English Language AcquisitionProfessional Learning

CommunityWIDA Standards

Organizational Meeting

March 8, 2011

Overview of the Work

1. You will begin this work by studying the WIDA Resource Guide (available on the TeachELA wiki)

2. Pay particular attention to the model performance indicators and to the can-do standards.

3. These are what you will be working with for this project.

Overview of the Workfrom Rigorous Curriculum Design

1. Prioritize the Standards

2. Name the Units of Study

3. Assign Priority Standards and Supporting Standards

4. Prepare a Pacing Calendar

5. Construct the Unit Planning Organizer

1. Prioritize the Standards

• Review the standards.• Prioritize the learning outcomes-the can do

standards & model performance indicators• These prioritized outcomes will be the assured

competencies that students know and are able to do by the end of the year or by the end of the course.

• Align these from grade to grade/course to course

1. Prioritize the Standards

• Classify each learning outcome as either priority or supporting

• Criteria to use for selecting Priority Standards include:

• Endurance, leverage, readiness for the next level of learning, emphasis on State Proficiency Assessment

• Aim for approximately 1/3 of the total• Vertically align from K-12

1. Prioritize the Standards

• Endurance: lasting beyond one grade or course; life concepts and skills

• Leverage: cross-over application within these standards and to other areas of learning

• Readiness: prerequisite concepts and skills students need to enter a new grade level or course

• Standardized test emphasis: Colorado English Language Acquisition, Colorado Student Assessment Program

2. Name the Units of Study

• Name the units of study for each grade level/for each course

• These units of study are implemented during the year or course

• Students will learn the particular standards or learning outcomes of the unit of study

• Students will be assessed on their understanding and application of these particular standards.

2. Name the Units of Study

• Unit of Study: a series of specific lessons, learning experiences, and related assessments based on designated Priority Standards and related supporting standards for a topical, skills-based, or thematic focus that may last anywhere from two to six weeks.

2. Name the Units of Study

• Identify units of study for the entire year or course according to their purpose and dominant focus throughout the unit and then name them accordingly.

• Classify the different units by type: topical, skills-based, and/or thematic

3. Assign the Standards-Priority & Supporting

• Assign priority standards and supporting standards to each unit of study.

• Take into account learning progressions

• Confirm that each priority standard is assigned to one or more units of study throughout the school year.

3. Assign the Standards-Priority & Supporting

• Make the initial assignments of the Priority standards to each of the units-whether topical, skills-based, and/or thematic

• Select supporting standards that connect to and enhance the selected Priority standards and/or those that closely match the unit’s focus

• Distribute the Priority standards across more than one unit of study if it makes sense.

• There is no minimum or maximum number of priority standards to assign to each unit. Don’t overload a unit with too many standards.

4. Prepare a Pacing Calendar

• Create a grade/course specific pacing calendar to implement the units of study

• Ensure that all Priority standards are taught, assessed, re-taught, reassessed

• Pay attention to the numbers of days or weeks that each unit of study will take

• Consider when the English proficiency test and the state content tests are administered

• Refer to the district calendar so you are considering breaks, etc.

4. Prepare a Pacing Calendar

• A yearlong schedule for delivering all of the planned units of study for a designated grade level/course

• This helps ensure that students learn all of the grade/course specific priority standards and their related supporting standards in the right order through a sequenced delivery of the instructional building blocks.

4. Prepare a Pacing Calendar

• Approximate how long it will take to implement each unit of study to ensure that we can complete all of the units by the end of the school year or course.

• Incorporate buffer weeks between units of study that may last from two to three lessons.

5. Construct the Unit Planning Organizer

• We will come together again to do this work.

• Brainstorm a list of elements to include on the unit planning organizer

• This list will be used to create each unit of study

• Draft a sample template that includes all the selected elements

• Revise the template as needed

After all of the above

• We will be ready to design curricular units from start to finish including selecting or creating common assessments and rubrics.

Organization

• We will tackle the language of language arts and the language of mathematics

• These are areas of emphasis for federal designations of schools as having met (or not) adequate yearly progress targets.

Organization

• Create small working groups of between 3-5 people.

• Select the standard and grade levels.

• Language Arts, Elementary

• Language Arts, Secondary

• Math, Elementary

• Math Secondary

Organization

• Fill out extra hours sheets: need to be turned in by the Wednesday before the 15th of the month to get paid that month to Theresa Morgan.

• In your small groups schedule your meetings.

• Your work will be done in small groups.

Organization

• Designate a person who will keep notes and who will be responsible to turn in your work product after each meeting.

• Turn your work product in to me, in Microsoft Work.

• I will post those on the TeachELA wiki space as they come in.

Organization

• You may assign “homework” in between your meetings. This homework time should also be tracked and included in you extra hours sheets. A reasonable amount of homework is expected. If it begins to look like it is “unreasonable” I will contact you personally.

Organization

• We will plan to meet again at the beginning of May (or earlier if groups are ready) to check in with each other and to report out on our work.

• We may continue the work throughout the month of June but must be completed before the end of June.

• Questions?