem to mind, because the very next time SHE was just as pleasant!

The Cranberry had 3 bench seats, and the far seat at the back wasn't bolted in very well! Now I wouldn't say that our fearless leader purposely found every pothole and speed bump in LA and jumped half a dozen curbs on purpose... but some would wonder if her wicked sense of humor didn't kick in and she didn't secretly enjoy those roller coater rides for those in the far back "sliding" seat! The Queen claimed the front seat - age does have its preferences - so that meant everybody else- even those who tended to get carsick in a regular car - took a turn in the back! "Cranberry", fruit or color, will forever make me smile...

Hooray for Hollywood!!!!

We have learned an awful lot at the conference as you can see from the posts about all the sessions we have participated in. It's enough to make your head spin! I know that what ya'll REALLY want to get the scoop on is what "stars" we have seen so here goes...

Wolfgang Puck - Our closest sighting, he actually shook our hands and spoke with us at dinner.

Wolf Blitzer - He was broadcasting live outside the Kodak Theater prior to the start of the Democratic debate. Melanie and dayle think he tried to interview them later in the day on the sidewalk - I think not.

Lou Gossett, Jr. - He was being interviewed along with Richard Schiff in the lobby of our hotel - we were mere feet away.

Christina Applegate - We were in her way as we all waited on the valet to pull the Cranberry around. She politely smiled and said excuse me and she walked through our group. Explaination of the Cranberry involves the need for a whole other post - stay tuned.

Steven Weber - He was waiting outside the hotel at the valet stand.

John Roberts - He walked throught the hotel lobby while I was waiting on the group.

While I was on the way to the airport to pick up the rest of our crew who flew in on Wednesday the girls I left behind had the opportunity to go down to Grauman's Theater and watch Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson walk the red carpet at the priemiere of Fool's Gold. They stayed in the room to blog - LOSERS!!! There were several other uncomfirmed sightings - once you've seen one you think you see them everywhere! Only in Hollywood.

Math Data Made Teacher - Friendly

Math Data Made Teacher-Friendly
Presented by Scott Ridge
Cleveland, OH

A group from Cleveland, OH presented how they use Excel and Word documents to organize their data. Their main goal was to provide a platform for teachers to prepare and understand the data provided to them by their coaches, administration, and district.

Teachers are more willing to look at and use data if it is presented in a form they understand. Teachers can use these tools to help design ways to increase their effectiveness.

A copy of their documents can be found at http://www.eccschools.com/

From Hawaii to Hollywood

We met for lunch to share a little bit of what we experienced in the morning sessions. We all had positive things to say about the sessions we attended. We would need more time to talk later. Michelle and I attended our first session together this morning. The focus was on technology. Because our classroom blog is our next goal, we thought it was wise to listen to the presenter together. It was informative and relevant. The presenter was Dr. Elaine Weber. To learn more about what Dr. Weber shared with the audience, read the post that Michelle and I wrote during the presentation titled Technology In The Classroom.

After lunch I was on to the first breakout session of the afternoon. It was really difficult to decide where to go because there were so many choices. Top on my list was Mathematics Navigator: A Safety Net Program For Struggling Students by Angela Phillips and Rick Pinchot from Chets Creek Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida. O.K. I know that flying all the way to the west coast to listen to my friends present was just a little selfish, so I decided to attend Breaking Through In Math Profieciency presented by a team of educators from Hawaii.

Breaking through to Math Proficiency
Presented by Faye Ogilvie
Honaunau Elementary School, Hawaii

The principal of Honaunau School shared the story of her school. They have 158 students and are a cohort 1 America's Choice school! In 2006, 60% of the 158 students met proficiency in reading, with 24% of the students doing the same in math. They missed AYP in math by 4%.

As a result they decided to make their focus on the math workshop. They knew they had to do in math what they had done in reading. They began by moving the math block to the morning. They developed a parent program to engage them in the student's mathematical understanding. The principal shared that their entire faculty and staff made a solid commitment to improve math instruction and it worked. Their math scores jumped 19% in 2007. It was inspiring to listen to the presenters successes.

Technology in the Classroom

An Adolescent Literacy Program: Hot Linked and Online
Presented by: Dr. Elaine Weber

In her presentation, Elaine explained how to use simple, free, easy–to-access technology to make your teaching more efficient and effective and get your students more engaged in learning.
Elaine began her presentation with a pictorial look at the timeline of “A Day In The Technological Life of an Adolescent”. She went on to share the ABC’s for a new way of instruction.
º Abundance of Information
º Better Access to Technology
º Changing Role of Teachers
1. Downloader
2. Uploader
3. Connector
When Elaine spoke about “Abundance” she recommended that we read A Whole New Mind. It was good to know that at Chets, a small group conducted a book study with this text in 2006 and at the beginning of the 2007 school year our entire faculty was given the book! Dr. Weber shared different ways that today’s teacher must be a “Downloader”. We must know how to use the internet to search for resources to impact instruction. We were so excited by all of the sites that she turned us on to. Many of them are accessed through www.protopage.com/assessmentsystem. This is a free website that Elaine says is easy to use with assessment, instruction, activities, podcasts, videos, and polls. Be sure to take a look at “Stack the Deck for Good Reading Comprehension”. This is a card game to use with students in the classroom. The photopage website will give you a link to slideshare to download the cards. Other interesting sites she shared were Grammar Girl and Teachertube. Dr. Weber showed us Lit2Go. If you visit this site you can pick a book title and find a read aloud of the text. We learned more about Voicethread and its capabilities.

Dr. Weber’s next focus in her presentation was the importance of the teacher as a connector. Blogging is the way to go! She asked us to share about our Live From The Creek blog. We look forward to seeing the results of our blog. It is interesting to read the comments that were already written.

World of Workshops

A World of Workshops
Presented by Barbara Heard, Debra Palmer-Gyebi, Gail Polak and Kiatonya Wormley: Leonora P. Miles Elementary School, Atlanta, GA

Miles Elementary School is an America’s Choice Model School in Atlanta, GA. Their focus was on using a thematic approach to teaching reading, writing, science and social studies. When forming a new unit they begin with the standards. Right now they are teaching a school wide unit called Freedom and Change. Martin L. King is the icon they use to connect the Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop, Social Studies and Science. We watched a clip of a mini-lesson in a 1st grade class. They were using a KWL chart on a book about Martin L. King. After listening to the story, the students went to their seats to respond to the story for the work period. During the closing the students shared their responses.

Next, a 4th grade class used a poem around the theme of Freedom and Change during Reader’s Workshop. Ms Gyebi uses a Poem of the Week to work on Echo Reading, Leader and Chorus reading, and small group reading. We watched a clip of a lesson. The students were doing a Choral Reading of a poem about Martin L. King. The lesson was on fluency.

Ms. Wormley used the Book of the Month to teach Writer’s Workshop in a 5th grade class. The students wrote connections to the story. The story was Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox. They choose this story because it is about war and peace, which fit into their unit of Freedom and Change.

At the end of each two week unit the teachers are required to display artifacts about the unit that are displayed in the hallway.

Science and Literacy

Science and Literacy: Capitalizing on a Synergistic Approach
Presented by Dr. Gina Cervetti and Jacqueline Barber
Lawrence Hall of Science
University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Gina Cervetti is the lead literacy specialist as well as coordinator and researcher for the Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading program. Jacqueline Barber is the associated director of the Lawrense Hall of Science and led the research and development of the Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading program.
(Sample activities from today’s session come from 2-3 grade curriculums from the Seeds if Science, Roots of Reading materials.)

Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading is an NSF funded program, designed to explore the collaboration of science and reading. The program “kicks down the interdisciplinary doors.” It uses the wonderment of science with literacy. Reading and writing are authentic to inquiry science. Reading about science without engaging in hands on activities leads to an incomplete understanding of the concepts. Scientists do not rely on science concepts alone. They use reading and comprehension strategies before, during, and after investigation. This approach ties reading, writing, and thinking to inquiry science.

Focus Questions:
How can science be used as a context for literacy learning?
How can text be used to support rather than eclipse inquiry science?
What does it mean to know a word?

“Do It, Talk It, Read It, Write It”
(The following activities are completed over several sessions. Students explore scientific processes as they incorporate reading and writing skills.)

Activity 1: The instructional sequence was introduced by a book Shorelines and Beaches by Catherine Halversen and Nicole Parizeau from the Seeds of Science program. (The story is about a girl named Jo who takes a trip around the world with her family. She sends postcards to her friend Linn about the beaches she visits. Linn needs to write a report about beaches for school and uses the information.) Have students turn through the book and find a picture that illustrates the difference between a beach and a shoreline. Discuss with a buddy the picture you have found. Discussion with the buddy leads to discussions of the definition of the important vocabulary and concepts. It begins to “seed” the investigation to come. It begins to get students to link the concepts and vocabulary to one another.

Activity 2: Have students look at a model of the beach. (A pie tin with beach sand and various pieces of items found on a beach.) Have students pick up items from the beach and explore them. Infer where the beach may be.

Activity 3: Guided sort. Give students index cards and allow them to sort the items in their beach. Kids share information and opinions with each other. What would you call the material that is left behind on the plate after you take the objects off the plate? What is sand made of? How can we test this idea?

Activity 4: Use a model to try to investigate this experiment. Use Jolly Rancher candies. Different colors of candy represent the different items found on the beach. (Example: green is evidence of plants and seaweeds, red is evidence of animals, purple is evidence of rocks and minerals, yellow is evidence of humans, and blue is an example of unknown) Place the Jolly Ranchers in a jar. Pass it around the room, letting each student shake it ten times. What do you predict will happen? Once complete, let the students sort the items by size. Some are larger, some are smaller.

Activity 5: Pass around bags of various kinds of sand. Have students classify them and put them in order of the size of the sand in the bag. Why are some of the pieces of sand different sizes? Leads into discussion of sand being made of different items so they break down differently. Do waves have something to do with it? Does the wind have something to do with it?

Activity 6: Exploring with tools. Pass out magnifying glasses. Have students explore the sand closer and record data on a recording sheet or in a Sand Journal. (Sample questions on the recording sheet include: Which sand has the smallest grains? The largest? Which sand is lightest in color? Which is darkest?) Give students each a “sand slide.” (The slide is simply made by placing glue on an index card and placing the sand on top. This keeps students from opening the bags of sand.) Give students a rock and mineral kit that allows students to try to classify the sand they have by comparing the sand.

Activity 7: Give the students the next book. Gary’s Sand Journal by Gary Griggs, Catherine Halversen, and Craig Strang. (Also from Seeds of Science series.) Students are now reading to inform. What did you learn in the book that you did not know? What did you get from the text that you could not have gotten from first hand experience alone?


Guiding Principle 1: Engage students in firsthand and secondhand investigations to make sense of the natural world. Text can support and enhance the investigations.

Guiding Principle 2: Engage students through multiple learning modalities.

Guiding Principle 3: Capitalize on synergies between science and literacy.

Synergy 1: Words are concepts
Synergy 2: Inquiry strategies are comprehension strategies
Synergy 3: Science is a discourse.

Transforming Education: The New York City Story

Keynote: Transforming Education - The New York City Story
Presented by Dennis Walcott
Deputy Mayor, New York City

This morning we attended the keynote given by Mr. Dennis Walcott, Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development in New York City. NYC has adopted the America’s Choice program as one approved intervention. Walcott mentioned that Duval County was the most improved county in Florida after adopting the America’s Choice program! The focus of his keynote was "Transforming Education: The New York City Story."

Walcott dedicates his life to his 3rd grade teacher – Mrs. Long. She was someone who made that difference in his life as he struggled with reading.

When he began his position he found that the system had many deficiencies. It was dysfunctional, there wasn’t any system-wide curriculum for any subject, funding was based on politics, there were stagnant test scores, no parent input, and no accountability. The first order of business was to gain control over the schools. There were 32 separate district boards without any connections. On top of that NYC PUblic Schools was one of the largest school systems:
• 1.1 million students
• 20 billion budget
• 1450 schools
• 140,000 staff
• 80,000 teachers
• Over 170 languages
• Over 8000 buses

Changes had to be made and it began as they combined all the schools into 10 districts. Phase 1 included the New Governance Structure and with a citywide core curriculum – they worked on the focus in teaching and learning. They created a coherent professional development program which would support classroom instruction across the district. They began the NYC Leadership Academyto provide support for professional development. They also provided the support for the teachers mentoring program and increased teacher salaries. They implemented a Parent Coordinator project where each parent coordinator has a public cell phone to provide information for their students. With this program they downsized the systems structure to become more efficient.

Phase 2 was about elevating good to outstanding. The focus of this phase was on accountability. The major components included empowerment, fair student funding, accountability, teacher tenure reform which gives principals new tools to help determine success, Teacher Performance Pay Program. Policy innovations were put in place such as conflict resolution and anti-bullying workshops. Schools were made into safer places for students and teachers because order was restored. Schools were added to an impact initiative and crime was decreased by over 50%. New promotion policies were put into place (3rd , 5th , 7th , 8th grades) because these were considered “critical years.” Additional support was provided for students who do not reach these goals. Office of Multiple Pathways to graduation was created in 2005. Students were given more meaningful options to meet them where they were. Transfer schools were created as an alternative to traditional high schools. Young Adult Borough Center (YABC) were created for students who could not go to school during the day due to a work load. (Over 5,000 students have graduated to date.) Learning to work programs were created. New, smaller schools were created. Since 2002 over 230 schools were created by splitting large, failing high schools into several smaller ones. The Average graduation rate when from 35% to 72%. What made the biggest difference? Leadership, trying something new, focusing on the students.

In closing he discussed the hallmarks of the approach which included partnerships, options, and challenging the status quo. This program has brought nothing but success for New York City public schools. They were the winner of the Broad Prize for Top Urban School District in the U.S. in 2007.

Using CPS for a Balanced Math Lesson

Technology and the Balanced Mathematics Lesson
Presentors: Michael Dantona and Victoria Moscatelli
Queens, NY

Michael is a vice principal at IS 5 Elmhurst. Victoria is a classroom teacher at Elmhurst that uses CPS in her classroom.

I was very excited to go to this session. The session focused on using the CPS clickers in math instruction. I personally own a set of these “clickers” and they have quickly become an essential tool in my classroom. I am presenting a science/technology session tomorrow in which I will take a little different spin on the clickers and use them for an actual lesson with participants.

What is CPS?

CPS is a Classroom Performance System, a package of software and hardware developed by eInstruction Corporation. The hardware consists of a receiver unit and 16, 24, or 32 response pads. The software and hardware work together to create and deliver course-relevant questions. The software reports student performance data.

The CPS system consists of a response pad and coordinating receiver unit. Each uniquely numbered pad transmits responses that the receiver unit records, and that the CPS software automatically attributes to the corresponding response pad number listed in the class. You must have a computer and LCD projector in order to use this system.

My favorite component of the system is the report generator. You can immediately generate data through a variety of reports that you can use to evaluate your students’ performance on a given assessment. Reports can be printed as an entire class, by question, by student, etc. You can review the report assessment, print your assessment, or export the assessments to the following file types: plain text, HTML, Excel, or PDF.

The clickers can be used during any part of the workshop. The most common time to use it, however, is the opening or closing session. The immediate feedback can be used to diagnose students strengths and weaknesses as well as any misconceptions students have.

Participants were shown how to insert questions into the system. Questions can also be used through PowerPoint.

Making Sense Out of The Current State of Mathematics in U.S. Schools

Making Sense Out of the Current State of Mathematics in US Schools
Presented by Zal Usiskin
University of Chicago

Zal Usiskin from the University of Chicago related his drive from the airport using his navigation system (blindly following a given set of directions through an unfamiliar maze of streets) as similiar to the students' faith in their teacher as they guide them through mathematics. Just like us, students like to see and explore what is along the way. He also noted that there are several roads and no one road is the best for everyone.

Some key points made by Mr. Usiskin:

• Technology can help students learn - not learn first and then use technology.
• There are many different standards out there, how do we decide which to use?
• We need to have a benchmark or starting point to judge our progress - 96% success does seem as good if 97% was achieved the year before.
• With more students taking higher levels of math, (24% of 8th graders were taking Algebra or Pre-Algebra in 1981 while 71% are doing the same in 2007) some key challenges face math teachers. We have to motivate students who are not self-motivated by: keeping them engaged, making connections to earlier learning, providing practice with test situations, giving quick feedback, and using technology.

Some positives:

• National Scores are increasing.
• 4th grade students today know 2 years more worth of math than 4th graders in 1973.
• SAT and ACT scores in Math are increasing although Verbal scores are declining.
• There is a greater variety of math materials available.

Some Negatives:

• The performance gap between ethnic groups is still at the same level as 15 years ago.
• There is a gap in what is offered at various schools based on demographics.
• Teaching has become more difficult due to conflicting expectations.
• Economic status is still a major issue.

Some irrational:

• All children cannot be average or above average. Grade level is the average level of all children in a certain grade. Therefore, all children cannot be at grade level or above grade level.
• Moving students to different schools will increase performance by raising average scores.
• Continued growth indefinitely.

Some Imaginary:

• Comparing our scores to different cultures and expecting the same results.
• Calling our cirriculum a mile wide and an inch deep can be viewed in different ways.

Vocabulary in a PLC

The Real Work of a Professional Learning Community
Presented by Debbie Harbour
Chets Creek Elementary, Jacksonville, FL

Debbie Harbour presented a session today on how a kindergarten professional learning community can recognize a need and then meet together to develop a way to fill it! Six teachers at Chets Creek Elementary came together around their need to develop better vocabulary strategies and wrote a complete vocabulary unit based on the research of Beck and McKeown. See Debbie's PowerPoint below.

| View | Upload your own

The original PowerPoint also included several short video examples of teachers Maria Mallon and Haley Alvarado teaching from the vocabulary unit. Most exciting was that the vocabulary activities around 12 Kindergarten read-alouds are available free as a download from Debbie's blog! Check it out!

Connecting Math and Literacy

Connecting Math and Literacy in a Standards-Based Classroom
Presented by: Tracy VanWormer, K-1 teacher and Julie Coulter 2-3 teacher
Prospect, OR

As I walked into the presentation room, I noticed right away the great math literature books in the front of the room. It immediately made me excited. Many of the books I already have in my classroom such as The Greedy Triangle, Math Potatoes, Counting on Frank, Just Enough Carrots, and many others.

Also while waiting for the break-out session to begin I spoke with Christine Denmark who is the senior associate and math specialist from America’s Choice. In her hand she had a new book called Comprehending Math: Adapting Reading Strategies to Teach Mathematics written by Authur Hyde. I currently have this book sitting in my office at school but I haven’t had time to read it yet. I asked her about the book. She said it was wonderful. If you teach K -6, she said you need to read this book. I can’t wait to get home to begin reading it. Looking through the Table of Contents I noticed it was broken into Chapters like Asking Questions, Synthesizing, and Inferencing.

We began the session by listening to the story How Big Is a Foot?by Rolf Myller. It was a Book of a Month at their school last year. After reading the story we worked in groups and had to trace one person’s foot. Then we had to make a bed that was three feet wide and six feet long. We also had to make a queen to lie in the bed. After everyone was finished we compared each group’s bed. We talked about the varying sizes and discussed where to take this lesson next (non-standard unit to a real ruler).

Julie talked about a math series of books she uses in her classroom. The series is Math Smart. She read the story called The Great Graph Contest by Loreen Leedy. This story was about graphs, survey’s, pie charts and venn diagrams. After listening to the story they put a bag of cookies that were mixed flavors. We had to come up with a question and then graph our results. Our question: What are the flavors of cookies in our bag and how many of each will we have. Next my group made a graph and counted the results. Some were concerned that this activity would only work for 2nd and 3rd grade. I think they are wrong. We begin asking survey questions and collecting data in Kindergarten. We also don’t stop there. We also explore what we do with the information we have learned.

At the end of the session, we looked through children literature to gain ideas of how to use them in our classroom. I looked through the story Anno’s Magic Seeds by Mitsumasa Anno. It would be a great book to teach multiplication, division, inferencing, and problem solving.

Students with Disabilities Meeting State Standards

Helping Students with Disabilities Meet State Standards, Too!
Presented by Pam Musick, Pearson

Pam Musick, a teacher from Hawaii that is now working in Indiana for Pearson, opened her session by having the participants discuss their major Special Education issues including:

• time that is taken away from general education children in inclusion because of needier students
• scores that count in self-contained classes causing schools not to meet AYP (interesting idea: the state test scores of students in self-contained classes counting back to the home school)
• the gap of about 5 years in a single class
• how to provide supplemental intervention that does not supplant the general education curriculum - how do you provide supplemental intervention without missing some of the general eduaction curriculum?

Sound familiar?

If it’s about our expectations, think about this study that Pam presented: Only 26% of teachers who taught Special Education believed that “all or “most” children with disabilities would be able to meet their state standards. 72% of general education teachers believed that “all” or “most” could meet the standards. If 80% of students with disabilities have average or above average IQs, what does that say about our expectations?

An accommodation levels the playing field. (examples in life might be a GPS for directionally impaired, glasses, dishwasher instead of washing by hand, step stool for reaching). It doesn’t give the child an extra advantage. An adaptation (or modification as we call it in Florida) changes the parameters to meet the needs of the student. It makes the task different than the original one. Most of the time students only need an accommodation to be able to meet their swtate standards.

"One instructinal minute lost can never be recaptured." Enjoy Pam's "A Dozen 'Downtime' Activities" (added with permission) so that you can use every single day of instruction.

A Dozen “Downtime” Activities

1. Students play a quick game of “hangman” using spelling, vocabulary or content area words.
2. Play classification games. (Ex: mammals/reptiles or countries that border an ocean, etc.)
3. Play thinking skills games. (I’m thinking for a person, place, thing.)
4. Chain a story. Each student adds one sentence as it moves around the classroom. The story can’t end until each student has added a sentence.
a. Student 1: It was a snowy day.
b. Student 2: The bus was late.
c. Student 3: My friends and I started to play.
5. Brainstorm a list and write it on the board. (provides good visual feedback)
6. Practice reviewing basic facts. (multiplication, spelling, abbreviations, elements on the periodic chart)
7. Play word/vocabulary games. Think of the synonym, antonym, etc.
8. Play round robin jeopardy. One student gives the answer for something learned this week in school and another student answers it with the right question. The student who is correct goes next.
9. List the pros and cons of an issue or topic at school, in the community or from the curriculum.
10. Start a number sequence and keep it going. (Ex: 1,3,4,7…)
11. Take a cause/effect challenge. One student makes a statement and two other students provide the cause and the effect. Example: It was a snowy day.
Cause: The car slid off the road.
Effect: The car will have to be repaired.
12. Find the misspelled word. Ask a student to write two words on the board – one spelled correctly and the other incorrectly. He selects another student to identify the correctly spelled word. If correct, it is the next student’s turn. If not, the first student gets another chance at it.

Pam's session ended with a discussion of Marilyn Friend's models for team teaching including co- teaching, station teaching, alternative teaching, one teach-one support, parallel teaching.

*Pam will be in Duval county on Feb. 11, 2008 to do some work with DRA.

Collegiality

As we have been writing these blogs, I have realized how collegiality has become so entrenched in our culture… that we do it without even thinking. Right now Debbie Harbour is blogging the keynote, but she easily passes her computer to Melissa Ross to read and without a blink, Melissa edits and revises and then just hands the computer back so Debbie can continue. Later today someone will take the work and try to summarize, just focusing on the main ideas. Someone else will take the picture and make sure it all gets added. None will worry about hurting the others feelings by changing or suggesting, but all realize that the feedback and joining of several minds together will make the final blog entry the best for our readers.

This is the same partner work that we want our children to use every day. We want them to have the ability to work with a partner and add to their writing, to accept suggestions from a classroom of listeners as their authentic audience, to revise and edit to make things better. How exciting it is to see it modeled in this leadership group!

Hanging Over the Balcony

The Democratic debate between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton was held in the Kodak Theatre (the same theatre that hosts the Oscars!) last night. The environment outside the debate was electric with groups chanting and signs of support bobbing up and down. Extra policemen, private Security and Secret Service were everywhere! Anchors from the various networks staked out roped off areas with bright lights blaring in the night. Outside the Theatre supporters… and America’s Choice convention participants… hung over the balconies soaking in the exciting atmosphere. How appropriate is it that an education convention should be held in the same area as a Presidential Debate!

However, like most of you, we went back to our hotel and watched the debate on television (it was “invitation only” inside the Theatre), but outside our hotel, the red carpet was rolled out for the after party. As we went up to our rooms, the paparazzi were out in mass as so many stars partied downstairs (once again “invitation only”). We did see some stars, but it was just a reminder of the high stakes political climate that we are in right now.

As I watched the debate, I noticed that not a single world was spoken about public education? That is NOT acceptable! I wonder what it would be like if the political conversations at the highest levels weren’t “invitation only”. What would it be like to be a real part of that conversation instead of just hanging over the balcony? Wonder what it would be like if teachers, those actually in the trenches, were invited to the political leadership table? Is it the politicians’ responsibility to invite us or is it our responsibility to demand our seat at the table?

If you had the opportunity to sit at that table, what would you say?

The Show Must Go On!

As you know, ten members of our Leadership Team are here in Hollywood. That leaves our Assistant Principal, Moena Perry, at school to keep the day-to-day operations going on (and we hear she’s doing a great job on this solo run!) However, there are still some things that Susan Phillips, our Principal, takes care of, even though she is here in Hollywood.

At the break of dawn, Susan popped out her computer (okay, so maybe she dragged it out with a long sigh!) to make sure that the Memo was available to teachers by day’s end. At Chets Creek the Memo is our planning Bible. It is our weekly lifeline of all that will be happening the next week. These management announcements keep us from having any faculty meetings to disseminate information. So…. Teachers, read your Memo today and know that, even though we are so far away, YOU are not far from our thoughts!