Grade Level Continuity

Every school creates a School Improvement Plan, where the principal works with the Leadership Team to determine a growth area for the building, and benchmark to assess and track the progress of the building.

This year our Instructional SIP goal is that:

By June 2016 80% of students will be proficient on the District Assessments on Power GLE’s in Math and Reading.

The first trimester benchmark we are using to assess our work and progress towards reaching this goal, is for there to be:

Visible continuity between grade level instruction.

Common Proficiency Criteria among grade levels.

During PLC's we have been working to gather student data to assess how students are performing across grade levels. Most PLC's have even created common formative assessments in either reading or math to inform our instruction.

Grade levels are to meet every Monday afternoon in addition to our PLC time in order to plan together, and work towards improving the core instruction in their classrooms. Each grade level also has the opportunity to use the common planning time that occurs once a week during specials/counseling lessons, in order to meet, plan, and analyze student work.

While walking through the classrooms last week, 1st grade stuck out to Julie Smith and I as having already met the benchmark for August-November, by having "visible continuity" through the use of similar anchor charts.

 Although the graphic organizer is similar all three classrooms, the lesson itself was still unique to the teacher and student needs. Each classroom had used a different text to determine the part of a story. 

By seeing similar graphic organizers used in the classroom, I am able to determine that the group of teachers are collaborating, sharing ideas, and are fairly closely aligned with the district curriculum map. 

This is just one way I am able to notice if effective team collaboration is taking place, in order to meet student needs and plan for instruction.

1st grade had multiple examples of similar anchor charts with student thinking tracked for language arts instruction.