Welcome to Hidden Sparks Without Walls. We will be starting shortly…

1. Welcome to Hidden Sparks Without Walls. We will be starting shortly… • If you are using a speaker phone, the rest of us will hear everything going on in the room you are in. Speaker phones can also cause echoes and other extraneous sounds. Please avoid using them if possible. If that is not possible, make sure you are in a quiet room, and keep electronic gadgets as far from the phone as possible. • While we are waiting to begin please practice using the chat feature by sharing your name, school and location. Activate chat by clicking the “Chat” tab below the attendees list on the right of your screen. Enter your communication and click on “Send.” • If you have any clarifying questions about the format or the topic, you may click on the “Q&A” tab below the presenter list and enter your questions. Feel free to use the hand raising feature, by clicking on the little yellow hand on the right side of the screen. • Don’t hesitate to engage as active, full participants. Your contributions may help others. • Be aware of your air time.

2. Analyzing Student Work With Kelli Pollock April 22, 2009

3. Welcome & Conference Etiquette Below are some tips that will help make this conference call successful.  Use the right phone. - Cell phones can be included in conference calls, but some can also cause static on the lines. Try to use a landline phone if possible. Speakerphones pick up a lot of background noise. If you use one, mute it whenever possible. Participate in a quiet, undisturbed room.  – Background noise can be heard through the phone and will disturb others in the conference. If you can’t find a quiet room, use your phone’s mute button until you want to speak – and avoid distracting noises such as humming, scraping chairs, tapping a pencil, etc. Never Put a Conference Call on Hold! - Participants will be forced to listen to your on-hold music or they will not know that you have stepped away and may continue to address you while you're gone.   Call Waiting - The sound of your call-waiting beep can be disruptive and confusing to conference call participants. Quite often the Call Waiting function can be temporarily suspended by touching *70 prior to the call. Identify Yourself - When you first enter the call and when you ask a question please identify yourself by name and school or state on-line. Chat Room & Question/Answer Box – Those participating on line may use the chat room and question/answer box on the lower right of their screen to enter questions and comments at any time.  We will offer regular opportunities for those joining by phone only to participate as well.

4. Our Guest: • Kelli Pollock has been a National Facilitator of Schools Attuned since 1997 and has developed and implemented curriculum for the Schools Attuned course and various other workshops on neurodevelopment. She received her Masters in Special Education from Bank Street College of Education and taught for four years at The Churchill School in New York City. In Livingston, N.J., Kelli served as a Middle School inclusion teacher prior to moving into mainstream classrooms where she taught from third through sixth grades. She was an adjunct professor at Bank Street and has been a private tutor for students with learning disabilities. Kelli is currently a field facilitator for Schools Attuned in New York City, helping teachers and administrators to implement the content of Schools Attuned in their classrooms and schools.

5. Overview of the Session • Welcome and Introductions • The Process of Analyzing Student Work • Analyzing Math Samples • Analyzing Writing Samples • Analyzing Spelling Samples • Looking for Patterns • Prioritizing and Strategizing • Upcoming Hidden Sparks Webinars

6. Session Goals • To understand the process of analyzing student work using a neurodevelopmental perspective • To view student work as a critical piece in the understanding of a student’s learning strengths and weaknesses

7. What is the Purpose? Why do you look at student work?

8. What are the Components? Three components of analyzing student work: • Analyzing errors within skill areas (spelling, math computations, writing etc.) to determine specific points of breakdown “Michael made errors on each spelling word with a 3-letter blend.” • Searching for recurring themes that suggest possible weaknesses in underlying neurodevelopmental functions “Esther seems to be struggling with her procedural memory in each of these math samples.” • Comparing tasks in which a student achieves different levels of success through analyzing the neurodevelopmental demands of those tasks. “Why does James write so much better in his personal journal than in his responses to literature?”

9. What is the Process? 2 Connect to constructs 1 Observe/ Gather evidence 3 Form Hunches/ Look for Patterns 4 Develop strategies We observe student work just like we observe students.

10. What Should We Keep in Mind?

11. Genesis Genesis is a 9-year-old second grader at a public elementary school in the Bronx. She is currently repeating second grade. Teachers have reported that Genesis is a “puzzle” to them and would like input regarding her neurodevelopmental strengths and weaknesses.

12. Constructs in Computation Consider looking at samples in which a student has solved math computation problems. What constructs might we observe in these samples?

13. What Do We See? • Which construct(s) appear strong? Weak? What’s your evidence? • How can we help Genesis with the long-term consolidation of her math facts?

14. Constructs in Problem-Solving • Consider looking at mathematical problem-solvingsamples. • What constructs might we observe in these samples?

15. What Do We See? • What are the demands of this type of problem? • Does Genesis understand the concept of base-ten? What is your evidence? • What constructs seem to be causing her incorrect responses? • What is a strategy you might suggest to her?

16. What Do We See? For each question: • What neurodevelopmental constructs might be underlying these errors? • Do you think that Genesis understands the concepts being assessed here?

17. Constructs in Writing What are some of the primary neurodevelopmental demands of writing a paragraph? * attention? * spatial ordering? * memory? * neuromotor? * language? * higher order thinking? * sequencing? * social cognition? Based on our analysis of Genesis’ math samples, what do you expect to see in her writing samples?

18. What do we see?

19. What Do We See?

20. What Do We See? • What do you notice? • What does this suggest neurodevelopmentally? • What is the impact of this weakness on Genesis’ written output?

21. Constructs in Spelling We are looking at a sample of a student’s spelling in isolation. What constructs might we observe in this sample?

22. What Do We See? • Discuss strengths and weaknesses in Genesis’ spelling skills. Be specific. • Does Genesis use a visual approach to spelling? a phonetic approach to spelling?

23. Emerging Patterns After analyzing all of these samples, what neurodevelopmental patterns are emerging?

24. Organizing the Evidence

25. Genesis Summary With Evidence

26. Prioritizing Consider the emerging patterns of strengths and weaknesses in these samples: • What is one thing you want Genesis to understand about her learning? • What is the first step you will take as her teacher?

27. About Hidden Sparks Hidden Sparks is a non-profit fund whose purpose is to help children with learning differences reach their full potential in school and life. Hidden Sparks develops and supports professional development programs for Jewish day schools to help increase understanding and support for teaching to diverse learners. Guided by a philosophy that by helping schools meet the needs of children with learning and behavioral differences, ultimately all students will benefit. Hidden Sparks’ programs combine professional development in learning and positive behavioral support, guided classroom observation and one on one coaching. The Hidden Sparks model and program is currently in 21 Jewish Day Schools/Yeshivot in New York and 7 in Boston, through a partnership with Gateways: Access to Jewish Education.

28. Upcoming Hidden Sparks Without Walls Sessions For more information visit: www.hiddensparks.org

29. Contacting Hidden Sparks www.hiddensparks.org Paula@hiddensparks.org (212) 767-7707/ (646) 688-5252

30. Solution to the Geometry Problem Presented by Karen Kruger, March 25, 2009, in Analyzing Your Teaching Style on Page 9 There are several ways to answer the question. Here are two: Answer 1: The triangles ABO and CDO are congruent triangles because the sides BO and DO were drawn as equals as were AO and CO. The lines AC and BD are straight so the vertical angles at O are equal. The triangles are congruent by SAS (Side-Angle-Side postulate). As a result the sides CD and AB are of equal length. Answer 2: ABCD is a parallelogram because their diagonals bisect each other. The opposite sides are of equal length in a parallelogram. It is a very practical problem, because the boy cannot measure across the rock or pond. He can measure in the field (usually by pacing), so he can pace out the various lengths to be sure they are equal. When he measures DC he will get the sought length of AB. By the way, this is approximately the method used by Eratosthenes of Cyrene, a third century B.C.E. Greek living in Alexandria, Egypt, to measure the circumference of the earth. For more on this you might want to check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JHEqBLG650 (From a PBS series 25 years ago called Cosmos, narrated by Carl Sagan).