Transformed by Literacy: An Overview of the Brockton High Story: It’s ALL about Literacy! Empowering a Team: A “How-To” Literacy for ALL: Defining and Teaching Literacy Skills (It’s about the adults, not the kids!) Literacy for ALL: Defining and Teaching Literacy Skills (It’s about the adults, not the kids!) Implementing with a Plan (Success by design, not by chance) What Gets Monitored Is What Gets Done Develop Your Action Plan Final Thoughts 1 Agenda for the day

Literacy for ALL! After our Shakespearean Fiasco… How we defined literacy How we engaged the faculty How we engaged the parents and the community 2

AFTER OUR GREAT SHAKESPEAEAN FIASCO…

Back to the Drawing Board We realized we couldn’t outguess a test. AND we knew that our focus could not be about a test. So now what?

Our Two Goals: We focused on working to achieve these goals: 1. Improve students’ academic achievement 2. Personalize the educational experience for every student.

Questions about our instructional practices WHAT are we teaching? HOW are we teaching it? HOW do we know our students are learning it?

WHAT can we control, what can’t we control? WHAT resources do we have that we can use more effectively? And one of our favorites: Why do we do it this way? Answer: Because we ALWAYS do it this way! Questions about making change

What will our BEST teachers think? What is best for ALL our kids? And our most important question: Is this the BEST we can be? Is this the BEST we can be? Questions about us

HOW WE DEFINED LITERACY

Our Next Steps: The Restructuring Committee reviewed the MCAS again, this time with key focus questions: WHAT DO YOU NOTICE? WHAT ARE THE STUDENTS BEING ASKED TO DO?

Defining Literacy: Some Observations: Read challenging passages, difficult nonfiction, write – a LOT, solve multistep problems, explain their thinking… etc.

Defining Literacy: Beyond the MCAS: What skills do think every BHS student should be skilled in by the time they graduate? What should they thank us for?

Defining Literacy: Lists, lists, lists of skills Sorting – categories began to emerge which led to our Literacy Objectives in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Reasoning

The “WHAT”: LITERACY for ALL: Step TWO: Focused on Literacy for ALL Reading, Writing, Speaking, Reasoning

15 How did we determine our focus? Literacy Skills Drafted:

Your turn Take a look at the Brockton High Literacy Charts. Individually, circle two or three in each Literacy area you feel are most important for your students. Now share/compare with someone else on your team. Prioritize three Literacy skills for your students.

Connect to Common Core

Review the “Common Core Look Fors.”

Connect to Common Core In your groups: 1. What is required for students to be successful in your class/ your content area? 2. Is the skill stated clearly so that all teachers and students can understand it? 3. Is the skill applicable to ALL content areas? Identify ways that skills can be applied across content areas. 4. What do you see as the major obstacle that the students may face in learning these skills? 5. What procedures/techniques/strategies will be most helpful to the students in becoming proficient in the skill?

Connect to Common Core Let’s share.

For us… After each discussion, back to Restructuring for revisions. This process went back and forth to the faculty four or five times that year. Review, discuss, revise, repeat! Until finally….

We had cool looking charts on the walls… SO WHAT… The KEY to our implementation is HOW we trained teachers to teach these Literacy skills to our students. So now what…