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Tonight’s Agenda

CPS District Plan and Our Vision for Teaching and Learning

Improving Instructional Practice to Achieve Rigorous, Joyful, Culturally Responsive Learning

School Snapshot: Fletcher Maynard Academy “Our Journey”

Next Steps

Questions

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Our

District

Plan

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Defining Our Terms: Rigorous Learning

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Defining Our Terms: Joyful Learning

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Defining Our Terms: Culturally Responsive Learning

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High Expertise Teaching Practices

(Research for Better Teaching)

Studying Skillful Teacher
Analyzing Teaching for Student Results
Making a shift to a culture focused on learning

Lessons aligned to challenging, measurable objectives
Making student thinking visible
Establishing standards (criteria for success) for quality of work, work habits, and/or interpersonal behavior
Providing feedback to students (capacity-building responses tied to criteria)
Adjusting instruction based on formative assessment data
Communicating high expectations messages

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Ready for Rigor Framework

(Zaretta Hammond)

Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Awareness, relationships, processing, community
Students are ready for rigor and independent learning

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Our Vision for

Teaching & Learning

(Cambridge Public Schools)

Rigorous, joyful, and culturally responsive
Builds on High Expertise Teaching & Culturally Responsive Teaching
Instructional core: teacher, student, content
Reflection for improvement

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Rigorous Learning

How will I create a learning environment that the brain perceives as safe and nurturing so learners can learn?

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Joyful

Learning

How will all learners feel ownership for learning by having choice and contributing their own questions, ideas, and perspectives?

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Culturally

Responsive

Learning

How will this learning experience reflect the strengths, capabilities, contributions, and positive representations about underrepresented races and cultures?

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Equity-Driven Objectives at the School Level:

5 Strategies in Every School Improvement Plan

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Fletcher-Maynard Academy

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Fletcher-Maynard Academy | Our HET Journey

*CPS engages in High Expertise Teaching (HET) work with Research for Better Teaching (RBT)

*CPS focuses on Clarity from the key concepts of the HET pyramid

*FMA looks deeply into Clarity and focuses on Making Student Thinking Visible to increase student achievement

*ELA/Math Team engages in Making Student Thinking Visible text by Ron Ritchhart. Staff engages in professional development with the 24 Operating Principles and Thinking Routines

*Ambitious Instruction Routines: Number Talks introduced to engage Mathematics into the MSTV on-going work

*ELA/Math team engages in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018-19

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The Knowledge and Skills of High Expertise Teaching

Making Students’ Thinking Visible

This constellation of 24 skills is the key to successful implementation of the Common Core. It creates a talk environment of safety, intellectual risk taking, rigor, very high student participation. It is the way to create a “thinking classroom.”

-Research for Better Teaching

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Making Student Thinking Visible

“Learning is a consequence of thinking. Students' understanding of content, and even their memory for content, increases when they think through—and with—the concepts and information they are studying. Thinking through issues is not a solo endeavor, however. Team members often share and build on one another's knowledge.”

–Ron Ritchhart and David Perkins

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Teachers used an Instructional Innovation Log to describe and reflect on the thinking routines used in their classrooms.

FMA educators submitted their logs to our Google Classroom to share with colleagues.

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Developed by Liz Vincent (Morse School)

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Color, Symbol, Image – Grade 2 (Katz)

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Color, Symbol, Image – Grade 2 (Katz)

“Doing this helped me understand the poem because some people of color were treated unfairly and I understood that all of us have to be treated fairly… but it wasn’t like that when he wrote the poem… and still isn’t sometimes… but we can change that.”

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Number Talks - Grade 2

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Impact at FMA

�Student Reflections

“It helped me because I could show best effort.”
“I liked this because it made me look at the images differently. I looked �at things really carefully and paid attention to even the little details.”
“What I like about Number Talks are when I get to understand other �people’s thinking and finding my mistakes quickly.”
“What I like about Number Talks is that it helps me learn and it helps �me think.”

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Impact at FMA

�Teacher Reflections�

I Used to Think: having all students engage in high level discussions was too challenging

Now I Think: given the proper modeling, setting norms and expectations and encouraging � accountable talk leads to more productive conversations that can include ALL students

I Used to Think: MSTV was a product-work produced to show what students have learned

Now I Think: it’s a process, a dialogue, tone set by the teacher, a classroom culture, � everyday routines

MCAS Performance

95th Achievement Percentile for African-American/Black students in ELA

93rd Achievement Percentile for African-American/Black student in math

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