Brittany BeaumontInstructional Planning

Teacher KeysPerformance Standard 2

Flexible GroupingBrittany conducts small group instruction in each subject area every day. These groups are formed based on student needs. Ongoing formal and informal assessment provides Brittany with insightto the strengths, weaknesses, and learning modalities of each student. This information is used to make decisions about how best to group students, what skills will be targeted, and what instructional strategies will be most effective. Group composition changes on a weekly basis and from subject to subject.

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Brittany provides opportunities for enrichment to all students multiple times throughout each week. She integrates activities and resources into her instruction that encourage students to stretch their thinking about the Common Core Standards and apply higher level thinking skills. All students participate in this challenging learning, regardless of their skill level. In this way, both high and low performing students have opportunities tomaximize their learning.

Enrichment for All

Students engage witha rigorous text andrespond to text-based

questions.

ContinuedEnrichment for All

Students solving math“brain teaser” problems

Students using deductivereasoning skills

Standards DisplayBrittany has created a set of posters that display each of the Common Core standards and the related essential questions and enduring understandings. Posting these helps to focus instruction, and they are referred to throughout each lesson. These are used by all of the 1st grade teachers at SPARK as well as teachers at 7 other APS schools whose teachers Brittany has worked with to model standards-based planning and instruction.

Posters

STEM InstructionAs planning for the 2013/14 school year got under way, Brittany proposed to her 1st grade team that they plan for monthly STEM instruction. Her teammates were quick to get on board with the idea, and Brittany led the way for planning activities and collecting needed materials. 1st grade students love our STEM weeks and have been applying cross-curricular knowledge to real world scenarios.

Check out ourSTEM projects!

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Student ConferencesBrittany engages students in conferences to discuss their growth and develop a plan to maximize learning. Making students a part of the planning process helps students to take ownership of their learning and be valuable contributors to

the instructional planning process. Students achieve more when they work together with their teacher to reflect on their learning and make a plan for mastery.

Planning - Goal SettingBrittany works with students to help them develop goals. She later works with students to discuss their progress towards their goals as they self-assess their learning and behavior. Students’ goals for their own learning help to guide Brittany’s instructional planning.

Timely Intervention and EnrichmentBrittany frequently uses a grid like the one on the next page during instruction. Each students’ name is in a box. While teaching, Ms. Beaumont can make quick notes about students responses or performance on tasks. Collecting this informal data on the spot allows her to make immediate decisions about student grouping and assignments for independent work sections of that day’s lesson. This also allows for immediate interventions to occur when needed.

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Intervention StrategiesBrittany applies intervention strategies that target the needs of struggling learners in all subject areas. She meets with students in small groups or 1-on-1 on a daily basis to apply interventions with fidelity. Data is collected on the effectiveness of these intervention strategies. This data is used to measure student growth, make changes to the intervention plan as appropriate, and/or adjust learning goals.

A student with that hasdifficulty organizing their writing

uses a graphic organizer to plan their

reading response

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A student works on a Words Their Way activity. Assessment data showed that this particular student was having difficulty with phonics skills such as identifying onsets and rimes, and phoneme segmentation and blending. Analyzing the data led to Words Their Way being selected as an appropriate intervention for the student. Followup formative assessments have shown that the student has made great improvements with the program.

A student that has demonstrated difficulty with segmenting and blending phonemes uses sound boxes to develop their phonemic awareness skills.

Lesson PlansBrittany leads the 1st grade team as they work collaboratively to plan lessons each week. The group uses a backwards design approach. Learning goals are developed based upon the Common Core standards and assessment data. The team then identifies what measurement tools will be used to measure student learning. Finally, we plan instruction and learning experiences. Lessons include differentiated content and activities, real world applications,

and assessment components. The 1st grade team meets each week to discuss the instructional impact and success of current lessons and plan for future lessons in the coming weeks.

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Assessment PlanningMs. Beaumont collaborates with her grade team to develop quarterly common assessments that measure student mastery of instructed standards. These quarterly common assessments are developed before instruction takes place so as to guide the instruction that will precede them.

Curriculum MappingBrittany and the 1st grade team make use of curriculum maps for each content area. These maps allow the team to...

✤engage in long term planning

✤ensure that all standards are addressed

✤relate new learning to prior learning

✤plan for meaningful content integration

✤plan for remediation and enrichment

✤develop a clear “big picture” for learning outcomes

✤better utilize resources provided at the schooland district levels

Data UsageBrittany collects data on a regular basis and uses itto drive her instructional decision making, as well as a tool to inform stake-holders (students, parents, administrators).

STAR Reader data and bi-weekly running records are used to group students for guided reading instruction. Leveled materials from SPARK’s new Common Core book room are used during these differentiated guided reading lessons.

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Running Record

STAR Reader Report

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Brittany’s grade team meets weekly to plan for instruction. In doing so, they look at current data results. This lets them know what direction and format their instruction should take. This is an example of recent minutes that reflect our data usage.

Teacher Leadership - Instructional Planning✤Brittany serves as a member of SPARK’s instructional leadership team. As a member of this team, she has worked to collaboratively analyze CRCT data in order to develop the school’s Continuous Improvement Plan. This CIP drives the instructional planning of all SPARK teachers.

✤Brittany has worked closely with APS Instructional Mentors and Instructional Coachesto help new teachers utilize their data to guideinstructional planning.

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✤Brittany has been involved in leading district-wide training sessions with a focus on instructional planning. Most recently, she led a session in August 2013 for kindergarten teachers about planning for the integration of Common Core literacy instruction with Georgia Performance Standards for Social Studies, centered around using data and real world resources.

✤As a member of SPARK’s SILT team, Brittanyspent time over the summer developing guidelines and a template to be used by all grade teams at SPARK during their PLC’s while planning for instruction.