Beth reported to the group what happened at the last meeting and the data that Jenny Trani reviewed with Beth and Cristy.

The following questions were formulated from the April data meeting with Jenny Trani:

What is mclass (i.e. Is there a Fountas and Pinnell component?)

Mclass is similar to dibels in an electronic version.  There is one component called maze that assesses fluency (similar to eclass assessment used years ago at the DOE).  There is no independent reading assessment (leveled) reading component.

What do Amplify lessons look like?

In K and 1, there is a heavy skill focus and there are also readers for the students.  In K, the readers were introduced this month.  Grade 1 had readers from the first unit.  The teacher has big books that coincide with the readers and students will independently or partner read the stories from the reader.  Some teachers have students shop for books that they mostly read at home. Diamond stated that students seem to feel more confident when reading.

What does small group instruction look like?

Guided reading may be used for small group for some students and some teachers are more creative when using Amplify and may try to use some of the other best practice (ie independent reading) used in the past.

There are also activity pages that upper grade teachers are using as formative assessments.

There are checklists of skills teachers can use to check for progress.

What does the schedule look like?

The Amplify block is 1 hour.  In K-1 it is longer due to the skills portion (which they rotate for) and then the knowledge component so it is about 90 minutes.

The general feeling is that each lesson has more than enough material for the 1 hour block and that it is hard to know what to leave out, especially as teachers learn a new curriculum.  If a teacher tries to do all components, there will be a pacing issue.  

Teachers in the upper grades appreciate the focus that Amplify has on vocabulary and how it is previewed prior to reading the text.  

How has staffing impacted the school?

Dr. Babb covered quite a bit but there is no a sub for Portia in Grade 2 who is on family leave.

Mr. Williams was hired to replace Ms. Clark and it seems to be working out and he is receiving a lot of support.

We also discussed whether Lavinia should be considered for next year.  

The overall feeling is that Lavinia has supported student voice in Math, that Lavinia introduced effective data tracking, that student work discussions have lead to a deeper understanding of why a student is a Level 2 for example rather that state that the child is a Level 2.

Sheila stated that a survey has gone out to get teacher input on the year with Lavinia.  She expressed that perhaps next year - just a thought, Lavinia could do ELA so that all teachers are receiving support (vs. just Math this year).  Even though many of the practices can be used for all content areas.

Olawa stated that she feels the upper grades are ready for the state tests and that teachers have been deliberate in their use of data to drive instruction.

The next meeting is schedule for May 14th and it is the same day as Math State exams when there will be test scanning and other preparation to be done so member will not likely be able to attend.  Consider reschedule for another May date or meet in June.