State of our School Orangevale Open K-8 January 2015

State of our School

       Orangevale Open K-8
          January 2015

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Remodeling at State & Federal Level:
           Institutional Integrity at OVO K-8
    Strategic Plan Mission and 3 Objectives (SPSA)

    Standards : Common Core in ELA & Math
                           Next Generation Science
                           California State History, the Arts
       Curriculum Locally developed
       Instruction  PBL – Hands-on, Personalized : student goal setting
       Assessment    MAP (RIT), SBAC interim, benchmark,
                       CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance & Progress)
                       Text Level, Lexile (AR)
       Elementary Report Cards & Successful Practices

    Funding: LCAP

    Enrollment : Next Year – an additional class in grades 1 and 7
    Communication Schoology
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OVO’s Mission Guides Us

    Learning by doing, together, the mission of the
    Orangevale Open K-8 Community is to cultivate
    in all students the curiosity that leads to
    creativity, lifelong learning, and responsible
    citizenship by connecting meaningful experiences
    to individual passions and motivation in a
    trusting, collaborative environment.

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OVO’s Strategic Plan Keeps Us Focused

     Our Strategic Plan (and SPSA) has 3 objectives for 2016:
      1. All students will develop and complete personalized
        educational goals appropriate to their level incorporating
        curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.
      2. All learners will participate in meaningful experiences
        including student generated activities that support personalized
        learning and cross-aged collaboration.
      3. There will be a 20% increase in the number of family and
        community members actively participating in supporting the
        development of all students.

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The change in Standards has led to the remodeling of Curriculum,
    Instruction, Assessment, and Elementary Report Cards
       CCSS ELA, ELD and Math
       NGSS
       CA History & the Arts Standards are next
       OVO’s Science-Math Night is coming up – March 24
       We want kids to formulate problems and become patient problem
        solvers who have collaborative conversations to learn from one
        another.
       We are moving from answer getting more to sense making. We are
        developing conceptual understanding by implementing curriculum
        from a coherent set of standards that were designed backwards from
        what it takes to be successful in college & in a career.
       Video on why the CCSS were developed and their purpose
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUjjk9lgDcY

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OVO’s Teachers are developing curriculum and approaches to instruction guided
         by the CCSS and NGSS. They know best what our students need.
       They will help guide you; turn to them as resources and offer support!

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The change in Standards means remodeled Curriculum, Instruction, and
    Assessment. This will show up in how students learn and teachers teach.
       Students are engaged, motivated, empowered, and independent.
          Reading and writing go together
          Technology is a tool that drives literacy
          Literacy goes across the entire day; it's the through line
          Readers & Writers must be critical thinkers
          Speaking & listening count more now than ever before
          Access to text and technology is crucial
          Collaboration is necessary in every subject area
          Reasoning abstractly & quantitatively are emphasized
          Students construct viable arguments & critique others
          Models are used in math
          Students attend to precision
          Students look for and make use of structure
          Students look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

         Learning activities (performance tasks) are designed to build students’ stamina, perseverance,
           independence, digital literacy and to promote their use of strategies and tools as they problem
           solve.

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New standards, which FIT WITH OVO’s Philosophy, give us the chance to
           remodel where necessary to improve our students’ learning.

     Students setting personalized learning goals
     Project Based Learning
     Digital Literacy and research skills are embedded throughout the standards
     Assessment will include the following
        Text Level and Lexiles
        MAP Tests and RIT Levels
        SBAC interim tests, benchmarks
        CAASPP
     In High School, the biggest change is in Math. The standards cover 5
      domains or conceptual categories in 3 years: math was not divided into
      courses by those designing the standards. The concepts and skills are
      integrated and taught in contexts that are cross curricular, just as real life
      applications of math have no set boundaries. We use math when we cook,
      drive, exercise, work…
     No one said it would be easy.

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Integration and alignment are key to
    the CCSS in ELA, ELD, Math & NGSS.

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Common Core Math Develops Patient Problem Solvers Who
        Have a Strong Conceptual Understanding of Math

     This is NOT really all that New!
     In 1965, Tom Leher, a mathematics professor, wrote the song,
        “New Math.” While 50 years old, it resonates with some
        parents today as we shift to Common Core.
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIKGV2cTgqA

     The shifts are widely applauded by teachers! They are good.
      http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_
       makeover?language=en

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Common Core Math Includes both Content Standards (see the CDE
        website) and Standards of Mathematical Practices (below)

     1.   Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
     2.   Attend to precision
     3.   Reason abstractly and quantitatively
     4.   Construct viable arguments & critique the reasoning of
          others
     5.   Model with mathematics
     6.   Use appropriate tools strategically
     7.   Look for and make use of structure
     8.   Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

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Common Core English Language Arts & English Language
     Development Standards increase focus on informational text &
     vocabulary, which increases the text complexity students face.
       The teaching of literacy happens across content areas, and
       teachers of students in grades 6-12 share responsibility for
       teaching reading, writing, speaking, listening and language.
      Lexile ranges of texts increase (not applicable to K-1):
        Grade Level      Old Lexile Ranges    CCSS Lexile Ranges
          2-3               450-725                450-790
          4-5               645-845                770-980
          6-8               860-1010               955-1155
          9-10              960-1115               1080-1305
          11-CCR            1070-2020              1215-1355

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Why Successful Practices* on the
            Elementary Report Card?

      Research shows these are as important as academic
       achievement when it comes to success in college and career.
      Angela Duckworth’s video explaining grit helps illustrate
       why:
        http://www.ted.com/talks/
         angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit?language=en

       *Handouts provided

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Class Size Reduction Returns! Yeah!
      In 2015-16
        Bubble #2 A third class in 1st grade of 26 students
        Bubble #1 A third class in 5th, 6th & 7th (two 4th g classes)

          2016-17   A third class in 2nd, 6th, 7th & 8th (two 5th g classes)
          2017-18   A third class in 3rd, 7th, & 8th (two 6th g classes)
          2018-19   A third class in 4th, 8th (two 7th g classes)
          2019-20   A third class in 5th (two 8th g classes)
          2020-21   A third class in 6th
          2021-22   A third class in 7th
          2022-23   A third class in 8th Bubble #2 is promoted!

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Effective Communication is Essential

      Schoology – an online tool that is like a bulletin board and a
       filing cabinet: allowing messages to be posted or sent to
       individuals. Documents can be stored as well.
        Teachers
        Students
        Parents

        Training is ongoing, and we happen to have a session for
         teachers this week
        Parents are invited to attend training too: Saturday, 1/24/15 at
         the Digital Edge from 8:30-11:30 or 12:30-3:30

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More remodeling: The state’s new
     Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)

      Supplemental Funds are provided to address the needs of
       English Learners, low income and foster youth.
      Base Grant monies are the same for every local educational
       agency with adjustments based upon the grade level of
       students
      The Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) explains how
       each District is using the funding to improve student learning
      News from the Capital says more educational monies are
       coming to schools very soon!

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Additional Information about CCSS & NGSS
                   can be found online

      http://www.sanjuan.edu/Academics.cfm?subpage=161035
      http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/cc/index.asp
      www.smarterbalanced.org
      www.scoe.net/castandards/index.html
      http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/cc/documents/ccssresourcesfor
       parentsandguardians.pdf
      www.caaspp.org (Try out the Training & Practice Tests here)

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If there is one thing you can you do to
     support your students, what would it be?
     “The Melbourne Institute of
     Applied Economic and          Read aloud to them.
     Social Research published
     results from a six-year
     longitudinal study of
     children's reading skills
     showing that reading aloud
     to children every day puts
     them almost a year ahead
     of children who do not
     receive daily read alouds.
     The truly astonishing
     finding from this study is
     that the positive and
     dramatic developmental
     outcomes of reading over
     even longer periods of time
     occured "regardless of
     parental income, education
     level or cultural
     background." Pam Allyn,
     Literacy Expert and
     Founder of LitWorld.

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More ways to support learning:
      Have your children read to you. Talk together about the
       content.
      Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
       facts.
      Demonstrate and teach perseverance to build stamina in
       patient problem solving (do not give them answers).
      Illustrate your thinking about real world problems; make
       models and discuss your approach. Ask your children to do
       the same.

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“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s,
                    we rob them of tomorrow.”

                         --John Dewey

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