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Happy Holidays from CLI!

December 1, 2020 by cliweb

Family News

It’s been a crazy year for everyone, but during the holiday season, we like to celebrate the great times we had. Social distancing may have limited our ability to gather, but we have a lot to be grateful for!

EMILY MAKELKY

Vice President, Consultant,
& Media Specialist

We welcomed our second child into our family in May!

ILAH GILREATH

Manager of Administrative Services

We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our grandkids and watching our grandson play football.

LESLEE EULER

Central Office Manager

Top golf was the location for our family to celebrate some special birthdays.

MARGIE SIMMONS

Consultant

In August, we had a wonderful time at our son and daughter-in-law’s wedding!

RHONDA RENFRO

Consultant

We gathered with my siblings and their spouses for a fun evening. I also visited the cute Makelky girls!

STACEY BRUTON

President & Consultant

Our family made a trip to Florida in February to celebrate the wedding of our son and his wife!

For a fun activity, try our CLI Crossword puzzle. You may need to explore cliweb.org to find the answers. When you think you have it, submit your answers here for a chance to win a Curriculum Ninja coffee mug and sticker!

To all of our friends in education, we truly hope you have a relaxing holiday season and healthy new year!

5 Holiday Snack Recipes for Your Classroom!

December 3, 2019 by cliweb

As a throwback to our most popular holiday E-Hint, A CLI Christmas Recipe Book, we’ve compiled five more recipes! Bring these delicious holiday snacks to your classroom party or keep them at home for you to munch on. Each one is a tried-and-true hit from our CLI staff.

Happy Holidays!

How to Evaluate Your Capacity for a Systemic Culture

November 5, 2019 by cliweb

Districts are challenged more and more to develop or maintain a systemic culture for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Very often, the first challenge is in determining the extent to which a systemic culture exists and in this E-Hint, our goal is to give you the questions and some tools to figure out where your district is and what steps might help move you closer to solving the challenges of establishing a systemic culture.

While not a comprehensive list by any means, we present this list of questions to initiate and open a dialogue regarding district-wide academic processes among stakeholders within a district. These challenging questions, posed from a first-person perspective, could help an administrative team affirm or evaluate their current curriculum structures and processes.

Do we have an academic structure in place to ensure that our curriculum processes are district-based rather than site-based?
Do we have a model or system of processes we follow, as a district, for alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment?
Does our current model or system of processes have a built-in reporting method so that documentation is readily available for accreditation visits or mandated reports (ESSA, State Accreditation Models, etc.) without having to spend an extra amount of time and expense to prepare such evidence?
Have we, as a district, studied change theory sufficiently to support first- and second-order changes within the district?
Do we need outside help to establish a systemic, shared decision-making culture for these issues?
Do we have a district-wide, board-approved policy for how curriculum, instruction, assessment, and student learning decisions are made to ensure stability when there are administrative staff changes?
Do we have a structured timeline (long-range plan) to indicate the cycle of curriculum development, resource adoption, and the writing of local assessments for every subject area?
Do we have a district-wide, representative body of stakeholders (various levels of administration, teachers, specialists, board members, community members) that meets regularly rather than leaving the responsibility to a single person to address such things as:
- Acceptable grading practices
- Assessment use (security and administration)
- Accountability requirements to assure implementation of the district curriculum
- Instructional alignment to the curriculum
- Definitions of mastery
- Use of data from assessments
What roles do the building principal or other administrators play as instructional leaders in their buildings as well as within the district?
Do we have consistency in what is taught and what is expected of students within the same grade level or course regardless of the teacher, building, or year?
How are new staff members prepared to follow the model/procedures before they begin teaching in our district?
How does the district ensure that the required use of the curriculum is put into practice with fidelity?
Do we have valid, local assessments to use as data for timely intervention for students who are struggling?
Do we have a method or practice to examine student learning data to improve our instructional strategies, our assessment techniques, or our expectations for students?

Although not exhaustive, these are some examples of questions that the Curriculum Leadership Institute Model for School Improvement provides support in answering. Click here for a rubric to determine where your district’s current strengths and weaknesses are in addressing these critical issues.

Want to Improve Reading Comprehension? Keep Science and Social Studies in the Elementary Schools

October 1, 2019 by cliweb

It is a familiar scenario and solution. The pressure is felt to improve reading skills to score higher on standardized tests. Elementary teachers can’t extend the school day, so they borrow time from a content area which doesn’t have a state assessment or one not as often. Social studies and science take a backseat. Even though this move seems logical with the best intentions, the results are counterproductive. Since the 1990s, the amount of instructional time in science and social studies has decreased over 90 minutes per week. It is often the first place teachers look to “pull” students from if they need interventions. Unfortunately, by cutting these courses, the opportunities for developing content vocabulary and knowledge about real life is also reduced.

Why teach social studies and science? Social studies classes provide content knowledge, but most importantly, students learn the foundation for why it is necessary to contribute to society as a good citizen. Science activities are a way to capture the interest of students with fun, hands-on, and minds-on lessons. Learning activities related to science and social studies help students develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills while connecting concepts to their world.

Support for the Key Shifts in English/Language Arts Standards Many states have revised their English/Language Arts Standards in recent years and have outlined key shifts from past standards. Continuing to schedule regular science and social studies classes allows opportunities to teach needed skills. The background knowledge gained from social studies and science provides the context to understand new and complex text for greater comprehension. Reading about science is no replacement for phenomenon or inquiry, but it can help build the knowledge base for “doing” science. Plus, citing textual evidence from informational text helps provide pieces necessary for accurate analysis of an investigation.

Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension English/Language Arts Standards require students to use domain-specific words in their writing and while speaking. Science and social studies classes provide opportunities for students to learn word meanings, read and hear them applied correctly in context, and use the words for communicating. Students receiving explicit instruction over the meanings of affixes and root words benefits the current class, but that knowledge is utilized by the students to become stronger readers in all classes. Vocabulary acquisition improves the comprehension of complex literary and informational text.

Student Engagement A significant, well-documented reason to keep regularly scheduled science and social studies classes, is that students love the activities these topics provide! The natural fit for collaboration and project-based learning allows students opportunities for implicit learning, developing good work habits, and applying what they learn to their lives. Learning while having fun is impactful in many ways!

Teachers are well aware of the importance of reading on grade level by the 3rd grade. If this doesn’t happen, opportunities to be successful in the future will be more of a challenge. Capturing every moment available for learning is critical. If you are interested in utilizing an integrated approach to teach more than one content area at the same time, download CLI’s FREE Civic Education Resource, Life, Liberty, Law. This resource is aligned to National Standards in Social Studies but also references ELA, Math, Science, Fine Arts, and Social/Emotional Learning Standards. Get yours at cliweb.org/resources-2.

3 Ways to Avoid the Dreaded “Teacher Lottery”

September 3, 2019 by cliweb

We’ve all heard it. Kids talking about their schedules like this, “Yes! I’m going to get an A in math this year because Ms. So-and-so is so easy!” Or, “Dangit, science is going to be so hard. I got Mr. Tough-stuff, and he doesn’t let anything slide.” As teachers, you never want to be considered the easy teacher, but you also don’t want to be the hard teacher that the students dread. But, what if there was no easy teacher or hard teacher, and all learning environments were equally fair? Here are three ways to even the playing field for your students so that the “teacher lottery” becomes less varied.

Set Clear Curricular Expectations

First things first, standards are not curriculum, and neither is a textbook! Depending on the state and content area, some standards are written to be very broad and general. Some are written for a grade band rather than a specific grade level. In many cases, a standard can be interpreted differently by different teachers. Additionally, standards are not organized into teachable units and may not include a level of emphasis or rigor. Textbooks, on the other hand, may include levels of emphasis and rigor, but may not reflect local priorities and may have more lessons than can be taught in one school year. In my Intro to Business class for example, my textbook included 28 chapters. But in any given year, I could only get through 13 of them with my students. The textbook that my school had adopted for that class included more than twice the amount information that I could teach my students.

The solution to both of these issues, is to develop a local curriculum that is organized into teachable units made up of learning targets that are written clearly (so all teachers interpret them the same way), are measurable (avoid verbs like understand, learn, etc.), and is appropriate for the amount of time that you have with your students. This way, the expectations are clear for both teachers and students.

Make End-of-Unit Assessments Common

When all teachers for the same course are using the same assessment to determine success, students are held to the same expectations. To further ensure that teachers are administering the common assessment fairly, include a set of “administration guidelines” as a cover sheet. Information that should be clarified in the Administration Guidelines includes:

the amount of time a student is allowed to complete the assessment (must the assessment be completed within a single class period so students cannot discuss answers when they gather after class?),
any materials they are allowed (are math students permitted to use a calculator, or language arts students a dictionary?),
the amount of assistance a teacher is allowed to give when a student has a question (may a teacher explain the definition of a word, or clarify directions?),
and the criteria for successful completion.

Please note that the Administration Guidelines as explained above are meant for general education students that are not on IEPs. Any student with an IEP must be given the modifications that are outlined within their IEP. Similarly, when administering common assessments to ELL students, consult their ELL teacher to determine appropriate accommodations.

Collaborate as a grade-level team

The big idea for all curriculum and assessment work is to improve classroom practices. By collaborating with your grade-level team, you’re able to share what worked and what didn’t. So, if something didn’t work in your lesson, ask a colleague who saw success to share what strategies they used. It’s OK to be vulnerable, and in fact, improving your teaching depends on it. Look for areas that you can improve and help those that can use your help to find more success in their classroom.

Students have enough to deal with without having to worry about which teacher they’re going to have. It will take a bit of work up front to complete the steps outlined above, but your school will be better for it. Your school doesn’t need easy teachers or hard teachers, they need good teachers.

Need some help with these things? Let us know!

Preparing NEW Teachers to Meet the Learning Needs of Students

August 6, 2019 by cliweb

As the summer break from the classroom challenges continues, it is time to reflect on how to best prepare novice and new teachers for the school year ahead. After hiring a teacher, a school district has an obligation to make every effort to assure the students assigned to the new teacher’s classroom will have the best possible opportunity to learn and grow.

There are many factors that encourage new teachers to leave the classroom. Besides the usual culprits of low salary, extreme demands on time, frustration with the challenges of motivating students, there are factors that can and should be addressed by the district before the school year starts. Support before the school year prepares new hires or novice teachers for the challenges to face them and, perhaps, encourages the new teacher to stay as an effective classroom teacher and a contributing member of the professional community of the district.

According to Kendyll Stansbury and Joy Zimmerman in the WestEd publication Designing Support for Beginning Teachers, “A third of beginning teachers quit within their first three years on the job. We cannot stand for this kind of dropout rate among students, and we can no longer afford it in our teaching ranks. … What lifelines can we offer so they will remain in the profession and develop into highly effective classroom educators?”

How can districts capitalize on the time available to make sure new teachers are ready for the challenges facing them?

In designing such an opportunity for your new teachers, there are considerations other schools or districts have added to their programs. The following list of priorities is compiled from recommendations and discussions from Susan Totaro and Mark Wise of West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in New Jersey, Stansbury and Zimmerman from WestEd, David Goldblatt of SwingEducation, and new teacher orientation agendas prepared by Curriculum Leadership Institute Consultants.

Professional development orientation that emphasizes the district’s vision for learning
Opportunities to collaborate with colleagues
Meet a wide variety of district stakeholders (including students)
Teachers experience being treated as the district expects students to be treated
Exposure to the expectations for student learning
How data are used in their classroom and in collaboration with colleagues
Procedural policies for classroom management
Available instructional resources and their intended use
Discussion of established district or school adopted and expected instructional strategies
District policies for curriculum development and implementation requirements
How and where to access the district curriculum and assessments
How to participate in feedback for curriculum improvement
Build “communities” of experienced colleagues for support and advice

A common mistake in “new teacher orientation” plans is to try to deliver as much information as possible for procedures that will occur throughout the year. While every district has its own structures for new teacher orientation, the cited authors all cautioned against packing the orientation time with deadlines and rules that can be communicated later in the year.

Clearly, a new teacher who has thoroughly interacted with the district’s Vision and Mission and identified the district’s learning expectations of all students starts the school year with a clear picture of how to best serve the students assigned to them!