North Kenwood District

Transcription

(traffic) (siren wailing) SHAYNE EVANS: We are at the University of Chicago Charter School: North Kenwood/Oakland Campus. TANIKA ISLAND-CHILDRESS: We serve a 96% African-American student population situated on the southeast side of Chicago. Hey, Jamont. EVANS: 83% would qualify for free or reduced lunch. Many will be the first in their family to attend college and then graduate from college. Have a good day at school. EVANS: This campus is one of four that makes up the University of Chicago Charter School. What we try to offer to our four campuses is an aligned approach: how we engage with parents, how we support teachers, how we try to design our curriculum, and how we try to differentiate support for students along the way, which ultimately creates critical thinkers and leaders. SHANNON KEYES: Good morning! Good morning, Miss Keyes! KEYES: I was at another charter school and I was a third grade teacher. I felt like I was kind of stagnant at my other school. I wasn't learning anything, I wasn't doing my students a service at all. I came to visit and I was really impressed by what I saw. I knew that I could learn a lot. So one day, they had an apprentice teacher position available. I made the choice to leave and come here. What is the main topic based on the key details from the text? Yori? He was helping him travel for the long journey. The school is very focused on balanced literacy. KEYES: Students are at various levels, and so balanced literacy is more individualized to help them to be able to read at grade level. CARRIE WALSH: You can make this about spelling if you want, but I think shades of meaning is really about context within reading. KEYES: Okay, so we can just do homophones. For a year, I worked under Carrie and I learned a lot about content and then how to design lessons around data and standards. I'm looking at our data and we've given them a lot of goals. They still have to do compound words, adjectives, there's a lot of goals we set for them for the month of October. WALSH: Our STEP assessment is how we assess students formally three times a year, and it's also how we decide how to instruct students. Shannon had a little bit of experience with STEP at her previous charter school, but not necessarily with using that information instructionally. So I worked with her a lot on looking for trends and patterns and then what could cause some of those errors. ISLAND-CHILDRESS: Teachers that come here, they do want to work hard. And you're clear on what you want to do? So they have come to a place where they know they're going to be pushed, they know their practice is going to be public, but they know they're going to get a lot of support, and at the end of the day, we're in it together. KEYES: This is a great example of what this writer did with her beginning. Are we ready to listen? STUDENTS: Yes. KEYES: Okay, here we go. Values are just crucial in every aspect, so there are STICK values that we use throughout the day that just kind of help with behavior. Constantly making sure we're using the language around the STICK values really helps. Remember the writing workshop rules. We have peace when we write to give people thinking time. When students are able to use that language with us, it's going to be successful as an entire school. She's showing self control, she's doing a great job. WALSH: I feel like this is a place where people are valued and teachers feel valued and teachers really believe our students can achieve at high levels. KEYES: Everyone understands what our goal is. What happened in chapter two? Everyone does whatever they can do to help one another with the goals. Partners will hold them accountable. I can go to any teacher in this school and say, "I'm struggling with this math lesson. Can you come into my classroom and help me?" So many of our sixes still need work on their fluency. Their contractions, that was difficult, they had trouble with that, but we focused in on that this week. KEYES: That's what we do here, that's the culture. Okay, where are you getting the information from? The book. ISLAND-CHILDRESS: I was actually teaching in another school, teaching fourth and fifth grade. The expectations I felt were clearly different for students of color. I actually came to visit North Kenwood/Oakland Charter School one day and fell in love. I felt there was a different goal and expectation around how the students would achieve, and I wanted to be a part of that. Why are we reading it three times? Because we got to answer the question. WALSH: I think that coaching is really everything to our philosophy here. I thought the part where you were helping them with the strategy, just kind of subtly introduce it earlier in the lesson. I kind of scaffold that I noticed there were a lot of words that still support, and that's enough. WALSH: The observation process that I use for my formal observation is basically videotaping the entire lesson and then also transcribing it while I'm watching it. I meet with a teacher and then I use the transcript and the video both as data about what I want to talk about. I think it's figuring out when you need to switch from leading the discussion to facilitating. Right. Read this line right here. It's about people being valued, children and adults. ISLAND-CHILDRESS: So each teacher really develops a strong relationship with the students. Okay, that makes sense. We have very high expectations for our students and very high expectations of teachers, and it's impossible to have those expectations without high support. All the work that Keyana, you're doing and Ashley, has been amazing. Helping you to push through difficult and challenging times and strive for more. KEYES: Does everyone understand what we're doing today? Yes! All right, good job!