The KIPP NYC Redwood

Volume 1, Issue 7 Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Planting Seeds...

Together, We Grow Mighty

Greetings Team and Family, Just eight short months ago, the inaugural issue of The KIPP NYC Redwood filled our inboxes, and each issue since then has given us the opportunity to further explore our work in leadership development, data, SpEd, and instructional strategies to ensure our students grow and achieve. While this is the last issue of the 2010-2011 school year, it is just the beginning of our collective effort to learn and grow together. Without further ado, check out our May 2011 issue of The KIPP NYC Redwood in which youll find

Welcome!

A Definition of 2 Excellence
KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching

How a definition of excellence will help ensure our children grow and achieve How FBP/BIPs help with the ABCs Where we are and where were headed with data Why a recipe is the key to love and learning

FBA/BIP Looking Ahead Teacher Feature

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The KIPP NYC Teaching and Learning Team is incredibly grateful to Lynn Liran from KIPP

Infinity Middle for sharing this months Teacher Feature. Even though the Redwood is going on hiatus until September, dont let that stop you from keeping the ideas coming! It is because of your feedback that The KIPP NYC Redwood and our professional development offerings continue to improve. Email me at afield@kippnyc.org to keep our Redwood growing! Have a wonderful week, Amber

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The KIPP: NYC Redwood

At the center of our work is: Student Growth and Achievement Excellent teaching means students learn, grow, and achieve transformative life outcomes. The four elements of excellent teaching are linked through our: Beliefs and Character An excellent KIPP teacher is committed to KIPPs mission. She constantly pursues becoming a better person, just as she supports students in this pursuit. She understands that her beliefs and character affect who she is, her impact on and relationships with others, her classroom environment, how she teaches, and what she knows. What is excellent teaching? The four elements of excellent teaching which have been broken down into competencies (see page 3) are: Self and Others Excellent teaching requires understanding of oneself, ones connection to others, and a growth mindset that allows the teacher to take ownership for the success of all KIPPsters.

The KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching

Individual KIPPsters have pondered that question for years, often coming up with responses that varied greatly. Over this past year, however, a group of dedicated KIPPsters from around the country has been working to begin developing a clear answer to that question. While this important work is far from complete, we hope that the KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching clearly captures all of our beliefs and allows KIPP NYC to

Classroom Culture In an excellent classroom culture, the teacher focuses on countClarify excellent teaching expectations less tangible and intangible details in the space to create an enMove towards a common language to use when were talk- vironment where students are joyfully engaged, meaningfully on-task, and feel ownership for their individual and collective ing about teaching Frame our professional learning in a way that meaningfully successes in college and in life. helps each of us grow The Teaching Cycle Excellent teaching means planning and executing rigorous, There is a wealth of knowledge about what works in great engaging lessons that fit into a logical scope and sequence, as classrooms. There are inspiring frameworksSaphiers pyrawell as using student data to assess mastery of objectives and mid to Lemovs taxonomy, Teach For Americas rubric, movement toward big goals for student achievement and Hunters lesson planthat describe great teaching. We draw from all of these amazing resources to develop this vision. We growth. Excellent teaching requires a 1/12 mindset, recognizing that even the tiniest details can dramatically impact student believe that excellent teaching at KIPP means mastery. A commitment to long-term transformative outcomes for kids. We know the ultimate measure of our success is the lives our kids are able Knowledge Teaching is an art and science. As the artists and scientists, we to lead. are responsible for building our understanding of child development, pedagogy, and content. We are responsible for knowTeaching is not an individual endeavor. We teach as part of a team. ing what we are teaching, how it fits in a PreK-16 continuum, Recognizing our collective effort, a students family must also and who we are teaching it to. teach our kids as well. Joy. We are lucky enough to do the hardest, most fun work imaginable. People should have their noses pressed up against the glass, begging for our jobs. Our students and their parents should know that we absolutely love what we do. More important, our students should revel in the joy of learning, struggling, and growing every day. We hope to incorporate the KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching into our daily practice throughout 2011-2012 and into the future. Using this framework to frame professional development, set our individual goals, and talk about instruction, we move even closer to reaching the mission we work tirelessly towards each day. (For the full version of the framework, please click on the link above.)

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In previous editions of The Redwood we have discussed practical interventions with kids who have social skills delays or attentional deficits. As the year winds down we can start looking forward to next years exciting new professional development in Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP). These comprehensive plans help individual students whose behaviors are impacting their ability to fully participate in your classrooms or other school activities. According to new policy briefs issued by the New York State Education Department, an FBA is the process of determining why a student engages in behaviors that impede learning and how the students behavior relates to the environment. A BIP is a plan that is based on the results of the FBA and, at a minimum, includes a description of the problem behavior, global and specific hypotheses as to why the problem behavior occurs and intervention strategies that include positive behavioral supports and services to address the behavior. A students need for an FBA and BIP must be considered whenever 1) a student with a disability is exhibiting persistent behaviors that impede his or her learning or that of others, despite consistently implemented general school-wide or classroom-wide interventions, 2) the students behavior places the student or others at risk of harm or injury, 3) the Committee on

The KIPP: NYC Redwood

Functional Behavioral Assessments and Behavior Intervention Plans by Craig Varsa

Special Education (CSE) is considering more restrictive programs or placements as a result of the students behavior; and/ or 4) the student is subject to disciplinary actions and a determination has been made that the behavior is related to the students disability. Before you start an FBA and BIP please be sure to ask for the parents permission, too! At press time we are actively searching for awesome presenters to lead sessions and guide our amazing abilities to create amazingly effective plans for our kids. In the meantime check out this amazing FBA and BIP that Juliana Stevenson n the KIES Krew created on their first try at Infinity Elementary for a great example.

Data, Baby Looking Ahead by Roseann Sheehan

Wow. 2010-2011 is almost in the books. As you know, this year Feeding the Hunger KIPP NYC made data a priority. More specifically, the use of A detailed 2011-2012 assessment calendar data to inform instruction and drive student achievement was a Data Days: Full days allocated in the assessment calendar key focus throughout the year. All around KIPP NYC, the which are dedicated to analyzing data and planning based evidence is clear that everyone did their part to support this on the results priority: The Student Dashboard: Go here to find key pieces of Data in Action academic, demographic, anecdotal information about our KIPPsters Use of the new Data Portal to analyze assessment results Global Scholar: More opportunities to learn how to use Use of Global Scholar to create/score/analyze student assessment data this great tool to create in-class assessments and quickly Using data to create and refine small groups to best meet score and see results for them the needs of every student Incorporating the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Tracking in-class assessment results using Excel or other for Math and ELA into the KIPP NYC Curriculum and tools assessing our students progress towards mastery Using school-site PD time to analyze data from assessments PD aligned to support you as we further refine our data Creating tools to empower students to take ownership of expertise and incorporate CCSS their academic growth Administration of common assessments Next year, we are looking to build off of this momentum in It has been an incredible year! Thank you all for your continu2011-2012 and take it to the next level through KIPP NYCs ing insight, creativity, enthusiasm and energy around data and Data Initiative. You will be learning more about this during July all other things. PD, but keep your eyes and ears peeled:

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Love & Learning - A Recipe for Creating Strong Lessons Sprinkled with Love by Lynn Liran, KIPP Infinity Middle School
After eight years of teaching, I often reflect upon the hundredsnothousands of lessons I have taught and how much they have changed over time. Like recipes are to a cook, lessons are to a teacher. At first my lessons were simple, lacking flavor. As I grew more confident, I created lesson plans a la Julia Child. Like her French meals, my work was topped with the most important of all ingredients: love. Without that love, my lessons would have been bland. Students would have wanted to spit them out and have given me a deplorable review. The New York Health Department would have shut my classroom down! I want to be a gourmet at what I do because I want my students to be great at what they do. The way I value my instruction is the way I want my students to value their learning. The way I love learning is the way that I want the kids to love learning. I always go the extra mile to make sure that my students learn.and they know it because I season their lessons with love. Here is my recipe for creating a great lesson and classroom ambiance: Ingredients for a classroom with soul: 1 photo of each student in your class A bulletin board to post these photos Space to insert an area for growth and a recent accomplishment for each student **If you and your students can stomach the spice, post data such as MAP scores, reading levels, writing levels and practice state test scores. Let students take ownership of their progress! Recipe for a great lesson: Set one clear aim which you want your students to master by the end of the lesson. Create a Criteria for Success (CFS) to help your students achieve the lessons aim. The CFS is incredibly useful because it makes the steps towards achieving the aim very clear. It is especially helpful to students with disabilities because it breaks down the task into small chunks. Check out a piece of one of my lesson plans:

Include a high interest hook. Interactive and multi-media hooks Are great attention grabbers! Check out the Rocky movie hook I used last year with my 8th grade reading class before a class seminar: http://vimeo.com/7573923

Spice up independent work: Nothing gets students more intrigued and invested in their learning than letting them be creative!** Try adding a project with multiple options. Choice encourages students to select something they are passionate about. Passion is a channel for success. For instance, after Mike Witter and I finished reading The Chocolate War with our 8th graders last year, the students had an option of creating a comic book, song, collage or essay for their final project. Check out the enthusiasm and joy these KIPPsters expressed in their Chocolate War rap: http://vimeo.com/7705584 Show your love to your students by loving what you do and respecting their different learning styles and abilities. Smile! Its a natural endorphin, its free and kids love it! **For a lighter serving, feel free to substitute a 1:1/small group conference introducing differentiated independent work criteria to ensure that all students can feel successful. For example, for students who lack confidence or have stage fright: tape their presentation in a private setting before showing it to the class! That way, they can perform their scene as many times as they want before the class views it. Happy Teaching Team & Family!