Case Study 2011 Jenkins
Content
CASE 42st Annual Convention DATE - TBA
Expecting and Delivering Excellence in the Middle Grades
School Name: • Jenkins Middle School
School Location and Contact Information: • 6410 Austin Bluffs Parkway Colorado Springs, CO 80923 (719) 328-5300
School Demographics: • Subgroups Am. Indian Asian Black Hispanic White ELL FRL = 1% = 3.4% = 5.4% = 16.7% = 66.8% = 2.2% = 25%
Enrollment is 961 School Achievements: • • • • • • • 2007 – Middle School Science Bowl 1st place in Regional Competition 2007 – Jenkins Jazz Band – Official Performer for the Midwest Clinic, An International Band and Orchestra Conference 2008 – Rock Band Club – Jenkins Teacher submitted and was awarded grant to support low performing students. 2009 – 8th Grade student chosen to attend and attended a Student Leadership conference 2009 and 2010 – Janus Student Art Buying Program at Cherry Creek Arts Festival - $500 grant 2010 – Developing Power Library School for 2010-2011 2010 – 8th Grade Student 1st place – directed research project through Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society Junior Program
• •
and 3rd in National Competition. 7 Art Students published in Arts and Activities magazines. Place annually in the Science Olympiad, Regional Math Competitions, BOB, Science Bowl, Young Problem Solvers and other academic competitions.
Please Share 2-3 concrete strategies that can be used by other middle schools to replicate your school’s success. Our school has become a model of success because we have focused on strengthening our Tier 1 instruction in every classroom, every day. We believe that student achievement is directly related to the quality of instruction and therefore we have focused all our site-based professional development over the last two years on a laser-focused vision of highly engaging instruction. An ongoing cohort has kept professional development going all year long. We have dedicated training and time to improving our PLC work, improving instructional leadership and increasing the effectiveness of highly engaging, wellplanned instruction. Strategy #1: Improving Tier 1 Instruction with Highly Engaging, WellPlanned Instruciton Jenkins Middle School has created a unified school vision of instruction through collaboration with all staff. Our research into supporting growth in our subgroup areas revealed what we term the 80/20 dilemma. Research demonstrates that 80% of the work being done in most classrooms is being done by only 20% of the students. Working collaboratively, the staff developed a unified standard of what highly engaging instruction would look like. Out of this work, we established a 15 point “look for” form used during classroom walkthroughs to document the occurrence of our selected strategies. The vehicle for our change has been the model called “Teaching For Excellence,” which is a training offered through Peak Learning. The school site has been trained over the span of three years on examples of High Engagement during all phases of instruction in the classroom. This training culminated in a week long institute this summer. Strategy #2 Another strategy this year has been ongoing staff development. We have endeavored this year to have five characteristics that define our staff development. It is focused, immersive, intensive, long-term and provides support to all along the way. We established a cohort after school that met twice a month for an hour each time. During this meeting, we share/model a new strategy and then use this strategy throughout the ensuing two weeks. When we return for the next
meeting, we begin with a plus/delta on how the strategy went. The staff shares successes, possible pitfalls and insights around implementation. The next improvement in this realm was staff-directed Professional Development. We have had multiple opportunities for teachers to lead professional development around high engagement strategies for one another. Mid-way through the year we provided a mini “Schools to Watch” conference for ourselves. We identified three main strands and sent out a call to presenters on the staff in these areas. Staff designed and prepared hour-long session to present on our professional development day. As a result, we had five different sessions to choose from during each hour. We were modeling differentiation and affording teachers the opportunity to learn from one another. Strategy #3 The administrative team at Jenkins also wanted to lead by example. We listed as a goal for the year the improvement of Tier 1 instruction through instructional leadership. We spent three full days with a brand new Building Leadership team planning, analyzing our decision-making model and determining our influence matrix for the building. As a group, the leaders then served as facilitators for the individual content groups. We aligned our School Improvement Plan, Professional Growth Plans and PLC agendas to one unified, laser-focused vision. The content leads were then responsible for making certain that each individual on their team shared out at least three high engagement strategies at their Vertical PLC meeting throughout the year. We also taped these strategies and made them available for others to view to learn how to do them in a visual way. The administrative team utilized these high engagement strategies throughout the year in every meeting at the school, inclusive of the staff meeting times. By modeling what is we wanted to see in the classroom in our meetings, we were able to demonstrate both the importance and our commitment to this school-wide effort. This led to very rich discussions and collaborative work on a school-wide homework policy, a unified mission, vision and goals and a cursory look, to be continued, on defining rigor in the classroom for the entire building.
Over the course of a week, what does instruction at Jenkins look like? How do students get to interact with their content? How do students get to express their ideas related to the content?
Jenkins Middle School High Engagement Look-Fors 21st Century Skills Embedded
High Engagement
1. A focus on what students are doing and whether or not they are engaged/fascinated in the lesson activity. •
Passive Instruction
Previous efforts simply focused on what teachers were doing. Teacher compliance on an instructional strategy doesn’t guarantee student engagement. One student-at-a-time, sitting for long period of time listening/watching the teacher, with no opportunity to collaborate. Material and/or skills below academic level of students. Simple knowledge level work, busy work, no opportunity to problem solve, self-express, apply knowledge creatively. One standard of response that allows some to sit-out, or questions/tasks favors one group over another. No student choice or control. All teacher driven.
2.
High degree of involvement of MOST/ALL students in class at the same time—may be evident with “productive noise” or an engaging quiet activity. Appropriate academic rigor presented in an interesting way. High level (Blooms), critical thinking, meaningful questions, problem solving, ideas, work process, thinking creatively. Equity of opportunity of all students—to engage with content, with each other, gender balance, etc…. Student Choice, control, and leadership for an academic outcome, product, demonstration, etc…. Meaningful academic movement opportunities. Teaming/Cooperative Learning where team members collaborate in a creative/high level process —working creatively with others, discussing ideas, solving problems, etc…
•
3. 4.
•
•
5. 6. 7. 8.
•
•
• • • •
No opportunity for movement. Isolation, individual work, no cooperative teaming, no opportunities for discussion, solving problems, etc… Or, students collaborate on low level/knowledge level work individually. No opportunity to demonstrate a skill, talent, etc…
9.
Student performance in class of a skill, talent, point of view—e.g., creative communication, debate, skit, dramatic reading, etc…
10. Public performance/celebration of learning in
school or in the community—e.g., play, debate, music, presentation, etc….
•
The work generated (eg, worksheets) isn’t something students are proud of and want to put on display.
11. Creative use of time that breaks up tasks and
activities into chunks of instruction and activity.
•
Long periods of time of all the same thing to the point where the lesson has to be finished the next day and students may forget the original objective. To the students, the work isn’t connected to anything in the real world and not purposeful.
12. Purposeful “Real World” problem solving, and
end product….high-stakes feel to the work. Real world problems are a focus for knowledge application, etc…
•
13. Productive noise….from discussion, debate,
cooperative learning, collaboration, demonstration, etc..
•
Quiet! No opportunity to discuss, debate, cooperatively problem solve, demonstrate, etc…. High tech tools used for passive reasons only—e.g., as an overhead projector, showing video. Or, no use of updated technology at all. No reflection, feedback, or concern about student needs and insights.
14. Applying technology creatively and effectively —
communicating, collaborating, interacting with others, etc….
• • •
15. Reflection/feedback opportunity for students on
their work process, how they learn, group/team needs, ideas, and next steps.
Expecting and Delivering Excellence in the Middle Grades
School Name: • Jenkins Middle School
School Location and Contact Information: • 6410 Austin Bluffs Parkway Colorado Springs, CO 80923 (719) 328-5300
School Demographics: • Subgroups Am. Indian Asian Black Hispanic White ELL FRL = 1% = 3.4% = 5.4% = 16.7% = 66.8% = 2.2% = 25%
Enrollment is 961 School Achievements: • • • • • • • 2007 – Middle School Science Bowl 1st place in Regional Competition 2007 – Jenkins Jazz Band – Official Performer for the Midwest Clinic, An International Band and Orchestra Conference 2008 – Rock Band Club – Jenkins Teacher submitted and was awarded grant to support low performing students. 2009 – 8th Grade student chosen to attend and attended a Student Leadership conference 2009 and 2010 – Janus Student Art Buying Program at Cherry Creek Arts Festival - $500 grant 2010 – Developing Power Library School for 2010-2011 2010 – 8th Grade Student 1st place – directed research project through Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society Junior Program
• •
and 3rd in National Competition. 7 Art Students published in Arts and Activities magazines. Place annually in the Science Olympiad, Regional Math Competitions, BOB, Science Bowl, Young Problem Solvers and other academic competitions.
Please Share 2-3 concrete strategies that can be used by other middle schools to replicate your school’s success. Our school has become a model of success because we have focused on strengthening our Tier 1 instruction in every classroom, every day. We believe that student achievement is directly related to the quality of instruction and therefore we have focused all our site-based professional development over the last two years on a laser-focused vision of highly engaging instruction. An ongoing cohort has kept professional development going all year long. We have dedicated training and time to improving our PLC work, improving instructional leadership and increasing the effectiveness of highly engaging, wellplanned instruction. Strategy #1: Improving Tier 1 Instruction with Highly Engaging, WellPlanned Instruciton Jenkins Middle School has created a unified school vision of instruction through collaboration with all staff. Our research into supporting growth in our subgroup areas revealed what we term the 80/20 dilemma. Research demonstrates that 80% of the work being done in most classrooms is being done by only 20% of the students. Working collaboratively, the staff developed a unified standard of what highly engaging instruction would look like. Out of this work, we established a 15 point “look for” form used during classroom walkthroughs to document the occurrence of our selected strategies. The vehicle for our change has been the model called “Teaching For Excellence,” which is a training offered through Peak Learning. The school site has been trained over the span of three years on examples of High Engagement during all phases of instruction in the classroom. This training culminated in a week long institute this summer. Strategy #2 Another strategy this year has been ongoing staff development. We have endeavored this year to have five characteristics that define our staff development. It is focused, immersive, intensive, long-term and provides support to all along the way. We established a cohort after school that met twice a month for an hour each time. During this meeting, we share/model a new strategy and then use this strategy throughout the ensuing two weeks. When we return for the next
meeting, we begin with a plus/delta on how the strategy went. The staff shares successes, possible pitfalls and insights around implementation. The next improvement in this realm was staff-directed Professional Development. We have had multiple opportunities for teachers to lead professional development around high engagement strategies for one another. Mid-way through the year we provided a mini “Schools to Watch” conference for ourselves. We identified three main strands and sent out a call to presenters on the staff in these areas. Staff designed and prepared hour-long session to present on our professional development day. As a result, we had five different sessions to choose from during each hour. We were modeling differentiation and affording teachers the opportunity to learn from one another. Strategy #3 The administrative team at Jenkins also wanted to lead by example. We listed as a goal for the year the improvement of Tier 1 instruction through instructional leadership. We spent three full days with a brand new Building Leadership team planning, analyzing our decision-making model and determining our influence matrix for the building. As a group, the leaders then served as facilitators for the individual content groups. We aligned our School Improvement Plan, Professional Growth Plans and PLC agendas to one unified, laser-focused vision. The content leads were then responsible for making certain that each individual on their team shared out at least three high engagement strategies at their Vertical PLC meeting throughout the year. We also taped these strategies and made them available for others to view to learn how to do them in a visual way. The administrative team utilized these high engagement strategies throughout the year in every meeting at the school, inclusive of the staff meeting times. By modeling what is we wanted to see in the classroom in our meetings, we were able to demonstrate both the importance and our commitment to this school-wide effort. This led to very rich discussions and collaborative work on a school-wide homework policy, a unified mission, vision and goals and a cursory look, to be continued, on defining rigor in the classroom for the entire building.
Over the course of a week, what does instruction at Jenkins look like? How do students get to interact with their content? How do students get to express their ideas related to the content?
Jenkins Middle School High Engagement Look-Fors 21st Century Skills Embedded
High Engagement
1. A focus on what students are doing and whether or not they are engaged/fascinated in the lesson activity. •
Passive Instruction
Previous efforts simply focused on what teachers were doing. Teacher compliance on an instructional strategy doesn’t guarantee student engagement. One student-at-a-time, sitting for long period of time listening/watching the teacher, with no opportunity to collaborate. Material and/or skills below academic level of students. Simple knowledge level work, busy work, no opportunity to problem solve, self-express, apply knowledge creatively. One standard of response that allows some to sit-out, or questions/tasks favors one group over another. No student choice or control. All teacher driven.
2.
High degree of involvement of MOST/ALL students in class at the same time—may be evident with “productive noise” or an engaging quiet activity. Appropriate academic rigor presented in an interesting way. High level (Blooms), critical thinking, meaningful questions, problem solving, ideas, work process, thinking creatively. Equity of opportunity of all students—to engage with content, with each other, gender balance, etc…. Student Choice, control, and leadership for an academic outcome, product, demonstration, etc…. Meaningful academic movement opportunities. Teaming/Cooperative Learning where team members collaborate in a creative/high level process —working creatively with others, discussing ideas, solving problems, etc…
•
3. 4.
•
•
5. 6. 7. 8.
•
•
• • • •
No opportunity for movement. Isolation, individual work, no cooperative teaming, no opportunities for discussion, solving problems, etc… Or, students collaborate on low level/knowledge level work individually. No opportunity to demonstrate a skill, talent, etc…
9.
Student performance in class of a skill, talent, point of view—e.g., creative communication, debate, skit, dramatic reading, etc…
10. Public performance/celebration of learning in
school or in the community—e.g., play, debate, music, presentation, etc….
•
The work generated (eg, worksheets) isn’t something students are proud of and want to put on display.
11. Creative use of time that breaks up tasks and
activities into chunks of instruction and activity.
•
Long periods of time of all the same thing to the point where the lesson has to be finished the next day and students may forget the original objective. To the students, the work isn’t connected to anything in the real world and not purposeful.
12. Purposeful “Real World” problem solving, and
end product….high-stakes feel to the work. Real world problems are a focus for knowledge application, etc…
•
13. Productive noise….from discussion, debate,
cooperative learning, collaboration, demonstration, etc..
•
Quiet! No opportunity to discuss, debate, cooperatively problem solve, demonstrate, etc…. High tech tools used for passive reasons only—e.g., as an overhead projector, showing video. Or, no use of updated technology at all. No reflection, feedback, or concern about student needs and insights.
14. Applying technology creatively and effectively —
communicating, collaborating, interacting with others, etc….
• • •
15. Reflection/feedback opportunity for students on
their work process, how they learn, group/team needs, ideas, and next steps.
