Collective Commitment

Every year a school improvement plan is written.  New goals are written with new strategies and activities.  These goals center around student achievement, and we seek to find best practice, research proven strategies to meet these goals.  All of this can be done, written on paper, implemented in some classrooms, and we still won't see the results we want if we do not have a collective commitment to full implementation across all classrooms.

In order for us to evaluate a strategy, we have to know it has been implemented with fidelity and given time to work.  If this is not happening across the board, we may never know how successful a strategy could have been with our students.  If everyone is implementing the same strategy, it also allows us to collaborate on ideas, successes and failures, struggles, compare data, observe each other, become better and stronger together.

During our work in school improvement committees, we agreed to collectively commit to the strategies recommended by each group.  Let me remind you what those are:

Math:

envision MATH Implementation – All classroom teachers will implement envision Math Units in math.

• Number Talks at least 3 times a week
  

Standards of Eight Mathematical Practices – Teachers will implement the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice in the course of daily math instruction.

Reading:

All teachers will implement the Common Core State Standards in reading, using reader's workshop and guided reading.

• 3-5 Mini-lessons a week from MAISA, Lucy Calkins, or other resource (TPT, Pinterest, etc.)
• Meet with differentiated guided reading groups as needed
• Increase students' stamina for independent reading with choice of just right texts.
• Conference with individuals and small groups during independent reading

All teachers will directly teach comprehension strategies during reader's workshop and guided reading.

• 7 comprehension strategies: 1. Imagination/Sensory 2. Background knowledge 3. Questioning 4. Inference/Draw Conclusions 5. What is important? 6. Synthesize 7. Fix Up

All teachers will implement the Common Core State Standards in Phonemic Awareness, Word Work, and Decoding.

• Words Their Way
• Use writing and reading Dolch sight word list

Writing:

The staff will continue writer’s workshop based on the MAISA writing units

• Use writing workshop 3-5 days each week                       

All teachers will model and guide students to develop and elaborate writing ideas. The guided writing will include personal narrative, persuasive essay, and informational. It should take place across the curriculum.

Teachers will give a personal narrative common assessment each quarter with the goal of moving to each month, (monthly would be dependently on text type) swapping papers with partner teachers, checking papers with an agreed upon rubric.

Career Prep and Beyond School:

• Lead Time Lessons at least twice a month 
• Continue teaching the 7 Habits                       
• STEM activity at least twice a month
• New Parma Praise tickets focused on 7 Habits

I am excited to see what we can accomplish this year together. Reach out to each other for help in areas where you may need ideas. Thank you for making this collective commitment!

Video Worth Watching:

Are you a Tiger Woods or a Michael Jordan?  In the work we do, we have to be like Michael Jordan in order to achieve our goal.  Listen to what happens to Michael Jordan in his first 6 years as a pro.  He was the best in the game but not achieving his goal.  Why not?