South Laurel Middle School Writing Program Review

South Laurel Middle School Writing Program Review

The Writing Program Review Committee has meet several times and tried to assess where we are and where we want to go as a school. We have tried to collect documentation to provide to our SBDM council to get a better look at what accomplishments we have made as well as areas that we need to improve on in the future. In this review we have taken each demonstrator and summarized our current state and our future needs. As an ongoing task we have put our documentation in a teacher share file to allow all teachers to be able to add their own information on a daily basis. Listed below are each of the demonstrators and what we are doing to assure that we are a progressing school in the Writing Program.

In the section, Curriculum and Instruction, the South Laurel Middle School Writing Program is Proficient in Demonstrator 2: Aligned and Rigorous Curriculum. Areas of improvement include cross-curricular communications to develop and incorporate a variety of innovative opportunities for students to utilize technology.

In the area of Professional Development and Support Services, the South Laurel Middle School Writing Program falls into the category of “Needs Improvement”. Though Language Arts teachers do meet in PLCs to improve writing and communication instruction, there is no school-wide emphasis on writing and communication evident in artifacts collected. Furthermore, professional development opportunities are geared toward the academic areas of reading and math.

In order to adequately demonstrate proficiency in the area of Professional Development and Support Services, teacher learning needs must be identified in the area of writing to develop a year-long professional development plan that reflects a school-wide emphasis on writing/communication skills and extends training opportunities for writing across the curriculum.

In the section, Formative and Summative Assessment, the South Laurel Middle School Writing Program is Proficient in Demonstrator 1: Variety of Assessment. Improvement is needed in cross-curricular communications to develop writing assessments.

Our program needs improvement in Demonstrator 2: Expectations for Students Learning. The problem lies in having students more involved in providing feedback on writing products, setting goals, self-assessment, self-monitoring of progress and co-developing rubrics for writing.

The SLMS Writing Program also needs improvement in Demonstrator 3: Response to Assessment. Areas of concern include developing a plan to consistently monitor student progress.

In the area of Administrative/Leadership Support and Monitoring, We feel we are at the Proficient level in Demonstrator 1: Shared Visionshowsschool leadership communicates expectations with the staff for implementing the school writing policy in staff meetings, with our curriculum coaches and through PLC’s. The leadership also tries to use these resources to help the teachers promote a building wide culture of critical thinkers, problem solvers and effective communicators. This program is put forth by these staff members at different time during a school year. The teachers have time set aside to meet with each other and our curriculum coach to make sure that these ideas are developed and shared as a group. The goal of the leadership is to make sure that these expectations are shared with all teachers and that all students are receiving these in a classroom setting.

There is still room for improvements here at SLMS. The administrators would like to have more Professional Development opportunities in the future for new and existing teachers. This information would help the teachers with the understanding of the Writing Policy. Then they can take this new information and apply this to further meetings with the curriculum coach and PLC meetings.

In Demonstrator 2: Time and Resources.We feel we are at a Proficient level. The principals are trying to utilize time outside the classroom to make sure these teachers are gaining a better understanding of what is available to them as far as space, facilities and instructional time. The SBDM council monitors the effectiveness of these resources through discussions with the Writing Committee team members and their presentations on the progress of this information. The Writing Committee team members will present documentation to the SBDM council to review and also take this information and put this on the teacher share so the documentation added throughout the year.

The goal of the Writing Committee is to provide all new teachers with the resources and time to present the policy in an effective manner. Time is of course the problem, but with the work of the Committee , PLC meetings and the curriculum coach, we will strive as a school to provide the resources and trainings to the staff to make sure we are all together in our goals here at SLMS.

The Writing Committee Members have assessed our school’s writing program based on documentation provided by our teachers and administrative staff. We have opened a teacher share file to provide a location where all teachers can continue to put further documentation. This documentation will illustrate the writing program in effect in their classrooms. We will continue to strive to move our school forward in this process. With the help of our teacher share file and through closely monitoring the writing program process, we will continue to move the students at South Laurel Middle School to proficiency.

Committee Members:

1. Chris England 5. Cheryl Cornett
2. Heather Taylor 6. Pam Elkins
3. DeAnna Perkins 7. Alana Hacker
4. Mitzi Norvell