Friday, March 8, 2013

Alphabet Post part 1: SLCs - Student Led Conferences Next Week

SLCs - Student Led Conferences

Our Final round of Student Led Conferences are here

Please complete the appointment sheet by Monday, March 11th.  Because this is our last round, it's important to touch on the following points

  • DRP Scores - for grades 9-11
    The link above will take you to the updated February DRP scores.  In order to be reading on grade level, students need to have the following range of DRP P90 scores:  9th Grade Range - 62-69;  10th Grade Rage - 64-72;  11th Grade Range 67-72.  Students reading in the 57-67 range are reading at the middle school level.  Students reading below 57 are reading at the elementary school level.

    Take a moment to look at the history of P90 scores for each of your advisees.  (please come see me for help if you need it).  If there are repeated occurrences of scores near each other (e.g. they've scored 43, 45, 44 in the last three DRP administrations), then the argument of "I don't take that test seriously" cannot hold.  Rather, this is a very serious delay in reading.  Please review the DRP scores with families, and for those students reading below grade level, establish reading goals with both parent and student for independent reading at home, together.  Reading independently and in quantity is the best, fastest way to build fluency and develop reading levels.
  • Promotion in Doubt - for all grades
    We mailed all letters home and also gave them to students.  Please double check with families that parents received and signed the Promotion in Doubt letters and understand the annualization policy.  If your advisee is PID, you'll receive annualization letters to distribute and have signed.  For those students who are PID, it is especially important to get parents in for the SLC.

    In particular for seniors, if they are currently failing a course, they are not on track for graduation and are immediately suspended from Senior Activities for the 2nd Marking Period.  In addition, continuing to fail will result in not graduating and participating in ceremonies in June.
  • Reflection on Work
    Students need to root their reflections in their work.  Make sure when students are reflecting on their progress, that they are referencing their work and pointing to aspects of work as evidence of their claims in their reflections.

    Prompt students to articulate the learning standards exemplified by the work.  For example, this work shows how I can do x, which is this learning standard y.  Also, Students should also be able to situate the work.  For example, they should explain what came before and after the piece they chose and how this piece fit into the unit arc.  Working with students to be able to reflect and articulate in this manner is the best and strongest preparation for our SLC.  This type of reflection should be echoed through the SLCs into your conferences and discussions in Unison.
  • Goals for The Semester - Articulated Steps with Completion Dates
    Goals set should be a balance of academic and personal behavioral goals.  Personal goals are behavioral or character based.  Here are some examples
    - "I will come to school everyday on time" is a personal behavioral goal.
    - "I will ask questions or breach each time I don't understand something" is academic behavior -
        it's active participation in academic discourse.
    - "I will turn my work in on time" is a personal behavior.
    - "I will turn in my after having edited and checked for errors to make sure my work is the
        highest quality and it will be completed on time" is an academic goal.
    - "I will study for quizzes and major assessments" - can be both personal and academic. If you
        help students articulate what "study" means to being for example "I will set aside x amount of
        time before major assessments to review my notes/quiz myself/do practice problems and check
        my work" it becomes more of an academic behavior.

    The goals also need to have times associated with them.  Here's some examples
    - By x date, after following through on the personal/academic goals above, I should have improved my performance by y amount.
    - By X date, I should be getting Y types of grades on my major learning target assessments

These are just some examples to help you drive up the rigor and quality of student conferences.  I welcome you to reach out to your colleagues who do these everyday for more ideas.  Check out their conference binders and stop in to see some a conference - SLC or regular classroom conference.  Make the time to learn from one another.  You are each other's biggest resource!

Please reach out to me with any question you have regarding SLCs. 

Next Post:  Alphabet Post Part II - DRPs

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