Standard Snapshots of Student Work

At Chets Creek, our central focus has always been on students' academic performance. The work students produce lets us know whether our targeted instruction has worked or whether we need to reassess our path. When you stroll through our hallways, you see student work aligned with standards on each teacher's bulletin board. We post the work so our colleagues can compare work across grade levels or content areas, parents can see work that meets the standard, and students are exposed to the level of work they are expected to produce. The student work makes our classroom instruction more transparent and visible.

In addition, at weekly Teacher Meetings, it is not uncommon for teachers to bring student work to analyze. Their collegial conversation about the instruction that led to the students' products often has them exchanging valuable instructional ideas.

Years ago, in an effort to educate all of our parents, even those that are unable to stroll through our halls, we decided to package our standards-based bulletin board in a handout to be sent home with each student. The Standard Snapshot, as we called it, would be produced by each grade level and content area to go home with our students. In addition, to the selected grade level piece that is copied on the back of the handout, we also staple their own child's work on the assignment.

To prepare for a Standard Snapshot, each grade level / content area team meets to discuss work that is currently being produced. They agree upon a common assignment and they collect all students' work from the task. The teachers meet to review, compare, and select the student sample. They select work that meets the standard rather than work that exceeds the standard, because we want to educate parents about what their child's work is expected to look like. After the Snapshots are written, teachers turn them in to me with the original piece of student work; I edit / revise them, and turn them in for copies. After copies are made, the teacher attaches each child's work to the Standard Snapshot, and sends them home with students.

Creating a Standard Snapshot has been a parent communication piece for the past eight years, and is a powerful venue for collegial dialogue about student work among our teachers. It is a collegial practice that focuses on students' work products as they relate to the standards and is a practice I continue to find valuable and informative.

Second Grade Science Standard Snapshot

(To enlarge, click on the picture.)

Second Grade Student Work Sample Printed on the Back of the Snapshot

My Child's Work That Was Attached to the Snapshot

Early Release

Last Wednesday was our first Early Release professional development session of the year. That means that we had approximately 80 minutes of dedicated time for quality teacher instruction.

All English Language Arts teachers and their co-teachers attended FAIR, Florida Assessments in Instruction in Reading, training. There was a Kindergarten session led by dayle timmons, a First Grade session led by Rachel Bridges, a Second Grade session led by myself, and a Grade 3,4,5 session led in the computer lab by Jenny Nash. Our 80 minute session focused on the administration of the assessment. A follow up session will be held to focus on analyzing the results, printing the reports, and prescribing instruction in whole groups and small groups based on the results.

All 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th departmentalized Science teachers were led on an outstanding investigation of density of water in different states by "Rick Nye the Science Guy", Rick Pinchot. The group explored the scientific method and discussed the integration of math with science when doing hands-on labs. They also made connections to how the lesson they participated in together correlated with content they teach at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. The time ended with a discussion on misconceptions and buoyancy as related to density. Scientific minds were certainly at work and the conversations the group had were very meaningful!

Tom Ruark, mathematician extraordinaire, led the 5th grade departmentalized math team in the analysis of student work and alignment to the standards. Comparing work to standards is always an excellent way to ensure student performance.

This first Early Release proved that one size did not fit all and thanks to the diversified leadership at Chets Creek, there were ample leaders to provide separate sessions to meet everyone's needs. I am convinced that just in time delivery and content focus is exactly what is needed in professional development to have engage teachers.

The Launch of Book Study

Every other Wednesday, as a district, we release students an hour and a half early from school to provide on-the-clock professional development time for teachers. Schools make site based decisions on their topic of development based on school need.

At Chets Creek, we've used this time in a variety of ways to focus on academic instruction. On Wednesday, we started my favorite cycle of Early Release --Book Study. A variety of texts were introduced months ago and a copy of each was left in the front office for teachers to peruse. Teachers signed up for their book of choice, and the principal purchased the text for each teacher. With much anticipation, texts were handed out at this Wednesday’s Early Release, and new book clubs emerged throughout the building.

I selected the text, Faking It, by Christopher Lee; the story of a young man plagued with decades of school frustrations who faked it to make it through. My book team consists of a diverse mix of learning leaders from various grade levels and content areas, and includes teachers in regular education, special education, and art education. As well, we have a mix of experience levels from a teacher who joined the staff just months ago to a veteran teacher who has been at this for decades. What a great learning opportunity this will be with such a diverse group of learning leaders!

Our first meeting was a short one, just 30 minutes long. It gave us time enough to reintroduce ourselves and share our background, and decide on a plan for readng and discussing over the book study cycle. Next time, we meet we will have read the introduction and first few chapters, and I'm sure our new learning will springboard into deep collegial conversation.

Book Study was born at The Creek last year when teachers selected from one of twelve different content texts offered across subject areas. Book Study was a way for teachers to deepen their content knowledge, have dialogue about professional literature, make connections to their own work, and live the life of a reader. It did those things, but exceeded even our expectations, as it also blossomed into vertical relationships with teachers across many grade levels and content areas. You know those kindergarten teachers don’t often make it up to the second floor to observe fifth grade teachers in action!! So this common time, this common text, this common purpose laid the platform to accomplish our common goal--to further enhance classroom instruction to promote student achievement. Happy Reading!