Dear Staff,

This first term has absolutely flown by. It is so true that

every year goes faster. I hope you have had a great first

quarter to the school year.

There continues to be a lot happening in the Teaching and

Learning Department. Please take a few minutes to catch

up on the latest happenings.

As always, do not hesitate to contact me with questions,

concerns, comments, ideas, and/or praise!

Messa g e f r om H eid i . . .

N o v e m b e r , 2 0 1 4

Teaching and Learning Newsletter

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2014 ~ 2015 Assessment Field

Test 2

EdcampLO 2

Teaching

Vocabulary 3

Math News 4

Ten Tips for Writ-

ing Common

Formative Assess-

ments

5

1. K-12 Common Assess-

ment

2. Assessment Overview

3. EdcampLO

4. Psyched Up!

5. LOCS Book Drive

attachments

A lot of our middle school

classrooms are already taking

advantage of NewsELA. Here

is yet another article outlining

what a great resource this is

for our students and how well

it is aligned to our reading

workshop philosophies. http://

hechingerreport.org/content/tailor-difficulty-school-text-childs-comfort-level-make-sweat_17618/

Heidi Mercer

Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning

MIDDLE

SCHOOL ELA COMMON ASSESSMENT

REQUIREMENTS

All teachers should have received

the district common assessment

requirements by level. The pur-

pose for these requirements is to

provide consistency and validity.

As you read the requirements,

you should note that essentially

these are just good teaching

practices.

If you have questions please

contact Heidi Mercer. ATTACHMENT 1

Blanche Sims, Orion Oaks, Paint Creek, Stadi-

um Drive, and Webber Elementary Schools re-

cently participated in the K—2 Michigan Interim

Assessment Field Test

196 grade 1 students completed the Grade

1 ELA Assessment

241 grade 2 students completed the Grade

2 ELA Assessment

261 grade 1 students completed the Grade

1 Math Assessment

232 grade 2 students completed the Grade

2 Math Assessment

The Fall 2014 Field Test provides an oppor-

tunity for schools to test bandwidth capacity

and student scheduling for online testing prior

to the state summative assessment which will

LAKE ORION ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS PARTIICIPATE IN

MICHIGAN INTERIM ASSESSMENT FIELD TEST

Teaching and Learning

P a g e 2

be administered in spring 2015. Students had

the benefit of taking an online assessment in a

low-stakes setting and practice using common

online assessment tools (calculators, highlighters,

etc.). The district will also earn TRIG incentive

funds in the amount of $3.00 per assessment

completed. Teachers will receive an invitation to

provide feedback and recommendations for im-

proving the testing process.

An iPAD/Chromebook Pilot for the K—2 Interim

Assessment will also be held this fall. Currently,

plans are being made for Paint Creek to partici-

pate in this pilot using iPADs.

LAKE ORION will be offering an EdCamp

on 4/18/15 from 7:30 a.m.—12:00 at

Oakview Middle School. EdCamp is an

“unconference” designed specifically for

teachers and their needs. EdCamp has

an agenda created and presented by the

participants. See the attachment for

more details and registration information.

ATTACHMENT 3

Please see the attachment, Psyched Up!

It includes information on working memory

and long-term memory.

The attachment also includes 11 ways to

improve students’ memory.

ATTACHMENT 4

FROM THE SPECIAL EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT

TEACHING AND LEARNING DEPARTMENT REQUEST

Email Heidi with something that has been on your mind regarding the Teaching and Learning Depart-

ment, district, etc. It can be a question, comment, concern and/or praise.

Your email will enter you into a drawing for this T & L Newsletter edition prize!!!

You must email by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2nd to be eligible.

TEACHING VOCABULARY WORDS TO MEET CORE STANDARDS

P a g e 3

Many children who enter Kindergarten with a low vocabulary are

at risk of not being able to close the gap between what they know

and the increased requirements for vocabulary from the Com-

mon Core Standards.

Vocabulary is the single best predictor for school success.

“Children’s oral language competence is strongly predictive of

their facility in learning to read and write….

Listening and speaking vocabulary sets boundaries as to what

children can read and understand no matter how well they

can decode.”

One can’t understand what you read until you have the lan-

guage to understand it.

“Prior studies suggest a student needs to hear a new word 28

times on average to remember it. The more sophisticated the

more important it is for students to have opportunities to

recall the word, use it, and understand how it relates to other,

similar words...”

Research has also shown that teaching vocabulary in context

is most beneficial.

Classroom Strategies: Focus on teaching

strategies instead definitions.

Drawing relationships between words: compare and con-

trast, graphic organizers, and word maps.

Vocabulary Word walls that correspond with content areas

(social studies, math)

Grouping words into similar categories. For example:

people, places, and things, similarities and differences,

and synonyms and antonyms.

Expanding vocabulary from one use into a broader con-

text. For example, if a child is reading a book about

trains, the teacher can expand on the broader context of

transportation.

Resources:

Greenhalgh, K.S., & Strong, C.J. (2001). Literate lan-

guage features in spoken narratives ofchildren with typi-

cal language and children with language impaorments.

Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32,

114-125.

Sparks, Sarah D. (2013) Students Must Learn More

Words, Say Studies. Education Week.

Allen, J. (1999). Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocab-

ulary in Grades 4-12. Yourk, ME: Stenhouse.

Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bring-

ing Words to Life. NewYork; Guuilford.

Stahl, S.A. & Nagy, W.e. (2006). Teaching Word Mean-

ings. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.

Teaching and Learning

P a g e 4

News Puzzle of the Month

Elementary - November 4th is coming up fast. Please re-

member our district PD will be at Paint Creek starting at 8am. We will start with a keynote speaker in the cafeteria and then you will be able to attend three sessions and take away math instructional ideas to implement in your classroom. Lunch will be available for $5.00 and will include Jets Pizza (2 slices), salad, drink and dessert. You can pay at the door. More info on sessions will be headed your way from your administrator. Middle Level – November 3

rd is coming up fast and we will be

working on pacing, assessments and MathXL. We will also look at the new and improved CMP website and all it has to offer you and parents. http://connectedmath.msu.edu

High School - Do you want your students to graph parabolas with ease? Grasp vocab quickly? Check out The Free Gra-phing Calculator app (Jockusch 2010). This app helps visual-ize the key terms and provides a strong conceptual back-ground. A second free app, Skitch (Evernote Corp. 2012), can be used to compare and contrast quadratic equation families. Students take a screen capture of their graphed equations and insert it into Skitch. This will allow them to label appropriate parts of the parabola and compare roots, symmetry, and verti-ces.

The Wheel Shop sells all types of bicycles. They have a different number of bicycles, tandem bicy-cles, and tricycles in the shop. There are a total of 135 seats, 118 front handlebars (that steer the bike), and 269 wheels. How many bicycles, tandem bicycles and tricycles are there in the Wheel Shop? For more problems of the month K-12 (differentiated), go to http://www.insidemathematics.org/problems-of-the-month/download-problems-of-the-month

Book Club idea: Re-Thinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs by Cathy Vatterott

Is homework an essential component of rigorous schooling or a harmful practice that alien-ates and discourages a significant number of students? The debate over homework has gone on for decades, but schools and families have changed in many ways, and, as author Cathy Vatterott notes, "There's a growing suspicion that something is wrong with home-work." Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs examines the role home-work has played in the culture of schooling over the years; how such factors as family life, the media, and the "balance movement" have affected the homework controversy; and what research--and educators' common sense--tells us about the effects of homework on student learning. The best way to address the pro- and anti-homework controversy is not to eliminate home-work. Instead, the author urges educators to replace the "old paradigm" (characterized by longstanding cultural beliefs, moralistic views, the puritan work ethic, and behaviorist philos-ophy) with a "new paradigm" based on the following elements: * Designing quality homework tasks; * Differentiating homework tasks; * Deemphasizing grading of homework; * Improving homework completion; and * Implementing homework strategies and support programs. Numerous examples from teachers and schools that have revised their practices and poli-cies for homework illustrate the new paradigm in action. The end product is homework that works--for all students, at all levels.

MATH DEPARTMENT NEWS

P a g e 5

One of my favorite books about assessing student

learning is Common Formative Assessment: A Toolkit

for PLCs at Work (link is external) by Kim Bailey and

Chris Jakicic.

In 140 pages, Bailey and Jakicic succeed in making a

process that is fundamental to driving student learn-

ing -- and yet fundamentally intimidating to teachers

-- approachable. Each chapter is full of essential

background knowledge and practical suggestions that

helped me to feel more comfortable about what

formative assessment should look like in my class-

room.

Here's ten tips that I pulled from Common Formative

Assessment that might help to strengthen the assess-

ment practices of your learning teams:

Remember that getting information quickly and easily

is essential. Assessment data is only valuable if (1).

you are actually willing and able to collect it and (2).

you can act on it in a timely manner. That simple

truth should fundamentally change the way that you

think about assessments.

Write your assessments and scoring rubrics together

even if that means you initially deliver fewer common

assessments. Collaborative conversations about what

to assess, how to assess and what mastery looks

like in action are just as valuable as student data

sets.

Assess ONLY the learning targets that you identified

as essential. Assessing nonessential standards just

makes it more difficult to get -- and to take action

on -- information quickly and easily.

Ask at least 3 questions for each learning target that

you are trying to test. That allows students to muff

a question and still demonstrate mastery. Just as

importantly, that means a poorly written question

won't ruin your data set.

Test mastery of no more than 3 or 4 learning tar-

gets per assessment. Doing so makes remediation

after an assessment doable. Can you imagine trying

to intervene when an assessment shows students

who have struggled to master more than 4 learning

targets?

Clearly tie every single question to an essential

learning target. Doing so makes tracking mastery

by student and standard possible. Your data sets

have more meaning when you can spot patterns in

mastery at the target -- instead of just the ques-

tion -- level.

Choose assessment types that are appropriate for

the content or skills that you are trying to meas-

ure. Using performance assessments to measure

the mastery of basic facts is overkill. Similarly,

using a slew of multiple choice questions to meas-

ure the mastery of complex thinking skills is proba-

bly going to come up short.

#sheeshArne

When writing multiple choice questions, use wrong

answer choices to highlight common misconcep-

tions. The patterns found in the WRONG answers

of well-written tests can tell you just as much as

the patterns found in the RIGHT answers. Fill your

test with careless or comical distractors and you

are missing out on an opportunity to learn more

about your kids.

When writing constructed response questions, pro-

vide students with enough context to be able to

answer the question. Context plays a vital role in

constructing a meaningful response to any ques-

tion. Need proof? Find the parents of a teenage

daughter who asks, "Can I go to the mall with

some friends tonight?" How much you want to bet

that they are going to ask a few questions before

saying yes? I know I will!

#sorryReecie (link is external)

Make sure that higher level questions ask students

to apply knowledge and/or skills in new situa-

tions. A higher level question that asks kids to

apply knowledge in the same way as they have

practiced before becomes a lower level question

really quickly.

The beautiful part of all of these tips, y'all, is that

they are easy to understand AND easy to integrate

into your process for developing common formative

assessments.

So whaddya' waiting for ?

From the CENTER FOR TEACHING QUALITY

Ten Tips for Writing Common Formative Assessments

Posted by Bill Ferriter on

Friday, 04/04/2014

No ads for items or services were turned in prior to

the distribution of this edition of the Teaching and

Learning Newsletter.

Please don’t forget this as a source for selling, buy-

ing, renting, advertising, promoting, or just getting

a message out there.

If you intended to send something to me and just

didn’t do it in time, it will be in the next edition.

We should have at least one more edition before the

holidays.

HAPPY FALL FROM

TEACHING AN D LEARNING!!!

K-5 Common Assessment Requirements

Each test question must be aligned to appropriate standard(s).

Common Assessments must be given and scanned in the scheduled window as it appears on the curriculum map, assessment calendar or assessment answer form. If circumstances arise to change the window, it will be discussed and communicated to all buildings.

Familiarize yourself with the assessment prior to the course/term/unit. This will help you understand what your students are expected to know, understand, or be able to do.

All District will administer MCAP to 5th Grade (Winter/March) and include in Pearson Inform as untimed (hand enter total score).

Suggested Review Materials will be added to each answer document. This was added to discontinue the use of review tests that mimic the common assessment.

District Common Assessments CANNOT be used as a pre-test or used in place of instructional material.

If constructed response question(s) are part of the assessment, the score from the response must be scanned or hand entered into Inform.

IEP/504/ELL students may only receive the accommodations according to their respective plan.

Assessments may not be changed to eliminate standards or change the wording.

Accommodations are only used to remove the disability allowing the student to demonstrate knowledge of the information presented.

IEP/504 students will obtain the information presented with their grade level, receive appropriate accommodations and the IEP/504 should address the standards not mastered.

Students 3+ grade levels behind, such as a student in a categorical program, do not need to participate in the district common assessment. Students at this level should be determined case by case and approved by building principal.

K-2 - may be administered as whole group, small group, or individual.

3-5 - students who normally have tests read to them may have the common assessment read to them.

Common Assessment data must be used as one of the pieces in determining student achievement on report card.

The assessments may be sent home with students after the assessment window (with MCAP as the exception).

The Common Assessments are to be used both summatively and formatively. At this time there are no retakes.

MathELA Science Social Studies 10/27/2014

6-8 Common Assessment Requirements

Each test question must be aligned to appropriate standard(s).

Common Assessments must be given at the end of each unit and scanned according to the date on the curriculum map, assessment calendar or answer form. If circumstances arise to change the targeted date, it will be discussed and communicated to all buildings.

Familiarize yourself with the assessment prior to the course/term/unit. This will help you understand what your students are expected to know, understand, or be able to do.

Review Materials can review concepts/standards but must not be a “practice test” version of the common assessment.

Students are not allowed to use class notes or notebooks on the common assessments.

If constructed response question(s) are part of the assessment, the score from the responses must be scanned or hand entered into Inform.

District Common Assessments CANNOT be used as a pre-test/growth measure or in place of instructional material (effective Fall 2015). Refer to District Appropriate Growth Measures document.

Common Assessment data must be used as ONE of the pieces in determining student achievement/grade for the report card.

IEP/504/ELL students may only receive the accommodations according to their respective plan.

Assessments may not be changed to eliminate standards or change the wording.

Accommodations are only used to remove the disability allowing the student to demonstrate knowledge of the information presented.

IEP/504 students will obtain the information presented with their grade level, receive appropriate accommodations and the IEP/504 should address the standards not mastered.

Students 3+ grade levels behind, such as a student in a categorical program, do not need to participate in the district common assessment. Students at this level should be determined case by case and approved by building principal

The assessments may be sent home with students after the assessment window and after all students have taken the assessment (with MCOMP/MCAP and Algebra 1 exams as the exception).

The Common Assessments are to be used both summativelyand formatively.

In the event a teacher offers a retake:

A student must receive re-teaching opportunities

The re-take is created with different questions or numeric values (same standards)

The re-take is approved by the district department chair

The re-take is scanned into Inform using a different code from original assessment

The re-take score may override original score in the gradebook

MathELA Science Social Studies 10/27/2014

9-12 Common Assessment Requirements

Each test question must be aligned to appropriate standard(s).

Adjustments to the common assessment/exam must be approved by district department chair (if there is no district chair, then building department chair and administration approval).

Common Assessments/Exams must be given at the end of each unit/term and scanned according to the curriculum map or assessment calendar. If circumstances arise that may lead to a change in the date, it will be discussed and communicated to the department.

Familiarize yourself with the assessment prior to the course/term/unit. This will help you understand what your students are expected to know, understand, or be able to do.

If constructed response question(s) are part of the assessment, the responses must be scanned into Inform.

Review Materials can review concepts/standards but must not be a “practice test” version of the common assessment/exam.

Students are not allowed to use class notes or notebooks on the common assessments/exams.

IEP/504/ELL students may only receive the accommodations according to their respective plan.

Assessments may not be changed to eliminate standards or change the wording.

Accommodations are only used to remove the disability allowing the student to demonstrate knowledge of the information presented.

IEP/504 students will obtain the information presented with their grade level, receive appropriate accommodations and the IEP/504 should address the standards not mastered.

Students 3+ grade levels behind, such as a student in a categorical program, do not need to participate in the district common assessment. Students at this level should be determined case by case and approved by building principal

Common Assessments/exam data is to be used as one of the pieces in determining student achievement/grade on report card.

The assessments/exams must NOT be sent home with students.

MathELA Science Social Studies 10/27/2014

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ATTACHMENT 3

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ATTACHMENT 4

FREE GENTLY USED BOOKS

Donated to Lake orion Community Schools

LOCS BOOK DRIVE!

for more information on this event contact Kate DiMeo at kdimeo@lakeorion.k12.mi.us

Bring Your Own Bags!

LOCS K-12 teachers are invited to “shop” for Free

books for their classroom on Monday, November

24th from 3-6PM on the CERC stage. In the past,

teachers have selected high-interest books of all

Levels and genres.

Teachers usually leave with about 25 books each!

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