A Look at Our Priorities

Upon looking at individual teachers growth data for the 2011-2012 school year I was able to make several observations about the increases in student growth that we made.  It is important for TeamLJH to be very clear about what our priorities must be to continue to show growth with our students.  I believe two very important practices led to the gains that we made and the success of our teachers to increase the amount of students in typical and high growth.  We saw an increase in the amount of students in Language Arts that were in these two categories.  We also saw two of our math teachers approach 80% of their students in typical and high growth categories.  The practices that led to this are:

Authentic Literacy at the core of our teaching.  There was no doubt that we emphasized abundant amounts of reading, writing, and discussing in all classes.  We included Conley's intellectual standards into our common assessments, we increased the amount of reading students did, we increased the amount of informational text students read, and we encouraged teachers to use technology as a tool to do these things but not be the primary focus in the classroom.  After meeting with LA teachers and reflecting upon their results, unanimously they attributed their increases to an abundant amount of writing in response to reading.  Schmoker states that even implementing authentic literacy reasonably well will lead to gains in student achievement.  We implemented authentic literacy reasonably well.

Checking for Understanding frequently in all classrooms.  Our top teachers in growth data do this well.  This means they know how well students understand before moving on.  All students can be seen practicing concepts and then explaining their understanding to others in these classrooms.  It is of utmost importance for teachers to check for understanding throughout lesson to ensure students are learning prior to moving on.  Checking for Understanding is the most important aspect of an effective lesson.

It serves TeamLJH well to know and be very clear about what our priorities are and how each of us can be most effective.  Abundant amounts of reading, writing, and discussing along with frequent checks for understanding is what we do and must continue to do to be most effective.  At this midpoint of the school year take some time to reflect upon your lessons thus far this school year and answer these questions about your priorities in your classroom.  Are students reading for information?  Are you using challenging complex text with students?  Are students writing and discussing in response to text?  Are you preparing higher level questions during your lessons to check for understanding?  Are you checking for understanding prior to moving on?

Lastly, checking for understanding, is our best practice that we are observing in each others classrooms this month.  Be sure to get into a teachers classroom in your department and observe how they are checking for understanding frequently.  I know that we can learn a lot from each other during these visits.  Remember our priorities to read, write, discuss, and frequently check for understanding.