Instructional Facilitators for Literacy

Eric Bush- Jackson

x7012

Patricia Burke-Evergreen

x5763

Pat Collins-North

x4907

Loretta Comfort-Center

x4064

Cindy Foster-Eisenhower

x7518

Tasha Lewis-Center

x4071

Tessa O’Connor-Everett

x4437

Deb Ritchhart-Heatherwood x6483

Monte Schultz-Cascade

x6039

Barbara Tibbits-Gateway

x6712

Volume 1—Issue 4

April 2009

IMPORTANT DATES

4-27 thru 5-1

Grade 6 Writing

Benchmark Tri 2 Testing Window

4-28

CE Cadre Meeting, 7am-3pm,

Center C-3

5-4

COE PLC-Cascade Library 3-5pm

5-6 or 5-8

Grade 6 Writing Scoring

5-14

Argumentative Paper PLC,

3-5 pm, SHS Library

5-15

READ180 4th SRI Window Opens

5-19

READ180 PLC Meeting,

3-6pm, EIS Library

5-26 thru 29

Reading Tri 3 Bench-

mark Testing Window

Let the Reading Begin

On Friday March 27

th

, 230

students at Eisenhower Middle

School hunkered down in the library

for the first ever Read-a-Thon. Stu-

dents challenged themselves to read

non-stop for up to six hours without

talking, looking up from their books,

or distracting others around them.

Judges walked around eagle-eyed

with clipboards to record any stu-

dents who were violating Read-a-

Thon protocol. Fortunately, four min-

ute breaks were granted at the end

of every period for stretching and

chatting, but once four minutes was

up, the whistle blew and it was time

to read again. The Read-a-Thon co-

ordinators, Johnna Christensen and

Cindy Foster, predicted that at the

end of the day there would probably

be only a handful of students left

reading. To their amazement when

the last whistle blew, ending the

Read-a –Thon, there were 167 stu-

dents still reading!

Highlights of the Read-a-Thon

You would think that middle

school students would roll their eyes

at the idea of reading for six hours.

Instead when the whistle was blown

the library was filled with students

celebrating because they made it

through another hour of the Read-a-

Thon. When asked to reflect on the

day, comments like, “…loved the

challenge and the suspense of mak-

ing it” and “…thrilled with the oppor-

tunity for a quiet and relaxing envi-

ronment to read” were noted numer-

ous times by participants.

(continued on pg. 2)

Volume 1—Issue 4

April 2009

Eisenhower Students Read and Read and

Read and Read...

Read and Read...

Instructional Literacy Facilitators

Eric Bush- Jackson HS

x7195

Patricia Burke-Evergreen MS x5763

Pat Collins-North MS

x4907

Cindy Foster-Eisenhower MS

x7518

Tasha Lewis-Center

x4071

Tessa O’Connor-Everett HS

x4437

Deb Ritchhart-

Heatherwood MS x6483

Monte Scholz-Cascade HS

x6107

Barbara Tibbits-Gateway MS

x6712

Curriculum Specialists

Loretta Comfort-Center

x4064

Jeanne Willard-Center

X4053

Eisenhower challenges students to read non stop for six straight hours

SPOTLIGHT ON LITERACY

SPOT

DEPA

LIGHT

RTMENT OF CURR

ON

ICULUM AN

LITERACY

D ASSESSMENT

Written and Edited by Instructional Literacy Facilitators and Specialist

---

Page 2

( Eisenhower Reads... continued from pg. 1)

While it is not easy for any student, let alone a mid-

dle school student, to sit still for any length of time the

Eisenhower students were determined to flex their

reading muscles. Participants who were not expected

to even complete an hour of the Read-a-Thon met the

challenge and maintained reading stamina for the en-

tire six hours. In addition, the students’ seriousness

regarding the Read-a-Thon was accentuated when

judges observed students wrapping up one book and

replacing it with another making sure their eyes never

left the printed page.

There Is More In Store

Due to the success of the Read-a -Thon,

Ms. Christensen and Ms. Foster are looking for-

ward to Eisenhower’s next literacy event, the May

Madness Poetry Reading Competition with spe-

cial guest Mike Hickey, the Poet Populist of Seat-

tle. If you are interested in further details about

the implementation of a Read-a –Thon at your

school, contact teacher librarian Johnna Christen-

sen at jchristensen@everettsd.org

or IFL Cindy

Foster at cfoster@everettsd.org

.

Additionally, if you want to know more about how

to build reading stamina in your classroom check

out our previous December 2008 newsletter arti-

cle “Reading in the Zone”, or Nancie Atwell’s

book

The Reading Zone

.

www.everett.k12.wa.us/literacy/Secondary%20Reading

Professional Learning

Professional Learning

Community Updates

Collection of Evidence

Collection of Evidence

The COE Professional Learning Community will

meet two more times before the end of this school

year: May 4 and June 1 at Cascade High School Li-

brary 3-5pm. The May 4th meeting will focus on the

augmentation process and the upcoming sufficiency

review for current collections being built. June 1 will

focus on next year’s fall COE class start-up and a

debriefing about how this year went. The idea of a

working potluck dinner

has also been discussed for

the June 1 meeting; invitations will be sent confirming

meeting agendas and the potluck idea if it is ap-

proved. Please contact Eric Bush if you have any

questions: ebush@everettsd.org

or 425-385-7195.

READ180

READ180

The monthly

READ 180

Professional Learn-

ing Community (PLC) succeeds in providing

READ

180

teachers the opportunity to share and reflect

on instructional practices that improve student

learning and strategies for implementing the

READ 180

instructional model. This year, teach-

ers and instructional facilitators of literacy have

provided one another with ongoing professional

development around preparing students to de-

velop a reading process in order to become inde-

pendent readers and embedding the explicit in-

struction model throughout the READ 180 cur-

riculum.

Guided by the leadership of Tasha Lewis,

Instructional Facilitator for READ180, teachers

focused on implementing the explicit instruction

model when planning lessons around the whole-

group, small-group, and independent reading ro-

tation. This focus led us to look closely at student

data, which included teacher collected data as

well as data generated from the READ 180 in-

structional software, to reflect on and set goals

for student learning. In addition, teachers

planned lessons with colleagues and reflected on

the instructional practices embedded within the

program’s curriculum: explicit instruction model,

reading for a purpose, building mental models,

and building background knowledge.

(continued on pg. 4)

---

Page 3

Why create a book club with high school stu-

dents and 8

th

graders?

Eighth graders are notorious for losing moti-

vation. For many of them reading for pleasure is the

last thing they would be caught dead doing. In

spring, their motivation is at an all time low. Deb

Payne, teacher librarian at Everett High School,

came up with an amazing idea to hook students at

Everett HS (in case you didn’t know high schoolers

aren’t so motivated in the spring either) and North

MS. The plan was to reel them in by creating an

EHS and North MS cross-school book club. Stu-

dents were enticed to join the club with a book,

lunch in the library, blogging and the final celebra-

tion with free food. With this combination you could

land a shark let alone an 8

th

grader. By doing this

the hope was to bring two schools together around

a book and to pro-

vide an opportunity

for 8

th

graders to

interact with high

school students in

a comfortable and

informal way.

Here’s how the

book clubs works

Twenty-five North Middle School 8

th

graders are

meeting in the library at lunchtime to discuss the

book

The Gospel According to Larry

by Janet

Tashjian. Students are meeting every Friday with

Kenleigh Kelly, the North librarian, and Pat Collins,

Instructional Facilitator for Literacy (IFL), to discuss

questions and respond on the book club’s blog.

Simultaneously, EHS book club students are

reading the

Gospel According to Larry,

discussing

the questions with Deb Payne and Tessa O’Con-

nor, Everett’s IFL, and responding on the book

club’s blog. Students from EHS and NMS are

reading each other’s responses, making com-

ments, and posing questions about the book on

the blog. On May 6

th

, NMS students will walk to

EHS to finally meet face to face, have lunch in the

EHS library. The book clubs and the final event

target the following grade level expectations:

2.3.3 Evaluate the author’s use of literary devices to en-

hance comprehension.

2.4.2 Analyze author’s purpose and evaluate how an

author’s style of writing influences different audi-

ences.

2.4.4. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the au-

thor’s use of persuasive devices to influence an

audience.

2.4.5 Analyze text to generalize, express insight, or re-

spond by connecting the other texts or situations.

(continued on pg. 4)

Everett High School and North Middle School

Spring Literacy Connection Project

Spring Literacy Connection Project

N

o

r

t

h

M

i

d

d

l

e

S

c

h

o

o

l

N

o

r

t

h

M

i

d

d

l

e

S

c

hoo

l

Ev

e

r

e

t

t

H

i

g

h

Sc

h

o

o

l

E

v

e

r

e

t

t

H

i

g

h

S

c

h

o

o

l

---

Page 4

Family and Community Connections

The book club events are open to the stu-

dents’ families in addition to community guest

speakers. Eighth grade students at NMS and their

parents were required to make a strong commit-

ment to reading the book by signing a participation

contract. Family members are encouraged to read

the book as well and discuss it with their child, a

good way for parents to model literacy in the home.

Additionally, an internet conference with the

author will take place at EHS during the final cele-

bration. Using technology capabilities, the author

will be conversing with students live via video con-

ferencing. Students will have the opportunity to ask

the author questions and share their reactions to

the novel.

It is important to note that

Everett Public

Schools Foundation

provided a grant that sup-

ported this important project. Because of their gen-

erous donation, each student received a free copy

of The

Gospel According to Larry

and the funds to

purchase food for the May 6

th

celebration lunch.

High School Literacy Review

High School Literacy Review

We’re almost there!

We’re almost there!

Recommended titles for our core

Recommended titles for our core

books will be unveiled soon.

Argumentative Paper

Argumentative Paper

Streamlining the process

The teachers of argumentation have worked dili-

gently this year to streamline the process of completing the

Argumentative Paper and have worked with students in a

step-by-step fashion to help ensure success. On May 14th

the final Argumentative Paper PLC will convene at Sequoia

High School from 3:00—5:00; participants will discuss suc-

cessful approaches they used and make recommendations

for next steps for the 2009-2010 school year.

Revised rubric

At the April 15th Rubric Calibration Training, 25

teachers and IFLs met to analyze student papers with the

new rubric. Most felt that the new rubric was a vast improve-

ment as it is instructional in nature as well as providing a

summative assessment. Since it is the first year the rubric

has been used, revisions were anticipated. This thoughtful

group offered possible changes to strengthen the rubric for

next year. We are hoping to have the revisions ready for

your feedback at the May 14th PLC. Please direct any ques-

tions to JoAnne Buiteweg, Monte Scholz or Loretta Comfort.

(READ180 PLC….continued from pg. 2)

While keeping the explicit instruc-

tion model at the core of our professional

development each month, the READ 180

learning community has also focused on

instruction around test-taking skills,

which is a genre within the READ 180

program. In January, teachers began

planning for instruction around test-

taking skills and shared ideas for using

the READ180 Reading WASL practice

items as both an instructional and assess-

ment tool.

Since February, our learning com-

munity has been learning how to use pro-

tocols, specifically the Tuning Protocol, to

examine student work in order to deepen

our understanding of how to reflect

deeply on evidence of student learning to

improve instruction.