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 Professional Learning Communities

 
Last year, the district adjusted and rearranged our instructional time in order to give teachers time to work together on student learning. At Goddard, teachers formed Professional Learning Communities (or PLCs) and met in these groups each week. Here is an update on some of Goddard’s accomplishments during this time:
 
All core teachers gave four common assessments of the content that they considered most important. Students who were not proficient on those assessments received extra time, extra attention, and/or extra instruction.
 
All teachers listed their common assessments in their Infinite Campus grade books. These assignments were graded on a four-point scale, just like our CSAP tests.
 
Sixth grade language arts teachers developed our second “poetry slam” during their late start times.
 
Sixth grade science teachers improved their squid dissection and made provisions for students to visit the Renewable Energy Lab van. 
 
Math teachers used testing data (CSAP and MAP) to identify students who needed extra help through our new math workshop program or acceleration into harder classes. They also developed reteaching strategies for students who scored poorly on their common assessments.
 
Seventh grade science teachers developed “honors by contract” and differentiated instruction so that more than 100 students earned honors designations on their report cards.
 
Seventh grade social studies teachers developed four common assessments that required students to think conceptually about the causes and effects of historical events. Students used graphic organizers to organize their thoughts and presented their learning in the form of paragraphs and short essays.
 
Eighth grade social studies and language arts teachers developed their interdisciplinary research paper which students completed in May.
 
Eighth grade science teachers used some of their time to improve their science fair assignments, including the rubrics used to score student projects.
 
Thank you so much for your flexibility as we continue to use late starts to support teaching during the coming year.
 

We appreciate your support of the late-start schedule very, very much! We look forward to continuing the work of our PLCs during the 2009-2010 school year.



2009-2010 LATE-START WEDNESDAYS

September 2        January 13
September 30     February 3
October 21           February 24
November 18     April 7
December 9        May 5
 
  
 View photos from August 29Minimize
 
  
 District PLC
The district achievement goal states, “90 percent of all students will be on or above grade level in reading, math, writing, and science by 2011. The achievement gap in student performance will be cut in half by 2009.”  This goes hand in hand with the district’s belief that a well-rounded education is important to each student’s success.
 
Beginning in the fall of 2007, all LPS schools provided time for teachers to meet together to have frequent, consistent, and data-driven conversations about student achievement. These meetings are called Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). There are 10 late-start days built into next year’s calendar that allow time for PLCs to take place.
 
 
  
3800 West Berry Avenue    .   Littleton, Colorado 80123   .    Phone: 303-347-7850   .    Fax: 303-347-7880
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