Bruce Randolph Middle School

Challenge 2010

Cultivating individual expertise in a collaborative school!

Special Project This special project will report directly to the superintendent; the school will be designated as a Superintendent’s School. The intention is to create a demonstration school where college students or DPS staff could come to see all DPS initiatives executed effectively and skillfully.

ProComp Bonus System As incentive to assemble the best and the brightest staff for this special project, and in order to pilot the pay system, staff would be paid bonuses according to the ProComp plan. After ProComp goes District-wide, teachers will decide whether or when to opt in.

School Configuration Over the course of the next five years, the school would become a sixth grade through twelfth grade school. During 2005/2006 the school will teach seventh and eighth grade, retaining the current sixth and seventh grade. In 2006/2007 the school will teach grades six through nine, recruiting students in the sixth and seventh grades. In 2007/2008 the school will teach grades six through ten. In 2008/2009 the school will teach grades six through eleven. In 2009/2010 the school will teach grades six through twelve, and will graduate its first senior class.

Project Graduation The school intends to attract and serve bodies of students who enter in the sixth grade and who all go on to graduate from the twelfth grade. The first class to graduate will do so in the spring of 2010 and are commemorated in advance with the name of this special project which will be completed in that same year. Each body of sixth graders will be cultivated to identify themselves collectively as people who will graduate together, six years after they are assembled. The goal is a 100% graduation rate.

Staff The principal will lead an instructional team, which will initially include a general coach, a literacy coach and a math coach. Over time, as the school grows, the team will expand to include a special education coach and possibly an English language acquisition coach.

All coaches will teach 90 minutes (or the equivalent of two standard class periods) a day. Coaches will coach teachers one on one, will lead small group team development, will facilitate curriculum delivery study and will lead whole faculty development. Coaches will consult with each other and the principal to determine the master schedule of all formal professional development, and to determine the options for informal additional work with teachers.

All staff positions will be posted in the spring of 2005. No current Randolph staff members are guaranteed a position. They are all welcome to apply during an early interview window, prior to district postings. Offers will be made as soon as the district interviewing process begins.

Teachers and staff will agree to a three-year commitment to the project. This commitment includes a sincere, good faith effort to participate in all ongoing, embedded staff development and to provide thoughtful, constructive feedback in revising and refining staff development options over time.

Staff Development The principles of learning will be applied to adult development, as well as to student instruction.

The first year’s focus will be on clear expectations, grade level performance standards, academic rigor, interventions and supports for all learners, and celebration of growth and success. Furthermore, outside consultants will work with whole staff to develop their knowledge and understanding of the unique features of the student population that result from their cultural, linguistic and socio-economic experiences.

Whole staff development will focus on broad, abstract education philosophy and pedagogy, specifically: creating a socialized learning community in a thinking curriculum.

Curriculum team development will focus on content knowledge and expertise, as well as on teaching and learning processes and student assessment specific to their content areas. The results of diagnostic instruments and standardized test score data would drive early team study, leading to strategic interventions and supports for all learners.

Grade level/other small group development will focus on teaching craft, including but not limited to classroom management and discipline, as well as the practical challenges of record keeping, such as conference records to insure equal distribution of teacher attention to all students.

All teachers will have a coach partner to teach with in order to study and develop their own individual classroom skills, targeted by the teacher. Eventually, all teachers will also be partnered with a peer for classroom exchange projects and team teaching across curricula and/or across grade levels.

All of these venues of staff development would pilot Professional Development Units (PDUs) as part of the early ProComp initiative.

Data Driven Instruction School would open with intensive student orientation, including a battery of diagnostic instruments. These would form the baseline data for instruction each year. Each content area would work together to create and refine pretests, quarterly exams and posttests which will be used for teacher objective setting; teachers who met their objectives would be paid according to the ProComp plan. Teachers will closely track student achievement as demonstrated on both formal and informal assessments throughout the year, including but not limited to the nine-week assessments. Part of the ongoing professional development will analyze this data and strategize teaching that is responsive and supportive to the individual learners. Teachers will confer with students at least quarterly to inform and explain to each what their data suggests about them as learners. Based on their data, students will set individual academic growth goals in all subject areas for each grading period. Intensive student orientation: To begin, grade levels will be assembled and introduced to the entire team of teachers. Teachers will take different roles in explaining all the new procedures, expectations and requirements. Some diagnostic instruments will be administered to the whole grade level as part of this orientation. Parents will be welcome. Diagnostic instruments: Students will write a Short Constructed Response (single paragraph essay) and an Extended Constructed Response (multiple paragraph essay). These will be assessed with the state rubrics as part of initial literacy team development sessions. Students will also read a nonfiction text and write responses to questions to measure their comprehension of the text. This will also be used during initial literacy team development. Students will read a piece of short fiction and write reading letters. These will also be used during initial literacy team development. Students will take the Connected Math district pretest. Students will take pretests in science and social studies to measure their current knowledge of the content to be delivered at that grade level; these tests will be created as part of the curriculum development work done by teachers and coaches in those subject areas. These tests will be scored during team development. Elective teachers will also design pretests, quarterly exams and final exams to measure the content knowledge and/or skill of their courses. All diagnostics will be used to set goals for students and for teachers. Quarterly exams and final exams will duplicate the pretest formats.

Quarterly academic progress conferences: Using the baseline data generated by the diagnostic instruments at the beginning of the year, and the CSAP data for each learner, students and teachers will confer together to set reasonable, achievable goals for each learner in each course of study. Up to three strategies for the learner will be agreed upon and recorded, along with the goal. After assessing quarterly or final exams, teachers will confer with students about their progress and achievement as measured thus far. They will then set new goals and agree to continue successful strategies or to create new strategies to achieve the new goals. This pattern will continue for a total of five conferences. Special school wide conferencing schedules will be created in order to provide the time for teachers to confer individually with every student, every quarter. Sometimes coaches will teach classes in order to release teachers. Other times, coaches will conduct large group project support and creation workshops, while teachers pull and confer with students. After trying various models, the teachers will decide what schedule is best.

Student Data Spreadsheets: All teachers will maintain student data spreadsheets that include diagnostics, quarterly and final exams, CSAP data, and other classroom achievement data. These spreadsheets will be used to identify whole group teaching strategies and individual intervention strategies. Both students and teachers will use the data in their goal setting.

Minor Changes to School Calendar The school calendar will be modified to include up to five days with no student contact, for the purpose of grading student diagnostics, quarterly assessments or final exams, updating related documentation and conducting conversations around observations, trends and instructional decisions. The school day will be extended by the necessary number of minutes to meet DPS requirements.

Celebrating Success Each quarter will culminate in celebration events to recognize students who met their individual academic growth goals. These will be social events with entertainment and refreshments. Special recognition may be given in the event of whole classes or whole grade levels that all meet their academic goals. Recognition of attendance achievement will be included in these celebrations.

During these events, students who failed to meet their academic goals will consult with support staff to analyze why they failed and to strategize new plans to meet their next goals.

Other success celebration events will involve showcasing student work and/or student performances. These will be evening events.

The community will be invited to all celebration events, but will be especially encouraged to attend evening events that showcase student products or performances.

Building-Wide Consistency The instructional leadership team will define certain consistent expectations for all students in all classes at all grade levels. These will include opening routines for all classes, workshop procedures, dismissal procedures, formatting of student papers, student supplies, grading systems, timely feedback to students, grade reports to students and parents, conference documentation format, detention procedures, discipline interventions, and student data spreadsheets. Opening routines: All classes will begin with opening routines which will remain consistent throughout the school year, and over all grade levels. English will begin with notebook writing or silent, independent reading. Math will begin with math warm ups. Social studies will begin with students copying short summaries of significant current events, then writing their reactions to them. Science teachers will begin with students copying short science facts or vocabulary directly related to the content under study, then short reactions to them. Science and social studies teachers will maintain master copies of the information students needed to copy, for absent students to use to make up and for assessment purposes. Elective teachers will determine their opening routines. All opening routines will be assessed; students will receive credit for completing opening routines according to directions, and for demonstrating thought. Workshop procedures: Clear expectations around student productivity during workshop time will apply to all classes. These will include location of materials and student mobility expectations. Dismissal procedures: Students will be dismissed by the teacher, not the bell. Students will be completely packed up, sitting correctly, facing forward, for dismissal when the bell rings. Teachers will plan for closing procedures which include time to clean up and pack up. Formatting of student papers: All students will write their whole name, first and last, together on one line on the upper right hand corner of the paper or product. The date is written immediately underneath. The subject and period are written under that. Then they will skip a line and center an assignment title at the top of the page. All assignments will have titles that are used in the teacher grade book. All titles will be underlined. Student supplies: A standard supply list (binder, loose leaf paper, folders, multiple pens and pencils, colored pencils, a manual pencil sharpener, sticky notes, highlighters and ?) will be determined by the teachers and the instructional team. Parents will be informed of the required supplies prior to school opening, and then again as part of orientation. Students who need assistance getting supplies will receive it. Students will be expected to have all of their supplies in all of their classes, every day, every year. Grading systems: Grades will be eaned on a total points system, not a weighted system. All assignments will marked with a grade that includes the number of points earned over the number of points possible, the percentage and a letter grade. The most common numbers of points will be 10, 20, 50 and 100, with some variation based on the assignments themselves. Timely feedback to students: Teachers will provide feedback to students both formally and informally as quickly as is reasonably possible. Formal feedback will be grades. Informal feedback will be spoken either individually to a student, or collectively to a class in the form of a teaching point or focus lesson. Teachers will provide feedback about assignments before students replicate or repeat that type of assignment. For example, in English, students will receive a graded essay before they will begin their next essay. Students will receive constant, timely feedback about all of their work. Grade reports: Students will receive all graded papers by each Wednesday. Teachers will update and enter all grades by each Wednesday. The school will generate a weekly progress report which includes all subjects (like a little report card), which will be distributed and collected by the math teachers. Parents will expect the most recent papers and the updated grades regularly each week. Parents will be expected to sign the grades so teachers know that parents saw the grades. Conference documentation: Three basic types of conferences will occur. An academic conference includes goal setting, student self evaluation and teacher evaluation of student progress. These will take place quarterly for every student in every class. (Special schedules and coach coverage of classes will be part of the master calendar in order to provide the time necessary to do this right.) A skills or content conference is when a teacher teaches one on one; for example, in math, when a teacher clarifies a certain operation by demonstrating it to one student. A discipline conference is when a teacher or team of adults meets with a student to correct behavior. Academic conferences will be formally documented, with the goals and self evaluations as further evidence collected over the course of the year. Some skill or content conferences will be informally documented by the teacher in the classroom, during or right after the conference; many of these conferences will not be documented at all. Discipline conferences will be documented on the conference module of the CLASSxp.

Discipline Plan All students at all grade levels will be taught the same school and classroom rules: Be prompt, prepared, polite, productive and positive. These rules will be taught and reinforced consistently throughout the building. Lunch detention will punish minor infractions. The DPS referral ladder will be strictly adhered to, using every possible intervention at every stage of discipline in order to keep the students in the classrooms, learning. Academic detention will be held after school for students who repeatedly, willfully do not complete academic assignments, either homework or classwork. In-house suspension will always precede out of building suspension, except in extreme cases. All academic expectations will be maintained in in-house suspension. Restorative Justice and other group interventions will be used to reduce repeat offenses. School/classroom rules: identical rules will be posted and taught in every classroom. Student orientation will include repeated clarification of conduct and participation expectations for students. Lunch detention: if a student breaks a rule, the teacher will warn the child by writing their name on the board or on an overhead. The name must be visible to the student. If additional rules are broken, checks are written next to the name. One check = five minutes lunch detention, two checks = ten minutes lunch detention, and three checks = full lunch detention. The teacher gives the student a lunch detention slip to fill out, with the reasons the student earned lunch detention. The student reports to the lunch detention table and submits the detention slip to the detention teacher. The student sits correctly, facing forward, with hands folded or head down, still and silent. The student speaks only to the detention teacher. The teacher will ask the student what she did wrong, and what she will do correctly in the future. The student must show understanding of his mistake, and make a verbal commitment not to repeat the mistake. When the student has successfully served the detention, the teacher signs the bottom of the slip and returns it to the student. The student must return the signed detention slip to the teacher who assigned detention. If the student fails to return the slip, for any reason, the detention time is doubled. If the student cannot or will not serve detention successfully, he is assigned a repeat detention the next day. Two successive failures to serve detention will result in movement on the referral ladder. A student could receive multiple detentions from multiple teachers. If the student communicates her detention serving plan, teachers will not double the unserved detentions. It is the student’s responsibility to communicate the conflicts to teachers. If a student’s detentions double to eight or more, the student advisor will confer with the student about her problem. Preferably, a strict plan to serve and to correct the behavior will be made. In some cases, the student advisor may assign the student a day of in-house suspension in order to serve all of the detentions in one day and start over fresh. Teachers must maintain records, formal or informal, of when students earn detentions. Teachers will keep all detention slips, which are a record of the behavior infractions, dates, and time served. These slips may be used in team and/or parent conferences. The DPS Referral Ladder Informal student-teacher conference: This may take place during class, when a teacher corrects a behavior or reteaches a rule. This is not documented. Student-teacher conference: If a student earns four checks, the teacher will confer with that student at the next available opportunity. Sometimes that will be after class. Sometimes that will be later in the day, or even the next day. The teacher will listen to the student’s perception of the events or behaviors that need correction. The teacher will reteach the rules and expectations, clarify the current consequences (full lunch detention) and state the next consequences that will be put if place if the student’s misbehavior continues. This conference will be documented on the Conference Module of CLASSxp. Student-team conference: If the student goes on to repeat the misbehavior which has been corrected and punished previously, the teacher will arrange a conference with the student and another staff member. The adult team could include another teacher who teaches the student, a coach, the counselor, the student advisor or the assistant principal. The two staff members will meet with the student, and listen to the student’s side of the story. They will then reteach the rules and expectations, clarify the current consequences (full lunch detention) and state the next consequences if the problem continues. This team conference will the documented on the Conference Module of CLASSxp. Parent phone conference: Should the child’s misbehavior continue, the teacher will call home for a parent conference over the phone. Ideally, the student will be present while the teacher talks to the parent, but this will not always be possible. The teacher will inform the parent of the dates and the nature of the previous two conferences, the current misbehavior, the detentions (including the new full lunch detention), and the next consequences if the misbehavior continues. The teacher will listen to the parent’s advice or views of the student’s conduct. Ideally, the parent will speak to the child over the phone, but this will not always occur. This parent conference will be documented on the Conference Module. If a teacher calls home when no one answers, but leaves a message, that will be documented, along with the nature of the most recent misbehavior. If a teacher makes a second attempt with no answer, or there is no message machine, or there is no phone, the teacher will refer the contact necessity to the instructional team of coaches, who will determine the best way to make contact with the family, including a home visit. The team will document the action taken, and inform the teacher. Referral to counselor: If a student continues to misbehave after all of the previous interventions, the teacher will assign full lunch detention and write a formal referral to the counselor. The referral will be documented on the conference module Counselor conference: The counselor will confer with the student to listen to her problems, provide emotional support and coping strategies, and help the child make a plan to succeed in class. The counselor will call home to inform the parent of the conference, and the resulting plan. The counselor will document the conference in the Conference Module. Referral to other support services: In some cases, students will next be referred to other support services, if there is reason to believe that they could be helpful. These other areas include, but are not limited to: nurse, psychologist, social worker and/or outside agencies that help students with anger, violence, drugs, alcohol, gang affiliation or homelessness. The school will make every effort to provide the support the child needs in order to be successful at school. Student-parent-team conference: Should misbehavior continue to occur, a conference of the student, parent, teachers, a coach, maybe the counselor, the student advisor and possibly an administrator will take place to review the documented case history and interventions. This team will then form a formal, written behavior and participation plan for the student. The group will listen to the student’s input about his problems and the solutions. Next consequences will be made clear. All parties will sign the plan. The conference and behavior plan will be documented on the Conference Module. Referral to student advisor: If the student misbehaves again, he will be referred to the student advisor for the consequences outlined in the plan. This will usually be in-house suspension, although other interventions may be used. Multiple in-house suspensions may occur before out of building suspension is used. Multiple out-of-building suspensions may result in moving towards expulsion. Whenever a students is reinstated from a suspension, either in-house or out of building, the teacher who wrote the referral will be present at the reinstatement conference. Coaches will cover classes so the teacher can be available at the convenience of the student advisor and the parent. No child will be reinstated without conferring satisfactorily with the teacher and the student advisor. Parents are welcome but are required only at the discretion of the student advisor. Academic detention: This detention will be held after school for the length of time of a standard class. Students will be assigned here as punishment for continued, willful refusal to complete their work, inside of or outside of school. This intervention can be part of the referral ladder, or entirely separate. Parents will be notified of this detention. This is not a tutoring service. Students in academic detention will be expected to work on their assigned work without assistance for the entire time. They should complete the work they previously refused to complete. If the work is genuinely too difficult for them to complete independently, they will be assigned an alternative assignment within their capacity; the next day their difficult work will be reviewed and retaught as necessary. If students continue to refuse to work, discipline will revert back to the next step on the referral ladder. All academic detentions and their outcomes will be documented on the Conference Module.

Attendance Intervention Plan The student will be viewed as primarily responsible for attendance. In addition to all current DPS procedures and expectations around attendance, every teacher will confer with students upon return from absences. Teachers will notice and teachers will expect students to explain. If absences accumulate, teams of teachers will divide responsibilities around individual intervention plans customized for each student’s unique situation. Parents will be informed and included, but students will remain primarily responsible.

For each grading period, there will be attendance recognition and celebration events. During these recreational events, students who failed to meet attendance goals will consult with support staff and will set attendance goals for the next grading period. Students who meet attendance goals for the first time (after failing) will be specially recognized.

Core Content Curriculum All current DPS and state curriculum requirements will be adhered to, with a systematic focus on articulation among grade levels.

English language arts will be taught in reading and writing workshops, scheduled together, when possible, in order to provide a block of time for students to develop their literacy skills. The Secondary Studio Course and curriculum will be used, with formal writing instruction and regular reading comprehension assessment inserted into the units of study. Writer’s notebooks: Students will begin writing workshops by writing in their notebooks. Initially, these will be graded on fluency and quantity only, as students develop stamina sustaining writing. When fluency standards are mastered, students will then be graded on variety of topic and writing strategies, as well as quantity. Notebooks will be graded every ten to twelve entries. Students will self assess by identifying the quantity they wrote, then by highlighting and labeling sections that demonstrate different topics and different writing strategies. Teachers will then assess and assign the final grade. Formal Writing-Weekly essays: Students will begin the year studying and practicing short constructed response (SCR) essays, written to prompts and assessed with the state rubric. Either upon demonstrated mastery, or at semester, students will study and practice extended constructed response (ECR) essays. Initially, most of the drafting, revising and rewriting will be done in class as part of the writing workshop. Over time, students will be released to draft and rewrite at home, with planning and revision done in class. Students will self-assess their essays according to the rubrics. Students will earn process points for drafting and revising, product points for the quality of the final essay, and self-assessment points for showing knowledge and understanding of the quality of their own writing according to state writing standards.

Workshop writing: All genre studies include multiple writing opportunities, which culminate in writing products which demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the genre and/or content under study. These writing opportunities range from short Stop & Jot notes or thoughts, to long, developed essays, poems or fiction. All writing will be assessed and awarded points as grades. Writing Conferences: All teachers will conduct two types of writing conferences. Informal writing conferences are undocumented conversations about a work in progress. Formal writing conferences are documented to record information about what specific writing strategies or features the student is working on, and to record progress over time. Both types of conferences will be conducted with both formal writing and workshop writing. Documentation will ensure that all students receive equal time with the teacher instructing them one on one about their writing.

Home Reading Program- the Reading Calendar: In addition to silent, independent reading in school every day, students will be required to read after school as a permanent, ongoing homework. The home reading program will be introduced during orientation, and will begin almost immediately. Students read at home, then record the number of minutes read and the pages read during those minutes on their reading calendars. Their adult initials the calendar to verify the time spent reading those pages. The book they read is logged on the back of their reading calendar. Each day in class, the teacher verifies that the calendar documentation is complete, that the child is reading the book logged on the back, and that the child is reading the pages indicated according to their records. Some days the calendar is collected and graded for homework points, which are immediately entered into IGRPO during silent, independent reading. Other days the student receives a sticker, stamp or star to celebrate the reading on that date. Some days some other surprise token might be awarded. The calendar is checked every day, but with various and changing positive reinforcements. Failure to have either the book or the calendar will result in lunch detention, and/or movement on the referral ladder, as necessary. At the end of the month the complete calendar is collected and graded. Perfect calendars are celebrated at the building level by posting photographs of the perfect readers and awarding them special tokens.

Counting Words: Whether students check books out from the classroom library or find books through other channels, each time they complete a book, they will submit the book to the teacher with a sticky note including their name, the date they completed the book, and the title of the next book they are reading. The teacher will count the words either manually or using Renlearn, The teacher will maintain word count records separately from the students’ records. The teacher will post graphs indicating how many words students have read. Students will set word goals for themselves monthly, then assess why they did or did not achieve those goals. When students reach milestones, such as 250,00, then 500,000, then 750.000 and finally one million words, they will be recognized and celebrated as soon as the teacher submits their word count to the instructional team.

Reading Letters: Students will regularly write reading letters about the books they are reading independently and at home. Using a diagnostic reading letter to inform instruction at the beginning, teachers will teach the format and the content using student writing and shared reading experiences as examples. When possible and appropriate, genre study content may be incorporated into reading letters. Points will be awarded for correct formatting and for content. Content will include characters, setting, and plot summary, and the student’s thinking about the text. Each will be taught and reinforced, in turn, until literary comprehension and writing skills are routinely demonstrated. Graded reading letters will be returned to students before they begin writing their next reading letter. Ideally, they will write one a week, but there will be exceptions.

Reading Conferences: Like writing conferences, both formal and informal reading conferences will be conducted regularly, during students’ silent independent reading time each day. Informal conferences will occur around calendar checks and casual book content commentaries; these will not be documented. Formal conferences will take various forms over the year. Some will be based on reading letters. Others will be conducted around a student read aloud and content conversation. Some will be conventional comprehension checks. Others will involve deeper questioning and more thoughtful responding to the text. Formal reading conferences will be documented with notes including specific student focuses and strategies instructed.

Reading Comprehension Assessment and Instruction: Reading comprehension will be assessed at the start of the school year and quarterly thereafter using nonfiction text from the book Reading Stories for Comprehension Success and systematic, comprehensive questions based on an eight level convergent and divergent taxonomy. In between formal assessments, teachers will teach text comprehension using the systematic questioning and a broad range of other comprehension strategies. Some text will be nonfiction from the book Reading Stories… and questions will be formatted identically to the quarterly assessments. Other texts will include shared reading literature and genre study fiction, poetry and essays, and teachers will decide which levels of questioning and which strategies to instruct, based on the needs of their students. Talking will be a normal, routine, required component of every classroom. Students will be trained, and recognized, for developing accountability to the learning community, to accurate knowledge and to rigorous thinking in their classroom talk.

Mathematics will be taught using the Connected Mathematics Program according to the Denver Public Schools math initiative. Students will work with partners and in groups: teachers will act as facilitators developing students’ skills and knowledge around solving mathematics problems.

Math Warm Up: Students will begin class with an opening math activity. This could include, but is not limited to: review, preview, vocabulary, math skills practice, solving math problems, writing about how to solve math problems, writing in the math journal, or any combination thereof.

Launch: The teacher introduces or reviews the concept under study for the upcoming lesson. The teacher models decoding the math tasks being studied, and directs students to the problems to be solved. Over time, students will model decoding the math tasks.

Exploration: During this work time, students collaborate to solve the problems using the skills and concepts under study. The teacher moves around from group to group, facilitating or teaching as necessary to support the problem solving process. The teacher will call for students to explain their thinking, and will ask questions to help redirect their thinking in a different direction, if or when necessary.

Summary: Students report out to the class the findings and ideas discovered during work time. They describe multiple and varying strategies to solve problems, with emphasis on the fact that there are often many ways to find the right answers. Students may also describe problems they had with the process, and how they solved those problems.

Math Notebook: Students collect all returned and graded assignments in chronological order, for the purpose of review and study prior to quizzes and exams. Current class work and homework are maintained here, while waiting to be graded. Furthermore, a math journal will be included here; students will occasionally write about what they find easy or difficult about the concepts under study and/or the problem solving process; they also may sometimes respond to certain questions posed by the teacher. These responses can be used as the basis for discussion. The math notebook will be used for ongoing, informal assessment of students’ math learning.

Math Conferences: These conferences will be both formal and informal. Informal conferences occur frequently, when the teacher reteaches or clarifies math concepts or procedures, as needed, to individuals or small groups. Formal conferences are always one on one; the teacher will observe a student attempting to solve a problem. The student will talk to explain her thinking while solving the problem. If stuck, the teacher will lead conversation about the problem and will ask questions to prompt student thinking. The teacher will clarify as needed. If the student successfully solves the problem, the teacher will converse with the child about the strategies and thinking used to succeed. The teacher will document the conference, including the skill or skill sets being studied, and the teaching points included. Initially, the math coach will run the class during formal conferences, allowing the teacher time to confer. Over time, the goal is that the teacher is able to conduct formal conferences while the math workshop conducts itself.

Math Homework: Students will have math homework five nights a week. Homework will be intended and selected as math work students can succeed at independently. In the event that a student cannot complete this assignment successfully, the student should write a statement explaining what they did understand, and identifying the point where they no longer understood what to do next. This will be known as a Stumped Statement. Parents will support the home math program by signing this Stumped Statement, if/when necessary. Upon returning to school, a student with a Stumped Statement will be expected to seek appropriate assistance to solve the problem and go on to complete the homework correctly. The signed Stumped Statement does not excuse the child from the assignment; it excuses them from consequences for being unprepared to class.

Grade Graphs: Math teachers will distribute and collect students’ weekly grade reports, as a math homework grade. Math teachers will teach students how to graph their weekly grades according to the percentage of points earned in each of their classes. Students will first create bar graphs, then will go on to create line graphs, multiple line graphs, and finally pie graphs, over the course of the year. Initial graph creation will be a class activity. Over time, students will be released to create and update grade graphs as homework. The best and most beautiful grade graphs will be posted in classrooms and displayed in hallways as celebration of grade achievement as well as celebration of quality graphing, skills.

Grading and Assessment: Students will earn points for their math grade in the following areas: warm ups, class work, group participation, homework, math notebook, journals, signed grades, grade graphs, quizzes and unit tests.

Talking will be a normal, routine, required component of every classroom. Students will be trained, and recognized, for developing accountability to the learning community, to accurate knowledge and to rigorous thinking in their classroom talk.

Science curriculum will be developed and refined according to the training of the Secondary Teaching and Learning Project. A socialized learning community will be created with fixed rituals and routines in place around an inquiry based workshop model, which uses the scientific method to explore science and draw conclusions.

Opening activity: Science teachers will provide a science vocabulary item, a science fun fact, a science dilemma, or a recent scientific discovery for students to copy down and react to in writing during the opening minutes of class. Students will copy accurately and will write responses, reactions or questions about the science item. The teacher will read and explain the science item, answer questions, and connect to the upcoming lesson, when possible. A master set of daily science items will be maintained and available to students who were absent. Science items will be collected and assessed every ten to twelve entries. This opening activity should take about ten minutes of class time. Content studies: Units of study will be organized with multiple sources of content information, including text, auditory and visual sources, graphs and charts, laboratory experiments and field study. Text will include summary text (e.g. textbook, encyclopedia articles, magazine articles, research results), and commentary text (e.g. scientific criticism, analysis, controversial issues). Auditory and visual sources will include tapes, videos, pictures, and demonstrations. Graphs and charts will be studied and created in a variety of formats and contexts, for a variety of purposes. Laboratory experiments will be conducted on a regular basis as part of the scientific inquiry nature of the courses. Labs will vary in duration from as brief as one class period to as long as several months. Field experiences will be generated by the content being studied, and will generate significant student products which demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the content being studied.

Reading and writing in science: English language arts teachers will bear the primary responsibility for developing reading and writing skills in the students. Science teachers will apply those skills to acquire content knowledge and demonstrate understanding. Science teachers will also use the eight level convergent and divergent questioning taxonomy to diagnose and instruct students according to their needs. Focus will remain on science content acquisition. Text will be taught to students in a variety of ways: some as shared read alouds, some as small group reading, some as partner reading and some as independent reading. Coaches will work with the science teachers to develop instructional strategies and assessment methods. Students will have a wide range of writing opportunities in science. Some will be brief, simple notes about their thinking or observations. Others will be informal paragraphs summarizing observations or formulating theories or explanations. Students will be taught how to write formal laboratory reports, including all stages of the scientific method. Special emphasis will be placed on drawing conclusions and marshalling evidence to defend those conclusions.

Projects in science: Eventually, the school year will culminate in individual science projects presented in a science fair. Initially, students will be guided and supported through the science project production process. Over time, students will be released to create their projects independently.

Talking will be a normal, routine, required component of every classroom. Students will be trained, and recognized, for developing accountability to the learning community, to accurate knowledge and to rigorous thinking in their classroom talk.

Social studies curriculum will be developed and refined according to the training of the Secondary Teaching and Learning Project. A socialized learning community will be created with certain fixed rituals and routines in place around a workshop model.

Opening activity: The social studies teachers and the coaches will work together to create a summary of a significant current event each day at the start of class. Students will accurately copy the summary, then write their reactions, thoughts or questions about the event. The teacher will then invite comment or clarify by answering questions. Where possible, maps will be used to locate these events. Both grade levels will study the same current events. A master set of the current events will be available to students to copy if they were absent. Current events will be collected and graded every ten to twelve events. This opening activity should take about ten minutes of class time.

Content studies: Units of study will be organized with multiple sources of content information, including text, maps, auditory and visual supports and field study. Text study will include summary text (e.g. encyclopedia articles or textbooks), commentary text (e.g. historical criticism or analysis), primary text (original documents from history), secondary text (essays about original documents), literary text (historical fiction or poetry), and/or biography/autobiography. Map study will include both study and creation of current maps, historical maps, and special purpose maps. Auditory and visual supports could include, but are not limited to, listening to tapes, viewing videos or slide presentations, listening to student presentations, viewing student projects, listening to music and/or viewing art. Field experiences will be driven by the content under study and will generate significant student products which demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the content under study. Reading and writing in social studies: English language arts teachers will bear the primary responsibility for developing reading and writing skills. Social studies teachers will apply those skills to acquiring content knowledge and demonstrating understanding. Social studies teachers will also use the eight level convergent and divergent questioning taxonomy to diagnose and instruct students according to their needs. But their focus will be on content. Sets of texts will be taught to students in a variety of ways: some as shared read alouds, some as small group reading, some as partner reading and some as independent reading. Coaches will work with social studies teachers to develop instructional strategies and assessment methods. Students will have a broad range of writing opportunities, from brief notes about their thinking, to informal reaction paragraphs, to formal essays which compare and contrast, analyze, or criticize, to fully developed research papers and even to creative fiction or poetry.

Research in social studies: Initially, teachers will conduct a guided research process demonstration which leads students through research about one common event in history, culminating in a research paper. This will be slightly artificial, as all materials will be gathered in advance (in other words, the discovery feature of research will be difficult to replicate in a demonstration). After the entire process is complete and a quality paper results, students will be released to research independently, or in partners, or in small groups, according to the teacher’s decision. The research process will be made explicit. Process grades will be awarded along the way, as students reach certain benchmarks in research. Student-teacher conferences conducted during the process will continually focus on the quality of the final product. Supports will be provided as needed, while the gradual release of responsibility of the learners cultivates independent researchers and writers. The standard expectations of the final research paper will be clear.

Projects in social studies: Like the research process, project production will be demonstrated in the classroom, over time, creating both small scale and large scale projects. These may include maps, posters, dioramas, mobiles, timelines, children’s storybooks, models, miniatures or power point presentations. Like the research paper, students will eventually be released to create their own projects; these will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the content under study and, in turn, teach that content to the viewer of the project.

Elective Curriculum Elective class will be offered in two broad categories: practical arts and expressive arts. Practical arts will include physical education, industrial arts, computers and home economics. Expressive arts will include art and music. As the school grows in size, drama and foreign language will be added to the expressive arts program. These elective courses will be offered with a level of academic rigor equivalent to the core subject areas. Products resulting from these courses will be celebrated in special arts appreciation events.

During the first year, physical education will be offered to all students all year. The other two elective courses remain to be determined.

Field Experiences As part of the standard curriculum, each grade level will have a special focus or theme which culminates in a field experience, traveling farther away, and for longer periods of time, with each grade. Sixth grade will study their neighborhood and the city of Denver, taking field trips to museums and historic sites. Seventh grade will study the state history and geography, taking field trips to the mountains, including an overnight stay at Balarat. Eighth grade’s study of American history will focus on famous western sites, and include travel to Mesa Verde. Ninth grade’s study of American government will lead them to fly to Washington D.C. Tenth grade will travel to Mexico. Eleventh grade will travel to Canada. Twelfth grade will plan their trip to travel to another continent. All trips will take place during the school year after the state tests.

Sports Middle level grades will participate in the Denver Prep League. High school students will participate through other high schools.

Community Involvement Routine parental engagement in all aspects of students’ academic development will include written notifications of content under study, supplies and participation expectations and other academic information. Weekly progress reports will keep parents informed of academic progress.

Parents will be asked to read and sign the following orientation documents: • Curriculum overview descriptions • Required supply list • Home reading program agreement • Book responsibility agreement • Home writing support agreement • Home math program agreement • Student conduct expectations • CBLA Individual Learning Plans (when applicable) Once orientation is complete, parents will be asked to read and sign: • Daily reading calendar • Daily math efforts • Weekly progress reports • Quarterly achievement goals • Quarterly student self evaluations

Parents will be welcome onto the open campus at any time, but regularly scheduled celebration events will showcase students’ development and success. Quarterly academic achievement conferences will invite parents.

A marketing plan will be developed which includes: outreach to feeder schools, parent information nights, open houses, student shadowing, mailings, newsletters, student publications, press releases, partnerships with community organizations and the universities. Some partnerships will cultivate relationships around social work interventions, mental and physical health support systems and future planning.

Ongoing Evaluation Teachers and staff will routinely evaluate their learning experiences and effectiveness on the job, to revise and refine the ongoing staff development over time. This will include annual student and parent evaluations of student learning and achievement, as well as consideration of the annual school climate surveys. Year-end formal evaluations written by teachers will be used to inform decisions about the next school year’s ongoing, embedded professional development.

Friends of Randolph Foundation The Friends of Bruce Randolph Foundation will be a non-profit, private source of funding that will provide resources to ensure equal opportunities for excellence among all students. The Foundation will seek local and national contributions, from individuals and organizations. This source of money will supplement and support the field experiences of students. A small board, including the principal, some school staff, and some community members will manage the Foundation Fund.