Duluth Middle School Keeping the Vision

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Duluth Middle SchoolKeeping the Vision

• Everyone owns writing..not just Language Arts.

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Preparing for the Pilot 2007

• Trained all language arts teachers on the new
  rubric.
• Adjusted the schoolwide writing pre-test prompt
  to reflect the new expository/persuasive prompts.
  
• Language arts teachers scored the pre-tests,
  based on the rubric.

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Developing a sense of urgency

• DMS Pilot Scores
• 2007 8th Grade Test
• Does Not Meet 29
• Meets 64
• Exceeds 7
• Total Pass -71

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Teacher Planning CommitteeFebruary 2007

• Lack of ownership among teachers not teaching
  language arts.
• Need for more staff development on the rubric and
  writing strategies for all teachers.

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Teacher Planning CommitteeFebruary 2007

• 3. Need to set parameters for teaching writing in
  all content areas.

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Teacher Planning CommitteeFebruary 2007

• 4. Need for a formalized plan for teaching
  writing 6-8.to see growth over time.

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Writing GoalLSPI 2007-2008

• Separate writing goal for the school to improve
  expository and persuasive writing.

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Indicators of Success

• All students would pass 2008 8th grade writing
  test.
• Number of students scoring in the exceeds level
  would increase to 25
• Students would improve a minimum of one level on
  the schoolwide pre- to post test.

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Implementation Plan

• Every content area would develop a plan to assess
  at least one major writing assignment each
  quarter that would be scored using the 8th grade
  writing rubric.
• Every DMS teacher would be trained to use the 8th
  grade writing rubric to score assignments in his
  or her classroom.

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Implementation Plan

• 3. Every LA teacher would keep a writing
  portfolio for each student. Best pieces from
  each content area would be added at year-end to
  be passed to next years teacher.

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Implementation Plan

• 4. Every teacher would participate in staff
  development to apply writing and reading
  strategies in all curriculum areas.
• 5. Scoring student papers and comparing these to
  anchors would be a part of curriculum grade level
  and vertical team meetings.

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Implementation Plan

• 6. Students would set reading and writing goals
  and review their portfolios as part of advisement
  sessions, which are held every two weeks.
• 7. Students writing levels would be discussed
  with parents at conferences and through progress
  reports e-mailed or sent home.
• 8. Sentence structure and basic grammar would be
  practiced through target time daily.

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How did we achieve the goal?

• Writing and Reading Strategies
• Staff Development for All

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Staff Development

• Local school summer staff development for all
  staff for reading and writing strategies Val
  Mickish, Nancy Lyle
• Redelivered the summer staff development to all
  who were unable to attend.

• Kevin Raczynski. Worked with all language arts
  teachers in November on levels and assessment.
• In February, Kevin worked with science and social
  studies teachers to show how to assess writing
  specific to these content areas.

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How did we achieve the goal?

• Teacher buy-in from all content areas

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Teacher Buy-In

• Started with the data and teacher planning
  committee for reading and writing needs.

• Language arts teachers worked with teammates to
  score first schoolwide pre-tests according to the
  rubric.

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Teacher Buy-In

• Math
• Essays on tests
• Technical writing to explain a task/problem

• Connections
• Connecting vocabulary/style to writing scripts,
  performance reviews, etc.

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Teacher Buy-In

• Science
• Experimental design
• Research papers

• Social Studies
• Primary documents-based writings
• Research
• Historical journals

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Teacher Buy-In

• 8th Grade Language Arts teachers initiated a
  Writing Boot Camp as a review for the 8th grade
  writing test in January.

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How did we achieve the goal?

• Keeping the vision

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Keeping the vision

• Sharing results
• Schoolwide writing scores database
• Curriculum team data reviews

• Progressive approach to writing discussed at
  vertical team meetings
• Sharing the results of the 8th grade writing test
  in January as celebration for all staff.

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Results and Conclusions

• 8th Grade Writing Test DMS 2008

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Results DMS 2008

• 8th Grade Writing Test
• Does Not Meet 11 (Reduced by 18)
• Meets - 75 (Increased 4)
• Exceeds 14 (Doubled)
• Pass 89

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Conclusions DMS 2008

• Staff development in assessment of writing
  utilizing scoring with the 8th Grade rubric
  should be ongoing for all teachers.
• Teachers and students should have more exposure
  to level 5s and different student examples of
  excellence in writing.

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Conclusions DMS 2008

• 3. Teachers should continue to develop
  content-specific assignments in expository and
  persuasive writing and to work collaboratively to
  assess according to the 8th grade writing rubric.
• 4. Schoolwide practice pre- and post-tests
  should continue to provide data for goals and to
  simulate the test for students in all grades.

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Conclusions DMS 2008

• 5. There needs to be more emphasis on setting
  writing goals and communicating writing progress
  to parents.

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Looking to next year

• Curriculum Leaders Summer Training
• Preparation of prompts for pre- and post-tests
• Writing the RBES goals for content areas
• Developing the LSPI
• Continuation of portfolios
• Boot Camp based on pre-test scores
• Continuing reading/writing strategies staff
  development.
• Student goals for writing