GECDSB Forster Family of Schools Improvement Plan for Student
Achievement K-12 - Smart Goal Summary for
Brock, Dougall, Marlborough, Taylor, Benson
October 2010
SMART GOAL: Improve cohort results of non-transient students moving up from level
2 on the EQAO reading assessment from _______% to _______%. This year we will
be looking at data from the 2007 -2008 data to see the increase in the grade 6 students
beginning this and ultimately by 2013 will increase by 10%.
We use the data for 2010-2011 from 2007-2008 cohort non-transient students matching
OEN numbers to ensure students have had ongoing instruction and best practices at
the individual school level for accurate data analysis.
We use the data for 2011-2012 from 2008-2009 cohort non transient. We use the 3rd
year data from our plan from this current year of 2009-2010 (non transient) for our
ultimate goal of 10%
Needs Assessment and Analysis of Evidence
We recognize that there is a need for teachers to work together form grade to
grade and classroom to classroom, and within family of schools, to establish a
consistent and continuous
Student Achievement
We are all compensatory schools with a high level of transiency, ELL learners who may
have their first year in Canada however, the language spoken at their homes is other
than English. We encompass single parent households, extended families, low
socioeconomic status, discrepancy between male and female, amount of support at
home is less than the school board or province, lack of parent engagement, disengaged
families, multi-generational poverty families, special education classes, and amount of
transiency effects their testing,
Academically in all schools, including Forster, there are significant deficits in the area of
Implicit Understanding and Making Connections. One of the underlying issues is the
vocabulary. Last year the schools focus was on Robust Vocabulary and the HUB days
concentrated on it. If our students do not have experiences in the world, they cannot
make real life connections. Students also need the literature background to make textto-text, text-to-self, and text to world connections when there are little experiences. The
summer months derails their comprehension.
SEF indicators and evidence
1.2
AT THE SCHOOL
Anchor/Criteria charts, or rubrics and /or exemplars are used consistently in the schools
to scaffold student learning, provide descriptive feedback and set high expectations for
students. Processes and practices are in place to recognize and celebrate student
progress.
IN THE CLASSROOM
 Interviews, conferences and learning conversations with small groups, pairs and/or
individual students are used to clarify understanding of students' achievement of
learning goals, throughout the lesson or unit of study.
 Ongoing feedback to students’ timely, explicit, constructive, and linked to success
criteria to improve their learning
 Based on explicit, descriptive teacher feedback, students have multiple
opportunities to revise and define their demonstrations of learning.
 Multiple opportunities for feedback and follow-up are planned at critical
checkpoints in the learning.
 Feedback can be oral or written and should be descriptive rather than evaluative.
STUDENTS WILL:
 Make explicit connections among content areas and between prior and current
learning.
 Use success criteria,/rubrics/criteria, as a basis for discussion with peers and/or
teachers to reflect on their progress and plan next steps.
 Provide constructive descriptive feedback to their classmates using assessment
tools as the basis for discussion.
#2 INDICATOR
AT BROCK SCHOOL Instruction takes into account the background and experiences of all students and
meets their diverse interests, aptitudes and special needs.
IN THE CLASSROOM –
 Instructional decisions are formed by student interest, prior learning and learning
style as well as by culture/language background, gender, and special educational
needs
 Teaching-learning processes are organized so that there is a specific time set
aside for activating prior knowledge, introducing new learning, reflecting on and
consolidating what has been learned, followed by independent practice and
application.
 Instruction models:
 How to verbalize thinking processes (e.g., think-alouds about making a plan,
drawing conclusion and/or organizing thinking)
 How to make connections (e.g., sharing personal learning experiences
related to the concept of strategy being taught)
 How to select appropriate thinking tools/strategies
 Engage in tasks that address the learning goal(s) of the lesson but may vary in
sophistication in order to accommodate their learning needs.
THE STUDENTS WILL
 Work in flexible groups with sufficient space for group work/recording (e.g.,
placemat thee use of manipulatives and technology, use student chalkboards,
sticky notes to capture thinking, graphic organizers, chart paper)
 Share their learning from smaller working group(s) with the while class and wile
doing so clarify and adjust their own thinking, make new connections and draw
conclusions to summarize their thinking.
RATIONALE
This indicator is critical for the students at General Brock because of the extremely
varied background of our population. Our students come from a variety of countries and
cultures, from very recent immigrants to generational west-end families. Because of
this, bringing in a diverse range of activities that targets the various needs of our learner
is essential. As well, flexible groupings are key, since any given activity may need to be
differentiated based on prior knowledge, interests, learning styles or cognitive level.
This is apparent in the fact that in most of our classrooms, our students are constantly
working in different groups based on the activity; in the future, we would like to see the
same level of differentiation in all classes.
#3 INDICATOR
AT BROCK SCHOOL
There are structures, processes and practices in place to guide decision making in the
implementation and support of comprehensive literacy and numeracy programs for all
students.
IN THE CLASSROOM
 Assessments for learning (referred to as formative assessments) inform next steps
for instructions. Practices include:
 Ongoing collection of formative information/data that verifies students’
strengths and weaknesses and determines the next steps in instruction
and/or additional interventions
 Explicit, on going feedback based on predetermined criteria stated in a rubric,
which helps students identify next steps
 Rubrics, with accompanying exemplars, which identify the expected quality of
learning so that students may adapt and refine their work as they work
toward demonstrating the provincial standard
 Anchor charts, co-created by teachers and students, which explicitly
represent processes and strategies students need to use independently
 Early identification of struggling students in order to plan required
interventions through intentional communication and collaborative planning
 Evidence-based strategies extrapolated from professional learning are used to
differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students.
THE STUDENTS WILL
 Use criteria to set goals in order to continually improve their own learning
 Take ownership for actively engaging in the intended learning as individuals, in
small groups and as a whole class.
RATIONALE
This indicator is key for school and classroom improvement. Assessments (both
diagnostic and formative are used to drive teaching practice, most demonstrably
through our TLCLP’s. Teachers also have bump it up walls in their classrooms, which
provides a student-generated exemplar for all students to use and discuss. Most
classes have anchor charts up, but not all are student-generated, which we can improve
on. Classroom teachers working closely with the LST are quickly spotting struggling
students through the use of regular progress monitoring and are jointly planning
interventions. Professional learning through regular division-based PLC’s is imbedded
during the school day.
#4 INDICATOR
AT BROCK SCHOOL
Assessment practices which allow teachers and student to share responsibility for
learning are in place.
IN THE CLASSROOM
 Students refer to anchor charts, whether teacher developed or co-created by
teachers and students, to help them understand what quality work looks like
 All assessment tools are in student-friendly language (e.g., checklists, samples of
student work rubrics).
 Goal setting is modeled (e.g., think-alouds, anchor charts)
STUDENTS WILL
 Ask for feedback from peers and teachers and use it to improve their work
 Rethink their ideas and strategies based on feedback from peers and teachers
(e.g., using alternative computation and problem-solving strategies in
mathematics, revising writing to meet the needs of the audience.)
RATIONALE
This indicator is critical for our students because it allows our students to take some
ownership over and be invested in assessment practices. Modeling (whether through
explicit instruction or use of anchor charts) is vital in order for our student to have a
guide to what higher level responses look like/sound like. Bump it up walls take the
practice of assessment/moderation and puts it in control of students, again to give them
ownership of the process. Although anchor charts of some form are up in all
classrooms, our staff for the most part are just beginning to use bump it up walls.
Consistent use will hopefully drive improved quality of student responses.
What are we looking for when we walk through?
Targeted Evidence Based Strategies
-establish a consistent and continuous framework for literacy improvement not limited to
but including,
1) Common language and understanding of effective literacy instruction
2) Assessments that guides teachers' next steps to instruction
3) Opportunities for higher order thinking
4) Scaffolding deeper comprehension skills for students
-Ongoing and continuous refinement and expansion of teachers use of Strategic
Learning Plans/pathways as teachers plans how to explicitly match their instruction with
specific students needs
WE SEE continuous use of common assessments, DRA, CASI, DIBELS, EQAO....,
baseline data and short, measurable (6-8 weeks) instructional cycles that ALL staff
know
-classrooms timetables contain all components of the literacy block, (read aloud,
shared, guided and independent) AND ALL teachers know what it looks like and how to
do it.
-classroom timetables have time allotted for a writing block for shared or modeled
writing instruction and independent writing.
WE SEE timetables enlarged and posted in the classroom
-teachers make reference to data walls of student progress as well as MISA data for the
purpose of planning their pathways and instructional practices
-teachers ensure consistency of vocabulary in the classroom
WE SEE anchor charts, word walls, exemplars Bump It Up walls, feedback on work,
rubrics for student learning skills and work habits, summary charts to show student
thinking
-teachers have Ministry documents and Guides to Effective Instruction as frameworks,
access to Ministry Websites, pod casts, to assist consistency
WE SEE teachers visiting other teachers classrooms, sharing in school expertise at
PLC meetings, practicing strategies and comparing results in divisional meetings, PLC's
and across Divisions and staff meetings.
-Teachers take an inventory of the books in their classrooms and organize them
WE SEE bins or areas of books sorted into levels for primary, as well as by themes and
authors, fiction and non-fiction, books in multiple sets for student’s use (5-or 6) available
and outdated books are purged
-Early literacy opportunities in every aspect included in Early Learning classes also and
every centre plan has an opportunity for kids to write and/or experience and experiment
with literacy.
WE SEE students at their various centres experimenting with pencils, paper, writing,
reading, letters, sound etc.
-teachers support improved student literacy by having a focus on higher order thinking
skills (A Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking Skills, p. 55-59, Guide to Effective
Instruction in Literacy - 4-6)
WE SEE/HEAR teachers posing questions to all level of students that promote
metacognitive thinking during reading, writing, speaking and listening THINK ALOUDS
-Teachers introduce and use comprehension strategies throughout their class
WE SEE students and teachers building schema, making connections, inferring,
questioning (BLOOMS HIGHER ORDER) and visualizing
WE SEE students and teachers conferencing in during Independent Reading and
Writing, teachers are providing students with quality feedback and we hear students
able to identify their own progress and provide their own next steps following the
teachers lead and modeling. (IE Bump it up wall - student at any time can be asked to
go to the bump it up wall with a piece of their work and explain what level they are at
and what they need to do to bring it up a level. This means that teachers AND students
understand the rubric or assessment practice on that particular piece of work, the
expectations and can place their work at the appropriate level).
-teachers and all staff continue to explore boy’s literacy as a key priority in planning
WE SEE various styles of print, genres in the classrooms including newspapers,
instruction manuals, surveys on what the students like to read, a response to the survey
by having the Liberian gather books for that particular grade of student)
-teachers maintain a strong focus in all grade levels on ROBUST Vocabulary
WE SEE teachers with robust vocabulary and activities in their classroom based on the
professional book that all our schools participated in 2009-2010 - HUB, Bringing Words
to Life.
In order for our students to be able to relate and make connections, we need to bring
the world to them. We found that there are vocabulary differences in specific words
used on standard testing CASI, EQAO, DRA etc that are not part of the everyday
vocabulary used by ELL students or our demographic population on a regular basis.
Resources
Thumbnail sketches, Guides to Effective Instruction, Growing Success, Fontas and
Pinnell - The First 20 Days, The Daily Five, Robust Vocabulary, Literacy Coaches,
SATL, Student Work Study,
Professional Learning
We need to learn to have consistency between schools and classes within the schools,
divisions and grades.
Our strategy to learn this in the school is to provide time for PLC's, professional
development at staff meetings, regular walk-abouts to ensure consistency, HUB focus
as a Family of schools (Implicit Understanding for reading)
Progress Monitoring
Walk throughs, check-ins, PLC's, monitoring pathways, informal conversations, class
data as an indicator, report cards.
Responsibility
Admin planned PD, meetings with Area Principals on a monthly basis (breakfast and
learn/share), LNST meetings, teachers, admin team, instructional coaches, Librarian,
community, parents.
Evaluation Cycle
Using our Data wall (MISA) Compass for Success, HUBS, Principal meetings/dialogue
among Forster Family of Schools
Rationale
We as a Forster Family of Schools are always flexible. We realize that this is a cycle
and a process and that not all teachers are at the same place in practice. Our goals
include a major change form the previous years...Principals meeting and sharing within
the Forster Family of Schools on a regular basis, bringing data and feedback, progress
monitoring our plan on a regular monthly basis. The logic behind this practice makes
great sense when you consider the transiency of the student population and the idea
that students move from one comp Ed to another comp Ed on a regular basis. If we are
all on the same page, the consistency and expectations, the number of level 3 and 4
students will increase because we are all having these best practices modeled
throughout our individual schools. We look forward to sharing with the world just WHY
the WEST is the BEST!