FEBRUARY 2009

KNOWLEDGE BUILDING

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

1. What does it mean when students are “making Connections”?

2. How are our previous understandings of this different?3. What are we expecting in terms of criteria when looking

at open responses to making connections?4. Should we be using frameworks to assist students in their

thinking?5. Are the questions we are asking eliciting higher level of

thinking?6. How can the Ministry document/curriculum map support

the teaching and learning of higher order thinking skills?7. How do we develop questions that support/ensure

content integration and differentiation?

1. How do we inform parents and our community about our teaching focus in literacy?

2. Do our parents know what “making connections” means and why it is identified as our board goal?

3. Do our parents have information on how they can be asking higher order questions to support thinking and extending understanding?

4. How can we communicate the focus at the school level, classroom level and student level?

5. What is the difference between moderated marking and teacher moderation?

6. What is the greatest difference between achieving a level 2 and achieving a level 3?

7. How can we use questions to personalize next steps for students?

8. 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 intendedpurpose and audience.

Why is SMART Goal #2, SMART Goal #2? 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 ConnectionWhat is SMART Goal #2 asking us to consider in terms

of our literacy instruction and student learning?

Reading and writing non-fiction to elicit higher-order thinking.

Refer to:A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4 to 6, Volume 1 Page 57: “Taxonomy to Promote Higher-

Order 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?

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 OrganizationThe 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 AccountabilityThe 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?--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.