Social Studies Update Principal Coffee 10-26-16 How we got here u - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Social Studies Update – Principal Coffee 10-26-16

How we got here… u Staff desire to create connections for students across programs, how many students didn’t know others outside of their classes, previous efforts u Equity Teams begin to think about points of intersection – field trips, etc., that could occur naturally in the school day u 5 th grade began to mix classes for Moral Dilemma groups, then SCT residency. u Staff started begin to explore the possibility of SS as a place to mix classes because the content lends itself so well to our goals u HCC is a self-contained program for all academic content by district policy, so blending programs for social studies required a waiver to current policy.

Goals… u Improving and Teaching Social Studies Curriculum u Teaching students 21 st Century skills u Community building u Improvement of student climate.

Washington State Social Studies Scope and Sequence http://www.k12.wa.us/SocialStudies/pubdocs/SCOPEandSEQUENCE.pdf u

21 st Century Skills u Collaboration and teamwork u Creativity and imagination u Critical thinking u Problem solving

2 nd Tier of 21 st Century Skills u Flexibility and adaptability u Global and cultural awareness u Information literacy u Leadership

Getting Started Waiver approval received shortly after the first week of school. u Teachers had already begun some groundwork on SS curriculum, and now u began to divide their students into groups and work on their classroom (and our building) schedule to create common times for this work to happen. Created grade level PLC Teams focused around 4 essential questions: u u What do we think student should learn? u How will we know when they learn it? u How will we respond when they don’t know it? u How will we respond when they already know it?

Culture of Collaboration Classes began by helping students get to know each other by creating charters, u doing “getting to know you” activities, and joining in collaborative projects.

3 rd Grade Gardens

3 rd Grade Gardens

1 st Grade Mural in Process

Accountable Talk Can you tell me more? u Can you give me another example? u This reminds me of ___ because _____. u Can you give me an example from the text? u I would like to agree with ____ because _____. u Why do you think that? u Could it also be that…? u I disagree with ____ because _____. u I respect your opinion but ______. u

Current Work Teachers are working on identifying essential standards, creating and u administering assessments. Each PLC is in a slightly different place with this. Teachers are setting goals around around academic content and collaborative u skills. Some teachers are also creating ways to measure student climate, in addition u to the interim student climate surveys we are administering.

4 th Grade Social Studies Climate Survey Social Studies Class Climate Survey Name: __________________________ Date: ___________________________ I participate in class discussions yes sometimes no I participate in small group discussions yes sometimes no All students’ ideas are heard in class discussions yes sometimes no I feel encouraged to share my ideas yes sometimes no I feel people listen to my ideas yes sometimes no I value others’ opinions in class yes sometimes no I feel safe in class yes sometimes no I know what the teacher expects of me in class yes sometimes no

Professional Development u Differentiation u Teaching History from Diverse Perspectives u Focus on non-fiction writing across content areas

Program Evaluation Each grade level team from 1 st -5 th grade will create and administer a pre- u assessment to gain a baseline data point. This assessment will be based on the essential social studies standards for their grade level. Assessments will be administered again at the end of the school year to measure growth in knowledge in social studies concepts. Teachers will use class assignments and projects to gauge student learning throughout the school year. Attendance Data: As we expect students to feel a stronger connection to u school as we begin this work, we will be looking for an increase in student attendance in the 2016-17 school year as compared with the 2015-16 school year.

Evaluation, Continued We will use the student climate survey data to track students’ feeling towards u school. We will compare Spring 2016 data with Spring 2017 data, as well as progress monitoring with the new interim climate surveys administered in Fall 2016 and Winter 2017. We will be looking for growth in two areas in particular: “Adults at school treat students fairly” and “Student in my school treat each other with respect.” Parent survey data: Parents will be surveyed at three points throughout the u year about their feelings about the blended social studies program. This will give us the opportunity to gain insight from their feedback throughout the year and to course correct as necessary and appropriate based on parent responses.

Evaluation, Continued Our Social Studies Steering Committee (comprised of staff, administration and u parents), which will meet quarterly throughout the year, will review data at the end of the year, along with a district representative. Students in 3 rd – 5 th grade will take the district-mandated social studies CBA, u as usual.