AP Vertical Teaming: From Theory to Praxis

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• AP Vertical TeamingFrom Theory to Praxis
• Michele Brannon, Hoover High School, AL
• Chad Cooley, Hoover High School, AL
• Dennis Fare, Hackensack High School, NJ
• Mark Porto, Hackensack High School, NJ
• Mike Wojcik, Hackensack High School, NJ

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AP Vertical TeamingFrom Theory to Praxis
Hoover High School
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How We Got Here

• Transitioned into the AP classroom
• Attended College Board AP summer institute and
  half-day / full-day workshops in winter and
  summer 2005 - 2006
• Proposed a new AP course in spring 2006
• Wrote curriculum with other teachers in district
  spring summer 2006
• Implemented new course fall 2006

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The New AP Teachers First Steps Focus on YOU!!!

• Training through the College Board
• On-site workshops and / or summer institutes
• Online workshops
• Information gathering
• Sample syllabi
• Sample assignments
• Resource guides / texts / old exams

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Reasonable Goals

• Discernment of usable ideas
• Realistic syllabus for first year
• Honest evaluation of successes and failures
• Enjoyment of students and curriculum

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Building a Vertical Team

• School / district commitment to AP program
• Courses offered
• Personnel assigned
• College Board training
• Dedicated curriculum planning time
• Professional development and leave time granted

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Building a Vertical Team

• Teachers take the lead
• One team for each subject area
• Team members include all teachers of pre-AP and
  AP courses within the discipline
• Vertical team leader / coordinator for each team
• Smaller teams created in grade-level pairs
• (9-10 / 11-12)
• All members of each department should be invited
  to join the vertical team

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Bringing the Vertical Team to Life

• Year one goals
• Provide initial training for key team members
• Establish regular meeting schedule
• Promote buy-in within core group
• Determine curriculum goals
• Common terminology
• Common assessment tools / practices
• Transition points for each grade level
• Benchmarks for each grade level

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Meeting Structure

• Meeting topics correlated to curriculum goals
• Dedicated topic / agenda for each meeting
• In-house professional development credit
• Sharing of best practices, resources, lesson
  plans, assessments
• Sharing and evaluating student work for
  calibration purposes
• Tangible hands-on end result
• Collaborative planning devoted to long-term goals
  of the team

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Long-term Goals

• AP Training for all vertical team members
• Expansion of vertical team concept to include all
  members of department, not just AP and pre-AP
  teachers
• Monthly rotation of curriculum leaders in team
  meetings
• New teacher curricular support system
• More teachers teaching pre-AP courses
• Extension of vertical team to middle schools in
  district

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Benefits of the Vertical Team

• Measurable increase in student success on AP and
  college entrance examinations
• Increased enrollment in AP and pre-AP courses
• Collaborative planning within a professional
  learning community
• Collegial atmosphere
• Trickle-down effect on the regular classroom as
  best practices are brought to more students
• Higher curriculum standards in all classes

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AP Vertical TeamingFrom Theory to Praxis
Hackensack High School Changing our
Conversations
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Barriers photos from Bagdad, Aug 22,
2007-courtesy of my brother, Justin4.5 Billion
spent in Iraq 0670 million spent on US Education
06
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Barriers

• One-third of American eighth graders cannot
  perform basic math. That means more than a
  million thirteen-year-olds cant do the simplest
  calculations needed to buy a candy bar or ride a
  bus.

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Barriers

• The odds that any given ten-year-old in a large
  American city can read are about fifty-fifty, and
  six in ten for the nation as a whole.

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Barriers data fromONLY CONNECT The Way to
Save Our Schools by Rudy Crew, 2007

• Only one in five students entering college are
  prepared for college-level work in math, reading,
  writing, and biology.

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Tangible Barriers

• Illiteracy
• Poverty
• Disability
• Illness
• Abuse
• Oppression

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Intangible Barriers

• Low or unreasonable expectations
• Close-mindedness
• Cynicism or bitterness or jealousy or anger
• Prejudice or disdain
• Fundamentalism
• Inability to deal w/ ambiguity or change
• Inability to accept life-long learning

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Education in 21st CenturyBreaking Down
Barriersphotos from HHS SY 06-07
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Change the ConversationsThere is a direct
correlation between student achievement and
teacher attitudes and beliefs.
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Two Essential Messages for Success

• SY 06-07
• Change
• Your
• Conversations!
• SY 07-08
• TALK about
• Math Science
• College

• What you do
• TODAY
• affects you
• NOW
• and
• in the future.

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CHANGING CONVERSATIONSRethink, Rephrase, Reap
Rewards!

• Too difficult I will try
• Not for me Maybe for me
• At risk In training
• Not possible Probable
• Lower level Still learning
• Not capable Will learn in time
• Unskilled Becoming
• AP is elite AP is a possibility
• Maybe Bergen What 4-year college?
• Wont do work How will I motivate?

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Using Grants to Implement Reform
SLC Grant
TAH Grant
Title 1 Funds
CSRGrant
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Using Grants To Implement Support
Programs Services
Title 1 Funds CSR Grant
Extensive Tutoring Before School - During School
- After School Saturdays
Summer Institute of Advanced Studies
Algebra 1 Geometry
Core Math/EngHSPA Prep
Writing Prep English/ELL
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Using Grants Local Funds To
Implement Support Programs
SLC Federal Grant Local Funds
Extensive Tutoring Before School - During School
- After School Saturdays
Summer Institute of Advanced Studies
Core AcademicsPre AP AP Courses
Adv Math Science for Credit Courses
Pre AP Prep AP Prep
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Using Federal Discretionary Grant To
Prepare for NCLB Testing
Teaching American History Federal
Discretionary Grant

Preparation of CrossCurriculum Writing
Lessons In Preparation of NCLB Test


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Partnerships with Colleges to Implement
Reform (Currently Implemented or Under
Consideration)
FDU University
Bergen Community College


Montclair State University


Dual Credit College Programs BCC
Health Careers Program FDU Middle
College Program UMDNJ Pre Med Honors
ProgramNJCU College Placement Pilot Program


New Jersey City University
Univ Medicine Dentistry New Jersey
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Partnership with College Board to
Implement Reform
College Placement Testing
Professional Development
AP Test Preparation For Students
Validation Of Success
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Partnerships with Community
Organizations To Implement Reform



New JerseyChamber of Commerce
Hackensack Educational Foundation


DiscretionaryGrant Proposals To Private
Foundations
Learn More Now Do More Now,Earn More Later
Program
On-LineInstructionPilot Program
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DATA Hackensack High School

• Student Population SY 07-08
• 1804 students
• 40.5 Latino
• 28.5 African- or Caribbean-American
• 25.5 White
• 5.5 Asian
• More students from sending districts than in past
  5 years
• 15 Maywood, 8.3 Rochelle Park, 4 So. Hackensack

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HSPA Language Arts 05-07
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HSPA DataLanguage Arts, Writing

• Our Writing Initiative
• has been very SUCCESSFUL!!
• HHS Grade 11 students are AT or ABOVE state
  and District Factor Group (DFG CD) means for
• Open-Ended Writing
• Narrative Writing
• Persuasive Writing

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SIGNIFICANT Improvements in Language Arts

• gt 5 increase in general education students
  reaching proficiency over last SY AND
• gt91 first time ever since state testing
• Consistent increase in students reaching advanced
  proficiency in ALL student populations
• Significant increases in ALL subpopulations
• Significantly higher mean scores in ALL
  subpopulations (except females!) compared with
  state and District Factor Group (DFG) CD means

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SIGNIFICANT Improvements in Language Arts

• These dramatic results indicate
• SUCCESSFUL REFORMS!!!!
• Detracking in English and Social Studies
• Vertical Teaming among English/Social Studies
• School-wide Writing Initiative
• Mainstreaming 74 of Spec Ed students
• New ESL/Bilingual Reading/Writing Program

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HSPA DataLanguage Arts, Reading

• We need to work on READING!
• HHS Grade 11 students are BELOW or AT state and
  DFG CD means for all Reading Tasks on HSPA for
• Interpreting Text
• Analyzing/Critiquing Text
• Overall Reading Tasks
• NOTE Except LEP subpopulation which was above
  or at state and DFG CD means in overall reading
  tasks and analyzing/critiquing texts!

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HSPA Math 05-07
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AP Enrollment Growth Test Scores

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AP and Middle College Enrollment SY 0708

• Total of AP Enrollment 594
• (-3.5 from SY0607)
• Students in 1 or more AP Courses 398
• (29 from SY 0607)
• 22 of students are in an AP course compared with
  17 SY 0607
• Students in 1 or more Middle College 109
• 28 of students in college level work

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AP Tests SY 05-06 vs SY 06-07

• 132 students took AP exams (7 of total student
  population)
• 247 tests in 13 AP courses
• 42 earned 3, 4, 5

• 257 students took AP exams (14 of total student
  population)
• 500 tests in 21 AP courses
• 32 earned 3, 4, 5

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AP Scores are one indicator of the academic
health andculture of the school.AP English
Language Composition

• A course that began only TWO YEARS AGO!

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Growth in AP English Lang/CompSY 05-06 vs SY
06-07

• 61 students in SY 05-06
• 28 earned 3, 4, 5
• 62 earned 2
• 10 earned a 1

• 92 students in SY 06-07 (66)
• 49 earned 3, 4, 5
• 46 earned a 2
• 5 earned a 1

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Classroom Enrollment SY 01-02
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School Enrollment vs AP Enrollment SY 06-07
School Enrollment White 31 Hisp
37 Black 32
APEnrollment White 36 Hisp
38 Black 26
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Using Data to Measure Success
AP Enrollment
475 increase over 4-yr period (Total
school population) 235 increase over 4-yr
period (African-American subgroup)
335 increase over 4-yr period
(Economically disadvantaged)
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SAT Data SY 05-06 vs SY 06-07

• SY 05-06

• SY 06-07

• 316 students from HHS
• (state mean)
• Reading Mean 444 (495)
• Writing Mean 437 (494)
• Math Mean 462 (510)

• 238 students from HHS
• (state mean)
• Reading Mean 438 (496)
• Writing Mean 432 (496)
• Math Mean 461 (515)

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SAT Data GOOD NEWS!SY 05-06 vs SY 06-07

• 75 increase of HHS students taking SATs
• Despite more students taking SATs, there are
  SIGNIFICANT increases in Reading and Writing Mean
  Scores (even though state means for reading and
  writing decreased!)

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Our Data PROVEN RESULTS

• We must not stop the momentum.

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College Board Equity Policy StatementThe
College Board and the Advanced Placement Program
encourage teachers, AP Coordinators, and school
administrators to make equitable access a guiding
principle for their AP programs. The College
Board is committed to the principle that ALL
STUDENTS DESERVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN
RIGOROUS AND ACADEMICALLY CHALLENGING COURSES AND
PROGRAMSThe Board encourages the elimination of
barriers that restrict access to AP courses for
students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic
groups that have been traditionally
underrepresented in the AP Program my
emphasis
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Expectations and Challenges

• Expectation 1 All students can perform at
  rigorous academic levels and are consistently
  being challenged to expand knowledge/skills.
• (The AP Vertical Team Guide for English, p.xiii)
• Challenge Each student in our classrooms will
  be at a different academic level, based on
  knowledge/skills.

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Expectation 1 is possible only if

• All teachers have and work together in
  maintaining this expectation
• All teachers know that all students are being
  challenged to improve skills/build knowledge at
  each grade level
• All teachers know that upcoming students will
  have agreed upon skills, knowledge base, with
  excitement to continue!

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Expectations and Challenges

• Expectation 2 We can prepare every student for
  higher intellectual engagement by starting the
  development of skills and acquisition of
  knowledge as early as possible.
• (The AP Vertical Team Guide for English, p.xiii)
• Challenge We must align curricula, teaching
  methodology, assignments and assessments with
  rubrics

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Expectation 2 is possible only if

• All teachers have and work together in
  maintaining the expectation
• All teachers must be willing to meet regularly to
  discuss/review curricula and instruction
• All teachers must be willing to teach aligned
  curricula, implement agreed upon instructional
  strategies, and uphold standards.

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Essence of PreAP/AP Vertical Team

• The essence of the concept AP Vertical Team
  is that the skills taught in the AP program are
  important to all students in all English classes
  at all grade levels.the instruction is important
  because thinking, analyzing, and problem solving
  are fundamental skills for every career. (p. 3)

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Why the PreAP/AP Team?

• To increase standards
• To foster inclusion (Literacy Equity)
• To encourage innovation TOGETHER
• To coordinate instruction and curricula
• To empower both teachers and students
• To stimulate enthusiasm for learning.
• (pp. 4-5)
• All of these goals will recreate HHS into
  Professional Learning Community!

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What do we align? (Horizontal and Vertical)

• Content (continually reinforced)
• Skills (continually reinforced)
• Strategies when teaching writing in social
  studies
• Strategies when teaching reading in social
  studies
• Regular, coordinated use of nonfiction/primary
  sources
• Texts
• Summer assignments, homework, other assignments
  (research papers?), creative projects
• Extracurricular activities and tutorials
• Rubrics

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Align Instructional Strategies Writing

• Teach thesis development and writing
  particularly in responding to DBQs
• Assign essays and DBQs weekly
• Coordinate writing instruction with English
  teachers
• Use open-ended questions to assess content
  knowledge
• Require textual support for all open-ended
  questions
• Assign writing in every class
• Use same editing marks at all grades
• Use similar rubric for editing (HSPA?)
• Peer edit regularly.

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High School Teaching and College Expectations in
Writing and Reading(Patterson and Duer, English
Journal 95(3) January 2006, pp. 81-87)

• The study demonstrates statistically significant
  differences in reading and writing expectations
  of students in classes for college-bound vs.
  non-college bound.TRACKING LEADS TO INEQUITY!!!!
• The study demonstrates the need for grammar and
  usage in high school instruction.
• Some seemingly important higher-order reading
  skills have a questionable status in high school
  teaching

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High School Teaching and College Expectations in
Writing and Reading(Patterson and Duer, English
Journal 95(3) January 2006, pp. 81-87)

• The positives.
• High school teachers and instructors of common
  first-year college courses already agree on what
  many of the most important skills in writing and
  reading are.
• For example Using rhetorically effective
  subordination, coordination, and parallelism
• (QUESTION Do we teach subordination,
  coordination, parallelismespecially parallelism
  with participles, gerunds, infinitives?)

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High School Teaching and College Expectations in
Writing and Reading(Patterson and Duer, English
Journal 95(3) January 2006, pp. 81-87)

• Key Point for Social Studies Teachers.
• High school teachers and instructors of common
  first-year college courses already agree on what
  many of the most important skills in writing and
  reading are.

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Use passages to teach syntax (balanced structure,
parallelism, anaphora, antimetabole,
stichomythia see pp. 38-39), diction (overtly
religious), literary devices (juxtaposition,
paradox)

• It was the best of times, it was the worst of
  times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age
  of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it
  was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season
  of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was
  the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
  we had everything before us, we had nothing
  before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we
  were all going direct the other way- in short,
  the period was so far like the present period,
  that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on
  its being received, for good or for evil, in the
  superlative degree of comparison only.There
  were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a
  plain face, on the throne of England there were
  a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair
  face, on the throne of France. In both countries
  it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the
  State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things
  in general were settled for ever. -- Dickens, A
  Tale of Two Cities

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Align Instructional Strategies Reading

• Model making connections as you read (i.e., as
  you read X, you thought about Y and why)
• Read Aloud Encourage students to make
  connections between current and historical
  events
• Shared Reading Teacher and students share
  passages they appreciate from the text, book,
  article
• Reciprocal Teaching (frequent strategy at HHS)
• Shared Vocabulary Lists (from texts) Vocabulary
  is used by next grade level teacher.

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Regular, CoordinatedUse of Nonfiction

• Use nonfiction or primary documents in
  conjunction with text
• Use current events regularly to support text
  (preferably from The New York Times)
• Require regular written responses to nonfiction
  (with clear thesis and text support)
• Make regular connections with other core content
  How did this event impact social sciences,
  geography
• Encourage students to make connections with
  nonfiction or other media sources.

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Example of Use of Nonfiction ArticleIn Ancient
Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal from The New
York Times, A1, Friday, April 7, 2006.

• What impact might the discovery of this text
  (like The Gospel of Judas) have on the other
  primary sources that are sacred to Christianity?
• Why are only certain ancient texts sacred in a
  religious tradition (while other texts from a
  similar time considered apocryphal)?

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Example of Use of Nonfiction ArticleThe of
Impulse from The New York Times, Tuesday, April
4, 2006.

• To explore character in Salingers Catcher in the
  Rye With advances in brain study, is the
  character of Holden consistent with the new
  advances in physiology and psychology?
• Is Holden suffering from impulsivity disorder?
  Why or why not? Use text(s) to support your
  thesis.

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Using Nonfiction The Worst Hard Time, The
Ground Shook and The Victory of Reason

• Ask students to identify the premise (key idea)
  of the chapter and how this idea supports or
  challenges the text. Refute or support with
  references to the text.
• How do disasters impact history (geography,
  cities, populations, economy)? Read about 1906
  San Francisco Earthquake, Black Sunday on April
  14, 1935. Hurricane Katrina?

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Align Assignments (Summer and Weekly) Homework,
Regular Reading

• Align summer assignments (consequences of not
  completing summer assignment is consistent) in
  scope and sequence
• Limit creative projects to vacations
• Assign essays weekly with variations Timed,
  timed and edited at home, peer edited,
  thesis-statement only, etc.
• Assign DBQs as one of the essays once a month
• Provide regular reading schedules for the month
  with text, primary sources, and nonfiction
  articles/chapters mapped out, so students will
  learn to time manage and will be held
  accountable. (BE FLEXIBLE)
• Create a webpage linked to the HHS AP website.

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The Dreaded Weekly EssayThere are ways to
cope!!!

• Assess writing/reading skills in first weeks to
  determine which students need most improvement (I
  can give you ways to accomplish this task)
• Grade one essay a month in depth
• With other essays, focus on students who need
  most improvement (and give cursory scan to
  others)
• Use peer editing after November for grammar
  problems
• Spend lots of time on thesis development The
  rest of essay can be determined by the thesis!
• Choose one aspect of essay writing to improve
  each month use of text as support OR essay
  intro OR conclusion OR subordination of ideas OR
  pronoun-antecedent agreement.
• Require open-ended questions to assess content
  knowledge before assigning an essay
• Essays should be DBQs.

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Align Texts

• What grade should read Guns, Germs, and Steel?
  etc.
• All teachers should know what students have read
  in previous grades to help students make
  connections with past reading, to build upon the
  continuum of primary sources to prep for AP
  questions to help students with DBQs
• Use nonfiction and primary sources regularly to
  support the text.

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AlignExtracurricular Activities and Tutorials

• Period 10 tutorials addressing writing issues
• Period 10 discussion groups
• PreAP and AP US teachers use common text and show
  nonfiction film detailing the event with
  discussion
• In April and May Period 10 Review of AP Tests
  with PreAP students invited.

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CHANGE THE CONVERSATIONS

• Some ideas to think about as we team today and in
  days to come

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According to Deal and Petersen in Shaping School
Culture, successful schools where students
flourish are those with a primary focus on
student learning, a commitment to high
expectations, social support for innovation,
dialogue, and the search for new ideas.
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Change the ConversationsThere is a direct
correlation between student achievement and
teacher attitudes and beliefs.
73
Studies demonstrate that writing enhances a
students literacy skills, and reading improves a
students writing ability. The more time
students spend in writing and reading, the
greater their level of achievement. (Wood and
Harmon, p. 26)
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Classroom teachers (and their attitudes/beliefs)
determine what gets taught and how it gets taught
and ultimately how well students respond and
achieve.
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Establishing study habits and class routines
areessential for academic reforms that are
lasting.