Language arts teacher Christi Lefevers has a literary discussion with sophomores Kaite Mason, Taelor Lawson and Adam Jones at Bell County High School. Photo by Amy Wallot, April 18, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Jennifer Yankey remembers the first vertical meeting of district middle and high school English/language arts (ELA) teachers being very quiet.

“I think we were all trying to figure out our purpose,” Yankey said. “But we’re not quiet anymore.”

Yankey, an English/language arts curriculum specialist for the Bell County school district, said this particular professional learning community (PLC) has helped teachers reinvigorate English/language arts classes within the district.

“Sometimes, we get stuck in our own world, in our own realm of teaching,” Yankey said. “Now, we’re sharing and growing together professionally.”

Maybe just as important, teachers are coming together to better understand the Kentucky Core Academic Standards; improve practices and leadership skills; and create a culture of unity across grade levels.

“This experience has opened a line of communication that did not exist before,” said Bell County High School teacher Christie Willis.

Willis and Yankey spearheaded quarterly ELA meetings following a push to promote advanced placement (AP) classes at the middle school level once Bell County High received an AdvanceKentucky grant.

Yankey said the first vertical meeting was facilitated by high school teachers. To incorporate more participation, different grade levels took turns hosting each meeting. As presentations differed, more conversations started taking place.

The information shared has benefitted everyone in one way or another, Yankey said.

Bell County High teacher Christi Lefevers said the vertical team meetings help all teachers because it gets them out of isolation in individual classrooms and helps them concentrate on their part of the Kentucky Core Academic Standards.

“We continually discuss the big picture and what it means to have students graduate from high school being college and career ready,” Lefevers said. “A common question heard during these meetings is, ‘What do you need me to do in order to help you?’ This is applicable to all grades. We begin with the end in mind and work backward trying to align our curriculum vertically.”

That was something Page School Center (P-8) teacher James Blevins was glad to see. Blevins, who teaches 7th and 8th grade, said it bothered him when he realized his students completed a reading assignment better suited for high school grades. He doesn’t worry about that happening again after a March meeting dealt with grade level reading lists. He now knows what high school teachers are having their students read.

“Vertical team meetings help me avoid awkward curriculum mishaps such as these,” Blevins said.

In the fall meeting, Blevins presented using a text annotation lesson from Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawles. His presentation focused on annotating a text for diction and figurative language.

The vertical meetings also helped changed Blevins’ mind about the use of T-charts as a graphic organizer. The T-chart wasn’t a favorite of his, and he hardly ever used it in his classroom.

“One of my colleagues demonstrated how she used the T-chart with her students to compare texts,” Blevins said. “It was then it clicked for me.”

Blevins now incorporates T-charts into his lessons more frequently.

“One specific unit I found it to be particularly beneficial with was our literacy non-fiction unit,” Blevins said. “The use of this graphic organizer during this unit of study better allowed my students to look for textual evidence that supported common themes in Winston Churchill’s speech “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” and World War II: Life on the British Homefront.”

Willis has made several presentations including a current events activity that she first heard at a summer AP training. She got great responses from the lower grade teachers who adapted the model to fit in their classrooms.

In turn, she has benefitted from the discussion involving argument thesis. “My students were having a hard time seeing the concession,” Willis said. “Once I showed them that their concession was actually in their thesis, it opened the door for understanding.”

Lefevers, who also presented on text annotation and analytical essay writing for End-of-Course exams, said she revisited her Laying the Foundation training that guides teachers in improving student critical thinking skills and added lessons into her classroom from it that meet the Kentucky Core Academic Standards for her grade levels.

“Watching an elementary teacher present his Laying the Foundation lesson over a Shakespearean sonnet and hearing the success rate of students’ analytical paragraphs and depth of critical thinking inspired me,” Lefevers said.

Other presentations have focused on districtwide standard thesis format, argument writing organization and guidelines, novel unit studies, curriculum alignment, test analysis and organizational topics.

Special education teachers and some district grades 4-5 teachers also have attended the meetings.

Yankey said that she has been impressed by the teachers’ commitment to growth that the meetings have fostered.

“At first, it was difficult because none of us knew what to expect,” she said. “But everyone committed to the meetings. At each one, more people were talking and getting more comfortable with sharing both successes and concerns.

“We’re developing a common language and bridging any gaps we come across,” Yankey added. “It’s been exciting to be a part of this.”

MORE INFO…
Jennifer Yankey, jennifer.yankey@bell.kyschools.us, (606) 337-1412

Montgomery County High School senior Nolan Walters, junior Shane Fauzey and senior George Hamilton stand back as cattle pass at the Chenault Agriculture Center.
Photo by Amy Wallot, April 11 , 2013

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Montgomery County school district students have no beef with eating locally-produced meat. And agriculture students at Boyle County High School feel the same way when it comes to sharing the fruits of their labor with their school cafeteria.

All puns aside, students in both Montgomery and Boyle counties are enjoying being part of agriculture programs at both high schools.

Montgomery County High School’s agriculture program has delivered 6,000 pounds of locally-raised beef this year to the district’s cafeterias, according to agriculture teacher Jeff Arnett. The school has been growing lettuce for the district for several years, he said, and the district’s food services director wanted to expand into beef.

Fellow agriculture teacher Alton Stull said students who worked with the cattle were very proud when the school served locally-produced hamburgers for the first time in October.

“You could really see a sense of pride in our students who had been in those classes and had the opportunity to do hands-on work with those animals, and see how all that work came full circle. They got to see the finished product there in the cafeteria,” he said.

Arnett said the district has 90 female cows on its 293-acre farm. Before this year, the agriculture department sold cows to a stockyard for market price. Now, instead of selling the cows to the stockyard, the animals are slaughtered, processed and sold to the district. Everything except the steaks, Arnett said, which are sold separately by the agriculture department.

While the agriculture department is just one of the district’s suppliers, Arnett said the local beef is the best. That’s because most ground beef is made from 11- or 12-year-old cows getting too old to produce calves. But Montgomery County slaughters 18- to 20-month-old cows once they reach about 1,300 pounds, he said.

Students work with the cows and calves, vaccinating and halter-breaking them, he said.

“The students are out there quite often,” he said.

Students took a field trip to the packing plant so they would know how the animals are processed, Arnett said. Most students in the agriculture class do not live on a farm and don’t know where food comes from, he said.

Toni Myers, a National Board Certified agriculture teacher at Boyle County High, runs into the same issue. A lot of her students don’t garden, so she helps teach them to provide for their own families.

“We’ve kind of missed a generation or two of raising their own food,” she said.

For the last few years, Myers’ students have sold Bibb lettuce grown hydroponically, meaning without soil, in the school greenhouse. In March alone the school sold the district 200 heads, she said.

“Every head that we raise, they put into school lunches,” she said.

The program began in 2008 when the district’s food services director asked Myers if she could grow lettuce as well as what the district was buying from a Kentucky grower.

Myers said she and her students began trying to grow the lettuce in 2009 and weren’t having much luck. So she contacted the local agriculture extension agent and a horticulture agent from the University of Kentucky to help.

Myers said one or two FFA, formerly Future Farmers of America, members grow the lettuce, and her greenhouse class monitors it every day for pests and damage. It takes 55 days before the lettuce can be harvested, she said, and she has to work hard to not let it dominate her time. The district could buy five times as much lettuce as it currently does, Myers said.

Besides the lettuce, the school sells the district cherry tomatoes in the winter and is raising food this spring to donate to the local Family Resource and Youth Service Center’s weekend backpack program for 30 needy families.

But there is more to supplying fresh food to schools than just growing, Myers said. Here greenhouse club is certified to handle the lettuce which is Kentucky Proud certified.

Matt Chaliff, state FFA executive secretary and Kentucky Department of Education agriculture consultant, said food safety is an important issue not just for students growing food but school food services staff in handling and preparing it.

Cafeteria workers have to deal with raw produce that aren’t canned, pre-washed or pre-packaged, he said.

But the results of using fresh foods are worth it, Chaliff said.

First, students are learning to grow their own food. Hopefully, five to 10 years down the road those students will produce their own gardens and provide healthier foods for their families, he said.

“They’re getting the science that goes with that and, in a lot of cases, they’re getting business skills related to the input costs and what they’re selling the vegetables for,” Chaliff said. “So they’re getting a lot of skills beyond just how to grow a head of lettuce.”

Student health also is improving because they are eating more fruits and vegetables, he said. And healthier students miss fewer school days and get more out of school.

“Our students are so into convenience foods and eat so much food that’s prepackaged and premade. All the research shows that the more processed food is, the less healthy it is. So the more we can get students to eat food that is fresh out of a greenhouse or fresh out of a garden or fresh off the farm, the healthier they’re going to be,” Chaliff said.

Fresh food tastes better and has more nutrients, he said. So students may be more likely to eat the healthier food and develop lifelong good eating habits, Chaliff said.

Many districts could produce their own food, he said. But food service directors have to be on board. They have to be willing to make it financially viable for the agriculture department but competitive for the food service budget, he said.

Myers agreed, saying interested agriculture teachers should approach their local food service director and ask what would work for them.

“Find the need in your school, and then try to meet it in your greenhouse,” she said.

MORE INFO…
Kentucky Department of Agriculture Farm to School
Matt Chaliff, matt.chaliff@educat

Amy Madsen talks with seniors Brittany Monique Ford, Heidi Bradley, Maranda Dawson and Amber Kidd about W.E.B. Du Bois during her African American History class at George Rogers Clark High School (Clark County). Photo by Amy Wallot, April 11, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

When Amy Madsen was a student at the University of Kentucky, she took a class on black history taught by associate professor Fon Gordon.

“It proved to be one of my favorite classes,” said Madsen, who now teaches history at George Rogers Clark High School (Clark County). “Dr. Gordon was so amazing, and she made me see how fascinating African American history is.

“I knew that I wanted to teach a class like that someday.”

Years later, Madsen is getting her wish.

Madsen began teaching African American History in January. The semester-long class goes beyond the traditional unit studies of black history that tend to concentrate on the slavery era. Madsen’s class included units on the colonial period, the Civil Rights movement and a heavy emphasis on the modern era.

“There’s just so much more out there for students to learn,” Madsen said.

Charles Hall, social studies consultant for the Kentucky Department of Education, said black history should be taught throughout U.S. History and not be taught solely as an individual unit in U.S. History.

That’s exactly what Madsen has tried to do, she said.

“I feel like there’s a great amount of content in this class,” she said. “It could easily be a year-long class.”

Madsen, who is working on making her black history class a dual-credit class, said her support from school administrators has been wonderful as she’s worked to get the class going.

She also has received great buy-in from both black and white students, too. There are more than 30 students in her class, many of whom are upperclassmen. One pleasant surprise, Madsen said, was how some of her students have responded emotionally to the history lessons.

“I knew some students would get emotional when talking about slavery, and they have,” Madsen said. “But that’s led to a real desire to learn more and more, so we’ve been able to go deeper in discussions about why it happened, and why it’s such an important part of history for everyone.

“Also, I’ve had some guest speakers in here, and they’ve been so captivating that my students were quiet and hungry to learn. You could hear a pin drop sometimes,” Madsen added.

Madsen said a few students have shown remarkable academic improvements since the class started back in January. She credits the subject matter and students being exposed to information they previously haven’t been offered.

“I have a few students who never spoke up in class, and now they are regular participants,” she said. “It’s been really enjoyable to watch them grow.”

Writing prompts have focused on short essays. A recent one had students write about a time they were denied something. She said several students wrote about being denied a cellphone or being allowed to go somewhere unless their grades improved. Others wrote about not making an athletic team or being forced to move to a different city.

“The responses were very open and honest,” Madsen said.

Her students also participate in community service projects. They organized a fish fry with proceeds going to charity, and decorated classroom doors during Black History Month. They also recently visited elementary schools to lead pep rallies and share inspirational raps as younger students prepared for K-PREP testing.

Madsen said students learned a lot from several novels like The Color of Water, Up from Slavery, The Souls of Black Folk and The Mis-Education of the Negro and watched films related to black history. Madsen also has the students read columns by Lexington Herald-Leader columnist Merlene Davis.

“My African American History course does encompass many themes and concepts from the ACT Course Standards provided by QualityCore,” Madsen said. “These are the standards tested on the U.S. History end-of-course exams.

“There is so much more out there about African American history for students to learn,” Madsen added. “I’m barely scratching the surface of what students should be exposed to in history..”

MORE INFO…
Amy Madsen, amy.madsen@clark.kyschools.us, (859) 744-6111

Paris High School (Paris Independent) Principal Jamie Dailey, right, talks with Chief Academic Officer Clay Goode. Photo by Amy Wallot, April 11, 2013

The Kentucky Department of Education, along with several partners and more than 50 school districts, is in the third year of a four-year plan to develop the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). Schools statewide will pilot the new system in the 2013-14 school year, with full implementation scheduled for 2014-15. This is the sixth in a series of stories that will examine different aspects of the proposed system.

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Principals will succeed in the new Principal Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PPGES) only if they help teachers help students succeed, according to Kevin Stull, PPGES strategy lead for at the Kentucky Department of Education.

Stull, who spent 13 years as principal at Garrard County High School before leading the statewide initiative, said the PPGES supports the Teacher Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (TPGES) in raising student achievement.

“(As principal), I need that teacher to be successful. I’m there to help them be effective, as opposed to being evaluative. If there is an area in which think they need to grow, my responsibility is to help them grow, not to be critical of that,” he said.

The PPGES is being field tested this year by 28 principals in 15 districts. Next year, each district will have at least one principal participate in a statewide pilot of the PPGES.

Stull said the principal and teacher PGES are similar in that they are both built on a framework of standards with specific indicators that tell teachers where they land on a spectrum from ineffective to exemplary. Both include input from others they supervise, self-reflection, professional growth plans and student-growth goals.

Because both are designed to help principals and teachers continuously improve, they share another important trait, he said.

“Both of them are circular in the process,” Stull said. “You’re never going to reach a place in either one where you say, ‘I’m done.”

While they have similarities, they also have differences, he said. Teachers and principals use different standards, for one. Principals have to be certified to observe teachers, but district administrators face no such certification to observe principals. While teachers are observed only a few times each year, principal observation is ongoing.

One of the biggest differences is that teachers can be ineffective, developing, accomplished or exemplary for each of the standards and indicators that are part of the TPGES. Principals, however, will receive ratings from the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) or TELL Kentucky Survey and student growth, Stull said. The details of how principals will receive their ratings likely won’t be completed until after the pilot, he said.

Rachelle Schjoll, principal at Paris Elementary School (Paris Independent), and Jami Dailey, principal at Paris Middle and High schools (Paris Independent), said they prefer the PPGES to how they have been evaluated in previous years.

Schjoll said the new system involves the principal more by allowing her to have more input. Dailey said the new system is more like a formative assessment where she works all year with her supervisor instead of having a year-end review – when it’s too late to make changes for that year.

“This is a year-long improvement process,” Dailey said.

Clay Goode, chief academic officer for the Paris Independent school district, said the standards in the PPGES are more relevant than previous evaluation systems. Paris Superintendent Gary Wiseman said the new system shouldn’t even be called an evaluation, because it is about continuous professional growth of a principal, not whether he or she can do the job.

Schjoll and Dailey said having student academic growth as one of the six standards makes principals look at data and find ways to help teachers improve student outcomes.

For instance, Dailey said she was unhappy the high school had a 37 percent college and career readiness score. She set her goal to be 50 percent by the end of this year. Dailey said teachers have been tracking every student on the college- and career-readiness benchmarks all year, and she had to raise her goal to 60 percent because students had already passed 50 percent at mid-year.

“We believe we can get there,” she said.

Schjoll found that reading was a weakness for 3rd-graders based on last year’s state test scores, so she set a goal to improve reading this year. She said she put specific plans in place and built her academic growth plan around 3rd-grade reading.

Stull said principals are responsible for helping teachers by improving processes and structures to support them in reaching their goals.

“For principals to be successful, based on the PPGES student-growth goals, the teachers have to be successful,” he said.

The PPGES contains six other standards: instructional leadership; school climate; human resource management; organizational management; communication and community relations; and professionalism.

Goode said the standards incorporate all phases of a principal’s job, but he considers instructional leadership to be the most important one of all. The indicators are more thorough than the previous ones, he added.

Dailey said, “For so many years, the principal was seen as the manager of the school and not really instructionally involved. They were the disciplinarian and took care of the managerial tasks. It’s the paradigm shift that everybody has been trying to get to where they serve as the instructional leader of the building and not just the manager of the building.”

To collect information on the seven standards, principal will receive input from VAL-Ed or TELL Kentucky in alternating years, self-reflection, their professional growth plan, observation, documentation of evidence related to specific standards, and goal setting for student growth.

Schjoll said principals may feel uncomfortable giving teachers input on their job performance, but it was very positive for her.

“Their voice is being heard, and I think that empowers them to feel like their instructional leader has to make some changes as well,” she said.

Goode said unlike previous principal evaluation systems, the PPGES requires central office administrators to know the school from many angles.

“To get a true picture of a school, you have to visit that school continuously throughout the school year,” he said. “A one-time visit is not going to give you an indicator of things like school climate, what is happening in the classrooms where the rubber really hits the road. You’ve got to be a part of that school to know the school.

“Those districts that don’t have that strong connection of getting into the schools, they’re going to find this process much more challenging to implement.”

Goode said implementing the PPGES takes more time than traditional methods of principal evaluation.

“As districts go through it, I think they’re going to see it makes principals better, it makes schools better, it ties the district office better to the schools, and that time is well worth it.”

MORE INFO…
Principal Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PPGES)
Kevin Stull, kevin.stull@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-1479

Seneca High School Principal Michelle Dillard molds clay bones with students as part of the One Million Bones project. Photo submitted

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Seneca High School art teacher Beverly Silletto had helped students create the clay bones for their public service project raising awareness of genocide. She’d helped gather them and helped put them in her two kilns.

But it wasn’t until she and her students were ready to remove the bisqueware bones that the project really hit home for them.

“When you opened up the kiln, the first things you saw were white bones – and they really do look like bones,” Silletto said. “It is so moving just to open that kiln and see that. The first time I saw that it made me gasp, and it made me think of concentration camps with all those bones.”

Students at multiple schools in the Jefferson County school district, including Louisville Male High, Olmsted Academy South and Seneca High, participated in One Million Bones. The national project raises awareness of genocide by encouraging students and artists to create clay bones that will be placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in June.

Seneca students created 3,057 bones, the most in the district. Each bone will generate a $1 donation through the Students Rebuild organization to support humanitarian relief and rebuilding work in Central Africa.

Teresa Ohlmann, small learning community coordinator at Seneca, said the project was a collaboration between International Seminar and art classes. International Seminar incorporates social studies, geography and culture to better help students understand the world, she said.

Ohlmann said she regularly receives information about service-learning projects, and she thought One Million Bones would be a good match for not only the International Seminar and art classes, but the whole school.

Seneca has a 78 percent free and reduced-price meal rate, so fundraising is difficult for students, she said. But with Students Rebuild donating a $1 for each bone, it was “a dollar they might not be able to give, but they could do the work.”

Stephanie Ikanovic, who teachers International Seminar and social studies, said the appeal of the project was obvious from the start.

“It’s hard to pass up – you make some bones and you’re making money to give to people,” she said. “It’s almost a no-brainer.”

But first, Ohlmann, Ikanovic and Andrea Gieszl, an International Seminar teacher, wanted to teach the students about genocide so they would see the relevance of the project.

Gieszl said one of the goals of the class it to make students more globally aware.

“For a lot of them, they’ve never even been outside of Louisville, so to just become aware of the fact there iS a world outside of theirs, it’s connected to theirs, and allows them to connect with it on a more personal level,” Gieszl said. “So many times when you just look in books or you just see something on the Internet, it doesn’t seem as real as with a project like this where they realize that every bone they made was actually worth something and going to genuinely help someone.”

Gieszl said most students understand the concept of genocide through studying the holocaust.

“But that’s the problem: For a lot of them, it’s fossilized,” she said. “They think it’s something that happened, and they’re not aware that this is something that’s always happened and is an ongoing thing now, too.”

So she approached genocide also as a current events unit, looking at places like Darfur in Sudan.

Ikanovic, whose Bosnian husband was 15 years old when he fought in the country’s civil war that included genocide, said she spent six weeks teaching about different genocides.

Gieszl said the most important lesson the students learned was that they can make a difference in the world.

“It’s not just learning about it, it’s doing something about it. They have the ability to make the difference, and they did,” she said.

When it came time to make the bones, students were very motivated, Ohlmann said.

“There was a real purpose when they started making those bones,” she said. “They understood what they were doing it about.”

Right before winter break, students and teachers spent three or four class periods making bones in the human skeleton. They built the bones from chunks of clay on pizza boxes.

Silletto said she helped show students how to work the clay to make the bones, and they were allowed to use handouts of bones from different parts of the body, like the hands and feet.

“So even if the students were not art students, they were getting art instruction at the same time,” she said.

One of the International Seminar students made all 27 bones in the human hand, Silletto said.

Once they were done, it took close to two weeks with two kilns going non-stop for more than 24 hours per set of bones.

The finished bones fill 15 boxes.

Ohlmann said she hoped the students would make 1,500 bones “and the kids went so far beyond that.”

“We not only helped people, but we made ourselves feel good about ourselves,” she said.

Besides making the bones, Seneca students participated in a two-day teleconference with students in Somalia, in partnership with One Million Bones and Students Rebuild.

Ohlmann said Seneca students come from 42 countries, including Somalia. But there was something different for the students in talking to students while they were in another country, she said.

As students began to converse, Ohlmann said she was impressed by questions students asked and the questions they answered.

“Here’s how I knew they were into it: because they were silent and listening,” she said.

Gieszl said it was good for students to have a connection to real people and to help put a face on the project they had completed.

Ikanovic said the video conference also helped students realize how lucky they are to live in the United States. Students were especially struck when they heard Somali students say how their lives were improving because they had running water, could go to school and could feel safe walking around.

MORE INFO…
One Million Bones
Teresa Ohlmann, teresa.ohlmann@jefferson.kyschools.us, (502) 485-8323

Amy Keadle listens to 1st-grade student Cooper Tuerk read during her class at Tilden Hogge Elementary School (Rowan County).
Photo by Amy Wallot, April 8, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

When Amy Keadle – like many current teachers – worked on spelling lessons as a child, she had a grade-level spelling book and regular tests. She said if students didn’t pass those tests, they simply moved on to the next list along with the rest of the class.

But Keadle, a National Board Certified Teacher who teaches 1st grade at Tilden Hogge Elementary School (Rowan County), doesn’t do it that way now.

“I have four different spelling lists,” Keadle said. “The lists are differentiated according to student developmental stages. If students do not show understanding of the word pattern, they study the pattern again the following week.”

Theresa Fisette, who teaches kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary School (Dayton Independent), remembers being taught grammar in 5th grade. Now, students in kindergarten get those lessons, too.

Fisette introduces her students to nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases and correct punctuation through their reading and writing.

“We might have a mini-lesson about nouns after reading a story, such as The Cat in the Hat or a discussion on prepositional phrases during a math lesson in which we read the book, Mouse,” Fisette said. “We might emphasize spacing between words or correct punctuation through our morning message or in their daily journal writing.

“The concepts are integrated throughout the curriculum instead of taught as a separate subject,” she added.

That’s happening more and more as expectations of early primary students are changing under the Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS).

Even before Kentucky approved the standards, teachers were veering away from outdated trends in K-2 grammar and spelling lessons.

In particular, spelling words correctly isn’t emphasized during the early primary years as it was decades ago – although it’s still a very important part of the learning process, educators say.

Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) literacy consultant MK Hardaway said, based on the KCAS, kindergarten students should be able to write letters for most consonant and short vowel sounds and be able to spell simple words phonetically.

First-grade students should show a natural progression from there.

“In kindergarten, a correct beginning and ending sound may be enough, for instance,” Hardaway said. “In first grade, they should have a better grasp and can use known patterns to spell other words. Since they know ‘man,’ they can spell ‘can’ and ‘fan.’”

Erin King, a 1st-grade teacher at Silver Grove (Independent) School, agrees that the developmental progression is crucial.

“It is more important to me that the students are using the phonics skills we have learned in class to spell unfamiliar words,” King said. “This shows me they are able to take the skills and apply them.”

Hardaway said it’s important that teachers don’t overwhelm young learners with the demand for proper spelling because, at that age, it’s imperative that teachers foster a love of writing, much like a love of reading.

If students are constantly told they are spelling words wrong, they are more prone to becoming discouraged in their writing.

“The early feeling of success is critical for children to be willing writers,” Fisette said. “You will usually be able to tell when a child is ready to take some constructive criticism, and you have to be selective in how much you correct. While I want my students to persevere, I do not want them to reach the level of frustration and quit.”

When she does choose to correct her students, Fisette said she reads back what a student has written using the sounds from letters and consanants consistent with their words. They almost always tell her she’s wrong.

“We try to find the sounds that would make the words say what they want them to say,” Fisette said. “We can correct incomplete sentences and problems with verb agreement in the same manner.”

Keadle emphasized the importance of gauging students individually and basing expectations on them accordingly. When she assesses students in spelling, she makes sure that they stay on pace with the patterns she’s covered like consonant-vowel-consonant words, silent ‘e’ vowel patterns and vowel team patterns.

She said that if she sees basic spelling mistakes, she will guide a student to the right spelling rather than make a bold correction.

“I might say, ‘This word is on the word wall. Can you find it and spell it correctly?’ or ‘I see that you know there is a long vowel sound in the word fear. You spelled it f-e-r-e. What other vowel patterns make the long ‘e’ sound?’” Keadle said.

King tries to make sure her sight words assessments are fun for the students. She will routinely give them letter magnets and baking sheets before calling out words for them to spell on the metal sheets. Or she might give them dry erase markers and let them spell called out words on their desks.

“The kids love writing on their desks, and it wipes off easily,” King said.

Like the technique Fisette uses for spelling corrections, one of the better approaches for correcting students in grammar and writing is to simply read back what a student has written, and typically the student will pick up on any mistakes themselves by hearing how the words sound together.

As with the assessments, standard writing prompts can be structured to engage early primary students and further develop a love of writing.

Giving students choices in their writing will lead to more ownership of their work, the teachers said.

“I give students a lot of choice during writing,” King said. “If the student is interested in the topic, he or she will be excited to learn about it and share with others.

“All students enjoy telling stories, therefore you have to find out what interests them and get them excited to share with others through their writing.”

King said her students seem to enjoy informative and exploratory writing the most. Fisette said her students enjoy list writing. They will list off toys they have in their room, animals that are mammals or items they would need to buy to make their favorite sandwich.

Her students also enjoy opinion pieces like: should Goldilocks get in trouble for sneaking into someone’s home or why should they go outside for recess today?

If a student expresses a disdain for writing, Fisette will encourage the student in a positive manner.

“Praise is the single most effective way for me to reach a student who does not want to write,” she said, adding that praise can come from fellow students, other staff in the room or even a principal or custodian.

“I try to be very specific in my praise, such as, ‘I love the way you described the dog. You drew a picture for me in my head,’ or ‘You are such a good writer. I could read it because you wrote all the sounds.’”

Telling a student you wonder what’s going to happen next also works well, Fisette said.

Keadle said students who don’t enjoy writing tend to feel that way because they don’t see the purpose in it.

“If writing is purposeful and authentic, students eagerly participate,” Keadle said.

MORE INFO…
MK Hardaway, mikkaka.hardaway@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-2106, ext. 4514
Theresa Fisette, theresa.fisette@dayton.kyschools.us, (859) 292-7492
Amy Keadle, amy.keadle@rowan.kyschools.us, (606) 784-4604
Erin King, erin.king@silvergrove.kyschools.us, (859) 441-3873

Robert King

Robert L. King became the third president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education in January 2009.

Since coming to the post, he has led statewide efforts to work collaboratively with his counterparts in K-12 education, has focused campus attention on student success, and is encouraging significant reform in teacher and principal training. He was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the national organization that serves State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), and serves as its Treasurer.

King is the former Chancellor of the State University of New York, one of the largest comprehensive systems of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the world. More recently, he served as president and CEO of the Arizona Community Foundation, a statewide charitable foundation with a strong focus on education, economic development, and scientific research. He also is very active in community service and has volunteered and served on numerous boards and organizations.

King received a bachelor of arts degree in 1968 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a Juris Doctor in 1971 from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. He is married to Karen, his wife of 36 years, and they have four grown children and one grandchild.

King recently answered some questions posed to him by Kentucky Teacher staff:

Can you explain what the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) oversees and its responsibilities?

CPE is the statewide coordinating agency for postsecondary and adult education. It enacts key legislation aimed at raising educational attainment to meet current and workforce needs, and improve the standard of living and quality of life of Kentuckians.  Guiding legislation includes the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997, Kentucky Adult Education Act (2000), Kentucky Innovation Act (2000), College and Workforce Readiness (2009) and transfer legislation (2010).

The Council’s most visible role is setting tuition each spring, a process that gets a lot of press attention as it directly impacts students and their families. I’m very pleased that our Council has moderated tuition increases over the past few years, and we will do so again this year.

Other major responsibilities include implementing a strategic agenda for postsecondary and adult education; submitting a biennial budget request on behalf of public postsecondary and adult education; approving admission criteria and academic programs; licensing non-public postsecondary institutions; administering the Kentucky Adult Education system and GED testing centers; and collecting, analyzing and reporting comprehensive performance data. We also administer programs that support legislative mandates and student success such as the Kentucky Virtual Campus, Kentucky Virtual Library, the Learning Depot, Kentucky Regional Optical Network, and GEAR UP Kentucky.

Who serves on the Council on Postsecondary Education and how are they chosen?

The Governor appoints members to the council. Our members include 13 citizens, one faculty member, and one student member; the commissioner of education is an ex-officio member. A listing of CPE members is available here.

How does Kentucky’s method of managing postsecondary education compare to other states?

Kentucky’s method of managing its higher education sector is similar, though not identical, to about half the states in the nation. The CPE is what is known as a coordinating board. In short, each campus and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) has its own governing board (trustees or regents), the members of which are responsible for hiring, supervising and, on occasion, discharging campus presidents. Those boards serve as fiduciaries for the state and its citizens to assure the campuses are operated effectively and in accord with state law. The CPE serves in a different capacity. It helps coordinate, among all the campuses, the development of operating and programmatic policies, budget proposals that become part of the biennial budget debate in the legislature, and we are charged with “determining tuition.” In some other states, they have a single governing board that combines the responsibilities of the campus based boards of trustees or regents with those of the state coordinating board.

One of your many duties at the council involves you serving as an ex-officio member of the Kentucky Board of Education. The council is often referred to as a primary partner of the Kentucky Department of Education. Can you explain what is meant by that and how the two agencies work together?

The partnership that exists between CPE and KDE is strong and vibrant due to the interrelationship the two agencies share regarding the complete education of Kentuckians. Our universities receive nearly 90 percent of our students from Kentucky public schools. And our public schools hire nearly all of their teachers from Kentucky colleges and universities. Staff at both agencies jointly participate in developing policies and programs affecting both sectors (higher education and K-12), have worked closely together on implementation of the provisions of Senate Bill 1 (Common Core State Standards), on preparation of Kentucky’s Race to the Top grant proposal, and a growing list of projects — all designed to more highly educate more Kentuckians.

Have you seen the council’s partnership with KDE change since you have been head of the agency? Can you explain or give examples of how?

The council’s relationship with KDE has strengthened over the past several years. Education Commissioner Terry Holliday regularly reports to the CPE on KDE activities, and I try to regularly attend KBE meetings. In addition, Commissioner Holliday has met directly with our college presidents, provosts and deans, which has created relationships and interactions that did not previously exist. The response has been overwhelmingly positive for both sectors. One specific example grew out of the commissioner’s request for the creation of a common placement examination that could be used to assess student readiness after students completed transitional or remedial courses while in high school. In response to his call, groups of faculty came together from all of our campuses to create such an exam (now called KYOTE), available across the state, online and at no cost to students, to assess mathematics, reading and writing skills. And, each of our campuses have agreed to accept the exam results as a valid indicator of readiness, comparable to scores on the ACT and COMPASS exams. 

The state’s goal is for all students to be college- and career-ready by the time they graduate high school. How is the council assisting in this effort?

The council has incorporated college readiness into the current strategic agenda. It is one of four focus areas. In implementing the strategies contained therein, our campuses are: developing and supporting the delivery of transitional courses in high schools across the state; have developed and use the assessment tool (KYOTE); are creating new approaches to recruiting and training teachers; are expanding clinical training opportunities for pre-service teachers (three just awarded grants from CPE will accelerate the development of these sites in partnership with school districts across the state); and our campuses have been tasked with developing high quality, relevant, and effective professional development programs for in-service teachers and building principals.

Teacher effectiveness is a buzzword in education these days. How has CPE been involved in improving teacher preparation and effectiveness in Kentucky?

CPE has been at the center of efforts to stimulate efforts at our campuses to re-design teacher preparation programs. These efforts are being undertaken collaboratively with KDE and the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB), and are being assisted by the National Center on Education and the Economy and the Prichard Committee. And as mentioned above, CPE has just awarded three half-million dollar grants, one each to three of our universities to develop new clinical training sites in conjunction with public schools in and around the communities adjacent to the campuses selected. These sites will be developed consistent with the new recommendations recently published by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the new Schools of Education accrediting organization, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, or CAEP.  The new clinical sites are also aligned with the larger strategies being developed by the collaborative effort described above.

What would you say is Kentucky’s greatest challenge when it comes to teacher and administrator preparation?

Our greatest challenge is attracting and retaining highly skilled people serving in these vital positions in every school building across the commonwealth. Doing this will compel rethinking who and how we license people, how we induct them into the profession, how career advancement is managed, how professional development is created and provided, and how teachers and principals are compensated.

The council also is involved in teacher professional development (PD). Can you talk about that involvement and how the changes will improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement?

Professional development is a critical part of supporting teachers, and through them, the students we are to serve.  A great deal of data, described in national surveys and in KDE’s Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Survey, confirms that much of the professional development currently being provided is of limited value to teachers. We are working closely with the commissioner to understand the type of PD teachers need, and with our campuses to encourage them to create the type of materials and programs that are responsive to what teachers and administrators are telling us they need, and utilizing the very best practices to assure whatever is created is both relevant and effective. In addition, we will be working with local school boards and school-based councils to share with them the materials and programs that will be made available so they understand how to best expend these limited resources.

What are the other challenges relative to college and career readiness and teacher preparation do you see CPE working on in the future?

Our plate is rather full right now, but building recruiting efforts to attract high performing young people into teaching, restructuring our training to better meet the needs of teachers as described in the TELL Survey, and engaging the whole faculty at our universities (not just our teacher education faculty) in the process of training superb teachers for our public schools is central to our efforts.

First-grade teacher Amanda New reviews high frequency words with Miguel Rodriguez at Gallatin County Lower Elementary School. Gallatin County teachers begin working with students on goal setting and college and career readiness as soon as elementary school.
Photo by Amy Wallot, March 11, 2013

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Students at Gallatin County Lower Elementary School may only be in kindergarten through 2nd grade, but they already know the importance of meeting goals.

“We’re constantly focused on the kids setting goals and then rewarding them for meeting those goals. It has done a lot for increasing achievement, but more than that, it has done a lot for increasing motivation,” reading coach Pam Scudder said last month during a beach party for students who met their Scholastic Reading Counts goals.

Students who reach their goals in mathematics get to parade around the school led by the local fire department, she said.

“You can stop any kid in the hallway and say, ‘Did you meet your goal?’ And they’ll say yes or no and then they’ll tell you exactly how many more points they need to get to their goal,” Scudder said. “Just to hear a 1st grader tell you they should have set their goal higher because they met it two weeks early is unbelievable.”

Having students set and track their own goals is just the beginning of a process that staff at the school hope will lead to setting even broader goals – like going to college.

It is the way that the Gallatin County school district extends its college- and career-readiness efforts all the way to the lower elementary school that stuck out to Kate Akers and Jenny Todd on a recent visit. Akers and Todd, research analysts with the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), are studying high schools like Gallatin County that exceeded their college- and career-readiness targets the last two years.

In February 2011, KDE secured the Commonwealth Commitment from all districts – a pledge that, between 2010 and 2015, they will increase by 50 percent the number of their graduates who are college- and/or career-ready.

Akers and Todd wanted to know how some districts exceeded their annual targets toward that goal, so they went to Gallatin County last fall and interviewed district and school-level administrators, and teachers from every school. They came away impressed with many ways the district is getting students college- and career-ready, including how it celebrates student success on tests such as EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT; adjusts schedules to meet student needs; aligns instruction horizontally and vertically; and grows teachers to be experts.

But what made Gallatin County stand out from other districts they visited is how staff in the northern Kentucky district begin talking about college/career-readiness at the elementary school.

“They’re trying to train the students to aspire,” Todd said.

That starts with goals, which all kindergartners try to reach every nine weeks, said kindergarten teacher Myra Morgan.

“Knowing that you have a goal gives you something that you have to work at, something to reach,” she said. “Then we tie that back in with things that are going on around us.”

For instance, last year the school hosted a March Madness-themed mathematics and literacy night, Scudder said. Each classroom took a school from the NCAA tournament to study. The students became so engaged that the elementary school’s media specialist contacted each college or university, which returned packets including T-shirts, stickers and pictures of the basketball team, she said.

Students wanted to know more about the colleges and universities, so they began studying their locations and mascots and why students went there, Scudder said. They even took virtual tours of some of the schools.

Elementary teachers also had members of the high school basketball teams come in uniform to read to every child and allowed the children to ask the players about their future plans, Scudder said.

“It was an inroad to talking about colleges where they could actually think, ‘Yes, I would like to go to college,’” she said. “Just whatever comes up that we can possibly do to raise awareness about the expectation that we are going to college and we are going to be successful either in a career or a college situation.”

Lower Elementary School Principal Joe Wright said setting goals helps students as young as kindergarten prepare to be independent learners.

“Instead of the teacher being the sage on the stage, we try to work ourselves into being the guide at the side,” he said.

That’s more challenging at the K-2 level than it is for older children, he said. But teachers use standards-based grading and students know what skills they must master to move up a level. Just as with letting students set their goals for rewards in math and reading, showing students the skills they must master removes the teacher as the person who “gives” students a grade.

“If we’ve done our job correctly, that will go away,” Wright said. “They’ll know that they are part of the process and nobody gave you anything. We worked together for you to get what you got.”

Wright said the school also emphasizes careers. Kindergarten students participated in a career day that featured utility employees, paramedics and members of the sheriff’s department. In a county where many adults didn’t even graduate high school, even the teachers and school administrators are unusual for having a college degree.

Parents have to trust that school is preparing their children for a different world than the one in which they grew up, Wright said.

“We’re talking about a culture shift,” he said.

Wright said that’s a little easier given that 50-60 percent of teachers and administrators – including himself, the superintendent, and principals at the intermediate elementary and high school – all graduated from Gallatin County High School.

“We are building a launching pad for our students to take off to bright new futures,” he said.

It’s also work that can’t start early enough, Scudder said.

“At Gallatin County Lower Elementary we believe it is never too early to start talking about the importance of planning for college and careers after high school. This belief includes reaching out to our students, families and community by educating them about what is required for success in the 21st century, and that we expect and have confidence that each one of our students can be a successful member of society,” she said. “This may be a mindset change for some, and it will be too late to start talking about that when they get to middle school and high school.”

MORE INFO…
College/Career-Readiness Delivery Plan
Joe Wright, joe.wright@gallatin.kyschools.us, (859) 567-6342
Kate Akers, kate.akers@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-4201
Jenny Todd, jennifer.todd@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-4201

Pendleton County Extension Homemaker Rachel Conrad helps Northern Elementary School 5th-grade students make an easy fruit salad.
Photo submitted

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Engaging fifth-grade students in nutrition and health education can be a tough job. Getting them to practice what they’ve learned can be even tougher. But teachers in Pendleton County have found a way to do both.

They have teamed with the Pendleton Co. Cooperative Extension Service office to provide the Recipe for Life, a federal grant-funded nutrition education program. As part of the program Family and Consumer Science agent Kenna Knight, works with all eight classes of 5th graders at two schools in the county to teach them about nutrition, safe food preparation, table manners and the importance of eating together as a family. She spends a day in each classroom and, in return, each class spends a day preparing a meal at the Cooperative Extension Service office, she said.

“It’s probably, by far, my favorite activity to do,” Knight said.

Recipe for Life serves several counties, including Pendleton, according to Debra Cotterill, the University of Kentucky’s (UK) Nutrition Education Program director. It is part of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and targets low-income families and individuals to provide nutrition education (jointly called SNAP-Ed).

UK Cooperative Extension Service agents provide nutrition education services for school-aged children in all 120 counties, Cotterill said. Agents have access to dozens of programs and target schools that likely have high numbers of students who participate in SNAP (formerly called Food Stamps). Schools must have 50 percent or more of their students on free or reduced-priced meals or enroll children who live in high poverty neighborhoods, she said.

Cotterill said families with the lowest incomes are the least likely to be educated about nutrition or to have access to healthy foods. The result is that low-income families tend to have higher rates of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes, Cotterill said.

“It’s just such a huge problem and it’s affecting our economy and our quality of life, and it’s going to take all of us pitching in together to turn that tide,” she said.

Amy Hurst, a 5th-grade teacher at Northern Elementary School (Pendleton County), said her class has participated in Recipe for Life for the past five years.

She said students are particularly excited about the day in November when they get to cook at the Extension office. Students are divided into groups and work with an adult volunteer to make fruit salad, salad, a side dish, an entrée or dessert.

Students also learn about washing their hands, setting the table, knife safety, how other cultures eat dinner and the importance of eating with family, Hurst said.

The dishes students make are based on recipes that the students have collected themselves, she said. Students from each of the classes bring in a family dish and write a narrative about what the dish means to their family.

“So they’re learning a little bit of their family history, too, by having to go home and say, ‘I need a recipe and I need a story to go with it,’” Hurst said.

Around the winter break, Knight produces a Recipe for Life cookbook with all of the recipes and stories from both schools.

The culminating event is a family dinner in the spring in which the school cafeterias produce the same dishes the students made in the fall, Knight said.

Hurst knows the program is effective because her son, a 5th grader, has been more interested in what the family is eating and has told her the family needs to eat more vegetables.

“We hear all positives from the parents and the students,” she said. “It’s teaching them to be healthy eaters.”

This was the first year that Brandi Darnell, also a fifth-grade teacher at Northern Elementary, had participated in Recipe for Life, and she acknowledges being skeptical about whether her students would buy-in to it.

“I was very pleasantly surprised when they were interested in the program right away and especially with their excitement levels about the field trip to the extension office,” she said. “After participating in the cooking day at our extension office, I couldn’t stop telling everyone about it! My kids learned so much, and the atmosphere there was truly one of a family. Even students who are often difficult to engage were eager to participate and enjoyed the experience.”

Darnell said students benefit from hearing information from a new source and thinks of the meal preparation as project-based learning.

“Teachers have the difficult task of choosing high-interest, high-impact projects and activities that hit the learning goals and objectives set forth by our districts and the state,” she said. “This project not only hit the standards, it provided much more – our students were excited about what they were learning and will take those lessons with them throughout life. I believe that is the ultimate goal of all teachers, to make an impact on the lives of their students.”

That’s what Knight wants to hear. Recipe for Life started in 2008 as a way to use meal preparation and nutrition  to prevent 5th grade students from participating in risky behaviors based on the Search Institute’s 40 developmental assets, she said. While nutrition information is important, they are learning other important lessons as well, Knight said.

“The more time you sit eating family meals together, the less likely those kids are going to be to make those risky choices because they’re communicating, and they’re also getting better nutrition because we know it’s better to prepare meals at home than to go to fast food or somewhere else,” she said.

Even if a county doesn’t offer Recipe for Life, Knight said extension agents can be a good resource for teachers.

“When they’re here, we’re covering math, we’re covering science, we’re covering reading. … There’s a wealth of information besides just preparing that meal that they’re learning while they’re here,” she said. “We have a wealth of curriculums that might not fit into exactly what they want, but if they tell us exactly what they want, we can find it.”

MORE INFO…
Family and Consumer Sciences Extension
Debra Cotterill, dcotteri@uky.edu, (859) 257-2948

Participants watch a demonstration during the Next Generation Arts Academy at Model Laboratory Elementary School (Madison County). Professional learning in Kentucky is individualized, relevent and effective and tied to improving college and career readiness.
Photo by Amy Wallot, June 19, 2012

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

When the inaugural Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Kentucky Survey results were tallied in 2011, 40 percent of teachers who took the survey said they need differentiated professional development opportunities that meet the needs of the individual teacher.

At that same time, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) was selected to partner with the non-profit association called Learning Forward and the Council of Chief State School Officers to transform the way educators grow and learn through the creation of a comprehensive professional learning system. Additionally, KDE was in the process of building its Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES).

“Kentucky teachers will really benefit from these initiatives ocurring at the same time,” said Robin Chandler, policy advisor with KDE’s Office of Next-Generation Learners. “They are all pointed to the fact that teachers need support in their growth and through our work with Learning Forward, we’re learning about what that support might look like.”

Chandler added that in supporting each teacher in the state to be effective – KDE must make sure it’s facilitating opportunities for teachers to grow in the areas in which they need growth. When Kentucky partnered with Learning Forward, a Professional Learning Task Force (PLTF) of key stakeholders was formed to make recommendations on policy and practice that would improve Kentucky’s system of professional learning.

Members of the Teachers Advisory Committee (TAC) that meets quarterly with Education Commissioner Terry Holliday were invited to join the PLTF for several meetings to provide input on the final set of recommendations.

Jennifer Fowler, a National Board Certified Teacher who teaches middle school language arts at Paintsville High School (Paintsville Independent), serves on the TAC and also participated in several PLTF meetings. Fowler said PGES, the TELL Survey and the task force recommendations serve as complementary elements to transform professional learning, which leads to more college- and career-ready students.

“Ideal professional learning has to be individual, relevant and effective,” Fowler said. “I see a shift toward this type of professional learning with programs like PD 360 (All Kentucky educators can access PD 360 through the Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System.). Educators are able to access specific content or classroom management techniques that are relevant to their specific classroom and situation.”

Fowler added that with the new PGES model, she “sees a great potential for a purposeful evaluation system.

“Strengths will be highlighted to allow educators to become mentor teachers,” Fowler said. “Weaknesses will be identified to point educators in the right direction for their individualized professional learning. My hope is that professional learning opportunities, perhaps PD360, will be identified for each standard so that educators will be aware of relevant learning experiences that will positively affect their classroom.”

“In the changes to 704 KAR 3:035 the Kentucky Board of Education is considering now, we’re transitioning from a focus on professional development (PD) to one of professional learning,” Chandler said. “PD is more like a one-time event. Hearing a speaker, taking a class and done. Professional learning is more of a long-term idea that focuses on the outcome – the learning that actually occurs. Teachers might get together in a professional learning community with other teachers, and decide to look at your assessments and your grade level time and decide what you can do to make your assessments more rigorous from this point on.”

“I am excited about the transition from professional development to professional learning,” Fowler said. “It is important for individual educators to be more involved and in control of their professional and personal growth.”

Fowler, like many teachers, has set a personal goal to make yearly improvements as an educator.

“For this to happen, I rely not only on the evaluations from administrators but also on self-evaluation and self-reflection,” she said. “I am able to pinpoint my weaknesses, and our professional development coordinator assists me in finding effective, relevant learning experiences.”

Right now, KRS 156 095 requires teachers to complete four days (24 hours) of professional development each year while administrators must complete 21 hours annually.

Opportunities for an additional 50 hours of data-informed, job-embedded professional learning that focuses on students’ success were recommended by the PLTF but it won’t be required for the upcoming academic year according to Karen Kidwell, director of the Office of Next Generation Learners Division of Program Standards. The current work on the regulation revision focuses on replacing our existing definition and standards with the new Standards for Professional Learning released by Learning Forward in 2011.

“Much research talks about 60-75 hours of professional learning being the number it takes to really impact practice and student learning,” Kidwell said. “I think, given we already require 24 hours, that was a strong number—and, given most district/school calendars, it comes out to about 1 hour 15 minutes per week.” The recommendation isn’t so much about ‘counting’ more hours, but rather ensuring that the opportunity to collaborate and learn within the work day is a priority for every educator and that master schedules include this. Many schools already build this time—and more– into their schedules.

KDE’s goal is to build a system that will measure teacher effectiveness as well as put support in place to foster growth.

“In order for the board’s goal – an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective principal in every building – to be met, a system of support is necessary for growth,” Chandler said.

MORE INFO…
Karen Kidwell, karen.kidwell@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-2106
Robin Chandler, robin.chandler@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-9850
Jennifer Fowler, jennifer.fowler@paintsville.kyschools.us, (606) 789-2656

Karen Kidwell, left, director of Program Standards for the Kentucky Department of Education, and Office of Next-Generation Learners Associate Commissioner Felicia Cumings Smith address the Kentucky Board of Education regarding the new science standards. 
Photo by Amy Wallot, April 10, 2013

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

The Kentucky Board of Education reviewed  at its meeting last week  proposed  Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) one day after they were released.

Kentucky was one of 26 states that partnered in developing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as part of a collaborative state-led process. About 40 Kentuckians, including P-12 science teachers, state science and policy staff, higher education faculty, scientists and engineers were involved. Two drafts of the standards were released for public comment.

Karen Kidwell, director of the Kentucky Department of Education’s Division of Program Standards, said the Kentucky team gave detailed and descriptive feedback on the early drafts.

“Our feedback was very well received, and much of our feedback was incorporated in the standards,” she said.

The new standards, which have been in development for two years, meet the mandate for new standards in Senate Bill 1 (2009). They are internationally benchmarked, rigorous, research-based and aligned with expectations for college and careers; and they provide for deeper understanding of content and application.

The new science standards integrate core ideas, key practices and concepts that apply to many areas of science. For example, the disciplinary core ideas of science and engineering are integrated rather than taught separately. However, the engineering design process has distinct performance expectations. Overall, the standards reflect the interconnected nature of science as it is practiced and experienced.

There have been shifts of specific concepts to new grade levels and not all concepts are taught at all grade levels in a continuous progression, but concepts build coherently. They do not define a particular curriculum — that will be up to schools and districts to develop based on guidance from the Kentucky Department of Education.

The standards are aligned with and explicitly make connections to the Kentucky Core Academic Standards for mathematics and English/language arts. If approved, they will be implemented in the 2014-15 school year.

Board member Mary Gwen Wheeler said she is excited to see science teaching changed to be more inquiry based, but she wondered how state assessments could be changed to measure that.

Associate Commissioner Ken Draut said Senate Bill 1 (2009) calls for students to be tested in science in 4th and 7th grades. Pearson, a testing vendor, will develop a blueprint for the tests over the summer, and write items for about the next nine months. Then the new items would be field tested before ultimately being used in the spring of 2015, he said.

The second reading is scheduled for the board’s June meeting after which the standards will move through the regulatory process.

The board also heard the progress of new social studies standards, which are also mandated by Senate Bill 1 (2009). Kidwell told the board she expects them to be implemented for the 2014-15 school year as well.

Kentucky is part of a consortium of 14 states convened by the Council of Chief State School Officers that is working to publish a framework from which each state can build its own standards, Kidwell said.

She said she hopes to have the framework by the end of the month. A team of experts, including teachers, will write the standards in June. Those standards will be open for public comment and revision in August and September, she said. The board will then vote on the standards in August and October, Kidwell said.

Grants available for districts raising dropout age

During the meeting, Commissioner Terry Holiday announced a program to award $10,000 planning grants to the first 57 districts to approve a policy raising the dropout age prior to the 2015-16 school year. Local school boards are reminded that SB 97 does not take effect until June 25, so any policy passed before then may be challenged on its validity, due to the lack of statutory basis for the policy prior to the legislation’s effective date. A local board could have a first and second reading of a proposed policy prior to the effective date of the legislation, but final action and formal adoption of the policy by the board should not occur prior to the effective date of the legislation, “the first moment of Tuesday, June 25, 2013,” according to an opinion from the Attorney General.

The money can be used to develop a required plan for implementation that would include integration of alternative programs, career and technical education, engagement of the community and the use of community resources.

Legislation passed in the most recent General Assembly includes a provision that once 55 percent of districts (96 of Kentucky’s 174 districts) adopt a policy requiring students to stay in school until they are 18, the remainder of districts must do so within four years. Early adoption of the policy would allow districts to inform students beginning with the Class of 2019 of the change and give school and district staffs time to plan for its successful implementation.

“I think this is a strategic approach to not just be happy about a law, but to actually be successful in raising the graduation rate and dropping the incarceration rate,” Holiday said.

The board adopted a resolution encouraging local boards of education to “be courageous” and adopt a policy to raise the compulsory school attendance age to 18 effective in the 2015-16 school year.

Board member Brigitte Ramsey said the resolution sends a clear message to students: “We are not giving up on you.”

Two new members also joined the board last week: Trevor Bonnstetter of Mayfield and Grayson Boyd of Williamsport. Bonnstetter is chief executive officer of West Kentucky Rural Telephone and Boyd is a retired principal and educator. Both were sworn in at the beginning of the meeting.

Representatives of AdvanceKentucky, an initiative designed to increase the number of minority and low-income students taking and passing Advanced Placement (AP) classes, announced the program is now working with an additional 10 high schools, bringing the total to 88 in Kentucky. The schools are:

• Bullitt Central (Bullitt County)
• East Carter (Carter County)
• Fern Creek  (Jefferson County)
• Holmes      (Covington Independent)
• Madison Central (Madison County)
• Madison South (Madison County)
• McCracken County
• North Bullitt (Bullitt County)
• Seneca (Jefferson County)
• Southern (Jefferson County)

That brings total participation to about 42 percent of the high schools in the state.

AdvanceKentucky involves content-rich teacher training and extensive support and incentives for students and teachers for achieving qualifying scores (3 or higher) on AP exams in mathematics, science and English.

AdvanceKentucky is funded by a $13.2 million grant from the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), which is supported by ExxonMobil, Dell and Gates foundations, Lockheed and others, and the Kentucky Department of Education. The NMSI grant ends in October.

In other business, the board:

• gave final approval to a regulation designating the Kentucky High School Athletics Association (KHSAA) as the agent to manage both high school and middle school athletics in the      state
• heard first reading of 702 KAR 1:115, annual in-service training of district board members that adds requirements for annual training in ethics and school finance
• heard first reading of 704  KAR 3:035, to move toward a comprehensive system of professional      learning
• heard an update on the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES) (for additional Kentucky Teacher stories on PGES,      go here)
• heard state Gallup Student Poll results
• heard an update on national efforts to transform  educator-preparation programs
• heard and update on state management of the Breathitt County and Monticello Independent school districts, including a proposed merger between Monticello and the Wayne County school  district
• adopted a resolution recognizing Barrett Block, a senior at Henry Clay High School (Fayette County),  for placing second in the Jeopardy!  National Teen Tournament
• approved district facility  plans for Bell,  McCreary,  Mercer,  Montgomery  and Oldham counties school districts and Glasgow      and Walton-Verona  Independent school districts.
• approved an amendment to the district facility plan for the Pineville Independent school district

The next regularly scheduled Kentucky Board of Education meeting will be held June 5 in Frankfort.

For more information about the board, click on the Kentucky Board of Education link on the Kentucky Department of Education’s homepage.

Kindergarten teacher Susan Burgess, 3rd-grade teacher Jenna Colson, special education teacher Charisse LaBoyteaux, 5th-grade teacher Gayla Routt, 2nd-grade teacher Krystal Miller and Principal Amily Campbell review data at Heartland Elementary School (Hardin County). They are all Pivotal Leadership participants. Each grade level at the school has a teacher participating in the program.
Photo by Amy Wallot, March 15, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Study after study has found that effective teachers and principals are key to improving student learning and performance.

Putting that research to action, however, is not always easy. That’s where

Pivotal Leadership: Comprehensive Leadership Support for High Quality Teaching and Learning can help. The three-year, data-driven initiative focuses on school culture and guiding principals and teachers toward high-quality leadership practices.

“We see this opportunity as an ongoing, job-embedded process, not just a ‘drive-by’ professional development,” said Melissa Biggerstaff, leadership division director for the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative (GRREC).

Four elementary schools and one middle school in the GRREC region are participating in the first year of the program. They include Heartland (Hardin County), T.C. Cherry (Bowling Green), Hodgenville (LaRue County) and South Todd (Todd County) elementary schools and Metcalfe County Middle School.

Principals and teacher leaders from the five schools analyzed cause and effect data during a three-day data retreat last summer.

“We immediately got feedback that schools have never approached their data this deeply before, and new insights began to surface,” Biggerstaff said.

Culture assessment, professional learning communities (PLCs), formative assessments and executive coaching are the four remaining components being addressed in the first year of the program. Over the next two years, cultivating culture will replace culture assessments, and instructional rounds will be added as a data collection piece.

The (culture) assessments consist of classroom observations, interviews with all faculty, staff, some students and parents, and an anonymous survey also completed by faculty and staff.

“This is the most comprehensive support for leadership that I have seen,” said George Wilson, GRREC’s Executive Director. “The components that I have been a part of are yielding tremendous results.”

Data is collected and analyzed in three areas: professional collaboration; collegiality; and self-efficacy and determination, Biggerstaff said.

“We present the findings to the entire faculty and staff, and then we work together to develop a plan for improving or continuing to cultivate a positive culture,” she said. “We believe that every school has a culture, and every culture can be improved.”

Gayla Routt is participating in Pivotal Leadership as a teacher at Heartland Elementary School (Hardin County). She said she has benefitted from the program because it teaches a specific process to work through regarding each type of data.

“We use this process to set goals for our instruction and for our students,” Routt said. “For example, after desegregating our mathematics MAP score data, we have set a goal of improvement by 10 percent each year for the next three years. This has caused our school to take a critical look at potential mathematics programs and strategies. It has also unified us in our instruction.”

T.C. Cherry Elementary School (Bowling Green Independent) is also realizing benefits. Second-grade teacher Jenny Huskey said the data retreat was “eye opening” and the culture assessment reaffirmed that her school is on the right track.

“We have lots of pockets of good but we need to fill those gaps to make it great,” Huskey said. “The staff felt the building is safe and orderly, and there was a general consensus that our main goal is student success.”

Huskey said a few changes were made to a culture committee to create more flexibility by bringing in new people to spark new ideas as the school looks to make a strong culture even stronger.

Writing is an area of focus for T.C. Cherry, and the Pivotal Leadership team soon will be trained on ways to better teach it in all grade levels. “We feel this will give us the edge we’re looking for,” Huskey said.

The work with pivotal leadership has made both Huskey and Routt more reflective in their teaching practices. They both regularly examine what is working well in their classrooms and what needs improvement. It also has promoted leadership abilities.

“There are those who are born leaders and those who strive to work on leadership skills,” Huskey said. “T.C. Cherry is composed of both types of leaders. It is our goal for the staff to promote leadership from within their PLCs and. in turn, take those leadership abilities into the classrooms.”

Routt said she is using data to make common assessments with her grade level team.

“As a result, instruction has become more focused on the needs of the students,” Routt said. “Also, after giving the common assessment, we are better able to troubleshoot aspects of our instruction that may have been weak and share each other’s successes.”

Biggerstaff said these conversations and teamwork guarantee improvement, and she already has seen more positive changes in the first year of work than she expected. However, she knew flexibility would be necessary.

“The work looks and is implemented differently in every school,” she said. “We talk on an ongoing basis, I attend each school’s data team meetings and we let the data drive the work. If we find that there are needs other than those initially outlined in Pivotal Leadership, we address those needs. We want this to be personalized for each school.”

Pivotal Leadership is all about building capacity, Biggerstaff said, for both principals, teacher leaders and eventually every teacher within the school.

“Everything we do is about improving the practiceof teachers and principals, not buying a program or looking for that ‘silver bullet’ to improvement,” Biggerstaff said. “This work is continuous and job-embedded. Other than the data retreat, which occurs in the summer, the teachers and principals are in their buildings, and we take the work to them.

“We utilize professional learning communities, planning times, and in some cases early release Fridays to get the work done,” she added. “We are willing to do whatever it takes to support their work.”

MORE INFO…
Melissa Biggerstaff, melissa.biggerstaff@grrec.ky.gov, (270) 563-2113
Jenny Huskey, jennifer.huskey@bgreen.kyschools.us, (270) 746-2230
Gayla Routt, gayla.routt@hardin.kyschools.us, (270) 769-8930

Central Academy (Henderson County) teacher Jo Morris says taking part in the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System field test has helped her ensure her students’ needs are met throughout the year and made her a better teacher. Photo by Amy Wallot, March 12, 2013

The Kentucky Department of Education, along with several partners and more than 50 school districts, is in the third year of a four-year plan to develop the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). Schools statewide will pilot the new system in the 2013-14 school year, with full implementation scheduled for 2014-15. This is the fifth in a series of stories that will examine different aspects of the proposed system.

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Teachers will not have to do anything they are not likely already doing to measure student growth under the proposed Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES), according to teachers field testing the system and staff of the Kentucky Department of Education. The biggest changes may be in documenting that growth, they said.

Carolyn Noe, 2nd grade teacher at Paint Lick Elementary (Garrard County), said student growth in the PGES is based on specific, measurable, appropriate, realistic and time-bound (SMART) goals.

“It’s not that we haven’t always measured student growth, but it’s a more specific, determined way to go about it. You’re actually forcing yourself to put that down on paper, take a very close look at it and determine exactly how much student growth,” the 31-year teaching veteran said. “I think we’ve always been aware of how students are progressing, but this puts a very definite number to it, which really causes you to focus in on a student.”

For years, teachers have kept assessment journals, tracking growth over time on assessments they designed or through common assessments as a part of an established formative assessment process used at the local level, according to Todd Baldwin, executive strategic advisor with the Office of Next-Generation Learners, which is overseeing PGES design and implementation for the state Department of Education.

The fundamentals of student growth, one of the multiple measures used in the PGES, are the same as teachers have always used, he said.

“Where are kids now, where do you want them to be over time and specific to what skills or standards, and how do you know that they got there?” he said. “It’s not new.”

During the PGES field test, a teacher will pre-assess students on a certain set of knowledge, set SMART goals for where they want their class to be at the end of a certain time, decide the next steps for instruction and strategies for moving to that goal, and use assessments that are comparable across their district to see how they have done, Baldwin said.

A steering committee made up of teachers and other education stakeholders is reviewing data collected  from the field test to make recommendations to the Kentucky Board of Education about how measures will be used in the summative evaluation process when it goes live statewide in 2014-15, he said.

English teacher Jo Karen Morris teachers students from grades 6-12 at Central Academy (Henderson County), an alternative school, and she wanted them to be prepared for national tests required as part of Kentucky’s Unbridled Learning school accountability system. So she set a goal based on an assessment that uses many of the same skills. Her goal is: “For the 2012-13 school year, 100 percent of my 10th graders will score at least a 92 percent on the Section 1 English test from the Cambridge Victory for the ACT, PLAN and EXPLORE Tests.”

PGES Measures

Morris said that if she had not been part of the field test, she wouldn’t have used the assessment,wouldn’t be setting goals throughout the year and wouldn’t be meeting students’ needs as well.

“Overall I can say that is has made me a better teacher,” she said. “With this program in place, I’m almost forced to be a better teacher and keep the student needs as my priority.”

Baldwin said two factors will contribute to student growth as part of the PGES:

1. The state contribution – student growth percentile for state-assessed grades and subjects

2. The local contribution – teacher developed student growth goals

Teachers such as those in physical education, art and other areas that are not state-assessed will

use student growth goals primarily per the recommendation of the Teacher Effectiveness Steering Committee; any additional factors regarding student growth for teachers in non-assessed areas will be considered as more research is conducted during the 2013-14 statewide pilot.

So teachers will continue to use the characteristics of highly effective teaching and learning, and classroom assessment for student learning, but districts may consider working with teachers to develop more common assessments to ensure comparability and rigor in assessment measures. Baldwin said those could be district-designed common assessments, district-adopted third-party assessments from commercial vendors, or data from assessment systems like MAP or ThinkLink.

Keown said writing her student-growth goals caused her to look at the students more closely and how she was going to meet their needs that day, “not how was I going to get through Unit 6.”

“I always prided myself on being a very student-oriented teacher, but I had no idea how it could be more student-oriented,” she said. “When I started writing SMART goals … and I got to think about each student in a very close, personal way. So it definitely changed the way I approached it.”

Morris said using the SMART goals gives her evidence that students are meeting the goals she has set for them.

“So I feel like it puts a little more pressure on the teacher, but I think it’s a good pressure because it holds you accountable,” she said.

Central Academy Principal Lisa Horn said SMART goals are good because with informal goals, teachers can “wish for the moon and the stars and then say you did it.”

“But to actually measure what you do gives the validity to whether you have taught that subject right or not,” Horn said. “So I think it helps hold the teachers more accountable to what they’re actually teaching in the classroom.”

Baldwin said teachers should be using assessments formatively to see if students are on track to meet their student-growth goal and modify their instruction if they are not. Student growth in the PGES works the same way, he said.

“The SMART process is designed to provide something that is both measurable and useful, and provides the kind of useful feedback to the teacher to inform instruction,” Baldwin said.

There are still many issues left to be decided, he said, but data from the 2012-13 field test and the 2013-14 statewide pilot – along with national research and policy work from organizations like the National Council on Teacher Quality and the Measures of Effective Teaching Project – will inform further decisions related to the measures within the system.

“The steering committee is absolutely committed to making recommendations based on feedback from the field,” he said.

MORE INFO…
Professional Growth and Effectiveness System
Cathy White, teacherleader@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-1479

Lt. Col. Steve Darnall informs JROTC cadets at McLean County High School about an upcoming competiton against other JROTC programs in the state.
Photo by Amy Wallot, March 12, 2013

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

When 1st Sgt. Sonny Long became Army instructor at Harlan County High School five years ago, he had a freshman in the JROTC program who was in trouble from the first month of school. He skipped classes, argued with everybody, used tobacco constantly and was often in detention.

“I couldn’t hardly stand to be around him much myself,” Long said.

As a sophomore, the student made big improvements while in JROTC class but was still getting in trouble in other classes. The next year, Long gave him a higher rank and explained to the student that he would be held responsible for all of his actions, not just in JROTC. The result was that the student didn’t spend much time in detention, earned higher grades and exhibited newfound self-esteem. By his senior year, the student had learned how to interact with other people, lead them and earn their respect.

“I had over 15 teachers and two principals tell us that we had performed a miracle with him. He was thought of as the most likely student to drop out of high school when he was 16 years old,” Long said. “He graduated high school and is now employed full time. I grew as much during this time as he did. He taught me a lot of lessons that I will value the rest of my life.”

This story and many others show that JROTC is training for life, not just the military, according to Long and other JROTC instructors. Now the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has changed its accountability model to reflect that belief. Beginning this year, KDE’s Office of Career and Technical Education (CTE) recognizes the military as a viable career pathway within the Government and Public Safety Career Cluster. As such, JROTC will be included in the college and career readiness accountability model.

That means that a student who has two credits in JROTC classes, is enrolled in a third class, successfully passes the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude  Battery (ASVAB) and receives the JROTC three- or four-year Certificate of Training is considered career ready, according to Kiley Whitaker in the College and Career Readiness Branch of KDE.

“We’ve always believed going into military is a valid career,” Whitaker said. “Now KDE is in the process of developing pathways that lead to that, and we’ve not had that in the past.”

Whitaker said there are about 99 high schools with Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy JROTC programs throughout the state.

“Now JROTC is recognized as a CTE program, and schools can receive accountability credit for the JROTC program,” he said. “A school with a JROTC program has the opportunity to increase its college- and career-readiness score.”

Lt. Col. Mark Lathem, senior Army instructor at Ohio County High School, said JROTC is not about directing students toward the military but rather improving their chances of success after high school no matter what they choose to do. Only about 5 percent of JROTC cadets at his school join the military, he said.

“Our mission statement is ‘To motivate young people to be better citizens,’ and everything we do supports this objective,” Lathem said. “We prepare students to be responsible leaders while making them aware of their rights and responsibilities as American citizens and members of a community.”

JROTC teaches personal responsibility, leadership, decision-making and problem-solving strategies, planning and organization skills, anger management, conflict mediation and resolution, etiquette, and financial management, he said.

Lt. Col Steve Darnall, senior Army instructor at McLean County High School, believes JROTC prepares students for careers outside the military more than in it. About 10 percent of JROTC students there join the military, he said.

“JROTC is a challenging and rigorous course designed to develop leadership and citizenship in all students. In the ideal setting, academically strong students are paired with academically challenged students to learn from each other. Both are capable of motivating the other to step out of their comfort zone and interact with students they may otherwise never meet or get to know,” he said.

Long, who was in the first JROTC class at Pulaski County High School in 1982, said there were only three such classes available when he was in high school. Now there are enough classes that students could take eight years’ worth and not repeat a class. The curriculum also can be tailored to address needs in a school or community, he said.

“We teach the students the value of hard work and that they will reap rewards for high performance,” Long said. “We teach them this by awarding ribbons to them for their uniform.”

Lathem said one of the biggest benefits he sees in cadets is in the way their self-confidence grows as they progress through the program.

“To watch a student who is too shy to speak in front of his or her classmates grow to the point where he or she not only feels comfortable speaking publicly but also demonstrates the ability to confidently lead others is immensely gratifying,” he said.

Long said he knows a lot of educators mistakenly believe the military is for the uneducated. However, it is not only a viable career, but a desirable one, he said.

“Our military is the most educated military in the world. It is also one of the most lucrative jobs in the workforce now. It has the best educational benefits of any career. It’s one of the few jobs left in the world that still has a pension for retirement,” Long said. “I think there should be even more emphasis put on our children joining the United States Armed Forces. What could possibly more noble than that?”

MORE INFO…
Kiley Whitaker, kiley.whitaker@education.ky.gov, (502) 564-3472

Principal Steve Jenkins participates with the kindergarten students during calendar time in Angie Taulbee’s class at Trapp Elementary School (Clark County).
Photo by Amy Wallot, Feb. 21, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Trapp Elementary School may share a principal, but that doesn’t mean the school suffers in terms of success.

The small rural school of 140 students has been thriving under Principal Steve Jenkins’ leadership. Jenkins, in his 10th year as principal at both Trapp and nearby Pilot View elementary schools, is quick to credit his small staff and a focus on citizenship and small group study with Trapp’s 2012 National Blue Ribbon School honor.

“Life goes on when I’m not here (at Trapp),” Jenkins said. “The teachers are used to me being gone during parts of the day, and the students understand the staff members are in charge. The teachers take care of any discipline issues when I’m gone, and they handle things the way they know I would. That’s why this works.”

Jenkins used to rotate days in both schools, but he said splitting each school day up with half his time at each one works better now.

“It’s a good fit for me,” he said.

Small groups lead to big results

While Trapp Elementary already offers a low teacher-to-student ratio, the school has worked hard to decrease that number even more by using the small group learning model. The model, which involves students being broken into small groups based on their learning needs for 30 minutes three times a week, has had a positive impact on both reading and mathematics scores for the school, Jenkins said.

“We’re really proud of this,” he said.

Typically, the school has two retired teachers who work in the small group format with the classroom teachers and a special education instructor.

Kindergarten teacher Angie Taulbee said students in grades K-3, and grades 3-5 use the small group instruction time for review. “Groups are not based on grade levels – the skill being targeted is the focus,” Taulbee said.

Taulbee said a recent lesson was more effective specifically because of its smaller group approach. While working with four kindergarten students, she was able to focus on 50 sight words in the Fry Sight Words model.

Taulbee guides instruction with the “to, with, independently” method, she said. After reading a story to the children, they would then read it with her. Lastly, they would read it independently by whispering into a phonics phone.

The small group also allows her to better emphasize and monitor reading strategies, such as having students shape their mouths to sound out words or look at pictures in the stories for clues. For sight word recognition, students practiced the first 50 sight words on the Fry Words App on classroom iPads and then played sight word bingo.

Taulbee said her students benefit in this approach with immediate feedback and accountability, and teachers are able to offer high quality, research-based best practice teaching. Real world relevancy and students working together as a team in the small group format are other student benefits.

“We’re using data to improve instruction and student learning to increase achievement along with addressing individual needs,” Taulbee said. “By structuring opportunities for students to learn together, teachers keep clear and explicit instructional objectives in mind.”

Special education teacher Robyn Smalley agreed with Taulbee, adding that small groups are driven by data analysis and tend to foster a family component among teachers and students.

“All the kids belong to everyone,” Smalley said. “There isn’t a separation of ‘This is your kid.’ and ‘These are my kids.’ We have a lot of small groups based on students’ skills levels, and we rotate those groups as students gain skills (for both mathematics and reading).”

Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarks determine how students are grouped for reading while mathematics groups are divided up based on Student Numeracy Assessment Progressions assessments.

Jenkins said the small groups tend to be divided between grades K-3 and 3-5 because 3rd grade is “such a make or break year” since students begin K-PREP testing. Teachers use all the primary interventions they can in the K-3 groups to better prepare students for testing, while the grades 3-5 groups focus more on mastery of content.

Civic-minded students

Jenkins said Trapp Elementary has an SEC approach which stands for Safety first, Education matters and Citizenship counts.

“We focus on those every day,” he said. “We want our students to be ready for the real world and to be productive citizens. That’s so important to us.”

Fourth-grade teacher Betty Anes said citizenship is integrated into practically everything at Trapp Elementary whether that’s curriculum, small groups or extracurricular activities.

“The children learn that life is full of procedures and simple steps to be learned that make us successful,” Anes said. “Procedures are a part of life and are important in society to help everyone function in an organized manner. Rules are explained as guidelines to follow that maintain order and keep us safe. Learning cannot take place in a disruptive environment.”

Trapp Elementary students participate in weekly guidance classes and Anes’ students journal daily, often about topics like friendship, honesty, responsibility and goal setting.

“Most subjects allow opportunities to integrate citizenship,” Anes said. “Theme has been a new Common Core State Standard for 4th grade. We have read numerous stories that have given the children an opportunity to share what they think the author’s lesson or message was regarding citizenship or life lessons.”

The school has embraced the theme of citizenship in a variety of ways. Anes said a at a mathematics event earlier in the school year, students collected pledges for correctly answering mathematics problems. The event raised more than $1,700 for a hospital organization.

While studying current events, students sent handmade paper snowflakes to Sandy Hook Elementary School students prior to their return to classes following the shooting at the Connecticut school in December.

Compliment boxes for classmates to share with each other and 5th graders sharing positive thoughts during the morning announcements are common practice at Trapp Elementary as are food and coat drives.

“I love the civic events at Trapp,” Jenkins said. “They complement our academics and other initiatives. Our Fridays are enrichment day where we have classes from cooking to sign language to needlepoint. Basically, we love trying new ideas. Everything is working together for the same goal.”

MORE INFO…
Steve Jenkins, steve.jenkins@clark.kyschools.us, (859) 744-0027 (Trapp); or (859) 842-5231 (Pilot View)

Atkinson Academy (Jefferson County) teachers Margot Smith and Leslie Montgomery wrote Word Nerds: Teaching All Students to Learn and Love Vocabulary. They stress creating a classroom atmosphere where students feel safe to learn about language and take risks. Photo by Amy Wallot, Feb. 5, 2013

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

When teachers Leslie Montgomery and Margot Holmes Smith started at Atkinson Academy (Jefferson County) in 2007, they followed the prescribed literacy program. Smith, who was a 3rd-grade teacher at the time, said the pattern for teaching vocabulary was simple – introduce the words and give the definitions; write a sentence with the words; read a story with some of the words; and give an assessment – but ineffective.

“The level of rigor just wasn’t there. The kids weren’t retaining the words because they had no attachment to the words,” she said.

Fortunately, following that school year the two teachers participated in an Every 1 Reads conference. They were impressed by a video of a teacher who taught vocabulary words by introducing synonyms and acronyms.

“That’s how this all came about, because we were like, ‘Our kids would benefit so much from that.’ Because we saw them teaching vocabulary at a much deeper level,” Smith said.

So the two teachers began to work on a framework that ultimately would lead them to implement creative vocabulary lessons that improve students’ word knowledge and confidence, build a classroom community and increase achievement. Montgomery and Smith weave vocabulary into each school day, teaching to multiple learning styles through music, art, literature, movement, games, drama, writing, test-taking skills and technology.

Montgomery, a 5th-grade teacher, and Smith, who is now a 5th-grade intervention teacher, have worked since then with their former graduate school professor Brenda Overturf to develop a five-part method – introducing new words in context, adding related synonyms and antonyms, engaging students in several days of active learning, celebrating new words and assessing vocabulary development – that they say is working wonders. The trio has even written a book about their methods.

“It wasn’t until that summer professional development when we were like, ‘We really have to change our instruction to be more meaningful and more purposeful and more intentional, especially when it comes to vocabulary,” Smith said.

Montgomery said students didn’t have any confidence to figure out words they didn’t know. Even though they might know the content, students would “shut down” when faced with unfamiliar words.

“We knew that whatever we did, a huge role had to be that we were teaching them confidence and strategies to attack anything that’s unfamiliar instead of shutting down and being afraid of it,” she said. “Not only did we want to have a plan that obviously would increase their word bank, but also that would provide them a word confidence in themselves.”

Following their first year, then 3rd-grade teacher Montgomery and Smith planned together how they would implement their changes within each two-week unit.

“We talked about it daily and adjusted things as we needed, we added things, we changed things, we took things out that we didn’t think were working, but it was very, very intentional,” she said.

The pair knew the only way for the student to retain information was to give them attachment to it, so they had to give them an experience, Montgomery said. For instance, a child who goes to the ocean every summer knows what a tide is, she said.

“But for a lot of our kids that have not left their neighborhood, we needed to give them an experience,” Montgomery said. “So we can’t just tell them the word and what the definition is – they need to read stories about the tide, they need to sing a song about the tide, they need to move like the tide. Now they have ownership of it.”

Smith said the teachers originally taught five vocabulary words per week, alternating between science and social studies. What they realized was that teaching more words isn’t as effective as focusing on five or six rich words. Since words are so connected you can teach a variety by adding in the synonyms and antonyms, she said.

Montgomery said students learn two synonyms and two antonyms with each of the five or six vocabulary words, so they really learn upwards of 30 words.

“Even though the vocabulary instruction did take up a little more of our reading block, we found that it wasn’t a negative thing because it truly was improving their competency, it was improving their fluency, it was improving their phonics and comprehension, and also their motivation and word confidence improved greatly,” she said.

Smith said teaching antonyms and synonyms also allowed them to teach students how to break down and connect words, allowing them to recognize similarities with other words and to increase their word knowledge even further. Now, instead of shutting down when they saw unfamiliar words, they learned how to use context clues to figure out the meanings and how to decode unfamiliar words, she said.

In the years that followed, the teachers continued to work with Overturf to refine their activities. Montgomery said Overturf would ask questions like “Why are you doing this? What is the benefit?” to make them look deeply into their instruction.

Smith added that most of the research backing up their methods came from Overturf.

“We weren’t doing this just because it was a fun activity,” Smith said. “We’re doing this because it has meaning behind it.”

Now they have students playing Pictionary and Deal or No Deal with vocabulary words – and questions they designed themselves. Students celebrate words with parties and dig through thesauruses looking for what Montgomery called “juicy words” like peripatetic, a synonym for nomadic.

“As an adult, that’s very exciting for me because I didn’t know what that was,” she said.

Smith told a story about a group of students who were comparing Paul Revere’s Ride to a fictional play about a girl who went on a similar nighttime ride.

During the discussion, a “hard-to-motivate” student used a vocabulary word from two weeks prior, Smith said.

“It just rolled off his tongue and out of his mouth like a word he had known it forever,” Smith said. “It was nice to see that deeper level of comprehension going on.”

To get similar results, Smith encouraged teachers to find another teacher with whom to collaborate, establish procedures and routines in the classroom, and tell students you believe in them.

Montgomery said their method of teaching vocabulary does take some time up front, but it applies directly to the Kentucky Core Academic Standards for English/language arts and provides a big payoff. She also believes that the vocabulary plan is great for building classroom community, which is necessary when encouraging students to take risks.

“These are things that not only have happened in our classrooms but are happening today,” she said. “We’ve seen it work over and over again.”

MORE INFO…
English Language Arts Deconstructed Standards
Word Nerds: Teaching All Students to Learn and Love Vocabulary
Leslie Montgomery, leslie.montgomery@jefferson.kyschools.us, (502) 485-8203
Margot Holmes Smith, margot.holmes@jefferson.kyschools.us, (502) 485-8203

Veterinarian David Cleveland talks with sophomore Brittany Sauer about careers in animal science during Operation Preparation at Boyle County High School. Also pictured on the right are veterinarian technician Chelsea Williams and Cleveland’s dog Annie. Photo by Amy Wallot, March 21, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

March in Kentucky typically means brackets and NCAA basketball.

This year, at public middle and high schools across the state, it has also meant an increased focus on college and career readiness.

In its second year, Operation Preparation has grown from a weeklong event in 2012 to a month long event that connects 8th and 10th graders with community advisors, careers, postsecondary education and training and student goals. The initiative is a joint effort of the Kentucky Department of Education and the Department for Workforce Development.

Many schools, like Boyle County High School, tied March Madness and Operation Preparation together to get students excited about interests and career choices.

Boyle County High’s effort was called Career Madness; guidance counselors and other staff planned throughout the school year for the basketball-themed event that concluded this past Friday.

During a “practice” on Monday, sophomores attended a career fair to get general information on various careers. On Tuesday, they participated in a “game plan” – a career and technical education fair that showcased classes offered at the high school.

Wednesday featured a “pre-game warmup” with sophomores receiving training in interview etiquette, including tips on how they should dress and behave during job interviews. They also worked on how to give a proper handshake, and practiced asking strong, topical questions and listening.

“Game time” was Thursday, when students met with career coaches during 20-minute advising sessions. Following the mentoring sessions, the school held a pep rally led by alumnus and NFL player, Jacob Tamme, and 2009 Miss USA runner-up and model, Maria Montgomery who also graduated from Boyle Co. High School.

For sophomore Chelsee Colyer, Thursday’s career coaching affirmed her desire to be a social worker. Colyer met with Dalton Miller from the Lincoln County Department of Community Based Services. He told her she was “on the right track” to becoming a social worker.

“He really helped,” Colyer said. “He asked about physiology and psychology classes, and I haven’t had those yet. But I’m going to sign up for them.”

Miller also went over salaries and the importance of social workers not taking the job home with them.

Colyer said her conversation with Miller also affirmed something else.

“I definitely need to get my grades up,” she said.

Boyle County High counselor Dana Stigall said there was a wide variety of professions represented that offered something for everyone. A local veterinarian demonstrated how to read animal x-rays while manufacturing, construction, education, arts and humanities, marketing, communications and information technology professionals also talked to students.

“I have been pleasantly surprised by how many community volunteers have been willing to share their time and expertise with our students,” counselor Amy Rhinehart said. “We’re very thankful to have such a generous community of professionals in Boyle and surrounding counties.”

While the Career Madness targeted sophomores, Stigall and Rhinehart made sure other students benefitted, too. If a freshman had a special interest that connected with a represented profession, they made sure he or she spent some time with the community advisor who worked in that profession.

Freshmen also received a packet called “Components of the Student ILP,” to get them more familiar with the college and career planning tool known as the Individual Learning Plan (ILP)..

Juniors watched a 20-minute glog, or graphics blog, about requirements to be college ready.

Seniors completed surveys about their plans for after high school, participated in group discussions about these plans and viewed a life after high school glog.

“This is the first year we put together something like this,” Stigall said. “We hope that students get that we’re trying to get them excited about college, career and life after high school.”

Like Boyle County High, Dawson Springs (Ind.) High School extended Operation Preparation across grade levels. The small school included all students in grades 7-12 in its career mentoring process. Each student chose three careers and met with mentors in a small group setting. All career mentors were graduates of Dawson Springs High, and ran the gamut, from a state trooper, biochemist and writer to a pharmacist, speech pathologist, nurse and electrician.

“I tried to include something that I believed all students would be interested in,” guidance counselor Lori Wooton said. “I have wanted to do this for a couple of years and finally made it happen this year. I want my students to see successful graduates who have been where they are and how school has impacted their lives.”

First-grade student Callie Austin listens to curriculum coach Selena Cochran teach sentence structure during a writing lab at Porter Elementary School (Johnson County). Photo by Amy Wallot, Nov. 16, 2012

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Sandra Music couldn’t bring herself to eat the blue mashed potatoes.

Even though her Porter Elementary School (Johnson County) students told her they tasted just like regular mashed potatoes, Music took a pass on the lunch item last fall. “That whole week the kids’ mouths were blue,” she joked. “One day it was mashed potatoes, another day it was blue suckers. They had something blue to eat every day.”

The school went blue to celebrate its recognition as a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School.

Blue tongues aside, Music said it was worth it because it helped the students realize the significance of the Blue Ribbon accomplishment they helped earn.

“By the end of the week, they got what the excitement was all about,” said Music, who has been principal at the school for four years. “The entire Paintsville community was behind us. We were recognized at the board meeting, there was a proclamation, and the students really got that they were doing great things at this school.”

Porter Elementary School’s progress in assessment and accountability has been steady in recent years, Music said.

She credits some of that progress to the school’s focus on writing. This year, Porter Elementary opened a writing lab where students receive help to improve their writing from Heather Butcher, the school’s Title II curriculum coach. Music said Butcher’s work has made a positive impact on test scores.

Butcher, who prior to the lab’s creation used to visit individual classrooms to work with students on their writing, said having a designated lab space that students visit regularly has helped reinforce the importance of writing for students. “I think the kids saw it as the next step,” she said. “It was one thing for me to enter their classes, but another for them to walk into a room designated for writing.”

Additionally, teachers who observed Butcher in their classrooms during the 2011-12 school year are now modeling her work and lessons while she facilitates learning in the lab.

The lab also gives Butcher more time to meet with students and work on their writing.

“If I really see struggling students, I can target them in small groups,” Butcher said. “Writing can be difficult, but it’s important that kids have the right attitude about it. Then you can develop a love of writing.”

When she’s not working in the writing lab, Butcher leads 3rd grade Response to Intervention reading groups. She also participates in professional learning communities and English/language arts content network meetings.

“I believe it is through these initiatives and the collaboration efforts of Mrs. Butcher with our school’s Professional Learning Communities that have helped us continue to raise our reading and writing scores,” Music said. “We’ve had good writing scores with on demand, but we really wanted that consistency.”

Another initiative that helped boost the school’s scores was its Explore class, which is taught by Title I teacher Selena Cochran.

Students attend the Explore class weekly; the lessons vary depending on need.

Music said that when the school saw their recent K-PREP results, they were a little disappointed in 6th-grade editing and mechanics, so they were able to work on improvement through the Explore class. The Explore class this year also has offered keyboarding, drama, and interventions focused on extended response in mathematics.

“I really see the benefit of the Explore class,” Butcher said. “Whether it’s in writing or the Explore class, students are getting that extra help, and Selena and I are able to collaborate with teachers so that we are all on the same page.”

Music praised the work of her teachers at Porter Elementary and said she hopes to increase the use of technology in instruction in the future. Each classroom in the school currently is equipped with iMac computers, iPads, student responders/clickers, document cameras, 50-inch monitors, audio enhancers and SMART boards.

“What I’d like to see next with our technology is each student with an individual unit (like an iPad) that he or she can utilize for learning and that will assist them more with individual learning goals,” Music said. “We want to broaden in 21st century technology. The children love learning games, and they are so advanced with social media. The more we can embrace technology, the better off we’ll be.”

MORE INFO…
Sandra Music, sandra.music@johnson.kyschools,us, (606) 789-2545

Sophomore Caitlin Wade walks a horse back to graze after grooming it at The STABLES (Fayette County). Wade said she would like to become a riding instructor. Photo by Amy Wallot, Nov. 28, 2012

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

D’Vonta Middlebrooks looks more like Andre 3000, the dashing singer of the hip-hop duo OutKast, than a farm hand, and to hear him and others tell it, he didn’t see himself as much of horseman, either, when the school year began.

The junior at The STABLES (Fayette County) didn’t have much choice, though, since the alternative school at the Kentucky Horse Park focuses instruction on the equine industry.

Middlebrooks and more than 40 other 7th  through 12th graders spend all or part of their school day at The STABLES. It is housed in the office building of Central Kentucky Riding for Hope (CKRH), a non-profit therapeutic riding program for individuals with physical disabilities.

Besides caring for horses, all students take digital photography and equine studies, and may take their core classes at The STABLES or at their home school.

Students clean stalls, and water, feed, groom, bathe, trim and get the horses ready for therapy riders, The STABLES Academic Dean Brian McIntyre said. The students can receive a certificate of completion that they could take to local farms to show the skills they have acquired, he said.

Misty Cheetham, who teaches equine studies, said she teaches state science standards using horses. That includes nutrition and how it works in the body, principles of condition, biology and anatomy.

Students also learn problem solving and interpersonal skills, she said. The school’s hands-on approach has made a vast difference in some of the students, Cheetham said.

“It’s really rewarding,” she said.

Rachel Baker, director of The STABLES and special education administrator for high school and alternative programs in Fayette County, said all the students’ career choices are posted at the school. Staff tries to focus students on their career goals and how their actions are helping them reach those goals, she said.

“Our benefit is we’re really able to adapt the instruction to meet that individual kid’s needs and outcomes, whether that be educationally, college- and career-readiness, or socially. Kids are learning to build a real school culture,” Baker said.

Before this year, Missy Scott was teaching credit-recovery courses in a program located in the Fayette County school district office in downtown Lexington. Now, she isn’t teaching credit recovery as much as she’s teaching college- and career-readiness.

Scott is doing more project-based teaching than she has ever done and getting to spend more time with individual students.

“Being able to get the kids out of downtown and being able to expose them to things that they’ve never been exposed to was a huge opportunity for all of us,” she said.

Scott receives much of the credit for planting the seed to get the school started. About three years ago, her son, JP, was riding with CKRH. McIntyre, who at the time was a job coach for the district, had a student who was interested in working on a farm. Scott, knowing that CKRH was looking for volunteers, suggested McIntyre contact them.

McIntyre said the student had a lot of success that year, so the next year he placed three students with CKRH. Last school year, six students volunteered with the organization, each spending half a day at the Horse Park.

When CKRH opened its new building in 2011, that sparked the idea to hold classes in the building full-time. In addition to classrooms, the alternative school has access to a kitchen, barn and indoor riding arena.

CKRH staff work seamlessly with teachers at The STABLES, McIntyre said.

“They’ve embraced our kids,” he said. “They’ve gotten to know our kids, there’s a non-judgmental attitude toward our kids, and they treat them not like an alternative student but like a regular student.”

Baker said CKRH has other volunteers who used to work in the school system who were concerned when they heard The STABLES is an “alternative school.”

“Now, it’s like they can’t get enough of the kids,” she said. “Their attendance for their volunteers is up.”

McIntyre said the school looks for students who would flourish in a smaller setting that uses a hands-on, career-driven approach.. Gifted and talented students mix with students who may have mental or behavioral needs, just like in everyday life, he said.

“We work with all kids,” McIntyre said. “We accept all kids.

Students gain work competencies through project-based learning and experience, and while they may be reluctant at first, McIntyre said once they buy in, he gets complete effort.

CKRH Program Director Denise Spittler said CKRH wants to form a partnership with the community to expand the reach of horse riding. The opportunity to work with the school district gives students the opportunity to experience important life lessons through equine activities, she said.

“We want this to be a career-readiness preparation,” Spittler said. “Students are learning core content. They are learning about horses, they’re learning equine science, but most importantly they’re learning those career-readiness skills: pride in their work, dedication and coming and doing it every day, even when you don’t feel like it.

Working with the horses has had an additional effect, McIntyre said. The students are building their interpersonal communication skills, he said.

“These horses sense when a kid is having a bad day. They can sense when they’re having a good day,” he said. “It is so bizarre to see these horses do that.”

Middlebrooks, who initially didn’t like horses, has learned to like and understand them, too.

He recalled the time he and some of his classmates were measuring horses with a stick; he could tell one of the big ones, a 1,700-pound female, was feeling agitated by the way her ears were pinned back.

So, the boy, who had once been scared of horses, started rubbing her head and “playing friendly” so the mare wouldn’t be afraid of the measuring stick.

He also tells the story of Hoss and Rocket Boy: Rocket Boy listened when he was being trained but Hoss was stubborn. Middlebrooks liked the challenge. So, when his classmates went inside, Middlebrooks stayed outside training Hoss.

“Working with the horses helps you understand stuff better, because you’ve got to learn with them. It helps you become more patient. When you first start working with them, they’re not always going to listen. Some of them will listen,” he said.  “But you just never stop. You’ve got to keep on trying until they listen.”

MORE INFO…
The STABLES
Rachel Baker, rachel.baker@fayette.kyschools.us, (859) 381-4778

Holly Pitts teaches prepositions to her 7th-grade language arts class at Beechwood High School (Beechwood Independent). Pitts flips her classroom and has students watch short videos at home to aid in instruction. Photo by Amy Wallot, Feb. 13, 2013

By Susan Riddell
susan.riddell@education.ky.gov

Parents are routinely joking with teacher Holly Pitts about how they hear her voice in their homes all the time.

“The feedback I get from parents is actually great,” said Pitts, a 7th grade language arts teacher at Beechwood High School. “I love knowing that students are learning some concepts before I really go over them in class.”

Pitts is one of several Kentucky teachers who have flipped their classroom. In a flipped classroom, students are introduced to concepts at home prior to classroom work on the topic.

“I love teaching this way,” Pitts said. “Kids are so social media driven these days, it makes perfect sense to me.”

Typically, teachers start new lessons by having students watch short five- to 15-minute videos at home and doing any necessary work prior to teachers going over the lessons in class.

Pitts relies on Edmodo for her students to gain access to the videos. She said she likes introducing new concepts to students this way, especially something visual and challenging like diagramming sentences.

Accommodations are made for students who don’t have computers at home. “I always try to give the kids a few days’ notice to watch the videos,” Pitts said. “They can watch them in a library or on phones.”

Like Pitts, Steve Mintner has had great feedback from parents about his flipped classroom. Mintner teaches science at South Middle School (Henderson County).

He said that with technology’s advancement the last several decades, a flipped classroom can help bridge the gap that some parents face in how they were taught compared to how students are taught today.

“It is often that parents of middle school students do not have the background to help their children, and this gives them the ability to sit down with the video and help their child,” Mintner said. “Parents really like (the videos).”

Mintner has been creating videos and using other science videos for his flipped classroom since last year. He does do a quick run-through of the material in class prior to students watching the videos. But students are responsible for watching them promptly, he said.

“It’s also very helpful for kids who are absent or sent to in-school suspension,” Mintner said.

Mintner said he plans to upgrade his videos soon by shortening them and having each one focus on a single topic. He also plans to include students in future videos.

“Morning radio shows always have two personalities,” Mintner said. “I think the videos will be more appealing with two of us in them.”

Teachers who flip their classrooms tend to offer two videos per week. But that doesn’t mean they don’t interact one-on-one with their students.

“We have built tutoring into our schedule two days per week, and I am always available before and after school,” Mintner said. “I will always help a kid who struggles with the concepts. I have started making online games on Quia.com and flashcards on Quizlet to help them, too.”

With the flipped model, Mintner said he has more classroom time for labs.

“There were a very high percentage of students who were proficient or distinguished on K-PREP last year,” he said. “I think the more active classroom labs played a key role in that since science can be so abstract, and we were able to make it more concrete.”

Pitts said the flipped classroom really benefits the struggling student.

“The videos allow kids to get extra help without feeling like they are way behind their classmates,” said Pitts, who will present her flipped classroom model at the Kentucky Society for Technology in Education beginning tomorrow.

Taylor County Middle School pre-algebra teacher Jessica McCubbin agreed that flipping a classroom benefits the struggling student.

“Students can rewind me and listen to instruction as many times as they need to,” McCubbin said of students who struggle to grasp concepts at initial viewings. “It promotes ownership of their learning as they are responsible for learning the material, doing the work, checking their work and asking questions if needed.”

McCubbin noted the method doesn’t hold back students who understand the concepts quickly and are ready to proceed with another lesson.

“We use a flipped self-paced model in which the student can go as far as they can once they master a concept, and they don’t have to wait on other students in the class.”

Laura Raganas has used a flipped classroom with 4th and 5th graders at Taylor County Elementary School.

Raganas, who relies on self-made, YouTube and Kahn Academy videos, said she begins her day with a 10- to15-minute, whole-group lesson followed by a short lesson that adheres to her pacing map.

“For the student who is working ahead, the mini lesson is a spiraling back (review) and for the student who may not be there yet, it’s a preview.” After the mini-lesson, students start learning material at their own pace.

Raganas requires all her students to journal her lessons in case they review it later, and students need to refer back to the lessons.

At first, Raganas was hesitant to embrace the flipped classroom model because she had concerns about her students being too young to be successful with it.

“I quickly saw that this is how this generation learns,” she said.

MORE INFO…
Holly Pitts, holly.pitts@beechwood.kyschools.us, (859)-331-1220, ext. 6405
Steve Mintner, dennis.mintner@henderson.kyschools.us, (270) 831-5050
Jessica McCubbin, Jessica.mccubbin@taylor.kyschools.us, (270) 465-2877
Laura Raganas, laura.raganas@taylor.kyschools.us, (270) 465-5691