The Amazing Brain: From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Dr. Melissa Hughes is an author, TEDx speaker, and neuroscience geek. She is the author of Happy Hour with Einstein, Happier Hour with Einstein: Another Round, and the companion Happier Hour Gratitude Journal. Melissa combines her experience in teaching and learning with extensive research in neuroscience, behavioral science, and psychology to educate and empower people to understand how the brain works and how to make it work better for greater success and personal satisfaction. From students in the classroom to executives in the boardroom, Melissa brings science to life with humor and energy.
Description:
We all have the same 3-pound squishy mass between our ears. So, what separates the best of us from the rest of us? While it was once generally accepted that we were born with a certain capacity to learn and we did the best we could with what we had, we now know differently. Since the 1990s, also known as “the Decade of the Brain,” technological advances and a wealth of research in the fields of neuroscience, behavioral science and psychology have uncovered valuable findings about brain function. Whole-brain teaching is not just another instructional method. It’s understanding how the brain works and those factors that impede or enhance cognition, problem-solving and critical thinking. Empower yourself and your students with cutting-edge research and practical strategies to create the conditions for optimal performance and incredible outcomes.
Date: August 29, 2023
Time: 7:30AM - 9:00AM
Location: Letchworth CSD: 5550 School Road, Gainesville NY, 14066
Intended Audience: K-8 General Education, Special Education & Intervention Teachers, Instructional Coaches, and Administrators
John SanGiovanni
Biographical Sketch:
John SanGiovanni is a nationally recognized leader in mathematics education. John works as the Coordinator of Mathematics in Howard County, Maryland leading mathematics curriculum design, professional learning, assessment, and digital learning. He also works to develop new mathematics leaders at McDaniel College in Maryland. John is the author of more than two dozen books about teaching and learning mathematics and consults nationally for curriculum development and professional learning. He is active in professional organizations, recently serving on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and currently on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics.
Description:
Big Ideas about Fluency • August 16, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Fluency goes beyond basic facts and algorithms. But what is it exactly? And, for that matter, what isn’t fluency? This session spotlights the big ideas of fluency, myths and facts, significant strategies, and effective assessment. It sets the stage for follow-up sessions throughout the fall. Classroom-ready resources will be shared.
Location: Online
Intended Audience: K-8 General Education, Special Education & Intervention Teachers, Instructional Coaches, and Administrators
Session #2: Foundations for Fluency: Critical Number Concepts • September 28, 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM
Certain skills and understandings are good (and necessary) beginnings for fluency. This session unpacks what those skills and understandings are while providing classroom-ready resources for teaching and practicing them. This session also helps pinpoint where to provide intervention when student fluency stalls.
Location: Online
Intended Audience: K-8 General Education, Special Education & Intervention Teachers, Instructional Coaches, and Administrators
**Check Frontline for more sessions by John SanGiovanni**
News You Can Use
Science: Educator Guide Release
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) released the Educator Guide to 3-8 Science Tests. This guide provides educators with the following information regarding the Elementary-level and Intermediate-level Science Tests to be administered beginning Spring 2024:
test development process
learning standards the tests are designed to measure
test specifications used to create the tests
types of questions that will be asked
estimated length of each testing session
Continued Professional Learning
The School Improvement (SI) newsletter strives to continue providing professional learning for school administrators, teachers, and staff that fit your district's needs. This section of the newsletter will provide readers with timely and relevant learning aligned with evidence-based practices. If you would like more professional learning on topics outlined in the newsletter, please contact the SI department. Our contact information is located at the bottom of the newsletter. Enjoy!
MTSS-I: Tier 2 As A Targeted Response
In our previous article (July 2023 edition), we explored the significance of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports Integrated (MTSS-I) at the Tier 1 level, where high-quality instruction and universal interventions are provided to all students. Now, Tier 2, plays a crucial role in offering targeted assistance to students who require additional support beyond the foundational level.
Tier 2 within MTSS-I is often referred to as the secondary or targeted level of support. It focuses on students who may be experiencing mild to moderate academic or behavioral challenges, despite receiving the universal interventions at Tier 1. The goal of Tier 2 is to provide these students with timely and customized interventions that address their specific needs, helping them catch up to their peers and achieve success.
Mastering Summary Writing: Strategies for Developing Essential Skills
Summarization is a key skill for students to master because solid scientific evidence, such as the National Reading Panel and John Hattie's "Visible Learning" meta-analysis, demonstrates its effectiveness in improving comprehension. Despite this, teachers often assume that students have been explicitly taught how to write summaries, when in reality, that is not always the case. By employing explicit and practical strategies, teachers can enhance their instructional clarity and help students develop this crucial lifelong skill. As Sadler (1989) observed, "the indispensable conditions for [clarity] are that the student comes to hold a concept of quality roughly similar to that held by the teacher" (p. 121). Significantly, when students spend less time thinking about how to write a summary, their cognitive load can be spent on the key details of the summary.
Understanding the Art of Summarization
Summary writing is not merely a task but a standards-based, cross-cutting skill applicable across disciplines and grade levels. It plays a crucial role in effective communication, making it a highly-utilized professional skill. By developing summary writing skills, students not only improve their comprehension but also prepare for future academic and professional tasks that require concise and coherent communication.
Preparing Students for Summary Writing
To establish a strong foundation for summary writing, it is essential to focus on developing students' reading comprehension skills. The Writing Revolution (TWR) by Hochman and Wexler provide explicit approaches to teach students how to annotate keywords and details in texts, serving as an initial starting point. By teaching students how to actively engage with the text and identify critical information, teachers equip them with the necessary tools for successful summarization.
Teaching the Process of Summarization
To guide students through the summarization process, it is crucial to provide them with a clear and structured approach. The Gradual Release Framework (1983) and Direct and Explicit Instruction are effective methods for introducing summary writing techniques. TWR offers three main techniques: the Single Sentence Summary, the Single Paragraph Outline (SPO) Summary, and the Combined Outline. Each technique caters to different levels of complexity and depth. By gradually introducing these techniques and providing ample examples, modeling, deliberate practice, and feedback, teachers support students in developing their summarization skills.
Scaffolding Summary Writing Instruction
Every classroom is unique, and teachers must make local decisions based on their students' needs to appropriately scaffold summary writing instruction. Joan Sedita's book, "The Writing Rope," offers several scaffolds that can be valuable resources. Teachers can employ the following strategies to support students in developing their skills:
Start with easy and short texts: Beginning with manageable texts allows students to practice summarization without feeling overwhelmed. It helps build confidence and establishes a foundation for tackling more complex materials.
Provide a set of steps: Breaking down the summarization process into clear steps provides students with a structured framework. It assists them in organizing their thoughts and ensures they consider essential elements such as main ideas and supporting details.
Scaffold the text: Gradually increasing the complexity of texts as students progress helps them transition from simpler to more challenging content. Teachers can provide guided practice with appropriately scaffolded texts, gradually removing supports as students become more proficient.
Use two-column notes to plan: Two-column notes, with one column dedicated to jotting down key information and the other for summarizing, help students organize their thoughts. This visual scaffold aids in identifying main ideas, supporting details, and the relationships between them.
Teach transition words and phrases: Transition words and phrases serve as connectors within summaries, linking ideas and creating coherence. Explicit instruction on using these linguistic tools enhances the clarity and flow of students' summaries.
Provide a summary writing template: Offering a structured template or framework, such as the three techniques mentioned in TWR (Single Sentence Summary, Single Paragraph Outline, and Combined Outline), provides students with a starting point for constructing their summaries. It helps them internalize the structure and elements required for effective summarization.
Provide a partially completed summary: Supplying students with a partially completed summary, where certain sections are pre-filled, supports learners who may struggle with fluency, decoding, or comprehension. This scaffold allows them to focus on the essential elements of summarization while gradually building their skills.
By utilizing these scaffolds in the classroom, teachers can differentiate instruction, address individual learner needs, and provide a supportive environment for students to develop their summary writing skills effectively.
Mastering summary writing is crucial for students' academic and professional success. By implementing explicit strategies and leveraging the guidance provided by researchers and experts in the field, teachers enhance instructional clarity and foster students' comprehension skills. The ideas and concepts of the National Reading Panel, John Hattie, Sadler, Hochman and Wexler, and Joan Sedita serve as invaluable resources for guiding teachers in their journey to develop students' summary writing abilities. As educators, let us empower our students with the skills they need to navigate complex texts and effectively communicate their understanding through concise and coherent summaries.
School Improvement Spotlights
Preparing for Impact; Regional SEL Collaboration
The School Improvement Team provided a hybrid opportunity for participants to delve into and discuss four recommended readings for the Genesee Valley BOCES 2023 Leadership Institute, guided by the insights of keynote speaker Dr. Stephanie Jones. This opportunity allowed regional leaders to begin to contextualize Social Emotional Learning (SEL) research and best practices for implementation and build prior knowledge before seeing the keynote address. Participants engaged in pre-reading of the articles, independent reflection, and a series of four, synchronous Zoom discussions.
Session #1 consisted of regional leaders reading and reflecting on Re-imagining social-emotional learning: Findings from a strategy-based approach (Bailey, Stickle, Brion-Meisels & Jones, 2019). Participants spent time in breakout rooms discussing the
degree to which stakeholders understand the research and long-term positive impacts of implementing effective SEL practices. They discussed challenges and barriers their districts have encountered as well as solutions they have found to circumvent such barriers. The article provided three big ideas for SEL:
SEL should be organized around a developmental model that identifies specific, age-appropriate skills across preK-12;
SEL should focus on flexible, low-lift strategies and practices, not just curricula;
SEL is most effective when teachers are responsive to students’ specific needs and experiences (Bailey, Stickle, Brion-Meisels & Jones, 2019).
Participants were asked to rank these big ideas according to how they would best be prioritized in their district/local context to further enhance SEL implementation. This conversation provided each breakout group with the opportunity to hear the experiences of other districts in the region, ask clarifying questions, and reflect on how the work being completed in other districts may be replicated in their own.
The focus of Session #2 was Social and Emotional Learning and Teachers (Schonert-Reichl, 2017). Participants reflected on teacher readiness for SEL implementation, considered the opportunities teachers have to further their understanding of child development as it supports social, emotional, and academic competence to enhance student outcomes, and considered how knowledge of child development impacts classroom management. Participants shared insightful connections between this article and the revised New York State Social Emotional Learning (NYS SEL) Benchmarks. A common theme that emerged early in the conversation was the resistance some faculty members have towards the implementation of SEL. While SEL implementation is in process for several regional districts; there are still faculty who hold a negative perception of this process. This resistance has made it difficult to inspire people to understand the reason for social emotional learning. The release of the revised NYS SEL Benchmarks in 2022 is an opportunity to “rebrand” SEL. These revised benchmarks include more equitable language derived from the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework and other guiding documents.
Session #3 and Session #4 shifted to an emphasis on SEL at the systemic level. Participants of the hybrid SEL sessions read and reflected on Social and Emotional Learning as a Public Health Approach to Education (Greenberg, Domitrovich, Weissberg, Durlak, 2017). Discussion centered around challenges that buildings and districts have faced this past school year with regard to SEL, behavior, and mental health. Regional leaders shared what universal preventions and interventions looked like in their local context, how these interventions compared to interventions for academics, and the relationship between current systems and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. For example, one regional school district holds frequent, restorative circles with their staff as well as within classrooms. There are mnemonic devices other schools use to represent the characteristics they demonstrate as a school community.
Session #4 concluded the SEL collaborations with Preparing for Effective SEL Implementation (Jones, Bailey, Brush, Khan, 2018). This final session consisted of regional leaders reviewing the common features of effective programs and identifying which features are present in their local context and which ones need to be further developed. Participants reflected on and articulated the localized process they have used to implement SEL in their building/district.
Each of these sessions, based on articles recommended by Dr. Stephanie Jones, consisted of participants having collaborative conversations in breakout rooms followed by reconvening as a whole group to share out significant takeaways. The School Improvement Team responded to district needs and interests each session by sharing additional resources such as the New York State SEL Benchmarks, Universal Screening Considerations, SEL Screening Instruments, SEL Surveys, and SEL Assessment Measures. These tools are intended to measure teacher readiness for implementing SEL, gather perception data, and assess the fidelity of SEL implementation. Regional leaders spent meaningful time building their prior knowledge of social emotional learning in anticipation of Dr. Stephanie Jones’s keynote address at Leadership Institute 2023. Thank you to those that participated!
Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities (PLOs)
APPR Re-Certification for Lead Evaluators of Teachers (August 2023 Cohort)
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: A Customized Approach for District's Next Steps
Preparing for Phase III of NYS P-12 Science Learning Standards
Inclusive Models: Consultant Teaching & Integrated Co-Teaching
TCIS: Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Schools (Levels I & II)
September
Leadership Institute 2023: Registration and More!
Every year, the Genesee Valley BOCES Professional Learning Services, in conjunction with the Superintendent Instructional Sub-Committee (SISC), plan and design a regional leadership opportunity. The event, well-known as Leadership Institute, will take place at Holiday Valley Resort in Ellicottville, NY, on August 2nd and 3rd. Please click the link below to learn more about the registration process, keynote speaker, event agenda, team accommodations, and much more.
Follow School Improvement on Twitter
Don’t forget that you can follow the School Improvement Team (SIT) on Twitter. The team is often posting information about upcoming professional learning opportunities, educational resources, and strategies for the classroom. You can stay in tune with what is happening at Genesee Valley BOCES and the SIT by following #gvbocessit.
Need Support?
Website: http://www.gvboces.org/services.cfm?subpage=208119
Location: 80 Munson Street, Le Roy, NY, USA
Phone: 585.344.7923