Vertical Teaming Working Together to Build Student Success

Vertical Teaming Working Together to Build Student Success in Rigorous Courses

Critical Question: What is a Vertical Team?

What Is It? • An Vertical Team is a group of MS/HS educators from different grade levels in a given discipline who: – work cooperatively to implement a vertically aligned, coherent program – help students acquire the academic skills necessary for success in rigorous courses.

What Will You Learn? • Designed to help HS/MS teams: – Align standards-based curriculum vertically from 6 – 12 and beyond, so that every 11 th or 12 th grader should be prepared to take an AP, if they choose – Become leaders at their schools, to assist in the horizontal alignment of curriculum

What Will You Learn? • Designed to help HS/MS teams: – Build strong collaborations within the group, to become a high-functioning vertical team – Increase equity and access to AP, Honors, and elective courses – Use research-based learning strategies to increase rigor throughout their content

What Will You Learn? • Designed to help HS/MS teams: – Learn to analyze a variety of data to asses & validate their work – Learn to backward-map major concepts in all grade levels necessary to successfully answer an AP question

What’s the Impact? • How will vertical teaming strengthen our department and increase student success in science? • Discuss in partners, share out to team

How Did El Rancho USD Increase Access to A. P. ? Removed Barriers • Increased the number of 8 th grade students in Algebra • Offered 7 th grade Algebra for those students that are prepared. • Offered Geometry at El Rancho High School for 8 th graders that are prepared • Ensured 2 complete years of Science in 7 th and 8 th grade.

Implemented New Courses • Created a “Science Pathways” series of courses from MS to HS • leads students to access to AP Science by the 10 th grade • Piloted a new Pre-A. P. 8 th Grade Physical Science Class at MS’s • Offered Freshman Biology • Implemented an AP Environmental Science Course

Increased Access to Rigorous Pre-AP & AP Courses • Utilized the New Guidelines for Entry to G. A. T. E. • Actively recruited students with a high interest in Science and Math • Invited MESA students • Invited AVID and PREP students • Counseled students with a B- or better in previous Science classes • Informed parents about AP courses & “Science Pathway” • Allowed access by teacher recommendation.

Lesson #1 Challenge is motivating! Students who enroll in the most rigorous courses AND get academic support… becoming independent learners.

Rigor • “is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging. ” Adapted from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Strong, Silver and Perini, ASCD, 20001

Complex Content • is composed of overlapping and perhaps paradoxical ideas. Pair share or quick write an example in your discipline Adapted from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Strong, Silver and Perini, ASCD, 20001

Ambiguous Content • is found in poetry, statistics, and primary documents which are packed with multiple levels of meaning. Pair share or quick write an example in your discipline Adapted from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Strong, Silver and Perini, ASCD, 20001

Provocative Content • is conceptually challenging, and deals with dilemmas. Students conduct inquiry and work on solving real world problems. Pair share or quick write an example in your discipline Adapted from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Strong, Silver and Perini, ASCD, 20001

Personally or Emotionally Challenging Content • Student study books, events or problems that challenge them to understand HOW the world works. Pair share or quick write an example in your discipline Adapted from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Strong, Silver and Perini, ASCD, 20001

Lesson # 2 Data Drives Practice… • The site/vertical team uses a continuous improvement model based on results. • The team reviews achievement data. • The team reviews personal successes of both staff & students • The team identifies areas of growth and helps students (and their families) keep focused on their academic goals.

Lesson # 3 Middle School Matters • MS programs…. . • Have a strong link with HS students and local 4 -year universities. • Create a vision and expectation for taking AP and Honors classes in HS…and then on to college. • Have effective collaboration between AVID & content teachers 7 -12. • Use HS students as role models & peer tutors for the MS students.

Looking at Our Own School’s Data • What trends do you see in AP? • What trends do you see in CST scores? • What trends do you see in SAT testing? • What trends do you in College-going see rates?

• What do these data tell us about our school? • What will it take to increase access to rigorous, highlevel curriculum that ensures eligibility and success in competitive four-year universities? • How can we work with our schools in content areas to better prepare students by examining our 7 th to 12 th curriculum?

Reflective Questions Clarifying: • Which instructional methodologies appear to improve student access/ success to honors & AP classes at Fremont?

Critical Skills Necessary for Success in College: The grades 12 through 16 link

Expectations • Education is more than attending classes. • It requires you to actively build upon experiences both in and out of the classroom.

Emphasis on Skills • Study skills • • Critical thinking Metacognitive skills Mathematical reasoning Logical reasoning • Active learning

Science Skills • Deep Content Knowledge – Terminology, Big Picture • Processing Skills • • • Interpret data: graphs Analyze problems Understand flow of scientific inquiry • Reason mathematically • Connect multiple representations • Rationalize divergent views

Activity Science Time!

AP Bio Essay - Lab Question ¨ Read Essay on Osmosis & Diffusion 1992 - Question # 1 ¨ What do students need to know to get to this point? ¨ What labs in earlier grades would lay the foundation for answering this question?

AP Bio Osmosis & Diffusion Lab Part 1 Which molecules have moved where & WHY

AP Bio Osmosis & Diffusion Lab Part 2 At what molarity is dynamic equalibrium reached?

Part 3 • What is the osmotic potential of the sucrose solution? • What is the potato’s molarity ? • Explain your results using the concept of free energy =-ICRT Graph the results with a “best-fit” line where I = the ionization constant (for sucrose this is 1 because sucrose does not ionize in water); C = osmotic molar concentration R = pressure constant T = temperature °K

Fundamental Concept: Science as a Process Students should explore & comprehend: • Science relies on reproducible observations • Hypotheses provide models to explain observations • Hypotheses are created w/creativity & insight • Differences between observed & expected observations detect flaws in hypotheses • Data that agree with predictions DO NOT PROVE a hypothesis: they only fail to disprove it.

Fundamental Concept: Science as a Process Foundation Level • • • Grow & measure plants; measure daily temp Become skilled with basic lab equipment Design simple experiments, collect data, collaborate & analyze results • Measure masses and volume of substances • Make data tables and graphs, including “best fit” lines • Use graphs to interpolate & predict

Fundamental Concept: Science as a Process Intermediate Level • Generate data by measuring pressure vs. volume of a gas • Calculate spring constant of an inertial balance from relationship between its period as mass • Measure O 2 consumption by animals at different temps vs. DO 2 at different levels of a lake

Fundamental Concept: Science as a Process Advanced Level • Generate data by measuring Cl 2 content of seawater via titration of Ag. NO 3 • Find the total charge in a capacitor by integrating current passed through as a function of time • Determine the action spectrum of photosyn or % transmittance from pooled class data • Analyze human pop growth vs. time for the past century

Top Five: Articulated Coming in: 7 th grade 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Going out: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Coming in: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Going out: 8 th grade 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Coming in: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Going out: 9 th grade 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Curriculum Alignment ® Vertical alignment of courses – Backward map from the AP courses • Continue to increase access • Build in support for new AP students • Increase rigor in pre-AP courses – Eliminate gaps, overlaps – Scaffold concepts taught at each level

Curriculum Alignment ® Horizontal alignment to the CA standards – Focus on “Power Standards” – Agree on Key labs/activities – Use Standards-based lesson planning

Grade-level Concept Alignment Choose an AP question from one of the Acorn books in science. • First work out the answer and then analyze the concepts and skills that are embedded in the problem. • After identifying the concepts and skills, then work as a team to place them in the spectrum of classes from 9 th grade science to AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics or AP Environmental Science.

Guiding Questions: Goal Planning • How can we redo our curriculum without sacrificing rigor or content so that more students are successful? • What areas of student learning are the most important to be successful in your discipline? • How do you know the students are achieving in these areas?