Transcript ELEMENTARY ADMINISTRATORS’ Meeting Messages

FEBRUARY 2009
KNOWLEDGE
BUILDING
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Time for Learning – design schedules and practices that
ensure engagement in meaningful learning
Focused Instruction –close monitoring of classroom and
school activities and system activities
Academic Press – setting high, but achievable system
and school goals and classroom standards
Collective Efficacy - it is the level of confidence a group
feels about its ability to organize and implement whatever
educational initiatives are required for students to achieve
high standards or achievement
Trust - it is a belief or expectation that all support the
system and schools’ goals for student learning and will
work toward achieving those goals
Leading the Instructional Program
The principal is able to:
-demonstrate the principles and practice of effective teaching and
learning
-initiate and support an inquiry-based approach to improvement in
teaching and learning
The principal has knowledge and
understanding of:
-strategies for improving achievement
-effective pedagogy and assessment
-curriculum design and management
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What does it mean when students are “making
Connections”?
How are our previous understandings of this different?
What are we expecting in terms of criteria when looking at
open responses to making connections?
Should we be using frameworks to assist students in their
thinking?
Are the questions we are asking eliciting higher level of
thinking?
How can the Ministry document/curriculum map support
the teaching and learning of higher order thinking skills?
How do we develop questions that support/ensure content
integration and differentiation?
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2.
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How do we inform parents and our community about our teaching
focus in literacy?
Do our parents know what “making connections” means and why
it is identified as our board goal?
Do our parents have information on how they can be asking
higher order questions to support thinking and extending
understanding?
How can we communicate the focus at the school level, classroom
level and student level?
What is the difference between moderated marking and teacher
moderation?
What is the greatest difference between achieving a level 2 and
achieving a level 3?
How can we use questions to personalize next steps for students?
How do we develop instructional next steps from student work
and patterns in the feedback provided?
SMART Goal #2:
By June 30th, 2009, HPEDSB boys will
independently produce non-fiction writing for an intended
purpose and audience.
Why is SMART Goal #2, SMART Goal #2?
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2008 EQAO Primary results were below the
province by 15% in writing
2008 EQAO Junior results were below the province
by 15% in writing
Over the past five years, the gender gap in favour
of females has remained relatively consistent,
particularly in reading and writing. Female students
performed better than male students on all three
writing tasks.
The Reading-Writing Connection
What is SMART Goal #2 asking us to consider in terms
of our literacy instruction and student learning?
Reading and writing non-fiction to elicit higherorder thinking.
Refer to:
A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4 to 6, Volume 1
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Page 57: “Taxonomy to Promote HigherOrder Thinking” and Page 58: “Application of
the Taxonomy”
Note the alignment between the writing tasks
and the higher-order thinking taxonomy
How are SMART Goal #1 and #2 related?
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Read pages 9-13 of A Guide to
Effective Literacy Instruction, Volume
Six, Writing
Pay particular attention to pages 9 and
10.
MONITORING
AND COACHING
SHARED
PRACTICE AND
LEARNING

Collective Efficacy - it is the level of confidence a group feels
about its ability to organize and implement whatever
educational initiatives are required for students to achieve
high standards or achievement

Trust - it is a belief or expectation that all support the
system and schools’ goals for student learning and will work
toward achieving those goals

Time for Learning – design schedules and practices that
ensure engagement in meaningful learning


Focused Instruction – close monitoring of classroom and
school activities and system activities
Academic Press – setting high, but achievable system and
school goals and classroom standards
Building Relationships and Developing People
The principal is able to:
-develop, empower and sustain individuals and teams
-challenge, influence and motivate others to attain high goals
The principal has knowledge and
understanding of:
-the significance of interpersonal relationships, adult learning and
models of continuing professional learning
-strategies to promote individual and team development
Developing the Organization
The principal is able to:
-collaborate and network with others inside and outside the school
-foster a culture of change
The principal has the knowledge and
understanding of:
-building and sustaining a professional learning community
Leading the Organization
The principal:
-ensures a consistent and continuous school-wide focus on student
achievement using system and school data to monitor progress
-develops professional learning communities to support school
improvement
The principal is able to:
-access, analyze and interpret data
The principal has the knowledge and
understanding of:
-tools for data collection and analysis
Securing Accountability
The principal:
-measures and monitors teacher and leader effectiveness through
student achievement data
The principal is able to:
-collect and use a rich set of data to understand and assess the
strengths and weaknesses of the school
The principal has knowledge and
understanding of:
-the use of a range of evidence to support, monitor, evaluate and
improve school performance
WHAT DID WE FIND OUT?
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-As in previous years, when responding to the writing tasks, students scored
higher on Writing Skill 3 (using conventions—spelling, grammar,
punctuation—in a manner that does not distract from clear communication)
than on Writing Skill 1 (developing a main idea with sufficient supporting
details -e.g., they provided a list of ideas without supporting details or
provided too few ideas or supporting details or repeated the same idea over
and over) and Writing Skill 2 (organizing information and ideas in a coherent
manner and use knowledge of form and style in writing) in their responses to
the short and long writing tasks.