Reconceptualizing ELAR TEKS: A Transcription

At the April CREST session, Victoria Young and Jennifer Wilkerson presented information about how we can prepare for the new standards. The CREST board transcribed the presentation and matched each portion with the slides in the presentation. Then Victoria and Jennifer vetted the language and added additional clarification.

https://www.bulbapp.com/u/reconceptualizing-elar-teks

New TEKS Overview: Interconnected Strands

Monday and Tuesday, I worked with a dedicated group of teachers and leaders at Childress ISD. Yes. These teachers came for staff development on the last week of school. Why? Because they want time to think about and plan their curriculum and textbook selection processes. Brilliant.

As we worked through the documents, I came away with a deeper understanding of the design and interconnectedness of the standards - even though I have been working with variations of the document for several years now. 

Here are two videos that describe my new learning. Thank you to Victoria Young and Jennifer Wilkerson who led CREST (Coalition of Reading and English Supervisors of Texas) in understanding the structure of the TEKS and how we can go about reading them to begin our curriculum planning.

Video One: TEKS Strands and Substrands

Video Two: Interconnectedness Across Strands within a grade level. 

Positive Reflections about the Texas Writing Pilot

1. We have the opportunity to be a part of the solution instead of complaining about what the legislature and TEA foist upon us.

2. Writing assessment does not currently match the domain of ELAR, instructional realities, student needs, and what we know works for teaching and learning. The STAAR prompts are not always culturally respectful to student backgrounds. And the constraints of 26 lines for expository writing are restrictive and lead to formulaic instruction that does not develop good writers.

3. Writing on one day a year does not give a good picture of what kids and teachers are able to do. The writing pilot helps collect data over time to help teachers and students measure growth over time. It also matches what the state is trying to do with TTESS and SLO's. This portfolio approach allows teachers to receive feedback about their instructional impact that helps them adjust their teaching practices.

4. Teachers can give assignments that match how they teach, their curriculum, their scope and sequence, and their district requirements. Assessment does not have to be something else that they add on to their program or something that totally disrupts the school schedule. The instruction and assessment can be woven together. This also reduces student stress. (It might also help issues with the community that complains about kids getting diarrhea and having nervous issues because of the pressure associated with the high stakes assessment regime.)

5. Students have a CHOICE about what they can write. This also allows teachers to use authentic instructional models like Reading and Writing Workshop that move us out of didactic and outdated modes of instruction best left in the Industrial Age that sought to prepare students for cog jobs. We are no longer in the business of building robots that can follow rules. We need people who can think and reason, using reading and writing as tools to do so. Choice also is connected to what we know about research on student engagement and motivation.

6. Anecdotal data from the field is: 1) Students think they are writers. 2) Students think they are helping the state of Texas improve writing instruction and assessment. 3) Students are shocked that they can write about what they know and care about and can use more than 26 lines to do so. 4) Students (even students with disabilities) are writing more than they ever have. And they are improving. 5) The writing is actually something interesting to read and worthwhile. 6) Teachers are enjoying reading their student papers. 

Dallas Humidity, Hotel Rooms, and Spanks

Y'all. April nearly killed me. I am so tie-erd! As I reflect over the last month, I have to think that sometimes you just need a good belly laugh. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week.

You know those videos on youtube about how to remove rings when your fingers swell? Well. That happened to me with a pair of spanks in a hotel room last month. 

First, lets contextualize the setting: 

You know Dallas, right? The humidity? It's so bad that when you get out of the shower and dry off, you're still wet and feel like a glazed donut. It's even worse if you have a roommate in the hotel room. You get dressed with the bathroom door closed while the steam mimics London fog with the heat of the jungle. That way, you can modestly protect your roommate from your physical imperfections - even though you are suffocating. 

So I'll just leave that there to soak in for a while.

I'm presenting that day, so I want to look all smooth and svelt. After the shower, I ripped off the hefty priced Dillard's tag from a full bodied compression Spanks undergarment. Remember, it's hot and sticky in the bathroom jungle. I'm more like a Donut Stop glazed donut that's been left in a hot car at this point. As I step into the contraption, the thing starts to roll. By the time I get it over my hips, that ligature tightens up worse than a lasso with a come-along. My love handles are now shelves. I try to unravel the twisted elastic, but the layers have turned into a single solid form of carbon that is now digging into my flesh.

I start to panic. I wonder if there is a way to use my scarf like the dental floss they use to remove rings from swollen fingers. I could wind it around my waist and then slip the offensive garment back over my hips. No. Noo. That won't work. I'd have to ask my roommate to bring me the scarf from my suitcase. I might even have to tell her why I needed it.

This thing is making it hard to breathe and I can feel myself swelling above and below the ligature. I'm reminded of those women that used corsets until there was only room for intestines and the spine. I think I might die. 

I know that some animals have been known to chew themselves from claw traps. I haven't been to yoga in months, so I know there's no way I can get my teeth down there. What the heck am I going to do? It's getting hard to breathe.
I glance over to the bathtub where the hotel razor sits because, you know, airplanes. Do I really want to slice off a hundred dollar device I haven't had a chance to wear? I have a daymare about taking it back to Dillards to explain that Spanks, Humidity, and Fat are faulty design combinations, demanding a full refund. SMH. I need a new plan. Did I mention how hot it is? 

I could ask my roommate for help? I imagine her reaction - she'd die of horror. Or laughter! Back to the razor. I try to slip my fingers under the roll and end up snapping my gut like the boys used to do with rubber bands in elementary school. That stings. So I start to rub the razor on the black chain and realize that the blades are too wide to miss my skin. I'd have to saw off part of my belly to get to the fabric. I'm turning a strange color of white/red/green. 

Powder! My roommate has a tub of bare minerals makeup. I could take that little poof and see if it helped reduce the friction - but I consider the surface area and realize there's not enough in 3 tubs to do the job. Damn, it's so hhhhooooot! 

By this point, I'm sweating rivulets that slog the fabric. I remember what happened to my moccasin laces when they got wet on a camping trip when I was six and hyperventilate. I reach for the shower cap to use for a paper bag and realize that's a bad idea too. There's no way I'm going to get out of this now. What if I used the hair dryer on cool to soak up the sweat? I fumble to get the dryer, but it slips from my hands. As I bend over to pick it up, I'm struck by an invisible Heimlich maneuver and gag. 

My roommate knocks on the door. "Are you ok in there?" 

ERMERGERSH! "Um. Ok. Just so hot in here. Gonna crack the door a bit..." 

What am I going to do? I imagine myself giving the presentation with that roll cinched around my waist. I have a jacket that could hide most of the... ew. I can't think about that. I'm not sure I could walk, much less talk coherently with this anaconda squeezing my intestines. It starts to cool somewhat and I dab at the sweat from the morning's exercise. I sit down on the edge of the bathtub and think. 

High school. Never ever has high school been the answer for me. But this idea shows promise: we'd lay on our backs to zip our jeans! If they were really tight, we'd use the coat hanger to pull up the zipper. Maybe that will work. 

You know hotel bathrooms can be small, right? To lie down, I have to duck my feet between the toilet and the tub and lay down with my head at an awkward angle by the door. Remember, the door's cracked open a bit, so now my head is in a vice between the hinges and the bathtub. So here I am, pressure relieved and parts displaced somewhat from gravity, blindly picking at this solid, sticky tootsie roll to find some kind of edge to the fabric. Perhaps, I can ease away a few threads at a time. 

I practice yogi ujjayi breaths to reduce the circumference of my girth, pulling and stretching, teasing the edge with one hand and pulling the roll hopefully with the other until...the strap unrolls and I can get my thumb in the loop to pull the rest free. But that dad gum thing is still so tight! From my torso to my thighs I look like a solid tube of skinned knees by the time I drop kick that thing into the trash. 

I hope the maid was my size. Correction: smaller.   

As teacher appreciation week closes, I'm reminded of how tired you probably are. I hope my gift to you has been a laugh or two. Hang in there, keep working - you are doing hard things, but great things for our kids.

20% of your TTESS Evaluation: SLO's are an Option

Student Learning Objectives - student growth is now a part of your teacher evaluation for Texas. A lot of people are scared to death. SLO's are NOT what I thought they were. SLO's are NOT what I heard in the media when they rolled out with the new laws and TEA guidelines. So let's just address the myths right up front.

If your kids fail STAAR, you are not going to lose points on your TTESS ratings. 

If your kids don't grow and improve, you are not going to lose points on your TTESS ratings. 

If your kids pass STAAR, you don't get extra points on your TTESS ratings. 

If your kids make exponential growth, you are not going to get extra points on your TTESS ratings. 

Of course, these conditions might be correlated to your instructional expertise, but they are not causational. 

After attending the Trainer of Trainer session at Region 10 last month, I have a whole new perspective about what SLO's are about. My first reflection is that they aren't really named well. Student Learning Objectives really aren't about students. 

SLO's are about how teachers are learning and growing. SLO's represent a fundamental shift away from data analysis of student performance to a focus on instructional analysis. That's a fancy way of saying that SLO's are not about whether or not the kids meet the learning targets. It doesn't matter if the teacher sets the targets too high and the students fail to meet the expectations. It doesn't matter if the teacher sets the targets too low and the kids knock the top out of the expectations. It doesn't matter if the teacher says, "I just didn't have low kids this year." It doesn't matter if the teacher says, "Well, I'm just that good at what I do." 

Instead, SLO's are about what the teacher learns about his or her own instructional practices.

And it's high time that we take the blame off of students and teachers and place emphasis about what we are going to do about the realities of the everyday struggles we all face. And not just for those who fail STAAR tests. 

Hattie (2009) explains that the most powerful feedback in the educational equation is the feedback the teacher receives from the students about his/her own teaching and how that data is used to make instructional adjustments to the teaching practices. SLO's allow us the freedom to examine one foundational skill at a time that honor: 

• who our students are when we get them (regardless of the community and SES and culture and race, and...)
• what we are learning about the teaching practice/science/art, 
• and what we can do to increase our instructional sophistication to address the complex needs of our students. 

The SLO process helps teachers pinpoint a critical component in their content area. The next step allows teachers to name the reality of how their students typically arrive by creating an Initial Skill Profile.Which seems fair. When I finished my student teaching in a 5th grade classroom at a lower SES school, I substituted in a higher SES school the next day. The kids were miles apart in their reading levels and performance. While that inequity isn't ok or fair, it's true. And while that inequity is true, it's not ok to let it remain such a gap. We must do something about it. SLO's allow teachers the freedom to admit where their kids are with no excuses or blame. The next step in the SLO process allows teachers to pinpoint where kids could be if effective instructional interventions and solutions are applied. The final part of the SLO process allows the teacher to track the students over time in this very specific area and reflect on how his/her teaching evolves to impact all students with the creation of the Targeted Skill Profile.

But the part I like the best? We are not just looking at who passes a test. We are looking at how a kid who entered the grade level for this specific skill waaaaay below typical performance could grow over time by specifically naming the progression of learning throughout the year. And the teacher isn't nailed if the student didn't get there. The discussion is about what was working and what was learned by the teacher about moving that student forward. 

I have a teacher friend who has four kids that failed the recent fifth grade test. Three of those kids consistently score in the 30's on benchmarks. Are those kids going to pass fifth grade STAAR? Probably not. But what have  they learned? How have they grown? And what has the teacher learned about techniques and resources that worked the best to get them there? SLO's help teachers look at students at five different entry points (Well above typical, above typical, typical, below typical, and well below typical) and see how far they can progress over time. 

Looking at the levels of students described in the skill profiles reminds me of a school I worked in that had really high scores on AP Exams and state assessments. All  students need to progress, even the ones at the top. Are the students doing well because of who they already are when they enter your classroom? Or have they grown because of your support and increased sophistication and learning as a practicing teacher-learner? 

The last point I'd like to review is how the SLO 20% is rated. Here's the form principals use. Most say it takes about 5 minutes to score. 

Note that each rating is to be considered holistically. Note that the rubric is focused on teacher behaviors. It is entirely possible that a teacher meets the first three bullets of a Distinguished rating, but not the last two. The rating is based on the whole SLO process and NOT hinged solely on student performance. And doesn't it make sense that if we are learning to be better teachers that students would improve? The rating is based on a discussion about what the teacher has learned about effective instructional practices that cause student growth. Of course we want students to grow; but SLO's are about what teachers can learn and do to make that happen. 

You shouldn't be worried. You should be relieved and excited about what you are about to learn and the innovations you will find that cause your students to grow. 

Author. (2018). Texas student learning objectives trainer of trainers manual. Texas Education Agency. Slide 99. 

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge. 

How to see the STAAR Release Questions NOW (April/May 2018)

UPDATE: Commissioner Morath has enabled teachers to see the released tests! Link  here to portal.

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Teacher Access to the STAAR Student Portal Notice From the Commissioner May 9th, 2018 Dear Administrators, Last summer, the Texas Education Agency launched the brand new STAAR Student Portal for parents. Built in conjunction with a redesign of TexasAssessment.com, the portal provides parents with quick access to their student’s STAAR results, year-over-year growth information, individual student responses to actual test items, and even details like the student expectations covered by the items and wrong answer rationales. We believe teachers should have access to this tool as well. This letter contains instructions on how educators can access the portal so that they’re able to experience the site for themselves and answer any/all questions from parents. By working with their district testing coordinators, they can also use the tool for purposes of immediate remediation with students in need of additional help. It is important to note that since the portal includes access to real test content which has not been released yet, educators should refrain from duplicating or disseminating any test items until they are formally released this August. Teacher Access To The Portal We have created sample logins for teachers to go in and see the portal for themselves. These logins can be viewed here and can also be found in the Help section of the STAAR Assessment Management System by downloading the document Student Portal Generic Credentials for STAAR Grades 5 and 8. When they navigate to the actual test items, they will see something that looks like the following: Please note that although teachers will be viewing real test items from this year, the responses are for a fictitious student. Therefore, the campus and district level reporting for these sample reports will also be fictitious.  Teacher Access to Individual Student Information For purposes of immediate remediation, district testing coordinators can provide teachers with the item responses for each student in their classroom. Teachers can then use the student responses, item rationales, and the student expectations assessed to inform instruction and help individual students who have not yet demonstrated mastery of the content. If a parent wishes to discuss specific student performance with a teacher, the parent may provide the teacher with his or her student’s Access Code so that the teacher can see the student’s actual responses. We encourage teachers and parents to sit down together to go over items in detail if the teacher believes it will be helpful.  If you have questions regarding this information, or if you need further assistance, please call TEA’s Student Assessment Division at (512) 463-9536. Sincerely,  Mike Morath   Explore The Portal    The Texas Education Agency will improve outcomes for all public school students in the state by providing leadership, guidance, and support to school systems.

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Teachers and Administrators - This is critical information as you prepare your students to take the next administration! You don't have to wait until the tests are released this summer to analyze and support students! You can SEE the test passages, questions, and rationale for how these students performed. TEA has released the information to parents through the parent portal. 

The information to log in is at the bottom of the Confidential Student Report. Navigate to https://texasassessment.com/  and plug in the information. 

Click on Detailed Results. These are the tests that are available. 

And this is what you can see: