Philadelphia School District Office of Curriculum and Instruction

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Philadelphia School DistrictOffice of Curriculum
and Instruction

• Cecilia P. Cannon,
• Associate Superintendent

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL PLAN Building a Culture of
Success
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A School-Wide Plan
Grounded in Research
withThree Components
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Three Components

• Student Voice - Student Ownership
• Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams
• Six Strategies

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Student Behaviors -Students are

• Developing vocabulary
• Learning cooperatively
• Connecting with prior knowledge
• Predicting
• Self-questioning
• Clarifying and summarizing
• Representing information graphically
• Building study skills

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How Does the Middle School Plan Work?

• User Friendly Structure
• What is it?
• What does it look like in the classroom?
• Advantages
• Updated research

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Student Voice-Student Ownership

• Students create a personal plan to reach desired
  targets
• Benchmark review week provides the setting for
  this strategy

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Student Voice-Student Ownership

• GUIDING QUESTIONS
• What is Student Voice Student Ownership, and
  how do we get student buy-in?
• In addition to Benchmark results, what other
  sources of data can be used?
• How will Student Voice - Student Ownership be
  manifested in my instructional program what
  should it look like (sound like) in my classroom?

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Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams
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Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams

• GUIDING QUESTIONS
• How will the teams be set up?
• When will we meet and what will we do in those
  meetings?
• What is my responsibility in the
  interdisciplinary teacher team?
• How can I support the success of
  interdisciplinary teams?
• How will interdisciplinary teacher teams enrich
  my instructional practice?

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The Six Strategies

• Preview Vocabulary
• Preview/Analyze/Connect
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Summarize and Synthesize Through Writing
• Comprehension Constructors
• Structured Notetaking

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The Goal in Teaching Comprehension Strategies

• The selected six strategies
• Align to student cognitive processes
• Preparing for Learning (Before Learning)
• Processing the Content (During Learning)
• Consolidating Learning (After Learning)
• Are effective instructional principles embedded
  in content
• Help, guide, move and challenge readers.

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Instructional ConsistencyEncourages Students to

• Draw conclusions
• Make generalizations
• Develop conceptual understandings
• Become independent learners

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The Six Strategies

• Lets break into
• expert groups of 3 or 4 participants
• There should be at least six groups, one group
  per strategy

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Expert Groups

• Prepare to
• Share Ideas in
• Home Groups
• What is it?
• What does it look like in the classroom?
• Advantages

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Expert Groups

• Consider the following question
• What will it take to help me and my colleagues
  become comfortable implementing this strategy?

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Home Groups
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Home Groups

• Guiding Questions
• Who should know the strategies?
• What are my expectations for the six strategies?
• What is the classroom teachers responsibility?
• When should the strategies be employed?
• Will everyone be comfortable implementing the six
  strategies?
• What additional strategies can be used to develop
  higher order thinking and encourage students to
  become independent learners?

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Once Upon a Time

• A grandfather, planting seeds in his garden, was
  asked by his grandson, How do you make the seeds
  grow?
• The grandfather replied, I cant make the seeds
  grow, but I can provide the best conditions for
  them to grow.

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Office of Curriculum and
InstructionCecilia P. Cannon, Associate
Superintendent
Have a great summer!