K-5 ELA Meeting 1/13/09

M.S.A.D. #11
English Language Arts: Reading-Writing Committee
Meeting Agenda: January 13, 2009

Present: Karen Moody (chair), Howie Tuttle, Sarah Brown, Tiffany Cockrell, Sara Barrows, Ira Michaud, Cynthia Snow, Deb Carey, Mary Jo Stevens, Kris Canning, Amy Whitman

1. Review ELA assessment decisions.
There was much discussion on the assessment expectations were put forward in the fall. The following was decided by the committee:
a. Reading a-z is still expected in Grades 1-3 for the end of the first and second trimesters. DRA will be given the first month of school and then the last week through the end of May. Reading a-z does not match exactly with the DRA levels, and many feel it is harder. The committee is ok with this. Karen shared the Pearson Inform site with the committee to show how the data that is being collected is organized on the site. Reading a-z will compare to itself, as will the DRA. In addition Reading a-z is much more cost effective than other reading assessments and is also research-based. Our district has a license for the site, which contains many resources for teachers in all five components of literacy as well as poetry. It updates its website frequently. Lastly, consistency in the district with assessments is essential. That is why the kits were made last summer and will remain the expectation for assessing students.
b. In the area of comprehension, while the DRA comprehension rubric works well for literary texts, the committee decided that a rubric was needed for expository texts.
c. Fourth grade has made changes to the comprehension and fluency rubrics. The committee will look at this in depth in future meetings to see if the changes should be implemented K-5.
d. Grades 4 and 5 will still use the 3 Minute Assessment, as well as the NWEA for reading assessments.
e. Karen requested again that the grade level comprehension assessments be turned into her and Howie so that the Scope and Sequence and district assessment website be updated. It was emphasized that this is not an approval protocol. The grade level makes the decision as to what the assessments will be.

The meeting adjourned at 4:45.

To be continued…

2. Review/discuss changes to Writing Rubric: The writing committee will meet to discuss changes so that a new packet can be ready for the spring prompt.

3. Vocabulary: Karen passed out research materials on vocabulary to be read for the next meeting. The process on deciding on a Spelling-Vocabulary program will continue for the remainder of this year.

a. What does the research say?
b. What are our scores from NWEA (grades 3-5)?
c. What are our beliefs?

4. Next steps???...
5. Set next meeting date: January 29th at 3:30 at LER.