1. VERTICAL TEAMING- GEARING UP FOR STUDENT SUCCESS ACROSS ALL LEVELS Berna Oates Lilly Richardson Victoria Shields Elementary Middle High school

2. What is Vertical Teaming?  A vertical team is a group of educators from various grade levels in a given discipline who work cooperatively to develop and implement a vertically aligned program aimed at helping more students acquire the academic skills necessary for success.

3. Vertical Teaming Comes in All Shapes and Sizes… Your school may already be involved in the VT process  Articulation of students individual needs to feeder schools  “Transitional Visits” to the Middle and High School  Attending IEP team meetings at feeder schools  Lessons geared towards transitioning to the next level

4. Some of what we will be talking about today…  Vision  Everybody of Board  Relationship Building  Teamwork  Involvement  Collaboration  Articulation  Learning Experiences

5. Vision  To increase communication  To make human connections  To understand the content being taught all ALL levels, not just ours  To share ideas  To evaluate how things are going

6. Our Vertical Teaming Meeting at HMS  90 minute meeting held the second week in December  Has been in place for 15 years  It began out of the need to: 1. Improve communication 2. Work on building a community 3. Share ideas

7. Who is invited to the Meeting? Administrators Counselors 5 th Grade teachers 6 th grade Teachers Content Leaders Special Educators Selected Students Area PPW GT Facilitators

8. How is the agenda created each year for the meeting?  We have a needs assessment each year as well as an evaluations to determine what topics should be discussed on the agenda  Deciding what to have on the agenda must be a fluid process to make sure that the topics discussed are current and of interest

9. Goals for Vertical Teaming Meeting  To create a seamless learning path way for our students ElementaryMiddleHigh

10. Goals for Vertical Teaming Meeting 2. Articulation of the curriculum Special Educators, Counselors, GT Facilitators, Teachers and Principals  Teachers make connections within their content area across educational levels  Teachers can adjust accordingly when they discover gaps or overlaps  Teachers can make more informed student recommendations

11. How are Students Involved in the process?  All 6 th grade students write letters to their elementary teachers, counselors and administrators sharing thoughts about their transition to middle school  Selected students come to the VT meeting to speak to the participants about their transition

12. Vertical Teaming Meeting.. Our Vision Revisited  To increase communication  To make human connections  To understand the content being taught at ALL levels, not just ours  To share ideas  To evaluate how things were going

13. Differentiating the Process: How to Make VT Work for You These representatives would go back to the schools and disseminate the information TeacherAdministrator Special Educator Counselor

14. Differentiating the Process cont. Meet by departmentMeet afterschool (duty?) Plan a VT committee at your school

15. Putting it All Into Place  Transition lessons  Feelings of Loss, Change, Worry, Coping  “Moving Up” Lessons  Combination Lock Lessons/Planners  How to “Succeed in Middle School” video by Sunburst  “Transition to Middle School” PPT  “Middle School Mysteries” PPT  Oh! The Places You Will Go by Dr. Suess  A Smart Girl’s Guide to Starting Middle School – American Girl

16. 5 th Grade Visit to HMS  All of our feeder schools visit HMS together in may  Students enjoy seeing what their class will look like  Tour with a Scavenger Hunt  Q & A with students from the Student Council  Game Show “Are You Smarter Than a 5 th Grader”

17. 5 th grade Parent Night in April  Principal Welcome  Parents get a tour of the building  Parents hear from Special Area teachers and students regarding club offereings  Parents view a “A Day in the Life of a 6 th Grader” video 6 th Grade Hallway Cafeteria Counseling Office

18. Testimonials from Sparks Elementary Staff  I was able to find out what skills the teachers felt the kids were lacking in social studies, so I could incorporate them into my instruction. I was also able to find out what novels they were reading so I could use one that they used to use but don't’ anymore. They gave me access to their LA Wiki so that I could check out the curriculum and activities to better align my teaching with theirs. It is always nice to network with colleagues!” - Becky Hoffman, Grade 5 teacher

19. Testimonials continued… “What I enjoy the most about the process is that the information changes each year. It’s easy to think you are going to hear the same information over and over again but that is not the case. Having the chance to sit with middle school teachers and listen to them describe what they are seeing in the classroom is awesome. They provide us with what the students are doing successfully and where they are struggling. As a fifth grade teacher I am able to go back to my students and give them very valuable information about what is expected of them next year. I also get the chance to tweak my own teaching to better prepare the students for middle school. On a more personal side, it is also a great opportunity to check in on former students and hear about what they are doing in middle school. Each person who attends gets a folder with letters from previous students describing how they were or were not prepared from middle school. I really enjoy reading those letters and even seeing some of the students.”

20. Testimonials Continued… “I feel that it is beneficial to heat about our students’ strengths and weaknesses from the 6 th grade teachers. For example, one year they expressed concerns that our students map skills were weak and another year they wanted to see more expertise with calculators, Once we were aware of their concerns, we could easily address the problems at the 4 th grade level so that out students were more prepared for middle school. And hearing about the strengths of out students just reinforces our instructional choices. It is also powerful to be able to say to 5 th graders, “ I talked with your 6 th grade teachers and they feel it would be helpful if we did _________.” they snap right to attention whenever they hear those words! Seeing the big picture is also helpful when discussing class placement with parents. Vertical teaming gives us valuable and accurate information to share with parents. And just the fact that parents know vertical teaming occurs, lowers their anxiety level about the whole process. Parents appreciate that we are connected and informed across levels. Vertical teaming also facilitates communication between schools. Because of vertical teaming, we can put faces to names and are more comfortable contacting each other, For example, if we need additional textbooks, resources or information, we are much more likely to email a staff member at another school if we’ve already chatted at Vertical Teaming.” – Corjie Tarlton Grade 5 teacher

21. Testimonials continued… “ I love,  Seeing friends old and new from feeder schools  Hearing how our former students are doing  Getting updates that we can share with 5 th grade parents  Sharing info with the other Special Educators and collaborating- learned that HMS prefers that we use the QRI for informal assessments so they can compare apples to apples.  Love hearing that band/vocals and former students speak and share about their experiences”- Nancy Dewlin, Special Educator

22. Transition to High School Classroom lessons given by 8 th grade counselor High school counselors come down to do a presentation High School Night for 8 th grade parents at HHS

23. Hereford High Testimonials..  First, I can tell you that you really made everyone feel welcome and I think it's important for the atmosphere of any meeting to be as warm and inviting as you all made yours!! It doesn’t take much..donuts and coffee..to accomplish that. But, you went the distance with the live musical performances and the full breakfast and little “parting gifts”, so I thank you for that; we had a great time!! It’s not often that teachers and counselors from high schools and feeder schools get to interact..often it’ rare that they even meet and I do feel it’s extremely important to have them meet, and as often as possible, to better understand individual teachers, teaching styles and over all school climate.  I believe that vertical teaming can have the most impact, though, when it comes to tracking the students who do not experience academic success. Again, we are fortunate in that we have a high number of not-at-risk students in our area..at least academically speaking. More and more, though, high schools are being held responsible for their graduation rate. When students enter high school, after spending 8 years of prior schooling with significant weaknesses or holes in their learning due to poor attendance, frequent moves, learning disabilities, lack of interest, lack of support..whatever the reason.. It’s difficult to get them back on track in 3 or 4 years of high school. So, we must rely on the middle schools (as the middle schools must rely on the elementary schools) to provide us with the specific knowledge and information, both personal and academic, regarding the most at-risk students.

24. Testimonial “It is the only time that so many professionals and administrators are in one setting. Vertical teaming gives me the opportunity to address the attendance committee and it’s initiatives, and also gives me a forum to speak about AYP in terms of attendance. It allows messages to be shared, and for more personalized interactions as opposed to newsletters and email. Not to mention that the food was pretty great and the steel band was pretty amazing as well.” - Dean Coletta, PPW

25. Shifting Gears sharing ideas questions

26. Berna Oates boates@bcps.orgboates@bcps.org Lilly Richardson lrichardson2@bcps.orglrichardson2@bcps.org Vicki Shields vshields@bcps.orgvshields@bcps.org Thank you for your participation