Kindergarten+PLC

Riverbend Elementary School Kindergarten Professional Learning Community

Schedule of joint IST/Kindergarten PLC meetings 2008-2009: Sept. 26, Oct. 17, Nov. 14, Dec. 12, Jan. 23, Feb. 13, Mar. 6, April 10, May 8

PLC & PLC/IST minutes: Kindergarten/First Grade PLC & IST Shared Meeting

May 15, 2009 Present: Weaver, Savikko, Pardee, Doxey, Badilla, Katasse, Wittig, Faure, McLaughlin

Wrap-up of the Kindergarten Round-Up discussion (the two grades combined and continued the discussion last week on their own during PLC time). MRCS did their round up in one evening the week before school started, with eight adults. Different alpha groups were assigned times to attend (one hour per group - two groups). It wasn't too long, and a snack was offered when they finished. Parents went into the library with principal. If we did something like that, what room(s) would be available and appropriate? Some stations would have a small group of kids (snack, draw a person, etc.) from which you could pull individual kids to do the KLST-2. Other things to look at are pencil grip and cutting. Of the two pencil grip is far more important. Skip the cutting. Gross motor: run, hop, cross midline. Play - engage someone at the table (appropriately), parallel or interactive play, puppet, following instructions. Vicky suggested that we note the time it took for the child to do specific tasks. The K/1 teachers will develop the forms next week during PLC time. Lynn will inform the missing teachers what they need to do before then (try out the KLST-2 on some current kinders).

Take pictures of each student, so you would have them available for making labels on Wednesday. Will need to have name tags on the kids.

Vicky thought she would try your their new assessment on her current students this spring, to become familiar with the tool.

We spent the last 35 minutes looking at wow, average, and uh-oh work samples from each room.

May 1, 2009 Present: Pardee, Puustinen, Wittig, Becker, Johnston, Katasse, Weaver, Savikko, Doxey, McLaughlin

Here are the chart paper notes that Karen took:

How will we screen students who come after school starts? Brenda will do at least the KLST-2. We will continue to try to balance classrooms.
And here are the rest of the notes Sheryl took: Agenda: What will we tell parents and students for the day or so that the students are being assessed? What do we want to know about kindergarten students before we place them? Did they attend preschool, how frequently? Which one? Questions regarding possible ADD/Dyslexia factors Is the child potty trained? How old was the child when they were potty trained? Allergies Ask integrated preschool for their screening tool for peers. Do they know colors? Age/birthdate/birth order siblings Oral Language Development What are your goals, hopes & dreams for your child? What do you love about your child?
 * Information Sought || Assessment Used || Who? ||  ||

What assessments will we do? Developmental profile Kindergarten Language Screening Tool Developmental Profile maybe parts of the Briggance (sp?)

When can we do the Developmental Profile? Maybe during the 2:15-3:45 time (one child per day)

Kindergarten/First Grade PLC & IST Shared Meeting Friday, April 10, 2009

Present: Becker, Pardee, Pustinnen, McLaughlin, Wittig, Savikko, Dukes, Badilla, Doxey, Katasse, Weaver

What should we do with the other ¼ time during the day that kinder teachers are not doing their regular kindergarten instruction?

Karen explained the protocol.

What do you do now when your kinders go home?

Second week of school teacher breaks down class down for the year. 2:10-2:25 kids go to recess. Kids get one 5-6 week grouping. Has done homogeneous grouping in the past, but this year, the lowest group is low there is no sparking or modeling. Usually works on reading, writing, and/or math. Always starts with the highest group. After spring break, she keeps whole class all day. Gives more time for writing and reading groups.

Running 5-6 week callbacks. First group were homogeneous grouping to work on skills identified on the PALS. That didn’t work as well, so next grouping was more heterogeneous. Kids are getting reading groups four days per week (25 minutes each). Also does math and social groups. Also doing Starfall computer program. Parents were concerned at beginning of the year when there was no callback due to supporting the 1/2 group, and glad to hear that call-backs were going to happen.

All K’s go home at the end of the K day, and uses paired intensive model that she learned at the primary lit. institute. Does 3 or 4 groups per day. Three have exited once they were on the trajectory to make core by the end of the school year. K’s that are struggling are receiving intervention during the school day from Jean and Lynn. Does small group guided reading during the school day.

We wrote on chart paper our questions and comments:

Tisa – It goes with what makes the teacher feel the best; it needs to be in the comfort level of the teacher. Tisa would like to remind people about the PLC norms. Would prefer to do Marta’s intervention next year (with a positive attitude).

Vicky – there is an unknown factor – we don’t know what next year’s kindergarteners will look like until the fall.

Doug – If we get a bunch of low kids coming in, we might want to have call-back for those kids as soon as we realize that is what they need.

Marta – Would like to continue with the model she and Tisa have right now. She feels like if Tisa doesn’t intervention for her first graders next year, they won’t get what others got.

Liza – Call backs would provide services – she could go either way.

Deb – Same as Liza. We need something for the at need students. Likes the callback model. Maybe do both for kids that need it.

Shawna – has appreciated the opportunity to do callback. Maybe if they got intervention early they wouldn’t need it in first grade. Also spoke to the impact of teaching social skills during callback, and that that might also have a huge positive impact down the road.

Vicky – Has been doing callback since 2003, and this is the largest conversation we’ve had since then. First two weeks when getting data together, she would help the first grade teachers. Would be happy to do either way, but likes her current model.

Davin – would have liked to have had intervention this year. Maybe midyear switch from first grade to kindergarten intervention.

Carmen – Knows social skills are better after winter break. Would like kinder callback to be more skill based. Would like specific skills taught. More of the RTI model.

Sheryl - Finds the first grade intervention for fall, and kindergarten callback of some form in the spring is a good compromise.

Brenda – would like us to choose something that has equity in the building. Parents would be looking for that and noting differences. Would like interventionist to provide noteworthy services to the kindergarten.

Doug – We have seen the success from the k teacher supporting the 1st grade teacher.

Karen – Paired intensive reading is the closest we come to reading recovery. Maybe K’s would be providing the K’s their own intervention. Little groups for first grade (like in Davin’s class) haven’t been working, so maybe we should be using that model. Picking the right model might be more important than who provides and when.

Carolyn – This is totally new to her, but her gut tells her the paired reading at the beginning of the year. If we switched to callback the second half of the year, and made sure the interventionists get to those that didn’t get picked up or make progress. Also concerned about impact on multiage classes. Whatever we do, it should be consistent over the years, so we don’t miss a group of kids along the way.

Consensus? The only consensus we could agree on is that we don’t really have consensus on any particular solution. Carmen – If the kindergarten teachers became the RTI specialists for their students, then the other interventionists could target the first graders.

Kindergarten PLC/IST meeting Friday, March 20, 2009

Present: Pardee, Savikko, Badilla, Doxey, Wittig, Katasse, Johnson, Ross

Looked at the math data. Marta has five that do not meet, two of which are already identified or in the process of being identified as special ed. She also mentioned that they had informally selected 29 as the cut score for counting at this time in the year. We also looked at Vicky’s data, and there are eight that are of concern. One of these students is in the process of special ed. identification. One of the students was scotted, but at this point more data needs to be collected by the classroom teacher. Karen is working with two of these students, and Jan is working with three of them. Lynn is working on one of these students. What should we do with them?

Marta: most of the students have most of their letters and letter sounds, but Lynn is working with a group of three students who are still working on those skills.

She and Jean are looking at15 minutes of a math intervention. Other time with beginning concept of print. Jean is working with her class four days per week.

For the next meeting: What should we do with the call-back time next year? Some kinders are wiped out by 2:15. Do we get more bang for our buck by supporting first graders? Is early intervention the best option. Carmen suggested that who gets callback would be determined by the student achievement data (not everyone getting the same amount). Maybe one of the three K teachers does callbacks for everyone, and the other two K teachers support the first grade teachers. Sheryl mentioned that she was fascinated by one model at MRCS (half the class stays for the first ¾ of the day, and the other half of the class is there for the last ¾ of the day). Sheryl and Carmen will recheck and see what kinder classes are doing about callback this year.

Next year there will be three days to complete the RADP. We talked about the carnival type assessment they do at MRCS. Most of the IST is available to help with this. They did most of the assessment on the first day, spent the second day going over them together, and then an open house type activity on the third day.

Carmen was going to bring the RADP (Revised Alaska Developmental Profile), and she handed it to Lisa to make copies, but it disappeared. She will bring it to the next meeting, meanwhile we have glossy brochures to look at.

We have an oral language screen on order for the fall. Lyon Johnson from SESA did not know of a screen (of ? ) for younger children. Carmen suggested we could do observation of Head Start this fall to see what they really are doing.

Everyone wanted both the K and first grade teachers to attend and participate in the next K PLC/IST meeting.

We talked about beginning the discussion of placing students for first grade. One option was keeping the class intact, with certain students shuffled to other rooms.

January 30, 2009 Minutes Kindergarten IST

We looked at the students for whom we had alphabet sound and recognition concerns. Rated their rate of acquisition. What do we think about what to do next. We pointed out that there are two groups; those who have gained many sounds and are ready to use those in reading and writing. Some we are very concerned about their rate of acquisition. We talked about individual students to brainstorm what we should do for them next and made some changes to interventions.

Karen mentioned that the district is purchasing PALs database online which will provide us with progress monitoring tools specific to the discreet skills assessed by PALs.

River Unit –there is going to be a performance in April as the culmination of this unit.

Asked about the school song.

Math concerns. The kindergarten teachers have math concerns. The classes are doing a math assessment (universal screening) and the kindergarten PLC will let IST know if/when they would like to bring that information to IST for possible intervention help.

General Comments:

Can we make decisions about assessments to use NEXT YEAR before kindergarten students are assigned to class? Would like to put this on the future agendas (should schedule dates to make sure it happens).

There is a behavior universal screening available through the SESA – we should look into.

It happened this year that we had preschool students who should have received services, but we didn’t know about them. We need to put in place a way to connect with preschools to make sure we know about them.

Kindergarten PLC/IST Meeting December 8, 2008

Present: Wittig, Weaver, Badilla, Faure, Doxey

Agenda: (using the fleshed out agenda Doxey sent out later in the week).

Mea culpa about offering intervention at times outside the scheduled intervention time. It had a impact on other groups and we need to back up and use our originally scheduled times.

9:15-9:55 Puustinen/Dukes 9:55-10:35 Becker/Pardee 10:50-11:30 McLaughlin/Savikko

No new WHOLE GROUP instruction should occur during your scheduled intervention time. It is OK to also do your own interventions or facilitate small groups, if that is appropriate for your students.

We did the TOLD subset screen on the entire kindergarten. Eve has selected a couple appropriate screening tools (oral language, broader range, including Flue Hartting ??)., and that will be ordered. (yes?). Also need to check to see how often it has been normed to use without invalidating the data. Looking for something to use before the beginning of the school year.

Interventions:

Karen did a follow-up TOLD type assessment on her group, and saw no improvement. OLAI is the tool she is using as a follow-up assessment, with more diagnostic information.

Jan: They all made about 2 point gain on the TOLD.

Colleen is also working with kids, but we don’t have up-to-date assessments on those kids.

Puustinen noted that there are some kids who scored lower on the TOLD but they haven’t been picked up for services.

One of the K’s will be SCOT’ed for language.

Group discussed our goal for kindergarteners. (Part of the difficulty is that the state GLE, local expectations, what’s available to mark on the report card, and PALS discussion). Maybe in PLC they will determine what next (after alphabet recognition).

March – End of March – 26 Letter ID and 26 sounds. Letter ID – Group decided this would be our month-by-month goal 0 September 8 October 16 in November 18 in December 20 January 24 February 26 March (end)

Vicky noted that students who’s letter ID and sounds should progress at similar rates; students with really different scores usually have a red flag for something.

We looked at the data. Vicky has 8 students we are concerned with. Marta’s students have mostly been accounted for (2 special ed.) although there is one student, who has had a lot of absences, who is flat lining. Oh, and three more that aren’t attendance issues.

(Names of students removed from wiki version)

McLaughlin: 9 students

Pardee: 5 students

Puustinen: 8 students

Marta commented that she feels that she really has seen her students who received pre-teaching from Jan seemed empowered when the new (to the rest of the class) material is presented. Rotating through 2 kids at a time for 10 minutes each.

Vicky said that having ELL pulled and oral language intervention during her intervention block will work.

Shawna Jo is pleased that Colleen has been working with one student, who couldn’t write her name, although there are other kids who did worse on the TOLD who aren’t getting any intervention services. Letters and letter sounds would be good intervention to get the kids ready for writer’s workshop. Discussion of how to use Jean in a more targeted manner.

Scotted:

Marta 1 for behavior & academics, maybe 2 more Shawna, 2 already, 1 in January, and one or three more (behavior) Vicky: 1 done, 3 more scheduled, probably 1 more in the cue. This does not count the five identified special ed. students (not counting articulation).

Services: Jean is available two days a week (maybe four days per week for Marta’s class) We brought Jean in for the end of the meeting, and she is fine with four days / week service for that group, but would need to drop someone else.

Jan could see Marta and Shawna’s kids at the same time (they would be missing snack or free choice).

Karen could come to Shawna’s room 4x40 minutes. Faure will take all Dukes intervention.

Second Block: Jean 4x40 with Pardee, plus 10:10-10:35 Jan is doing ESL with P & P’s classes.

Third block: Jan 4x40 with McLaughlin.

This would start the beginning of January. Keep current service for this last week in January.

Notes from November 14, 2008 Kindergarten/IST joint meeting Present: Doxey, Weaver, Ross, Pardee, Puustinen, Badilla, McLaughlin, Wittig Agenda: Kindergarten: • Articulation: Doug will debrief from CIT meeting (question about screening/referral for K's) • Grip Concern: K teachers will debrief on training with Megan (assuming it happened). • TOLD screening follow-up: We haven't done the reassessments (we need to order the new one, and LL is still developing rapport with targeted students). Brenda mentioned that there is a limit of how often the TOLD can be administered. • Check in on the students receiving intervention (based on the TOLD screen) • Look at PALS data (Doxey will present). • Work on River unit (as time permits).

Notes: CIT debrief. Nothing from CIT, but Eve will present Nov. 21st. Dixie is going to a national conference and Vicky asked her to look for info about screens. Vicky would like something at the beginning, middle and end of kindergarten. Megan wants to do a training before school on the 20th. The office ordered two dozen for each class. Everyone chuckled that we might need more over the course of the year. Carmen suggested having the teachers write the purchase requisition, with the quantity you will need. Note: first and some second grade students really could benefit from the same thing, so order enough for all.

Big books: Sunshine books are really nice, so are Rigby. Since science curriculum has changed, some big books on trees would be great. Doxey will order them. Books are about $25 each. (Ordering about ten?).

Going home books: Title One will also purchase more of those, so that the kids aren’t taking home Xeroxed paper books, but real books instead.

Eaglecrest – Karen ordered two full sets, but the literacy order also had two sets, so we should be swimming in it. Mimi, Mary and Tisa ordered about 10 books per classroom, but we don’t know where they are. Karen will check location.

Intervention- Karen has not done the follow-up she was hoping to do. She needs to order a copy of the protocol. Colleen is working in some of the kindergarten classes, but needs clarification of who needs services and what services. If she is coming in with centers, it’s not working out as well as it could be. Maybe a better time of the day would make more sense, or taking the kids out in the hall to work on them. Vicky would prefer her to come in during writing time, 1:10 – 2:00. Marta is pleased with the services she is receiving from Colleen – she is building in the activities, and taking the kids out in the hall two times a week. Brenda said she has some file folder games that she could make available. Jean is also available two days per week (Mondays and Tuesdays). Doxey is also available during that time.

Looking at the K enrollment: 21, 21, 23 (Pardee)

PALS analysis: Sum score does not include Sections IV or V. 28 is the benchmark for entering K’s. About half of the kids met that benchmark – but half of the kids didn’t. We have our work cut out! Many of visual kids had a hard time with parts of this. All three teachers would like intervention support.

How does the TOLD screen relate to the PALS data? Lots of criss-cross (didn’t pass one screen, but did pass the other).

What to do with the kids that passed both screens? Marta thinks she can meet their needs (with Sheryl’s help). Vicky notices that she is three weeks behind where she was last year (and we are only on week ten of the year). Some of the math time is being set aside to deal with the language issues we are dealing with.

What does Tier I instruction look like? (They talk very quicky and I couldn’t get it all in).

Marta: starts with sharing, para does stuff, during intervention she is working with small groups, story time, handwriting, songs, interactive writing, writing, centers (including “have to” choices).

Shauna: Centers (including art, board games), reading instruction for kids who are ready for it, read aloud, songs, big book activity, guided writing activity, (other things), a lot of the literacy is during call-back 5:1.

Vicky: (18/19 years ago EPFS- a bunch of adults came in and worked with small groups & screened). Morning meeting, graphing, schedule, choice, math, big book, read aloud, interactive writing, literacy centers (guided reading, writing, abc puzzles, computers). Hardest thing is meeting the need of the student at level 14.

So what are we going to do about this (the low PALS scores)? The K teachers were planning on the Sp.Ed. teachers addressing the needs of the identified students, but there is no indication that that’s happening. (Liza arrives;)

Callbacks: The two teachers who are doing callback have selected the kids who have lowest TOLD scores.

1:10-2:00 When Shauna would like assistance Morning- when Marta would like assistance.

The problem is that the working with two kids at a time when we have 30 kids in serious need of intervention isn’t going to work.

Vision and hearing screening – the kindergarteners need to be screened ASAP, since we suspect there may be some issues.

Conferences: Parents were told exactly how their children were doing on the PALs during conferences, and what the benchmark was. They were also given suggestions for working with their child, although Doxey mentioned that a family night would be a good follow-up.

Other people we have to work with: Jean is available half-time. Tami is also funded through Title One, so maybe she could work with kids sometime (per Karen).

How long will the Fast Forward for the ½ class be going on? Karen thinks it will be going on much longer than the standard six week protocol. Karen would like to talk with Jan when she gets back on Tuesday, to see how they can adjust their schedule.

Vicky mentioned that some of the parents of students she referred for artic. Thought their child was already receiving those services, only to have Vicky clarify that they were working with the LL or ESL teacher. A newsletter article clarifying all the intervention services offered would be helpful.

January 23rd: Vicky wants to have predetermined so that they can come in to that meeting with the assessment done and ready to bring in. During our December 12th meeting, we can determine those assessments.

PLCs: There is so much stuff to do during PLC’s how do you prioritize all that needs to be done (UbD, looking at meeting GLE’s). Carmen: Can they take the time to look at the SMART goals in math & writing, and realign them with the current GLE’s? They really want to know ASAP.


 * October 17, 2008**

Agenda

1. Articulation Needs – Will be on the agenda for the next CIT meeting. Address protocal for addressing students with speech concerns. Will get student full names from student list. Original list only had first names

2. Grip Concerns – Megan Smith, Physical Therapist tentatively set up a meeting with Kinder classroom teachers next Friday, Oct. 24th. in McLaughlin’s room 20, 3:30 pm. It would be helpful

3. Reviewed the screening. Would like to do further Oral

Language diagnostic testing for low students highlighted in the TOLD screening report. “Do I control the language?”

How can we support the large number of students who have low language in the Kinder classes? 24 students have been highlighted.

Vickey commented that some of the students that scored low was not what see daily in class. She had 13 students identified as low.

Further diagnostic testing can happen after a period of time.

Students with IEP’s need peer groups for the socialization part of their IEP.

Karen would like to look at students (8) with Indian Studies and draw up a proposal.

Intervention Concerns:

Can’t ID name

Can’twrite name Grip Concern Receptive Language Articulation

Which students can’t write their name?

x– needs help with writing his name for 5 minutes a day (Indian Studies student) x – Taken care of with a para. x -

Would like a letter to go home to the parent from the teacher who is working with them regarding a specific intervention. It would be helpful in preparation for conferences.

Intervention services would begin tentatively on Wednesday.

Would like to incorporate social graces in language development.

High Performing Students: 4

Parking Lot:


 * Program that addresses handwriting. Fine motor strategies.
 * Shawna needs Big Book pattern books. Brenda is willing to lend her big books.Karen will present big book request to the PTO. She will also look into ordering fat pencils for all Kinder classes.
 * PLC SMART goals will be addressed in PLC.
 * Doug will take articulation students to CIT.


 * 26 September 2008**

Present: Doxey - facilitator, Wittig - notetaker, Faure - gopher/timekeeper, Doug - norm-watcher/parking lot attendant, Brenda Weaver, Carmen Katasse (in and out), McLaughlin, Puustinen. Absent: Becker.

Goals for today:

Working on the kindergarten backwards design unit.

Topic/EQ: **What are the characteristics of living and non-living things?**

All things surround the Mendenhall River.

Objectives:

They will be able to describe the characteristics of living and non-living things. They will __summarize__ the needs of living things. Observation piece (?)

- classify living and non-living things.

How can you tell something living was here? What do all living things need? What's an example of a living thing? What's an example of a non-living thing? Water moves. Is it living? How do living things interact with non-living things? What are the senses? How do I know I am using them? What is an observation? What is a kingdom? What is a characteristic?

Discussion of cultural backgrounds: Many kids have been told that everything has life (fire, for example).

Looking for physical evidence.

Pooping Breathing Reproducing Shedding

Working definition of living (for example): When a leaf falls off a tree, it is dead (not the subtle as it yellows it is slowly dying).

Performance Tasks:

Sorting (beginning of classification) between living and non-living things. One of the teachers would like the students to be able distinguish coniferous from decideous trees, shrubs vs. trees, flowering vs. non-flowering plants. Sorting animals into fish, birds, mammals, bugs. Natural vs. man-made non-living things.

Other things found on walks: mushrooms, poop, limited frogs and toads, trash and man-made stuff.

Observation using their five senses.

(Non-living -> river -> pie in the sky activity would be taking the kids on a raft from the glacier to the channel.)

In addition to sorting, students need to be able to science journal their observations, and orally explain why they sorted the way they did.

Museum of the living and Museum of the non-living.

A lot of the evidence would be anticdotal, informal.

Could we capture this with video, audio? A voice thread? If so, who would be supporting that extra work?

Who would the culminating project be for? The team? The principal? Parents? Carmen refers to it as the celebration of their learning.

What reading & writing standards lend themselves to this work?

Discussion about science journals - Maybe the journal page would have a living & non-living section, and the student would need to decide on the spot which section to put it in (which means adults don't need to do nearly as much writing for the students).

Feedback from parents at conference - informal conversation - part of the assessment.

Self assessment: Maybe setting up a rubric and have them go through it? How reflective should we expect kindergarteners to be? "I was able to explain to my reader-buddy".

The IST will figure out how to correctly say the Tlingit name for the Brotherhood Bridge Trail. "We are going on the ___ trail" Would also like the same for boughs, and other things the students find on their walks.

Display cases for living and non-living. Maybe also the Tagalog names.

Karen volunteered to type up the form we handed out after the BD orientation.

Intervention block: concern about not teaching new instruction during that 40 minute block, since their day is already so short.

For the next meeting: We will have the Pals and the oral language screen coming up, and should be done before the next time we meet together on October 17th.

Would like a unit on patterns, more hands on, no overhead, more differentiation.

Reflection:

What worked and what would you like different next time.

Informal brainstorming and being able to popcorn off of each other. Wanted an agenda.

When everyone sat down at the table and focused. Wanted to start on time.

Getting better at norm watching, following the form. Having the agenda out.

IST/PLC worked. Having the norms. Having the agenda. Maybe have two minutes of sharing at the beginning.

To have something we agree on to follow for a process. Not only having the agenda, but also knowing what the topic was, so we could come in prepared.

Much more of a group process. Wants the two minutes 2:45-2:47.

Having the wiki to post to immediately. Having a bunch of e-mails to go through.

Feeling more informed about the unit. Will help understand what she's doing with the kids. Having people missing.