HSD 2025- Graduate Learner Outcomes

The Hudson School District Graduate Learner Outcomes provide vision for our schools.

I will focus on one GLO each week in my blog to help us focus on this shared vision for our future graduates of the Hudson School District. Together we will think about what we are doing to contribute to our students progress toward meeting them, and spark thought about future actions we can take to help our students reach these goals.  There are ample opportunities to lose our focus on what could be considered “distractions” but our GLOs can help us to examine what we do on a daily basis and see how closely we can connect each activity to our district GLOs. This week we will begin with a quick refresher on all of the district GLOs:

Foundational Content Areas

• Students will demonstrate skill, knowledge, and understanding of foundational content areas while recognizing and applying connections across all disciplines

Global Literacy

• Students will understand how world cultures and global issues connect to their lives.  Students will communicate in more than one language.

Technology Literacy

• Students will demonstrate the appropriate use of technology tools, evaluate the quality of sources and incorporate technology into daily work.

Entrepreneurial Learning

• Students will demonstrate their ability to work in teams and collaborate in the spirit of innovation.  Students will demonstrate an understanding of what it means to adjust, be flexible, and change a course of action.

Environmental Sustainability

• Students will apply knowledge of environmental sustainability in their personal, professional, and civic life.

Thinking

• Students will critically and creatively apply thinking skills and demonstrate the ability to reason through complex problems.

Life Skills

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of a healthy lifestyle and making a positive difference in the lives of others.  Students will be respectful of self and other and take responsibility for their own behavior.

As you reflect on the work of the Integrated Units of Inquiry, how do you see these coming alive at the elementary level.

Think about where we see these infused in our classroom and opportunities for future use of the GLO's. Please add them to the comments. To read more about HSD 2025, click here.

Writing- ASCD Educational Leadership

April 2014's Educational Leadership is entitled- Writing: A Core Skill

On page 8 they discuss evidence based practices that are effective in writing.
Researchers from Michigan State University and The University of Connecticut analyzed the new CCSS writing standards to see if they reference the 36 practices to improve writing skills.
The promising practices included in the CCSS are...

1. Providing extra time for writing.
2. Teaching pre-writing, planning, and drafting.
3. Teaching students how to use visual images to enhance creativity in writing.
4. Teaching text structure.
5. Using a word processor as a primary tool for the composition.
6. Teaching transcription skills, such as spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding.

Other practices that were not highlighted in the CCSS include:

1. Free writing.
2. Process writing instruction in which students write for real purposes and audiences, engages in the cycle of planning and reviewing, and taking ownership in their writing.
3. Strategy writing instruction where students are taught strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing text.
4. Using assistive technology such as speaking and grammar checks.
5. Instruction on summarizing.
6. Self regulation and metacognative reflection.
7. Using rubrics.

Here are 2 great articles from  this edition of Educational Leadership:

Teaching the Writing Craft       Should We Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late?

Questions to ponder:

How does this new learning affirm what I am doing in writer's workshop?

What are my next steps for improving writing during writer's workshop, integrated units of inquiry and throughout all subjects?  These can be actions in our SLO.

An Inquiry into Self and Peer Assessment

Essential Questions:

What are the benefits of self and peer assessment?

How can I implement this in 

my classroom?

Here are some resources to immerse yourself in the subject.

Read article: Assessment Matters: Self and Peer Assessment 

Watch videos:   Dylan Wiliam or Precision Teaching

At our Day 6 on April 15, Sue Hellmers and Susie Prather will come to investigate this topic with you.  We will meet in the conference room.

1.  Watch videos from your grade level colleagues

Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fifth Grade

2.  Discuss learning-  I noticed… I wonder….

3.  Share examples of self and peer assessments from U drive- HP & WR            SMART Goal & Plan for use last trimester

We will then coalesce and make a plan for our self and peer assessments in our class.

We will go public with our students and reflect on the impact.

Other articles on writing:
Content and Mechanics- Understading First Grade Writing
National Writing Project

Educator Effectiveness

In 2010, State Superintendent Evers convened a design team to develop a comprehensive evaluation system for teachers and principals. The system is designed to support the continuous improvement of educator practice that leads to improved student learning. Act 166, Wis. Stat. 115.415 requires the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to develop an educator effectiveness (EE) system and begin implementation of the system in the 2014-15 school year.

As you know some of your colleagues have piloted the DPI Teachscape/Danielson Model and some other schools have piloted My Learning Plan by CESA 6.  Here is a comparison of both systems. They are very comparable systems and we are recommending to the board on Tuesday to move a head with the My Learning Plan platform.  


Some advantages of my Learning Plan include:

• The observations are more focused with only 7 standards vs. 22 components so feedback can be specific.  

• The platform is more user friendly with dates and emails communicating between evaluators and teachers.

• Teachers can submit evidence to evaluators to demonstrate competencies in areas not observed during a formal observation.

• The time taken by evaluators is considerably less with My Learning Plan as no scoring is involved. The summative process is considerably less time consuming as well with the flow through of evidence collected throughout the year.

Both systems will streamline the evaluation process in districts but will require time to implement the change. We need to prepare our teachers with the rationale for the changes to ultimately improve student learning and instruction.  We look forward to the impact the Educator Effectiveness Systems will have on the student learning in the state of Wisconsin.


We have been thoughtful in preparing for this change in Hudson. As Amanda said, "It really is not a huge shift from what we have been doing in Hudson. It's just organized differently."

Things we will do to prepare for these shifts include:

2013-14- District wide we all completed an SLO which replaced the old HPDP with more data focused results.

April 9, 2014 Late Start-  Late Start Presentation
We will explore the 7 Stronge standards and see commonalities with the 10 WI Teachers standards.  All standards are based on the INTASC research so the content is no different.  We will be at EP Rock so they can share their experience with the system.

2014-15-  Walk though the process and provide support each step of the way.

If you want to read more about the CESA 6 model, check out these resources:
CESA 6- My Learning Plan Model
CESA 6 FAQ

Please comment on any questions uoi may have.