Cobb County School District
Form BBFA-5
A community with a passion for learning!
MODEL AGENDA FOR SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING
Lovinggood Middle School Council
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Meeting 2
Members in Attendance: Angela Stewart, Samantha Poklemba, Angie May, Ms. Lowe, Ms. Fields, Ms. Ballew,
Ms. Joseph
1.
Call to Order- 8:12
2.
Pledge of Allegiance- 8:13
3.
Approval of Agenda-
4.
Approval of Minutes- None from previous meeting
a. Introductions
b. Watched required Cobb County Videos
c. Voting on officers
i. President- Ms. Lowe
ii. Vice President- Ms. May
iii. Secretary- Samantha Poklemba
5.
Presentation to School Council:
Topic:
Student Achievement Plan – Short term
Presenter:
Tonya Lowe___
The Writing Assessment- 8:13-Samples
- Grading rubrics
- 8th Grade doing Mock Writing Exam this week
- Persuasive or Expository Essays from the 7th Grade
- Graded more on content than grammar and structure
- Students are given the rubrics before the assessment to see what is required to score of 1-5
- “Everything is preparing the students for the writing test”- Ms. Ballew
- The students see the rubrics in 6th, 7th and 8th grade, but do not see the rubric while taking the
exam (they are just given the prompt)
- Mrs. Stewart wants to implement a wider exposure to the student rubric
- It is the goal of the council to make suggestions to the principal and administration, clarified by
Mrs. Stewart to Ms. May
- Teachers are trying to implement grading rubrics concerning writing exams across all grade
levels and across the curriculum
8/8/07: General Administration
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- Social Studies are using the rubrics to help grade DBQs and focus on the content and not the
structure of the writing
- Writing assessment is coming in January, students get a topic either expository or persuasive,
students do not know the topic or style before-hand
- Ranika Joseph came into meeting at 8:24; Mrs. Stewart gave Ms. Joseph some background
information on what the council has been discussing
- Mrs. Stewart read persuasive essays from students wanting to wear costumes to school for
Halloween. The students did not “sell it” to Mrs. Stewart, there was little meat to the essay, and the audience
was not captured effectively
- Mrs. Stewart read a student essay concerning the lunch room seating arrangement. (8:26) The
student is attempting to persuade the audience to allow students to sit where they want to during their assigned
20 minute lunch period. The student is claiming that students will have to earn being able to sit where they
would like.
- Council members discussed the effectiveness of the essay
- January 23 is the 8th grade writing exam, 100 minutes to write the essay. 8th grade essays count
towards achievement, and 6th and 7th grade are practicing, and graded by the grade level Language Arts
teachers
- 8:30: Ms. May suggested a visual component to the rubric
- 8:31: Ms. Ballew told the council that there is some peer grading
- 8: 31: Mrs. Stewart suggested a peer graded component, to lessen the stress and requirement on
the teachers. Teachers can display an exemplary essay and visually show components of the essay, and then
the students can grade their peers’ essays.
- 8:33- Peer grading of the practice writing assessments from 6th and 7th grade being suggested
by the school council. It has been done before, not for the writing assessments. Ms. Ballew, suggested that this
also be implemented for the Benchmark exams for all subject areas. Grading rubrics given for all subject areas
on the Benchmarks.
- 8:34: Ms. May discussed what if a peer who is not as interested in grading, what would happen
to the feedback of the assessment. Committees could be formed with teachers and students, assigned the duty
of reviewing the essays.
- 8:36: Peer reviews from multiple peers, to avoid any lack of feedback. Multiple exposures
allow for optimum learning for both the writers and the graders. Teachers will still give feedback. The
different perspectives can allow for this.
- 8:38: Proposals and Recommendations, grade level meetings will be presented to the faculty
and then come back to the council
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6.
8: 39: ROPOSAL: The students use the rubric is to assess an essay multiple times. (Not
assuming that it is not happening, ask how teachers are currently using the rubric…)
Report of the Principal:
8:40-VISIBILITY: Mrs. Stewart
- Time management workshop that Cobb Co. principals go to, “Break Through Coaching”
- Looking at sports, coaching and teams. Coaches do most of their work at the game while the
team is playing. The impact is on the field. Where is your game as a principal? The
classroom. Question: How can you coach a team if you’re not there at the game? The
challenge is to get the principals into the classrooms.
- Visibility affects student achievement
- Coaching Days, where administration cannot be in the office. Focusing in on the classroom
environment, effective and on-the-stop feedback and meetings. Non-threatening.
8/8/07: General Administration
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7.
8:44: Mrs. Stewart went out into the classroom all day and got more done than ever. “it’s like
a trap” by parent concerns and teachers. Customer care; does Mrs. Stewart needs to take care
of the parent immediately? Or does she have to focus on the students?
8:45: The staff have to act a buffer, and work with Mrs. Stewart
Visibility is a big push for the 2nd semester to impact time management
Train staff on managing their time and effectiveness. This impacts student achievement!
8:48: Visibility and administrative involvement are a positive impact on student achievement
Old Business Topics:
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8:49: Lexile Scores: 8th graders reading at a 2nd and 3rd grade level, a problem across the
curriculum. They know enough to read and comprehend, but not enough to use documents in
a Social Studies class (as an example) What can we do?
8:50: We don’t have “reading coaches”, suggested by Ms. May as implemented in the PTA.
Reading 180: Reading remedial set-up, using computers, students read on their levels, instead
of what the teacher gives them. Should start in the 6th grade, as suggested by Ms. Ballew.
ESOL students frustrated by not being able to read in content classes. Ms. Puckett and Ms.
Thayer will be getting trained in the Reading 180.
Improving Lexile Scores, will discuss further in the next meeting. This will improve the
writing components because literary is all related.
8:54: The students are identified, the scores come from the CRCT scores in the 5th grade. 8th
grade reading classes evaluate frequency.
8:55: School council will look at what happens from the 6th grade up to the 8th grade to make
the most impact
8:58: Grammar issues are very fluid across the curriculum. By this age, we are focused on the
content and expect the students to know the basics and grammar.
8.
New BusinessTopics:
9.
Adjournment
Lovinggood Middle School Council
Lovinggood Middle School
3825 Luther Ward Road
Powder Springs, GA 30127
Phone: 678-331-3015
Fax: 678-331-3016
Email: Cobbk12.org
Angela Stewart, Principal
8/8/07: General Administration
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