001Thumbs up. All right, everyone. >> This is happening everyone. It's time to get started. Hi everyone. Welcome. >> If you are here for the full board meeting, >> that's not this. This is the curriculum committee meeting. It's so nice to have you all here. I call this public meeting to order. Are there any public comments, Trish? >> No public comment. >> We have yet to have a public comment. and I feel a certain way about it. Um, do we have any responses to the lack of public comment? >> All right. Um, oh, at that point, at this point, we will approve the minutes from our work session. Thank you for sending them out. Trisha, did you have a chance to review? >> I did. >> All right. So, >> we approve. >> Yes. >> Do
002we approve? >> Let's vote. Yes, we approve. Erin, I know joining a little later for that. Um, >> we have a nice cool agenda tonight. We're going to start off with Mary, our very own Mary Groover, right there, kicked out of her normal feet by these two interlopers. Um, no, >> we're on a roll. >> I'm t I'm tagging in greatness. >> There we go. >> These two folks, Miss Charm, >> Dr. Jennifer Viser joining us this evening. >> Yes, we were we were arguing about where they were sitting. I think you'll agree. um let that be further record. Um but we'd love to start off with you talking to us about the follow-ups from the math presentation before we get into the literacy. >> Fantastic. So I am going to invite Katie Hart up
003because I really um want to make sure you don't have to move right. Um, so I just really want to thank Katie because she not only got to yes on this quickly, but followed all the accessibility guidelines that our website dictates for. So, one thing that surfaced when we talked about math last time was just caregivers having access to the module handouts, the letters to the home. Some teachers are sending them home. we can post them on the website. So, Trisha, do you want a casting? So, you're going to see here um and I will say it publicly, the needle that I'm trying to thread is that we don't infringe on any copyright laws and we give access to the curriculum because some curricular adoptions actually say you can't post that, you can't post the
004materials. So, we feel like you've done a good job with that. Do you want to speak to walk us through the site in your work? >> Sure. So, um I met with Cat and Mary um and they provided all of the folders and materials and handouts um that get sent home with families. And so, um just sort of an overview of Eureka Math Squared is at the top. And then if you scroll down um you have the grade level math resources um and these are all the math letters. So these are the pages that get ripped out from the um booklets and then um so they're uh separated by grade and if you you open them it'll take you to a Google folder and it's um all of them by module in the Google folder.
005>> Trisha, do you mind clicking on kindergarten just so those people at home watching um and all of us can get a feel for what it looks like? >> Yeah. finish open module one. These probably look familiar. So there's multiple clicks which because there are multiple resources for families. So that's why I wanted for us to walk through if you have any questions. Of course you can ask your your child's teacher. Um, and I also want to thank Jenna Halis who put these all together in 2024. Oh, actually the dates up there. Yeah. >> Yeah. Look at that. >> So, um, Trisha, can I ask trouble you one more time? Yeah. Just click on any one of them so people can see what he's offering. Um, so it is a a letter to the family.
006and it explains some of the activities and then it gives these at home suggestions. I think we're all really um it's within our culture to talk about talking you know reading to your child as soon as they're born you leave the hospital with a book and as far as math is equally important. So building a culture of what are some activities to do with your child? These letters capture this these resources. You want to add about accessibility. >> Yeah. So we um are eventually moving away from PDFs, but um Eureka Map has actually already tagged all of these PDFs, so they are accessible um PDFs that are shared on our website right now. So, >> so perfect. >> Thank you. Yeah, I I spent some time looking through this also. I mean Trish if you
007want to go down the website. I also just think there's very helpful information and just like the supporting your child in math understanding like there is a math curriculum and here's what it is >> and like there are there's certain like things I should expect for my child to experience in math class. Um I thought this was really helpful. I was curious like with Clever, what exactly are famil family's permissions within Clever? I would have to research that. I don't I don't I don't know that offhand what f what the f what families see when they click on clever >> because it says like for full access to the quick one. So curious to see more or maybe it's using your child's account. So what do the children I guess I'm just genuinely curious. >>
008Let's put that on a followup for what it looks like especially in the past year. So we've had the like a code that we could like scan and get on ourselves, but I can't remember exactly access it. >> Yeah. And Trisha, I'm sorry. Do you mind keeping that up for just one second? I really appreciate you. >> Um as you scan down that window, so there are the resources and then here are the pacing guides by grade level. So, as far as um at the bottom of the the slide, this shows you to the the modules and the content. And then at the very bottom, supporting your child in math. Um the content from this is borrowed from the state's numeracy briefs which were um launched time moves so quickly but I believe it was
009last spring when briefs we we met as a region to review them. Um, and so the we're going to be talking about literacy later, but the state also published literacy briefs. So they are components of community engagement, instruction, and priorities that we have as a state around math instruction. So, I think that if you're wondering where that content comes from, and you probably could even add the series on here, they have some nice graphics that are more I think um uh infographics that uh condense the content in a digestible way because if if you were to go on right now to NICE and pull the new receipt where you see each one is about, you know, four to six pages. pages. Um, and it's there's a lot of content. So, the infographics I would I
010would suggest when we add that just as we're we're thinking out loud. It's so helpful to see this up. >> I also appreciate like the the dates for content. I know like we had raised questions about like what sort of casing is expected from the district and what like should families expect in terms of what their kids are getting when. It was nice to see that. I'm curious about so I know like there there are questions were sort of raised in two categories, right? There was the categories of as families, how do families know and as a district, how do we make sure it's happening? So I'm curious like outside of this website which I think is amazing. Are there like you know like what are what are some of the I guess next steps
011actions or things we should know about like some of the things you raised about like it like the pacing guide for example like maybe being like very far behind right or or not receiving this sort of information. >> Yeah. So I think at another curriculum meeting we may want to review the the five-year scope and sequence of adopting any curricular adoption. So the first year being one where um we're actually asking teachers to give themselves a lot of grace to learn the curriculum, learn how to apply it in a classroom and the constraints of what the academic day looks like, for example, the schedule looks like. Um and then and the pacing and pay attention because that's a that's a steep learning curve for the pacing. So that was actually something that surfaced around. We
012could see from textbook orders and from conversations with teachers, there's so much content in Murric Masquist. So where there's duplicity, where do we want to make sure, you know, we're prioritizing those low floor or high seal high ceiling problems? And so that's the role of the math strategist. So, how do we know? Convening all of the grade level teachers by middle school feeder schools to review what they've gone over, where they are in the curriculum and prep for the next module. And the local assessments is how we know children are getting access to this. and look looking at those assessments to as a feedback loop for teaching. >> Well, it's really good to see that. How is this being shared out with families? >> Um, for for the for the small percent of families who
013aren't watching this meeting, >> we can share this page. Um, I want to go over it one more time with Cat, but we'll show this page out with principles how they can include it in their paper newsletters. Um, and uh, we can have it in the next insider as well. We have um, middle school math on here as well. And so we're working to eventually as well. >> So this is not necessarily it's starting as a map thing, but it's kind of progressing into something more comprehensive. That's really cool. >> I see I see a lot of great I think it's really nice when it's just like shared information about what should be the case because it helps us all hold each other to it. So like thank you for your work on that. >>
014Um well at this point sorry about the whole interoper comment. um this time being here our our middle school literacy presentation again for our for anyone who's watching listening um we talked about elementary math and we're sort of starting to just like how as a board can we support the excellent work that is happening around trying to provide students with like a more shared experience across our states. I know when I was a student in the Ithaca City School District um that was just not the case. I feel like we were getting really radically different um experiences depending on the classes we were in, the teachers that we had, the school we were in, and it's nice to see I think a more equitable approach. And so >> take it away. >> Um can we
015present >> we we we saw like we've seen the presentation. We got it emailed in advance. Okay. So don't feel like you need to like read verbatim to us like we have a general sense. We might stop and ask questions throughout and it's getting ahead. Please just say shut up like them. >> And I I do want to introduce both of you if I may because um I uh it's it's really a privilege and joy to work both of you as department leaders and um Miss Charm Varga, Dr. Jennifer Fischer have um been very intentional in conversations this year on how to collaborate across both middle schools and so thank you for coming this evening. Uh appreciate it and we will get you out of here in time to get ready to reach again tomorrow.
016>> Too late. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um so I'll start. Uh if you wouldn't mind that this is connect >> oh I'm sorry I don't have these in my class. >> All right so we do have a brief agenda so just we're going to introduce ourselves um we will then share the vision that we've crafted as an ELA middle school ELA department between both of our buildings. Um we're going to discuss the collaboration and commonality that we've really been working to develop like Mary mentioned. Um this really just started this past year like they're not even a full year into this mission. Um we're going to look at some of the data um seeing how students have been performing recently um in the New York State ELA tests. Um we're going to talk
017about some things that would be helpful as we move forward and then of course if there's comments and questions we'll feel them which you already kind of talked about. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, I'm Charmaine Varta. Um, I work at Boon Middle School. I've been at 8th grade um over at Buenon for 14 years now. Um, I did start my career at Graten High School teaching 10th grade English. And I do have two children in the Ethic City School District. I have a ninth grader um and then a child up at Dwit um in seventh grade. And I'm Jennifer. Um I have certification in elementary education, so one to six. Um, most of my experience teaching has been at sixth grade. Um, but I also did four years at Ball Creek and I
018have three kids in the district. I have twins in fifth grade and I had a kindergartener. Um, so our team, our middle school ELA team is definitely more than just the Jenna ditchers. So there's actually 27 um 27 people who are collaborating to create the middle school English language arts experience and they are across four different departments. So we have the gen ed teachers and then we have um reading teachers, special education teachers and English as the new language teachers collaborating with us to support all of the students that we have in our classes. So, just wanted to kind of give that context that there's actually 27 of us that are working together. Um, and so to craft this work, um, we drafted a shared vision. So, I do, this is going to be one
019of the few things that we kind of look at really closely because I think it really highlights all of our goals between the two buildings. Um, so our goals that with regardless of if you go to Boon or at Dwit, we want our students to be curious, competent, and thoughtful readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and thinkers. Um, and so we will make sure that all students are engaging with a wide variety of texts. Um, that we are intentionally picking to make sure that students are seeing um themselves in the text, but they're also seeing a reflection of the world in which they live. And we of course always emphasize the use of evidence to support any of their thoughts um that they engage with the text with. Um we all we always want to be mindful
020of how we're reflecting what's going on in the world and what's happened in the world of literature to make sure that students are understanding the context in which literature has been created. Right? Nothing's ever created in a vacuum. So, we often um take a very humanities-like approach to make sure that students understand the historical context as well as cultural context when they're reading literature. Um we want to make sure that students are able to express their ideas definitely focusing on the mission of having um their voice being used for a tool of communication and advocacy. And we want them to participate in academic discussions. We want them to be a part of conversations in the world that's happening around them. We want to make sure that they are asking questions with the literature and the
021world um that they're encountering and really work on sharing perspectives and using it as a method to really broaden their worldview. Um so essentially we really want to make sure that students are always um aware of equity, fairness, and power and understanding that language is a source of that meaning, power, and connection and the way that people interact with the world. So if that's our philosophy, we can start to move that more toward what it looks like in practice. And as a team, we've come up with six shared commitments that no matter what class you're in at, whatever grade level, these are things that the teachers in the room are going to be focusing on. So developing students literacy skills, selecting texts carefully and intentionally that honestly are changing frequently. like we don't teach the
022same thing from year to year because the students that we have in front of us are different and there are different things that are happening in the world that we want to highlight and talk about and think about. Um it's really important to us English teachers that we have kids reading books. Um, you know, lots of pieces are being published in the Times and other other places about how kids reading skills as they get to college are just like kids aren't aren't able to read full length tests and professors are not able to assign the text that they once were able to. So, we feel really um a real need to increase stamina for reading. um valuing student voice and choice, providing opportunities for reflection for kids to think about um what they're learning, how
023they're learning it, how our classes are helping them to learn, and then just um being ever mindful to connect across the content areas, particularly with science and with social studies. >> I have just a couple of questions. Um I love the idea around connecting across science and social studies. Can you talk about how that how does that happen? >> Yeah, so um a couple a couple things. So um at DWIT in sixth grade, I actually collaborated with Dr. Fuskus back there on a renewable energy unit. We did that for two years. Um we had a renewable energy symposium. So they taught the science, we taught the reading and the writing and students created a research project. So that's one example. Um, and I know that teachers in science, social studies, and ELA are all working
024with this um, CCRS writing, this analytical writing. Um, and we're doing it in the same ways. So, you know, teachers in science and social studies are talking to one another like how are you teaching claim? Like, what do you expect the claim to look like? Like, how are we teaching the reasoning after the evidence? So, in English, I call it interpretation. Science calls it reasoning, but it's the same thing. like how are we getting kids to think about the evidence and to connect to connect it back to the claim and um also yeah you know in terms of we have this later in the slides but thinking about how we get kids to write good sentences so um I know at DIT we've been really interested in the writing revolution that's going into Boon so
025um those sentence level activities are being used at science at social studies and in English so It's lots of ways that we are connecting. >> One one other follow-up question. Um, thank you. That's helpful. Um, is there I heard you say I feel like on the previous slide you mentioned sort of like this combination of um, yeah, engaging with a wide variety of texts, both this sense within a world. But then I also heard you say that that books change every year. Are are there books that are I might have just misunderstood. Are there books that are just taught every year regardless? >> So, yeah. I mean, it's not every year that the texts change like >> within a grade level. Is there like all sixth graders read blank? >> Not necessarily. >> No. >>
026So, we try to be responsive. We really want to look at our students and also receive feedback from the students from years past. I know that we often do check-ins on um whether or not students found a particular novel engaging. And you can obviously in the classroom you can sense if kids are interested and invested in the work that we are talking about. Um and so we really try to be mindful of that feedback from students um to make sure that they are seeing themselves and seeing the world in the literature that we're studying. So there might be a year where we there's a couple books that I've taught consistently, right? But there are also times where I end up switching. like I'm finishing up a brand new unit right now that has received wonderful
027feedback from my students that um I think really met the needs and it was more contemporary than the text I had taught in the past for that particular addressing those standards. >> Interesting. >> Okay. >> Yeah. when different books are read in different classes. Um what about I guess the lessons and the methodologies that come after because I mean I suppose whatever the text is I mean is you know can be meaningful and that's maybe another conversation have another time a little more detail but then when you're actually developing lessons is it is that consistent in terms of >> students yeah trying to make sure that we are focusing in on and we'll talk about this in a couple slides the power standards that we're making sure that throughout all of the grade levels as
028well as through all years like building we are assessing these same standards. So like the text can be the tool to get to that outcome for students. >> Okay. >> And then just one other question I have you said before when you guys are speaking across disciplines like science, social studies, English. I was just wondering was that structured or is it like more anecdotal like hey how are you doing this or is it >> we've had well there's definitely been a push I would say more recently this year with that structured conversation. Um we are like Jennifer already mentioned all working on the CER or CCE. um analytical writing structure, but there have also been times in the past where we've done, you know, project-based learning where we've collaborated intentionally with a social studies teacher
029to have um that content much like what you just mentioned with Dr. K to build across the different classes. >> Yeah, I can jump in. I think the team time >> structure schedule work Yes. is what facilitates that talking about what needs to be placed for that to happen. >> Yeah. >> So we can have those conversations. >> Um so if you wanted to explain a little bit that team because >> I want to assume that we know I have. >> Um so in our schedule for middle school we have common team time where we are able to meet with our grade level colleagues. Um and that was the time where we were able to plan these projectbased lessons. Um, so it's, you know, that time is spent between, you know, having family conferences. Um,
030one of the days is dedicated to working with our other grade level colleagues, so my other, you know, the other English teacher at 8th grade. Um, and then we have time where if there's not the family conferences taking place, we can use that time to do some of that planning. Um, because it takes a lot of work to do those kind of crosscurricular um, units or activities. there's been certain department time um staff meeting time PLC time devoted to developing this kind of thinking around analytical writing. Um and just as an anecdote I was grading some students writing earlier this year and just like noticed uh noticed a need to help sixth graders develop more complex claims. So I went to my team and I said, "Hey, this is how I'm teaching students to write
031a complex sentence claim." And Allison's like, "Oh, like let me write that down so that I can do it." And you know, Ann Beckard, same thing. So we are trying to be very intentional about teaching this structure in the same way across multiple disciplines. Does this how much of this is um uh limited or going across like the teams within the grade levels? Like you guys are all on a team, right? Doing this work. Well, how does that relate to what the team is doing? Same. So they have the same rubric, the same thinking around the different parts which we'll it's later on in the slides how we're getting there but we are taking a common approach to analy writing across teams and across schools >> and then the strategies that you're kind of writing
032as you go. >> That's right. So there's of So it's like team time a team or is the team >> one day a week it's double teaming. So it's like the whole sixth grade team comes together one day a week. And it's the same at Boon. And I will say by eighth grade because I know that um in sixth grade students started working on the CER structure at Boon last year. And I'm hearing conversation of um a seventh grade study hall. And I'm listening to them talk about the commonality of what a claim looks like in this class versus that class. Like they have a task they're doing for social studies and they're bouncing ideas off of each other and they're making references that they've heard in science class and in English class. So they're
033seeing how connected all of this writing is and I think that it's really helping them. So >> okay. Um so Jennifer just shared about our shared commitments and kind of like the ways that we were getting to um successfully help um working with students to help them reach all of these goals. So, um, we have kind of collected just some some samples, some like evidence because we definitely like to have evidence for our own thinking. Um, some evidence of the ways that we are working in our classes um, across grade levels, across buildings um, to build literacy skills. So, I know obviously some of this font is super super small. It's really hard. Um but we wanted to show samples of the ways that students are building their literacy skills through increasing vocabulary that they
034are also working for verbal expression. So we often in many classes students experience um Socratic seminars as a way to build knowledge as a as well as a way for us to um assess their understanding of a text and of course having conversations is really important in life. Um, we also, if you see underneath the white bird, um, image, there's a close reading activity where students are working to build literacy skills through enhancing background knowledge um, for a text in sixth grade. Um, the next section we are looking at a sampling of different books from the different buildings and different grades where we're really working to center student identity. Um, we want to make sure that the literature that students are reading function both as mirrors as well as doors to be able to explore
035the world. Um, and also see themselves in the literature that they are studying to make sure that they're their experiences are validated and they see themselves reflected in the text because that obviously helps increase engagement and build empathy. >> So when it says selecting text centering, does that mean that all of the text selection across state the primary consideration is identity? that is not exclusively the goal. Um, but I will say that we definitely want to make sure that we are honoring all of our students different experiences as we have a very diverse population. >> Yeah. >> Do you guys Oh, did you want to say that? >> No, I mean I think just like being mindful about also covering my different multiple genres, right? So that students are exposed to like different ways to
036read as required by the text in front of them. Yeah, that that's gonna ask about that. >> No, go ahead ask. Okay, I'll go. >> Um, so yeah, I'm I'm sort of like I'm I'm trying to remember like the books that I read in middle school ELA and I wrote like I have like a distinct memory of reading the house on Mango Street. >> Okay. >> Which is like a >> like a window for me, right? It's like Sandra's different like different experience. And then there was one about like >> little we've all connected with that. >> We did that in high school. >> And then there was one I would so old. >> I actually really I have students who have chosen to read that for an independent book because they've heard about it
037and they're they're always just shocked. But I know. Yes. Johnny >> no one's no one's read that. I don't know. But um >> we retired that like >> I remember seeing many many years ago. >> And then there was like a book about a >> a Jewish kid who got bullied and I was like yes that's that that's me. >> And so >> I I guess I don't know maybe it's just a wondering I have and I'm curious for reaction. It's like I am a little struck by the there not being any canonical texts like where it's like I think there's something to be said about like being able to go oh I'm excited to go to sixth grade to read blank. >> Yeah >> or I'm exc or like I know that because they
038read this in sixth grade you know because they read whatever in sixth grade that eighth grade animal form would actually make sense. >> So I'm just curious for a response to that. So I I know it there Romeo and Juliet is being read. I mean canonical text. So it's not that there is a complete absence of that. It's just also a desire to sprinkle in some some other things as well. >> I'm sorry to clarify when I I mean like whatever we determine as canonical. So I mean if Romeo and Juliet is red, which like is that then I I guess I'm getting back to that question of like is it fair to say that in eighth grade Romeo and Juliet is always red or the house in Mango Street is always red in sixth
039grade or not? >> I would say I can say yes to Romeo and Juliet. Um there have been a couple years where we just had to respond to things that were happening in our school community that we chose to teach 12 nights um instead of to but we always have like we're thinking about a stat >> and I think that like as English teachers like we really like to read, right? So like we'll read a book and we're like oh my gosh like I have to teach a book, right? So I mean that's also part of it. It's just it's flexible and it's fluid >> um based upon where some of our interests are, what's happening. you know, we read a graphic novel on like, you know, the ethics of the horse racing industry because
040the horse racing industry was getting all this traction, you know, about the the the kind of drugging of of the animals and the ethics around that and there was this really great graphic novel that was written about it. So, like we taught that for a while. It's it's just it's so flexible and fluid, >> but I think what we need to emphasize is just like that the skills that we are teaching the students is the same and we're solid there. um as the texts change. >> Yeah. And I think that while we are very dynamic in that trying to respond to the world, to our students, to new things, because as you mentioned already, students really are struggling with maintaining stamina to read an entire text. So, it's really important to find text that they're
041going to engage in. um that while we might have that kind of um dynamic approach to selecting texts, we are also having conversations with our grade level colleagues so that we know the short stories that they've read or the literature that they studied in sixth and seventh grade. So I think that's where so that we can make those references like if I'm doing an activity and you know there's a story that connects with Langston Hughes's thank you ma'am I can make that reference and they're like oh yeah we did that last year in seventh grade. So really having transparent conversations and that connection with within the building but also across the building so that we can have clearly communicate that we understand past things that they've studied. >> Yeah. >> I was curious also just
042about um like the number of books that students are reading per year. Not I mean it sounds sort of superficial you've been but like you know I mean given that you know we hear things like I mean there there's there's discussion like college professors are saying 25% of the students in our class haven't even read a book before they got to college and I'm just wondering about building stamina and just so curious about numbers that one would expect in a typical year a student might read here. >> Yeah. Um well I can speak to eighth grade. Um students have to read I think it's a total of four or five full length no four novels um full length texts as like so if we talk about like a whole class novel right like everyone has
043that same experience of the text that we're studying or talking about um then we have collections two different collections of short stories so more we want to think like kind of canonical texts like um Alice Walker different you know classics that maybe when they go to college their professors might expect them to have exper experience some of those pieces of literature. Um, and then they also have three independent choice books um that they get to select really as long as it's grade appropriate and we we encourage them to push themselves, right? The zone of proximal development to go just a little bit farther than what something they've read in the past. >> Um, and then they have to create a project or a response to those texts. >> So, >> and then and in six
044and seven, is there sort of a step-wise fashion to build up to eighth grade? because that's that's robust to >> I think someone say >> six not a thing anymore or did I just you heard >> I now say seventh and sixth grade >> yeah seventh seventh and sixth >> I happen to be inside track because I have I have a student in my house in eighth grade I know what's going on and I know what happened in the past years but I was one you know just just you know put it out there for in sixth and seventh grade. What's sorry, seventh and sixth grade, what's going to be um what's what's the vibe now? >> Right. So, we typically at sixth grade will have an anchor or a mentor text that we're teaching
045every quarter with application texts that students are using to apply whatever they've learned in class to outside reading. Um, and those are we they call application books. And usually we have a menu of six to eight different application books that students can pick from. And it's sort of self-paced. So some students will read all eight application books and other students will get through maybe only one. But it's a kind of a mentor anchor text common experience for everybody in the class and then an application text where students are working more independently or in small groups of peers who have also chosen the same application text. >> Thanks. >> All right. Um, so we've kind of already touched on some of these pieces. Um, in the conversation, um, you'll see that we have the ways that
046we're working to increase stamina for students. Um, we definitely are encouraging them to self- select books because our goal is not obviously to have them be successful in middle school, high school, and beyond, but also for them to actually love reading. Um, that is a big part of what we hope for because we, as Jennifer already mentioned, we do love reading and we spend a lot of time trying to find the next next best book that kids will just love. Um and so they do independent reading um and they are able to explore a variety of pieces. You know, we do visits to the library for book talk so that the librarians can share what their thoughts are. Um and then because we do want to make sure we always have a way to justify
047um what our opinions are about a text or about a character, about conflict. Um, we do have supports like an evidence tracker that helps them pace out their reading schedule because obviously if one person chooses a 200page book, their pacing is going to be a little bit different than someone who's chosen a 400page book that they have to pace. So we help support them in that way. Um, and so that's definitely something that we are focusing on at all grade levels across the buildings. We want kids to love reading. >> Um, and then >> just sorry just one quick thing. I'm just thinking I just want to name for time. We'll probably our conversation will have to stop at 5:45 so we have time for our final item. >> Okay. I'll share I'll be there
048for you is not my just want to let you know that like we're making it a little bit harder for you too because I want to say that um I um had the privilege of going some students to um a local bookstore and the students said, "Wow, this reminds me so much of our school library." which is a really beautiful thing to hear them say. And then um the store owner said, "Oh, >> do you go to blah blah blah? Your teacher librarian helped me curate this selection." And so um just a shout out to the that you mentioned, you know, collaboration with the librarians in your schools. I wanted to be sure to highlight their work. So just >> Yeah. And so yeah, so if we go forward, you'll see that we have examples
049of student projects just to make sure that we actually get through all these pieces. We show some texts that we are um using to connect across content areas. So these are other texts that are being taught. Um and then we obviously provide lots of opportunities for students to reflect on their own work and receive feedback from their peers as well as us. So here are the power standards. So we have 51 standards in um English language arts and they are very similar if you look from 6 to 7 to 8. Language is ever so subtly different for only a handful of those standards which means that the standards are not changing over the course of our three years. Um so what we've done is we've created standards maps so that we can see what standards
050are being taught every quarter and then from there we were able as a team to say okay well these are our power standards because they're being taught in every quarter at every grade level. So there are um uh there are seven of them. So there are two reading standards that are power standards, the writing arguments that the analytical writing we talked about earlier, speaking and listening standards and then language standards. Um so we call these our power standards. That is not to say that the other ones are not being taught. They certainly are. It's just um maybe they're not taught every single year, but by the end of 8th grade, all of our students will have experienced all 51 of the standards with these power standards being really heavily assessed and tracked. All right. And
051so now we're looking at um some of the instructional practices that Mary mentioned, the no more state briefs. we were referencing the literacy briefs um that look at really effective practices to encourage lifelong literacy. Um, and if you look at the bar graph on the right, I think it's important to note um that it talks about how effective collaborative and culminating projects are and performances and celebrations, textbased discussions and writing opportunities, and then engagement with a high or a variety of high interest and diverse complex texts, which are all things that we really focus on for our commitments to making sure that students are successful and enjoying ELA classes. Um, so those are some of the things that are most impactful for secondary students. >> Yeah, >> I agree. These are so so impactful. You
052know, you mentioned a couple of times connection with social studies. I'm curious. >> This just like me like remembering in my high school experience and there was like the combined course or like the >> humanities >> like yeah like social studies where you're >> reading about it in this where you're reading about it in English and it's >> then re like reinforcing the non-fiction text you're reading social is that >> is there something like that happening here or is there a movement towards that? I think depending on what the unit is that we're working on and timing of aligning with social studies curriculum because that is a really quick like overview of 100 plus years of American history when we're thinking about um eighth grade um standards that we will try to have that alignment
053when possible. Um, but it's not always um happening. Like we'll have those conversations and say, "Okay, well, we were just talking about our Native American heritage month um text and the social studies teacher had just talked about like indigenous experience and things that they were being active to fix. >> Yeah, >> this one we can go through pretty quickly. So, another thing that we are um that we're committed to doing is creating a curriculum map for every grade level in in each of the buildings. Um this is we're in year one of this. I know we have them done, but we're um kind of uh you know making sure that that's something that our colleagues are going to be doing within the year so that we can not only share the content that we've created
054but also just ensure that we have we have commonality in the the practices and the resources that we're using. So that's an ongoing project. And when we say it, can you help distinguish because I know like we we looked at map and we saw for example the sort of very detailed resources that we would be able to provide with families online. To what degree would that be possible in ELA given the approach that you're laying out? >> So I I mean we send a a newsletter that's kind of smaller like hey this is welcome to quarter 2 like this is what we're focusing on this is what you should be looking for at home. um that kind of structure is in place. >> Maybe not in all of the classrooms, but something that we're working
055toward. >> Yeah, >> it's like an at a glance, right? It's like an at a glance. This is this is the upcoming 10 piece. >> And that's common across >> working toward getting there. >> Yeah. >> And then then it said um just for sixth graders um doing the writing skills, what's the I guess what's the word with seventh and eth? >> Well, it would get then moved and then we're like here, right? But I know eighth grade eighth grade science at DIT are doing um the writing revolution as well. So it's just beginning to take hold and we're just beginning to think about like actually having some real vertical alignment there. Like if sixth graders are really solid at the sentence level, then like seventh grade we can start building that out to eighth
056grade we can start really building out to the essay level. So it needs to be it needs to be paced out, but we're only at the very beginning. Okay. Um, so trying to be mindful of time. Um, and so this is a big push and this is something that we started this August. Um, is making sure that regardless of building that you're in or grade level, we have um, three different analytical writing tasks that all students are taking. That's the same if regardless of if you're at Dwit sixth grade, you're taking the same one at boy in sixth grade. And we do one at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, and the end of the year. and they are reading a passage and they are writing one of those CCERS paragraphs
057that consists of the claim, context, textual evidence, reasoning, analysis, and then a summary statement. Um, and so I will say that being part of the creation of these tasks has been really um, really helpful and keeping our like the goal in mind as we are instructing because we're having lots of really great conversations about what the expectations are for an analytical paragraph at sixth grade versus seventh grade versus 8th grade. And obviously having those conversations at grade level to make sure that we're all having the exact same expectations. um not only when we're working together to evaluate these common assessments, but also for the day-to-day writing that they're doing in our classes. Um so I really think that the conversations that we've been having has been really really helpful to make sure that we are
058having horizontal alignment but also eventually vertical alignment as we move into year two, year three and beyond for this. And in addition to the benchmarking around analytical writing, we have benchmarking for reading. So again, three times a year students are doing an ORF, which is an oral reading fluency. Um that measures their decoding accuracy, their words per minute, their fluency as well as their kind of word level comprehension. So that's happening three times a year. Additionally, um uh Mary and Lynn were kind enough to get us access to the um the pro the the pro pro subscription to common lit and that has a builtin assessment that is aligned with six of the reading standards um that we are able to take data three times a year for every sixth, seventh and eighth grader and
059that data we are now using to inform form our MTSS decisions. So from that data, we're able to see this group of students needs extra support with R2, which is being able to develop or to um develop a theme or a central idea from the text. So from that tier one data, we're able to create labs at the tier 2 level that are focused on just that particular skill. >> Are students missing something to go to those or >> study in study hall? Yeah, but >> can parents have access to the assessment results to get a sense of where their kids stand and how would they get that? >> Right. So that we don't send it home. Um that's something that I think we could think about as group but we don't send that data
060home though it informs every conversation we have with parents. So conference time the data is is informing the conversation even shared in that way. It's just not going home to all caregivers three times a year. We don't have a structure in place for that. >> Well, that's I mean you're because you're me I mean I guess as far as conference time goes. I mean that just my experience with that has been that there's there aren't that many times if you're having specific concerns or needs or questions and then certainly make an appointment. I I understand that but there isn't really enough time for everybody to come in. So I guess I was only bringing that up to say that it isn't the case that every parent is coming in for a conference and then therefore
061would be informed. No. >> And parents I don't know know that assessments are being given. Um, so I'm just I'm just putting that out there as some way to share, not necessarily putting it home in every kid's backpack three times a year. Parents just knew, hey, if you're curious about how your students are doing and >> I think there's like, yeah, it's similar thing with math, right? It's like if the data exists, I know that we can't control what people will do with it, right? Sometimes we might send it home and a parent might go, "Oh my gosh, what's wrong with you, kid?" Like, no, that's not the way to approach it. Um but but I think that personally I know I I would love to see a system for communicating that both that assessments
062are happening and that the results exist. >> I know that in our weekly newsletters um that we send at the different drink levels at point and with the like week at a glance we will mention that that's there and I believe if I remember correctly it came up at um open houses but I don't know about how the ease of which we could share this data. I mean that's a really great point because I know >> when students are in a tier 2 lab then they are progress monitor every every two weeks and that goes home but I hear >> it's the question of everybody >> everybody and then also like with sensitivity to the fact that because I have experience with this when you're providing feedback and sharing assessment results I think it's very
063important to contextualize and explain those results because if you just say here's some numbers and everybody looks at the numbers you know because like for example if do an IQ test or something and they say, "Oh, your IQ is 110 or whatever." That's that's just meaningless and also and stress people out and they don't even know what it means. So, I feel like having time to even unpack data is also important if you're going to share it. So, I know that it's a big question. It isn't just like, oh, just mail everything back, but but it's a good thing to maybe think about. >> Yeah, I think that's great. We'll definitely add that to something that we work on moving forward. >> Okay. Um so as we're looking ahead in the last couple slides 10
064minutes um so we pulled some uh data numbers from the New York State Department of Education um looking at the growth that we have been experiencing just in these past couple years. So if we look at you know 2022 23 in each of the years um looking at proficiency means that the students have scored either a three or a four and a three is grade level and four is um beyond grade level and so we're looking at the growth that has already been happening and we are very very early into this process. So we're not even a full year into this collaboration. So I trust that um we will continue to see gains. >> I might I might be missing it. So, so is this >> great to hear like right it's early in the
065process of some of these years it's almost like I wouldn't even call baseline data just what it is but >> I'm not I'm not seeing the are am I is this a chart for games I'm not seeing that >> no so this is looking at the number of students that are proficient meaning earning a three or a four okay so like the percentage of all students that had um been marked and scored a three or four thus were considered proficient according to state seniors So like as we look at the percentages increasing over the last couple years like that's really good. So if we look for example >> um has been I'm very bad at charts and just look at the green. >> Yeah. So grade six from 63 to 6 for example grade here
066we went from grade six to 23% and grade six was 56% >> and from 60%. >> Okay. Yeah. So each of these lines here I think like 666 >> and what what is our standard for improvement I guess like what what makes us go like what is considered >> we did a significant >> yeah we have like a percentage that we're hoping for I mean we >> the goal is that we're all I know that we're all making improvement and that >> I ideally in a perfect world everyone would be scoring threes and fours right um so that's obviously a goal and you see that we are definitely making improvements and I think that we have um some numbers and data on the next slide um that really show this improvement. So, you know, we
067obviously don't want to stop at only 68% of eighth graders meeting proficiency. We hope for more than that, but I think it's important to see where we are ranked in comparison to other eighth graders in the state. So if you look at these bulleted points here, we had 68% last year of students in the eighth eighth graders in the ICSD meet proficiency. We're at only 53 of the state met that goal as a whole. Okay. So obviously we want to keep on having improvements and that's what we're working toward and I really think that us having these conversations is really helpful to make sure that we're all supporting students with best practices. Um but we are definitely making gains and if you look at the table that's at the bottom portion of the screen um
068you will see that all of our students um regardless of subgroup have made um pretty substantial change in the last year in performance. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I had one question. I mean, is that is this to say that a lot of what's happening in the classroom in terms of um like with learning methodology and the types of things that you're doing are sort of in some way mirroring the expectations of the state exam at the end or is that a coincidence that that people are doing better on that test? I guess I'm curious about >> the writing the writing on that test is analytical. You you have to write from evidence. So, across multiple disciplines, we're having students write write from evidence in the same way. um with the same kind of assessment. So,
069they're getting a lot of exposure and a lot of practice and a lot of feedback across the year in multiple different places. >> And for what it's something that I I wrote this down earlier and I just want to say it is I I've just seen a lot of districts that in attempting to improve state test scores try to mimic the state tests in inappropriate ways. And it's just so nice to see because the test doesn't have kids read whole novels, right? But you're having them do that. >> Yeah. >> And and just like it's very nice to see like the number of methods that are just like involving students, getting them to do work that is more meaningful and frankly more challenging than what they're expected to do on the state test. And then
070the results go from there. So it's nice to see an awareness but not a misguided alignment that >> can really screw up teaching in >> well saying no no I agree and then you're not teaching to the I mean you know the whole idea of teaching to the test which is feels not probable to most groups >> and then um you know but the fact that the methodology is is leading to improved outcome on the test set and there should be some overlap in state standards I'm guessing between the test and what's happening in the classroom. So I think meeting the state standards is is really a good thing and so that so I think that's good. >> Well congratulations like that's it's very exciting to see >> to see that change and it's an
071increase with every subgroup and um yeah seeing the percentiles in the previous slide is kind of like but then you look at the state you're like oh it's just more like the reality of you know it's just hard to like >> we need to get kids reading and writing. Yeah, it's all the time. >> Yeah, you guys consistent. >> I think that that's really exciting. >> And I will just real quick that we didn't plan on this, but like this chart Lynn shared with us at the beginning of the year and we've been able to access um performance data like from the samples. So, we do a gap analysis to see how students um were performing on particular standards on the tests to see if there's a spot where like we missed that like we
072didn't talk enough about tone, right? So like >> so it's really helpful to look at that data. So continuing having access to that is really really helpful. >> It'll be interesting to see if those um if the standards that you pulled out that are aligned that you're like emphasizing in three quarter >> very much so are the standards that are assessed on our test. the biggest, right? Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, in terms of in the last three minutes, in terms of what we need, um, we have sort of five things that we would that we need and would love. Um, >> so this is the first time I've seen a slide like this. It's so exciting. >> Is the red the red, orange, green. Is that just a distinct order? >> I like
073the palette. >> That's the most important. >> Well, that's what I was trying to >> No, it's just color order. Yeah, >> but we need we just we need like time, right? Um >> 27 of us, right, are working together on this and it's not just horizontal alignment. So, it's not just like we're going to get the sixth grade team together. It's like we need to be talking vertically as well. >> So, um time over the summer that's paid really intentionally planned. Um not all of our sections have co-teers. There are a few that don't. So just continuing to support stable and consistent co-eing relationships is a priority. Um there's a math strategist. So you know C or um Charm and I were saying well why isn't there an ELA strategist? someone different than the
074department leader that is sort of taking a bird's eye view at this um and that is sort of just like thinking about the transition point from fifth to sixth grade but also then thinking about the transition point from 8th to 9th grade um is a is sort of a maybe a hope and then in terms of just consistent ongoing professional development it's happening a lot in math I think because of that maybe in part because of that. Um, and just thinking about what consistent ongoing professional development do we need. Um, we have a lot of access to stuff at Boseies, but you know, just the writing revolution is really excellent. Things coming out of the reading league are really excellent. So just having access to professional affiliations, National Council of Teachers of English, being able
075to go to their convention, being able to go with colleagues from the other building helps to build collegiality. It helps to build trust. Um, so you know, if we're thinking about wanting to have some like similar units across the school, then like we have to have, you know, relationships, trust, compromise, and collegiality. And being able to go to some of these meetings with our peers, different grade levels, different departments, different schools, I think would really foster that. >> I wish you all have started with these two slides because I have a million questions. I know that we want to um just to say I really appreciate it. I I I truly mean like we've had many presentations. I don't feel like there's ever been a clear lake and this is what we need >> which
076is wonderful. Um, so I have a million questions for followup, which I won't do now, but the one question I would like to ask is, um, across all of these, if there was like one thing that you're like, this is what's inhibiting us from being able to do this, and if it's time, if you can like expand, like, I know that there are professional development opportunities that I are available that I wish I heard about more teachers taking advantage of. I know that there's um you know that Katherine and Mary have been talking about shifts in routine time and and how to kind of create more time during the school day to meet. So like there's things that are either in discussion or that could happen if people take advantage. What are the things that's
077like for people who clearly want to take advantage like >> what is what so not professional development like thinking out of our five apps our five. >> Yeah. So what's number one theme across the asks like >> okay first >> um so I would go with the first um I will say that just creating the common assessments and working together to create a common rubric and tease out what each of the levels like a 4 321 what does it look like for um standard one W1A right and so having those conversations That was one task with one rubric and it took an entire day. >> Yeah. One. >> So like if we want to continue to spread that kind of writing and that kind of commonality of approach um I think for me at least
078the time would be um the most valuable. And I know like the other eighth grade English teacher at we we teach we work and we plan together and we're virtually planning just like we were on documents. like it's so much extra time to make sure that we are all in line. Right. >> So that's you go. >> I was I was going to say out of respect for our last we do need to close out but I do want to say >> I would also like to ask one question >> correct. >> Well no no please finish your thought. I'm just saying before we switch I'd like to ask >> Yeah. I was just going to say a couple of followup items I'm thinking about is first I I think I just want to echo
079what everyone's been saying. It's obvious you've been doing so much hard work on this um and that the impact is both you know in a table and also probably felt right by students which I think is a lot. I think as a followup this we asked it in the math conversation and you have brought it to our attention with me. I do think it would be worth this committee's time to spend a meeting at some point with the budget cycle to talk about what are the high impact budget things that as a committee might want to advocate for to the whole board because there's obviously really good work happening with teaching and learning and most good things require money. So, um I think it would be a worthwhile conversation and I think you're helping us
080make that. So, can we just I just plain question to answer. I would love for you to just have Yeah, I don't give >> I mean, I would agree with charm that having time to be intentional about doing this work is a priority. However, I also feel like having the relationships with our colleagues across the building makes it possible to do the work, that we trust our colleagues, that we're willing to compromise, we're willing to come together and work. And I feel like those relationships are often or could could be very successfully built from having exposure to professional development opportunities to attend together. You know, I was able to go to the reading league conference this fall and was able to make friends with some people from Boon who I didn't know um that we
081started sharing ideas. We've gotten together since. It's just there's a feeling of we're all in it together. We're not two separate buildings. So, while I think that having the paid time is is the priority, I also feel like it it rests upon having like authentic relationships with our peers. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> I always want to hear from Dr. Coach Fisher. One of my favorite men. Um, so, uh, I I'll I'll point out that I think that this, uh, I I want to continue some of this because I think a natural place to continue discuss this discussion is in our next agenda item, which is listening circles. So, uh, you know, I don't think this should stop today and and I'll say that, but I think the the one question I have
082and with Lynn being in the room too because I was just looking at my schedule because tomorrow we have a project innovation meeting and I'm just thinking about what your asks are, which I also greatly appreciate, but also when we look at the district as a whole and we look at some of the other work that we're doing where we can incorporate what you're doing with what we're doing. Me to try to make sure this makes sense. Um, but some of the work we're doing with project innovation overlaps with trying to get some of the needs in ELA met. And I just wonder how we can cross collaborate just with like what you're saying, not just with building leaders, not just across our middle schools, but when we're thinking about the students we're serving in
083the summer and passing the baton and all of these other conversations we're having, it's so interconnected. So, if we can find a way to just really bring this work together, I think it can enhance what you're doing. And I can't stress enough that this is what this is why I think we need to start our listening circles and continue them >> like big time because we can address so much of this. >> And that is I know that it is a good segue because part of the ELA walks is that right is meeting with teachers about literacy. So I know we have our first one sketch for you were in the process of sketching it Mary did I forget? >> Yeah the date we have that I think could work is if so in the
084past we've done the listening circles on a Wednesday so that staff can attend them. So it would be the second or the so that would be February 11th. We also could do, you know, February February 10th for instructional rounds and then having the list. They don't have to be connected. Um, but it might um easier folks if they are more I should say more convenient for folks if they are. So those are the two dates I'm working with. >> I just want to say thank you again. Can we all give them a round of you have such a busy day and to do this this evening as well. I just genuinely cannot thank you enough. Um so is that if we know we have our oh if we um specifically um if we know we
085have our nest on the schedule what else um like regarding listing circles what what else do you want to share? I mean I mean here's the thing. We're talking about it. There's three of us that participated in them last year and they were extraordinarily valuable and I know we discussed at the beginning of the year continuing >> and here we are and I feel like we haven't moved forward with that and we're going to blink and it's going to be time to like wrap up the school year, right? like the regions just happened >> and so I'm wondering if when we're going to reinstate them. I'd love input on if that's something that you know educators that participated last year are interested in continuing. You know, I found them to be so valuable because like
086what we just heard from the ELA team here today can be something that we can hear more about from the rest of the teams about how they put into practice and then that what we learn there can inform when we have an elementary listening circle and what we were doing is having very dedicated listening circles with very sort of targeted conversations. >> I could speak to that a little. >> Yes. So the impetus from the same circles last year were teacher le. Yeah. >> Through the union and the union has been very busy. >> Yes. >> Since then until hopefully tonight we will become significantly less busy and able to focus on the smaller scale projects. We've been kind of like full full really wide lens. And in that time, in the past, you know,
087two years that we've been negotiating the collective bargaining agreement, numerous other topics have come up. People saying, "We'd really like, like prek would really love a listening circle to talk about how the prek day is structured." And we've been like, "That sounds great once we ratify our contract." all these topics that have come up that because we've been in also when actively negotiating a contract the way that we interact as workers and the board has a different tone because of the legal parameters around negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. So in we are eager to get back to that and have not been and it's not that we necessarily lost steam. It's that we had another huge project on our plate that really dictated the way that we can track that 100%. >> So when you
088think I'm curious Catherine because so we know we have upcoming conversations with the folks I raised this question about like to what degree should we be thinking about budget. I'm curious do you think that would be as my mind goes to I think it would be a use a good use of time to like coordinate a listening I mean having not been in one of them right so you all bringing up like a listening circle around >> because I think this is one of the few things that falls very much within the purview of the course like how are we spending money and how can we spend less way that doesn't >> um I think that there I mean >> I'd be curious about that from principles and teachers >> yeah I think I think
089for us from teachers is typically kind of the way that we move items like is this an item of of enough interest to move it to it's like are people in buildings talking to their building reps about that and then are the building reps bringing it to rep counsel and amongst the rep council are we we're always evaluating like is this a widely deeply felt issue that we see a solution to and then kind of strategizing towards how do we reach that solution to this widely deeply felt issue so I think that through our rep structure and we meet monthly those topics percolate. I mean, I'm, you know, without being prepared in any way, I have a couple that I'm like, "Oh, these have been on the minds of our reps. We've been talking a
090lot about these and talking about some next steps." So, knowing that listening circles can come back into the strategies and the toolbox of how we can have engage in those conversations, I think moving forward will be helpful. And if I I mean I'm confused why you're saying budget because the budget that's that wasn't really what the listening circles were a part of. I mean it might inform like >> some of it. >> I see how it could inform some of it. >> It it can inform some of it but I mean we weren't specifically talking about >> budget. we were more talking about like to me what it informed me on is is what is something that we need to look at changing policy about and what is something we as a board need to
091just hear and then you know Mary was it's not like we needed to take it to Mary Mary was in those sessions it was more like is this a policy thing to change or is this this to change I think if you think about the three the three goals of the board right to you know supervise the superintendent knowing whether or not the superintendent's vision is you know we're is trickling all the way down to the people delivering instruction to our kids. That is something that might come out of a listening circle. Um policy revisions might come out of a listening circle, but also like we just heard um Dr. Viser and Spargo say that one of the things that would really be helpful to them is an ELA strategist, which is certainly a budgetary
092decision. So, I think that it all fits. It's all part of it. And I think that you don't have to worry too too much about like could the listening circle inform budget. Yes. But it could also inform Medicare. >> Yeah. I think that's budget is not necessarily a topic of the listening circle. It just informs the process. >> Okay. >> Right. >> And it's also the timing of it knowing that we're budget. We're always budgeting. >> Yeah. >> All year multiple years out. When we use the term budget, a budget, the budget's reflection of our values. And some things that come up in the listening circles weren't necessarily budgetary items, but structural items. How are we engineering the schoolwide schedule to support CO or not? >> How are we following through on our agreements around
093training and access to training? Okay, it looks like we need to add some asynchronous training for example, which is the Pine modules. So I think there are some things for us to spend time on what we learned in those listening circles last year, what we did um that that you know maybe we could work on a summary of that would help >> us stay have clarity on what the problems we're trying to solve where we're trying to get to um when we have them again. Sounds like we have broad agreement that listening circles are a good strategy that we are hopefully in a place to resume. We have one starting and then we'll Sounds like Katherine Mary you have almost a running list of potential topics bring to us. >> Um I know it's 559
094so we need to stop our meeting. Thank you so much. I'll send you know with follow