Thursday, April 3, 2008

Placement Testing- Main Phase Complete!!

Throughout the last two weeks your Literacy Coach along with Elementary Curriculum and Instruction Facilitators have been working to administer the Language! Placement Test to all 5th, 7th, and 8th grade students in an effort to fully implement the program across all middle and high school grade levels throughout the district. While there are still some make-up testing still to be "tackled" and graded in-house during the month of May, most of the district students were tested at this time and the materials are now in route to be graded by Sopris with recommendations for next year soon to follow!

New Language! Checklist provided by Sopris

Below you'll find the new and improved Language! checklist which your Literacy Coach will be using upon visit to your classroom. This will be useful in taking your teaching and the program to the next level of implementation.

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

Level of Implementation

Component

Comments

P

D

N/E

N/A

1. Lesson plan evident and clearly driving the daily instruction.


2. Environment reflects an advanced knowledge of

LANGUAGE! concepts and instruction (bulletin boards,

materials, etc.)

3. Student materials are in use (Student Text, Interactive Text,

Student Notebooks)

4. Displayed student work clearly represents exemplary student

outcomes for one of the daily 6 Steps

5. Physical arrangement encourages students to see and hear all

parts of the lesson and permits teacher to easily access all

students

TEACHING ATTRIBUTES

Level of Implementation

Component

Comments

P

D

N/E

N/A

6. Instruction follows Teacher Edition steps from sound to

text


7. Instruction contains accurate and clear explanation of

concepts and content

8. Instruction is direct, explicit and differentiated as needed

(including providing students “think time” before answering

questions)

9. Instruction paced according to recommended time

allocations (minutes per step 10-10-15-15-20-20)

10. Connections between activities and steps are clearly

articulated

11. There are ample opportunities for guided practice with a

high level of teacher direction and interaction

12. Teacher implementing plan/procedures for catching up

students who are absent

13. Transition between activities is efficient/rapid

14. Immediate re-teaching, reinforcement and feedback

15. Assessment data/grading system is updated regularly and

clearly used to adjust instruction; teacher using online

component

STUDENT BEHAVIORS

Level of Implementation

Component

Comments

P

D

N/E

N/A

16. Students monitor their own fluency progress


17. Actively engaged and on task

18. Display clear knowledge of procedures and routines

19. Display high level of interaction with teacher

20. Engage in a variety of appropriate peer interactions

21. Students regularly use Student Interactive Text as an

instructional tool and resource


P-Present (strong aspect) D-Developing (aspect present but needs strengthening)

N/E-Not Evident (observer expected to but did not witness this aspect)

N/A Not Applicable (does not apply to lesson observed/observer was not present for this part of the lesson