Professional Development Leigh High School

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Professional DevelopmentLeigh High School
Xilinx Corporation Educational Ecosystem August
21, 2008
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Welcome Back!

• After you grab something to eat
• Pair up with a teacher who teaches the same grade
  level as you (indicated on name tag).
• Introduce yourself and what courses you teach.
• Ask each other
• What do you find most challenging about this
  grade level?
• What do you find most rewarding about this grade
  level?
• Finally, share an interesting experience you had
  this summer.

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Form Groups

• Now find 3 other people who teach the same grade
  level as you.
• Make sure your group represents at least three
  different content areas.
• Sit down at a table together.
• Introduce yourselves by name and content area.
  Share a challenge or a reward with your group.
• Get ready to work together!

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Educational Ecosystem

• Xilinx Corporation supports students at Leigh,
  Union and Oster with
• for Science, Technology AVID
• Non-Profit Services such as
• Counseling services (Almaden Valley Counseling)
• Science Programs (RAFT Youth Science Institute)
• Field Trips to TheatreWorks and SJ Museum of Art
• Positive Coaching for parents, students coaches
• Junior Achievement for AVID Economics students

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Goals for Today

• Anchor todays professional development to
  Leighs WASC Action Plan
• Begin defining Leighs instructional model to
  improve student achievement
• Identify essential knowledge, learning goals,
  critical input experiences, and knowledge gain
• By grade level
• By subgroup

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Professional Norms

• Responsibility We accept responsibility for
  students learning.
• Efficacy We believe we can help all students
  learning.
• Humility We seek out and use feedback from
  external sources.
• Resourcefulness We seek out ideas for
  structures, resources, and methods to insure that
  all student will learn.

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Principles of Learning

• All students can learn.
• Students learn in different ways.
• Students learn in different time frames.
• Errors are inherent in the learning process.
• Formative assessments should be frequent and
  should provide feedback that influences
  instruction.

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WASC Action Plan

• Professional Development
• Identify teachers individual needs
• Improving Student Achievement
• Focus on 9th and 10th grade
• Especially Algebra, Geometry, Biology Chemistry
• School Culture and Support Services
• Expected School-wide Learning Results (ESLRs)

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WASC Action Plan
Improving Student Achievement
S c h o o l
C u l t u r e
Action Teams (Collaboration, Professional
Development)
E S L R s
Core Teams (Content Area Collaboration, Depart
Chairs)
Special Teams (9th Gr. English, 9th Gr.
Algebra, 10th Gr. SHARP)
Teacher Professional Development
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Pre-Assessment

• Terms you will hear this year at Leigh
• Essential knowledge
• Learning goals
• Critical-input experiences
• Knowledge gain
• Rate yourself on the Pre-Assessment Tool
• Write down YOUR working definition for each term

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Essential Knowledge

• What students need to know and understand.

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The Teachers Role

• Essential knowledge is something teachers need
  to
• Identify
• Agree on
• Teach
• Assess
• Grade
• Activity Individually write down 3 key things
  you think students need to learn in your subject
  area. Then write down 3 things from two other
  subject areas represented at your table.

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Approaches

• 1. Distill by time constraints.
• 2. Refine by STAR.
• 3. Use coherent grouping to provide reinforcement
  and continuity.
• 4. Determine the level of depth and mastery
  students need.

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Step 1

• 1. Distill by Time Constraints.
• Look at the timeline for your course of study
  and see how you are allocating the time. Are you
  managing to cover standards effectively, are some
  never got to? Ask yourselves why some things
  are there projects, activities. Can you justify
  the time spent on them? What is in there because
  you or someone else likes it? Pull the weeds.

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Step 2

• 2. Refine by STAR
• What are the STAR weightings? Do they match your
  weightings? Are students adequately prepared for
  the test?

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Step 3

• 3. Use coherent grouping to provide reinforcement
  and continuity.
• Which standards group together well and provide
  logical strands of learning? Move stuff around
  so that you can assess multiple standards at
  once.

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Step 4

• 4. Determine the level of depth and mastery
  students need.
• Decide how much you can deliver and assess in
  terms of units of study. Again, what is in there
  because you or someone else likes it?

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The Importance

• Essential knowledge is the core to all planning
  and assessment and subsequent student success.

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Learning Goals

• Ask yourself What can I do to establish and
  communicate learning goals, track student
  progress, and celebrate success?

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Learning Goals vs. Activities

• Make a distinction between learning goals and
  learning activities or assignments
• A learning goal is a statement of what students
  will know or be able to do.
• Activities or assignments are the means by which
  the learning goals are accomplished.

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Activities/Assignments or Learning Goals?

• Multiple and divide fractions.
• Understand the various components of culture.
• Make a travel brochure for a foreign country.
• Memorize the Bill of Rights.
• Understand the relationship between fractions and
  decimals.
• Write a 6-page research paper on photosynthesis.
• Analyze Daisys role in The Great Gatsby.
• Design a menu that includes a balance of foods
  from the food pyramid.
• Serve a volleyball.
• Understand the historical and social context of
  Impressionism.

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Once the Learning Goal is clear,

• We can monitor the quality
• To what extent do the learning goals address
  essential knowledge?
• Is it likely the assignment/assessment will
  enhance students learning of, or actually
  assess, the knowledge in the learning goal?
• Given the learning goal, is the assignment worth
  the time?
• Are there aspects of the assignment that would
  require knowledge other than that in the learning
  goal? If so, are we teaching (or assuming) that
  knowledge?

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Critical-Input Experiences

• What will I do to help students effectively
  interact with new knowledge?
• This is a comprehensive approach that allows
  students to construct meaning while interacting
  with the content, the teacher, and their peers.
• Identify Critical Input Experiences
• Preview the Content Prior to a Critical Input
  Experience
• Organize Students into Groups to Enhance the
  Active Processing of Information
• Present New Information in Small Chunks and Ask
  for Descriptions, Discussion, and Predictions
• Ask Questions that Require Students to Elaborate
  on Information
• Have Students Write Out Their Conclusions or
  Represent Their Learning Nonlinguistically
• Have Students Reflect on Their Learning

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What is Essential?

• Identify Critical Input ExperiencesThere are
  many. The teacher picks those that are essential
  and would have the highest impact on the
  students. The teacher knows what her students
  need to know and selects the strategies required
  to meet those needs. Visual and dramatic
  strategies tend to have greater impact than
  verbal, but all enhance learning when done
  effectively.

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Activate Prior Knowledge

• Preview the Content Prior to a Critical Input
  ExperienceThe teacher helps the students
  activate prior knowledge relative to the
  information. There are several strategies that
  can be used to accomplish this the teacher would
  select the most appropriate.

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Grouping Your Learners

• Organize Students into Groups to Enhance the
  Active Processing of InformationGroups of 2-3
  are recommended as more than 5 can actually
  decrease the effectiveness of the instruction.
  Groups enhance the processing of new information
  because they provide students with multiple
  reference points and allow each student to see
  how others process information. For the best
  result, norms need to be established.

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Chunking New Information

• Present New Information in Small Chunks and Ask
  for Descriptions, Discussion, and Predictions
  The teacher needs to identify the chunks of
  information ahead of time, and decides on the
  size of the chunks the more the students know
  about the material, the larger the chunks can be.

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Analyze

• Ask Questions that Require Students to Elaborate
  on InformationQuestions can be divided into two
  categories inferential questions and elaborative
  interrogations.

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Synthesize

• Have Students Write Out Their Conclusions or
  Represent Their Learning NonlinguisticallyThe
  teacher needs to select the most appropriate form
  of nonlinguistic representation for their
  particular instruction.

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Reflect

• Have Students Reflect on Their LearningThe
  students reflect on their experiences at the
  completion of the instruction.

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Knowledge Gain

• Discuss the following questions in your groups
• How do we know our students are learning?
• What do we use to measure student success?

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Scenario

• A student is somewhat familiar with material at
  the beginning of a unit.
• A students scores are as follows
• Initial Assessment 74
• HW1 5/10
• HW2 6/10
• Quiz 1 7/10
• HW3 6/10
• HW4 7/10
• End of Unit Test 80

• A student is completely unfamiliar with material
  in the beginning of the unit.
• A students scores are as follows
• Initial Assessment 25
• HW1 5/10
• HW2 5/10
• Quiz 1 4/10
• HW3 4/10
• HW 4 7/10
• End of Unit Test 60

Which of these students was more successful? Why?
How can our definition of success affect a
students ability and desire to learn?
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Knowledge Gain

• The currency of student success.
• An increase in knowledge relative to a specific
  learning goal.
• Allows for student success at all levels, and
  allows for progress over time

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Using Knowledge Gain for Instruction

• How might the concept of knowledge gain, as it
  relates to learning goals, change your focus in
  planning either curriculum or instruction?

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How Can We Measure Knowledge Gain?

• Brainstorm a list of methods we can use to
  measure knowledge gain, as it relates to specific
  learning goals?

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Knowledge Gain

• What are some ah-has or concerns that could
  arise as we focus on knowledge gain as the
  driving force behind curriculum and instruction?
• What are some solutions to the concerns?

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Teacher Collaboration

• In your mixed grade level teams, identify
• Essential Knowledge students should know before
  they move on to the next grade level.
• Learning Goals that teachers agree are important.
• Brainstorm Critical Input Experiences that could
  help students learn the essential knowledge and
  learning goals you have identified.
• Discuss how Leigh could measure Knowledge Gain
  for the benefit of our students and staff.

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Before the day is over

• Take a break, move around the room, and sit down
  with a colleague in your department to discuss
• How is Essential Knowledge identified in your
  Content Area?
• How have curriculum guides helped identify
  Essential Knowledge or Learning Goals?
• How could you and your colleagues pool ideas
  about effective Critical Input Experiences?
• How does your department measure Knowledge Gain?

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Thank you, Xilinx!
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Reminders

• Faculty Meeting, Friday, August 22, 2008
• 800 AM in room 75 (Band room)
• School begins, Monday, August 25, 2008
• 750 AM in your classroom!
• Pick up your tables. Throw away your trash.
• Help yourself to food (for dinner).
• Thank you for coming!