Issue 131: Apr 11, 2011 Connections Newsletter

Combee Elementary, a Preferred LEARNING-FOCUSED School in the Area of Leadership

Barbara McSwain and Carol Gardner
Apr 11, 2011

Combee Elementary, Polk County FL, was named a Preferred School in the area of Leadership at the 2011 February National Learning-Focused Great Ideas Conference in Atlanta.  Combee’s journey has been exciting for everyone involved.  Dr. Max Thompson said, “The remarkable thing about Combee Elementary is that they made this amount of progress in the last 14 months!”  Dr. Thompson said, “I know, because I have been there.”  Combee’s motto is "Everyone Achieves.  No Exceptions. No Excuses."  Many times a school’s mission statement is only wallpaper.  Combee Elementary’s Mission Statement is an action statement that the administrators, teachers and staff are committed to living each day.

All students are special and they will have success as they learn and grow into responsible contributing members of a diverse society. 

Combee strategically went about changing the academic culture and expectations of their school.  Barbara McSwain, LFS Consultant, had the opportunity to follow Max Thompson, Founder of Learning-Focused, after he met with the Combee administrators.  Following each of Max’s visits, he would give the administrators an assignment to be completed before the next month’s meeting.  McSwain would often assist the administrators with the assignments and work with the teachers on either training or conferencing.   Carol Brewer and Laurian Phillips, Learning-Focused Instructional Specialists, also worked with Combee Elementary. Carol Gardner trained Assistant Principal, Kathy Riley as a Learning-Focused Trainer. In the past 14 months, teachers and administrators have received the following training:

  • Catching Kids Up with Acceleration

  • Connecting Extending Thinking

  • Reading Comprehension: Flexible Groups

  • Connecting Math in Acquisition Lessons

  • All training was followed by Conferencing

Steve Companato, principal and Katherine (Kathy) Riley, Assistant Principal are committed to a year’s worth of seat time being equivalent to a year’s worth of progress for every student.  Each day these two administrators present a united message to students, parents and teachers that the purpose of school is learning.  They walk the talk of “monitoring for achievement.”  They are monitoring, at a minimum, five classrooms for five minutes, five days a week.  When these administrators walk in, they are already familiar with the lesson. Combee’s administrators collaboratively plan and debrief with all teachers.  They immediately walk over to different students to monitor the student’s progress on the work assignment.  Administrators and teachers are constantly asking, “Is this a high level assignment or a low level assignment?” Max Thompson consistently points out in Learning-Focused Leadership workshops that it is easy to fall into the trap of making low-level assignments for on-grade level content.

McSwain accompanies Steve Companato and Kathy Riley for a walkthrough on each of her visits. They walk into a classroom. The teacher is exceptional. This teacher also has a very challenging at-risk group of students in her class. Each teacher at Combee Elementary has a key ring of Extending Thinking questions. These question stems are consistently used for class discussion. The questions are not only used during the Acquisition Lesson (whole Group instruction) but also in Flexible Learning Groups (small group instruction).  Administrators and teachers monitor the number of questions that are higher order thinking.  Everyone in this building realizes that the state test in 2011 will be 75-80% Extending Thinking questions.

Second grade teacher, Ms. Severance states, “I really love the LFS Extending Thinking Strategies. They have helped my students deepen their understanding of the concepts being taught. I contribute the Extending Thinking Strategies for my students’ having the ability to relate taught concepts to real world experiences. “  

On the Combee Elementary website is a list of comprehension strategies that will be a monthly focus.  What it does not say, is that once introduced, through the process of review these strategies are interwoven on a consistent and pervasive basis.

Research-Based vocabulary strategies are seen in every classroom.  Word Splashes, Frayers, Word Maps, Foldables, Give One, Get One, and many other Research-Based strategies are routinely used.  Second grade teachers at Combee had made the following observations regarding Research-Based vocabulary strategies:

“My students have really enjoyed the vocabulary strategies. Their favorite is the word sagacity. It really makes them think about the word. My students have also benefitted a great deal from the extended thinking constructing support. It really makes them justify their response – something they struggle with.” – E. Fletcher 

“The repetition of the format helps in understanding.” – E. Carey

“My students understand the concept vocabulary much better when they apply the vocabulary strategies. The vocabulary strategies are also great with the story vocabulary.” – J. Thompson

Second grade teachers also loop at Combee. They keep the same students for two years. This was a new concept and they are more than willing to share their insights regarding this process:

“I feel that looping up with my students is a great opportunity to truly see growth. It also allows you to have that bond with your student that allows a teacher to push the students to the next level.” – J. Douglas 

“As a first year teacher looping up was a scary thought, but I was able to know my students’ personal strengths and weaknesses from the beginning. Moving to second grade with them allowed me to grow with them on a personal level and see their academic growth.” – J. Telford

There is evidence of both collaborative planning at each grade level, and evidence of K-6 vertical planning.  Fifth grade teachers that feed into the middle school for Combee meet to know what is expected in the 6th grade.

There is an emphasis on Comprehension and extending thinking strategies throughout the school. 

Comprehension and Extending Thinking graphic organizers are seen everywhere, but more importantly, there is evidence of that the students are using the graphic organizers for writing, studying, structured note-taking and guided reading.  These students and teachers realize that the important thing is “what do the students use the graphic organizers for?  In other words, “What is the purpose of the graphic organizer?” 

All students are accountable for summarizing the content that they are learning.  Collaborative Pairs are consistently and pervasively used throughout each lesson.  Students are responsible for answering the Lesson Essential Question independently in writing.  A rubric is provided for the student and feedback is given on all answers.

One of the many exemplary practices that these administrators have demonstrated is to follow training with encouragement, expectations and accountability on a timetable for teachers.  Following Catching Kids Up with Acceleration training, the administrators immediately encouraged the teachers to preview vocabulary, use Advance Organizers, build background knowledge and preview the Student Learning Maps and Lesson Essential Questions. After 2010 state testing, Steve Companato sent me the following Email:

We currently are previewing the next grade level’s curriculum with all classes. After speaking with you and Max, all classes are moving to the next grade level together and have been assigned a class and the next grade level’s teacher. Both classes are currently working together working on upcoming curriculum (first 6 weeks). Students are working with their teacher for next year on Numbered Heads activities while both teachers (present and next year) are co teaching.  

Fourth and fifth grades are peer coaching while together on the next year’s curriculum. Fifth grade is working with sixth grade material sent to us from the middle school as part of “previewing” for next year.

In February 2011, Emily Tait reported the following comments from the third grade teachers in response to questions concerning the changes that had happened in their school:

“We have seen a growth in academic writing through explicit instruction in how to use vocabulary, organize the writing, and proofread.  It was very beneficial to get together as a staff and create a school wide set of expectations for academic writing.  This has helped our grade level team create rubrics that are appropriate for our incoming students and meet the expectations of the grade above us.”

“We have found that students moving vertically from grade level to grade level together has been helpful in determining student regression and deficiencies from the previous year.  It is also easy to communicate with the previous year’s teacher on issues such a behavior and support from home.  We have also found that many of the students are able to ignore behaviors from certain students that may be disruptive to students who are experiencing them for the first time.”

McSwain is thrilled with Combee’s progress. Teachers consistently use the top five instructional strategies that raise achievement.  Administrators and teachers have in place the majority of the Exemplary Practices that raise achievement.  However, the most exciting thing that an observer will see are the smiles on the teachers’ and students’ faces.  They are proud of their school. They are excited about the learning that is taking place.  It can best be summed up by what the P.E. teacher at their school told Barbara McSwain:

"I have been a teacher at this school for over 20 years.  I thought that this was just the way this school had to be.  I don’t recognize the school when I walk in each day.  I am so proud of this school!  Children who have struggled are now learning.  It is a totally different environment.  I am so glad that I was here to see it.” 



POTENT - A Professional Development Tool

Denise Burson
Apr 11, 2011

How do you determine if your Professional Development has quality?

Are you looking for a tool to analyze the overall professional development at your school or to plan significant events within the scope of a multiyear school plan?  POTENT may be the professional development tool that you are looking for. In the second edition of, Why Can’t We Get It Right?  Designing High-Quality Professional Development for Standards-Based School, Speck and Knipe outline the acronym POTENT that includes Purpose and Preparation, Outcomes, Targets and Tools, Energy and Evaluation, Numbers (data), Names, and Needs, Timelines.

Planners can use POTENT to analyze the overall professional development, yet they can use the tools for professional development opportunities within their plans. The following are questions to evaluate and analyze your professional development:

Purpose and Preparation

  • What is the central focus of your work and how does it align with your organization’s core purpose?

  • Who cares about this work?

  • Clearly define the problem that the School-based Professional Development Program (SPLP) is designed to address.

  • How will you prepare staff with information about how change occurs and how groups of people become high performing teams?

Outcome

  • Is your outcome worthy of the cost? Explain.

  • Is it achievable? Explain.

  • Does it involve skill development and mastery? Explain.

  • What is the impact on student achievement?

  • In what ways does it promote a learning community – collaboration, working from data, respect, inquiry, dialogue, free of blame?

Target

  • Who are the target participants?

  • How will you assess their readiness?

  • How will you organize your work?

  • What tools and technology do you need? Will you do presentations, coaching, feedback, action- research, and follow-up? Explain the rationale for your choices.

Energy and Evaluation

  • What energy level or passion do you have for pursuing and sustaining the outcomes? Describe clearly why you believe in this project.

  • If you struggle to answer question #1, how might you restructure the outcomes so that they are worthy of your energy and passion?

  • What processes are in place to evaluate the impact of the SPLP work on student achievement? If none are in place, what processes will you develop to evaluate the impact of the SPLP work on student achievement?

Numbers

  • What data do you have that support the need for the professional development?

  • What data do you need to support the development and implementation of the professional development?

  • What evaluation data do you need to make decisions about the effectiveness of the professional development?

  • Who will be involved in the professional development?

  • What are their responsibilities?

  • What resources do you need – human, fiscal, material – to develop, implement, and evaluate the professional development?

Timelines

  • What results can reasonably be expected in 1 month, 1 year, 3 years?

  • What are the short range and long-range professional goals connected to the timelines?

  • What does success of the professional learning look like?