Portfolio of Implementation

It was awesome to see students confidently walk with their shoulders back as they brought their work to my desk for us to conference. I am happy to say that 5/8 students have complete stage 5 and have already begun to revise and edit their original prompts in stage 6! One came to me 1 minute before the end of class ready to conference on his work. We will go over his work during our next class on Friday. Another student has nearly completed 3a. I will be giving the Simple Sentence checklist to the students on Friday. I am starting to be hopeful that we will complete compound sentences before Christmas.

My 9th grade students will probably be finished with stage 5 by then. I am amazed by how quickly they have caught on to everything. I am not sure we would be moving as quickly if there were more than 3 students in the group. They also have a huge sense of rivalry between them. Either way, I am not complaining! Today, I had to mark sentences incorrect because the formula was not followed in a sentence by 2 of the students....they had written complex sentences. When I corrected them, they responded by saying...."these simple sentences are sooo boring..." I assured them that we would be discussing more complicated sentences, soon. When given the opportunity to revise their sentences, they turned in sentences that fit the formulas given. I ended up giving them a perfect score for the worksheet. It was awesome to see students confidently walk with their shoulders back as they brought their work to my desk for us to conference. I am happy to say that 5/8 students have complete stage 5 and have already begun to revise and edit their original prompts in stage 6! One came to me 1 minute before the end of class ready to conference on his work. We will go over his work during our next class on Friday. Another student has nearly completed 3a. I will be giving the Simple Sentence checklist to the students on Friday. I am starting to be hopeful that we will complete compound sentences before Christmas.

I am really thinking that I was way off on my timelines.....this class will likely pass the 10th grade group within the month.

Julie Herzog has been a pleasure to work with.  Each time we have met, she has had a plethora of ideas for supporting implementation.  She has created charts demonstrating student growth in writing complete sentences and word count.  During the initial implementation of Simple and Compound Sentences, we consistently talked weekly for approximately 30 minutes.  Julie also came to my school and provided on-site training.  Diane Gilliam and Julie Herzog also came and spent a day at the school observing the classes implementing PSW.    

1. In 2017-2018, I implemented the PSW strategy with 2 classes.  My English 10 Resource class has 7 students and has been working through PSW since September.  They have completed Simple, Compound and are currently wrapping up stage 5 in Complex Sentences.  I anticipate that they will complete this stage before the end of the school year.  My English 9 Resource class has 3 students who have been work through PSW since February.  They have completed Simple and Compound Sentences.  The students in both classes have IEP’s and have been identified as needing tier 3 intensive remediation.  

2. Each class has received approximately 45 minutes a day 5 days a week of instruction.

3. An example of a student progress chart is included in the student portfolio.  

     9/28/2017While grading the pretests of the class, I noticed that on the whole most of the sentences used to respond to the prompts were run-ons and sentence fragments. Based on these results, I made the decision to begin implementing with simple sentences.

The students took their time on responding to their prompts. It is clear that at this time they are taking this class seriously.

This stage felt very long. It was completed on 9/29. One of the things I did to test understanding during this stage was to have the students write sentences using the four simple sentence formulas taught in the lesson. The work I received from the students showed me that my students were on track.

Stage 3 on Simple Sentences was completed on 9/29.   Since I only see my students 3 days a week, I am finding that the time needed to review often takes longer than just a few minutes. 

My students completed stage 4 on 10/4. After reviewing the things they needed to know for the assessment, students were given the opportunity to study with a partner. Most of the class passed with 100% on the first try. Those who needed a second opportunity passed on the second try.

Over the past couple of years I have thoroughly benefited from having a coaching relationship with Dana and Jocelyn. They have helped me with the problem solving of the issues that came up in past lessons and on the spot when they are in the classroom to observe. They have come in during my planning periods to help plan and review things that I may have needed assistance with.

They are eager to assist with students who are struggling, both in small groups and individually when in the actual classroom. This hands-on assistance is important as students get to see how everyone on all levels, the teacher and others, are committed to seeing them reach levels of growth and success as they prepare for upcoming state tests.

The feedback given after each visit helped me and my co-teacher to grow as professionals. They always offered "grows and glows," that allowed us to be proud of what we were doing well, and gave us valid suggestions to implement immediately in the next lesson. Dana and Jocelyn were always available via email to answer any concerns that may come up, and responded in a timely fashion. This benefited the students greatly.

Student Progress Chart: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B09dNfZDxM0BT1g4NmlINzBhRU0

I instructed three different groups of 27, 26, and 30 students. The three groups are co-taught with a special education teacher. The groups include exceptional learners, (SPED/VAAP students), ELL students, students with 504 plans and students from the general population.  Each groups consists of different learning levels, all of which are inclusion classes with exceptional learners. We implemented proficiency in sentence writing daily for 20-25 minutes based on the lesson for the given day, for seventeen to nineteen weeks of the first semester of the school year based on the needs of the individual groups.

Implementation experiences- What went well was the routine developed to be committed to the strategy and completing it daily. Students knew what to expect each class period, and maintained their own folders to show individual progress.The rapid-fire pace of the mini-lessons kept students engaged and focused on the lesson. As with any lesson, adjustments had to be made based on student needs. When some students were able to move on to other lesson sheets, others needed reteaching and additional practice with the lettered lesson sheets.