751+Stars

Meeting on 10/13

The members of 751 Stars are: Ms. Sinche, Ms. Seylar and Ms. Clyde

We have identified fifteen students from class 751 who are in need of additional academic support. Our plan is to rotate them in groups of 5 between the three of us in order for them to receive academic services in all of the content areas. The following is a list of the students in question:

1. Rehad Ahmed 2. Rocio Castillo 3. Tatiana Henriquez 4. Azim Hossain 5. Rami Husain 6. Nabil Husain 7. Somaya Jannaf 8. Edward Lora 9. Ahmed Muflani 10. Michelle Quinonez 11.Catherine Rodriguez 12 Deyvi Rodriguez 13.Thabet, Thabet Abdullah 14. Victor Vaccaro 15.Yerly Villegas

Thursday, October 20, 2011 751 Stars Members: Ms. Clyde, Ms. Seylar, and Ms. Sinche

1. We have discussed different methods to support vocabulary acquisition in content subjects:

- Graphic Organizers such as SEED Chart (from EXCeLL Training), Venn Diagrams, and different forms foldables

- Incorporating language objectives in our lessons to go along with content objectives in order to support language acquisition in all areas

2. We have formed 3 groups of 5 students from the 15 students mentioned above according to level of language proficiency, as well as, their current academic performance in their content subjects.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

751 Stars Members: Ms. Clyde, Ms. Seylar, and Ms. Sinche

1.

Thabet, Michelle, Catherine, Yerli, and Deyvi - Beginner Group

Tatiana, Azim, Edward, and Somaya - Intermediate Group

Rehad, Ahmed, Victor, and Rocio - Advanced Group

These groupings are based on our classifications.

*On Mondays we will also have Nabil and Rami (Tuesday through Thursday will be attending Wilson) and they will join our beginner group.

2. Groupings are classified by classroom assessments, classwork, and teacher observations (and NYSESLAT scores for those who have).

3. Common academic needs:

Need to increase English proficiency levels and skills in order to successfully achieve in all content areas.

4. Similarities/Differences:

Similarities: Students are at a similar level of English level proficiency. Students would greatly benefit from additional vocabulary support. Ages are similar.

Differences: Level of academic ability (some students may come in with a better background in a particular subject).

5. With our particular population of students, we feel that the level of English proficiency has a direct impact on the academic success across all content areas. By providing them with extra language support, we hope to help them improve in all subject areas.

6. Our next step is to meet with all of the students selected and explain the rotating schedule that they will participate in during extended day.

November 3,2011

Discipinary Concerns

1. Use of detention for whole class vs. only problem students 2. Discussion of seating arrangements 3. Home contact : successes/ failures/suggestions

Plans for Raising Level of English Profiency

1. Increase amount of pictorial representations 2. Use of constant repetition to increase the level of audio recognition of vocabulary and subject area concepts 3. Use of peer-level translation for assistance in conveying difficult subject area concepts.

December 1, 2011

Members Present: Ms. Clyde, Ms. Sinche, and Ms. Seylar

We were not able to access the the ARIS network due to high usage levels. We will complete this as soon as possible.

We have discussed common disciplinary issues and difficulties with our students. We also talked about possible approaches to helping specific students' needs. The implementation of SEED charts has been successful in the acquisition if academic vocabulary across all content areas. We found that they respond better to using the SMARTboard as opposed to a chalkboard or whiteboard.

__751 Stars Extended Day__

12/15

Discussed various disciplinary approaches

Created a list of students whose parents need to be contacted/ to come in for a meeting

To discuss their child’s academic and behavioral progress

12/22

Discussion of Progress Reports

Compared and Contrasted Progress Reports across content areas.

Brainstormed methods of intervention

1/5/12

Discussed different methods of differentiation of our mixed-leveled class of ELL’S

Across all content areas.

Decided to use different graphic organizers to scaffold content for our beginner ELL’S

(drawings, illustrations, words to explain their answers for all content areas0

Decision to keep differentiated instruction more rigorous for the advanced ELL’S

Who need further encouragement to increase academic and language proficiency skills.

Discussion of parent-teacher-student conference: /Ahmed Muflani

1/12/12 Members Present: Ms. Clyde and Ms. Seylar Ms. Sinche was with the ESL after school program.

We reviewed the document "Looking at Student Work" and discussed particular students whose work we would like to use as samples. For the first session, Ms. Clyde will be presenting on flow charts for the American Revolution, Ms. Seylar will be facilitating, and Ms. Sinche will be the timekeeper. We also discussed the students who potentially would be level 4's, level 3's, level 2's, and level 1's, to have a fair sampling of all student work and better determine patterns among the students. Examined the selection of representative types for each level and grouped 751 into the four different levels. Discussed a rubric we will use to grade the students' work. Discussed student patterns according to ELL criteria and language ability.

1/19/12 Members Present: Ms. Clyde and Ms. Seylar Ms. Sinche was in a parent meeting.

Ms. Clyde presented her student work from the document "Looking at Student Work." She had her students create a flow chart with 6 events that needed to be put into chronological order. Students were also required to write two sentences about the event as well as provide an illustration of the events. We looked over the work from the students we selected and graded them by the rubric Ms. Clyde provided. As for patterns, we noticed that the work we graded as level 1's and 2's were done by students who are beginner ELL students and have a very limited grasp of the English language. We understand that those students will be needing intensive remediation in the English language. Ms. Seylar took notes from the presentation on SmartNotes.

1/26/12 Members Present: Ms. Clyde, Ms. Seylar, and Ms. Sinche Review of 11 student samples (3 in below average/3-approaching standards/3-meeting the standards and 2 in the exceeding the standard category. Chart presented showing descriptions for all categores. (Task and rubric) Areas of weaknesses: sentence structure, punctuation and grammar (primarily due to the lack of English proficiency), lack of comprehension Students need more practice with Basic English Sight Vocabulary Words, writing skills

2/9/12 Members Present: Ms. Clyde, Ms. Seylar, and Ms. Sinche We discussed the 2nd quarter grades across all content areas for the students in 751. Determined which students need extra support in all areas. Also discussed parents that we should contact about their child's academic performance. We talked about students who are not currently attending available after school services and need to.

2/16/12 Members Present: Ms. Clyde, Ms. Seylar, and Ms. Sinche Discussed a particular incident including two students from 751, Ahmed Muflahi and Daniel Lugo. Both parents were contacted. We also discussed the presence of an increase of bullying in 751 and how to go about fixing these problems. Ms. Sinche said Ms. Bruno had informed her about some information that Daniel had given to Ms. Bruno during ESL academy last week. He stated that in Puerto Rico he was in a special education classroom and was taking medication to help him focus. We also discussed common behaviors we have noticed in each of our classrooms in regards to this particular student. In all three subjects he seems to have a difficulty with focusing and staying on task. We have been trying positive reinforcement and differentiated instruction to assist him with this difficulty. The school psychologist has requested to meet with us; we plan to follow up our concerns with her.

March 1,2012 Present: Ms. Sinche, Ms. Seylar, Ms. Clyde

Collaborated on teacher reports for student: Daniel Lugo Discussion of student’s difficulties academically, in behavior as well as student’s strengths and learning style.

March 8, 2012 Present: Ms. Sinche, Ms. Seylar, Ms. Clyde

Today we discussed how to use data to group our students in 751. Using Acuity, Aris, NYSESLAT, and teacher created skills-based assessments to attain the data were suggested. Ms. Seylar is using Acuity in her classroom by having the students complete weekly review assignments in preparation for the NYS Math exam in April. Each week an assignment is completed and the data received from these assignments will group the students into 4 tiers. Based on those tiers, we can group the students in the class and give them more help with the standards they need. For Social Studies, Ms. Clyde is using skill-based assessment this to determine and assess student abilities in interpreting charts and graphs, map skills, content area vocabulary and understanding of major themes and ideas. For ESL, Ms. Sinche is grouping students according to proficiency level and reading level. For writing they are grouped based on common writing skills that are in need of improvement according to results of rough drafts of student writing.

March 15, 2012 Present: Ms. Sinche, Ms. Seylar, Ms. Clyde

Discussed methods of preparing 751 for upcoming exams in all content areas. We talked about strategies we are using currently to help our students with the content of the tests. In using technology such as Acuity and TeenBiz, we are helping the students in their English comprehension across all subject areas. In after school and Saturday school, students are given access to computers and they are using these programs to gain proficiency in both English and Math. We hope that this will better prepare them for the test standards.

March 22,2012 Present: Ms. Seylar, Ms.Sinche, Ms.Clyde In order to address the deficiencies of the lower third of 751 the following recommendations were made: attend after-school tutoring sessions. that offer practice with vocabulary in each subject area.
 * Reminders (parental phone contact, parental visits and parent-teacher contacts) will be intensified to persuade reluctant students to
 * Increase opportunities for vocabulary acquisition using a greater variety of vocabulary activities in the classroom and reinforce these with homework assignments

April 19, 2012 Present: Ms. Seylar, Ms. Clyde Ms. Sinche was in a meeting.

We spoke about parent teacher conferences and how parent interactions affected student behavior and performance. We also identified five students who are possibly going to be repeating 7th grade next year and reasons why this is the case. One reason is that some of these students do not complete classwork assignments and homework. Another reason is that some of them do not attend after-school tutoring, ESL programs, or Saturday School. They are also failing to show great evidence of progress in terms of assessments. We discussed several strategies to reverse this decline in performance, including parent notification, one-on-one conferences with the student, and individualized assessments.

April 26, 2012 Present: Ms. Sinche, Ms. Seylar, Ms. Clyde

We discussed how our ELLs may have performed on the state exams during the past two weeks. We spoke about different strategies learned in the ExC-ELL training that we could use to help our students' vocabulary acquisition across all content areas since we found most students had great difficulty in remembering the vocabulary. We identified a few students who have had low performance and how we can help with these deficiencies.

May 3,2012
 * Discussion of specific at risk students and remedies for building their skills in all content areas.
 * Reviewed possible methods for behavior modification for those students having difficulty staying focused.

May 24,2012 Present: Ms.Seylar, Ms.Sinche, Ms. Clyde
 * Recent teacher assessments indicate that some of the at-risk students are showing signs of progress.
 * Expressed concern about two students who seemed to seem to be exhibiting more behavior problems than usual.
 * Discussed progress that specific students had made thoughout the year.

May 31, 2012 Present: Ms. Seylar, Ms. Sinche, Ms. Clyde

We discussed final grades for 751 and compared our 4th quarter grades across subject areas to detect any trends among the students. We also continued our discussion of behavioral problems from last week. There have been more behavioral issues in the past week than usual. We spoke about methods we could use to decrease these issues in the classroom, such as detentions, calls home, and one-on-one conferences with the teacher.

June 14,2012
 * Updated student data
 * Completion of CRL forms for class 751.