Junior English Language Arts Action Learning Team

1. Junior English Language ArtsAction Learning Team Propelling students to the future and beyond…

2. HHS Becky Church Leslie Bradley Connie Sanchez Cherry Langford Fred Kemp Courtney Dennie RHS Staci Hammer Deborah Morgan BHS Crystal Phillips Diane Vick Gwen Martin Team Members Shannon Sally Sheppard

3. TAKS SAT HIGH STAKES TESTING ACT PSAT

4. Why? -- Data Analysis of TAKS data, EdSoft benchmarks, and classroom assessments indicated that writing objectives 2(10)(B), 3(7)(G), and 3(10)(B) would be the areas of focus for our eleventh grade ELA ALT. Concern for student success with the SAT essay was also expressed because of a lack of data (newness of the test).

5. Rationale Data indicated that students understand what they read and that they know the basic elements of writing. However, they have traditionally struggled with putting the two concepts together to create a written response to literature and to adequately support that response with the use of elements of text to defend, clarify, and negotiate responses and interpretations.

6. Rationale TAKS, benchmarks, and classroom data indicated that many students struggled to make a score of 2, and few succeeded in making a score of 3 on the short answer response sections of both TAKS and benchmarks.

7. Rationale Teachers from all four campuses expressed concern for student difficulty of the same TAKS objectives and for student proficiency in writing to answer the SAT writing prompt (defending a point of view).

8. Student Learning Goal: Student writing proficiency in responding to literature and in supporting a viewpoint will increase significantly over previous writing assessments.

9. Professional Learning Goal Teachers will help students achieve TAKS and SAT writing goals by implementing collegial conversations to identify research-based proven strategies for successful written responses to written prompts.

10. Student scores will be increased: • through implementation of engaging learning activities suggested by sources such as those listed in previous slide • through implementation of questioning for understanding and learning (QUILT techniques) • through teacher analysis of benchmark scores as recorded in EdSoft to assess progress

11. Reasons for Selected Goal • District, campus, and classroom TAKS and SAT data for English Language Arts • Teacher commitment to facilitate student success • “High stakes” nature of English III and eleventh grade standardized tests for students

12. How???

13. Discussion and sharing of problems in eleventh grade ELA classrooms helped identify common concerns for all classes: • helping students create appropriate answers for TAKS open-ended questions • helping students compose successful and appropriate TAKS essays • helping students successfully fulfill requirements for SAT essay

14. First, teachers discussed classroom observations of their student assessment data • Next, teachers analyzed TAKS writing samples from the previous year (present year’s students) • EdSoft was accessed by each teacher to analyze scores • Comparisons were made of objectives that most needed to be addressed

15. Team brainstormed strategies for addressing the identified areas of need • Team members shared lesson ideas and instructional strategies • Writing rubrics • Successful writing samples • Professional readings

16. Examples of Teacher Strategies • Victoria Young • Gretchen Bernabei • Graphic organizers for writing (www.trailofbreadcrumbs.com)

17. From the Gretchen Bernabei book study we learned (for example): • The Most Egregious Problems: • stream-of-consciousness (no plan) • transitions that are meaningless • unconnected parts (TAAS-like formula writing) • bed-to-bed stories/Ii sty narratives/plot summary - "I woke up, & then, & then, & then, and then 1 went to bed"

18. More Examples of Sharing: • Graphic organizers for various essay types • Samples of practice writing prompts • Simple/quick writing rubrics

19. From teacher/team-member sharing we also learned: • QUILT: How to ask questions to solicit higher level student answers • Standards in Practice: How to use TEKS/TAKS language in lessons

20. MySpace: How to teach personal narrative writing by creating a MySpace profile (offline) MySpace|People|Web|Music|Music Videos|Blogs|Videos|Events   Groups|Film|Books|Classifieds|Comedy|Jobs

21. Results Team members reported more confidence in preparing lessons that engaged students in activities that prepared them more fully to meet the rigorous requirements of the high-stakes assessments of their junior year.

22. Challenges Team members were challenged to find engaging lesson strategies to teach specific writing and critical thinking skills.

23. Results • Insight: Collaboration of ideas provided greater depth of understanding and better results than individual efforts would have allowed. • New strategies: Incorporation of data, use of assignment specific rubrics, essay structure, writing process

24. Results • Classroom changes: more student-centered planning and writing activities, activities better aligned with standards as expressed in TEKS and TAKS, connection of traditional literature with contemporary literature

25. Results • Next steps: Continue to monitor data to make data-driven decisions, pursue researched best practices, continue collegial conversations

26. Summary Collegiality – many minds with the same goal increase productivity Standards – thorough understanding of standards contributes to successful student product Communication – better classroom instruction results from sharing of ideas and strategies