Site-based Instructional Support is now taking place at participating schools in SBCUSD. There are three days available for each school. (There is more information about the support below the pictures.)

Look what we have been seeing!

Kindergarten teachers, Ms. Klein and Ms. Katin, put together a research report Instructional Sequence! Students saw a slide show, read a book, and asked questions of an expert to gather the information to put on their plan. Look at the vocabulary students were generating!

Before the modeled and guided writing, Ms. Katin included an Interactive Writing segment to support those who still need it. She modeled where to find a word on the plan, how to use high-frequency words, and how to stretch out words they don't already know! (They weren't done, but I took the picture anyway!)

The teachers deliver the Instructional Sequences as seen during the demonstrations. A Get Ahead Writing trainer will watch the instruction and give written feedback. In most cases, the teacher and the trainer will have a few minutes to debrief the lesson.

As you can see in the sample to the right, the written feedback addresses the key elements of SBCUSD's Writing Initiative and the implementation of the Get Ahead Writing Instructional Sequence. The trainer will leave comments and suggestions to help with implementation.

Remember that the goal of our work together, especially in terms of site-based support, is consistency of implementation of the CCSS Writing Instructional Sequences-room to room, grade to grade, and school to school! This will allow us to build on what students have already learned instead of "teaching from scratch" year after year. We can do it!

Consistent implementation will get you results! Tremendous gains in student proficiency have been made! Congratulations to you all! Here is a picture of an Emmerton Kindergarten student's writing in September and April...WOW!

If you have trouble reading the sample, use the zoom tool and right click to "view image".

FAQ:

Do I have to start a new prompt on the day the trainer comes?

No! Just deliver the regularly planned writing instruction no matter which part of the Instructional Sequence it is (if it is time to model the writing, model the writing,).

May I ask the trainer questions as I teach?

Yes! Please ask to clarify anything uncertain.

Tips:

Make sure that you are using the approach that you saw in the formal trainings/demonstrations.