According to Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel), educators need to make critical connections of exemplary practices. Connections between standards, planning and consistent use of high yield strategies. Standards driven learning requires students to move well beyond recall and skill demonstration and into understanding and applying higher level thinking. As Thompson states, 75-80 percent of questions on future standardized test will be comprised of higher order thinking questions, up from previous levels of roughly 20 percent. Past notions of extended thinking led one to believe students get there on their own, or maybe some could handle it while others just do not get it. Today it is understood that students need to be taught how to think critically and need to be armed with strategies to help them extend their thinking. Max Thompson and Learning Focused have identified the following extended thinking strategies as tools necessary to move students from recall and skills demonstration to extended, critical thinking: Compare/contrast Classifying Analyzing perspectives Abstracting Constructing support Inductive reasoning Deductive reasoning Error Analysis Teachers will be retrained in Bloom’s three taxonomies (cognitive, affective and psychomotor) as well as review Webb’s Level of Complexity. Prerequisite skills such as applying routine rules, breaking down complex materials into parts, and detecting relationships between new and familiar information will be studied to build the foundation for the higher order skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. CONTENT AREA: Reading Math Writing Science Parental Involvement Drop-out Prevention Programs Language Arts Social Studies Arts/PE Other: School Based Objective: (Action statement: What will we do to improve programmatic and/or instructional effectiveness?) The goal of Dr. W.J. is to build a foundation for continuous improvement through essential understandings of Common Core standards with an emphasis on extended thinking strategies and further implementation of academic/content vocabulary.
Strategies: (Small number of action oriented staff performance objectives) Barrier Action Steps Person Responsible Timetable Budget In-Process Measure 1. Limited training for teachers to provide extended thinking throughout every lesson. 1. Provide professional development for extended thinking and high order thinking strategies. 2. Provide planning time for teachers to discuss and create extended thinking opportunities in reading and math. Principal, Assistant Principal Reading coach Grade Level Teams Ongoing Classroom walkthroughs Teacher conferences Agendas for trainings 2. Common core and FCAT 2.0 require a paradigm shift in lesson planning and delivery instruction that teachers may be hesitant or unprepared to make. 1. Provide time for collaborative planning among teams to develop “backwards-planning” of the learning cycle. 2. Mandate statement of standards based objectives as a school wide non-negotiable. 3. Share stories of success and accomplishment at every level. Principal, Assistant Principal Reading coach ELA Launch Team Teacher Teams Ongoing Classroom walkthroughs Teacher conferences Agendas for trainings 3. New reading adoption requires further planning and preparation for CCSS. 1. Provide professional development for CCSS reading in conjunction with new reading material. 2. Utilize New fulltime reading coach for coaching, modeling and conferencing. 3. Plan and Implement “Success Maker” with professional development to supplement reading curriculum. 4. Provide content specific vocabulary strategies at each grade level. 5. Provide materials necessary for implementation of Principal, Assistant Principal Reading coach ELA Launch Team Teacher Ongoing $92000 Reading adoption materials Pearson Success Maker $84,480 ($5000 for PDD) Classroom walkthroughs Teacher conferences Agendas for trainings Success Maker reports
reading curriculum. 4. New Math adoption requires further planning and preparation for CCSS. 1. Provide professional development for CCSS math in conjunction with new math material. 2. Plan and Implement “Success Maker” with professional development to supplement math curriculum. 3. Provide materials necessary for implementation of math curriculum. 4. Define content specific vocabulary by grade level. 5. Provide supplemental math materials to enhance math curriculum. Principal, Assistant Principal Teacher Teams $36000 Math adoption materials Pearson Success Maker $84,480 ($5000 for PDD) Classroom walkthroughs Teacher conferences Agendas for trainings Success Maker reports 5. Parents have limited knowledge or are unaware of new common core state standards. 1. Provide opportunities for parents to learn about CCSS and gain access to materials to support their transition. 2. pertinent CCSS information at open house and in parent conferences and newsletters. 3. Re-establish LEGO Robotics team to spark interest in STEM based projects. Principal, Assistant Principal Reading Teacher Teams Administration Parent and community volunteers Ongoing Open House Parent Conference Night Throughout LEGO Robotics season $433.95 News Letters Agenda for Parent Conferences Samples from teachers LEGO Robotic team participation EVALUATION – Outcome Measures and Reflection-begin with the end in mind. Qualitative and Quantitative Professional Practice Outcomes: (Measures the level of implementation of professional practices throughout the school) In conferences with teachers evidence suggests teachers utilize extended thinking and high order questions in their lessons, however, no teachers are instructing students in extended thinking strategies. Based on the new instructional focus of extended thinking highly effective teachers will demonstrate exemplary practice in at least 75 percent of their lessons. This will be monitored through classroom walk throughs as well as teacher collection of data in the form of a