WHY? Formative Assessment is embedded throughout high-quality lesson design. The time is now to ensure you have access to the latest research and best practice for implementing a comprehensive formative assessment process in your daily instructional routine.
WHAT? Southwest Plains' newest book Check for Understanding: 65 Classroom Ready Tactics is an activation guide that distills formative assessment into a step-by-step process for classroom implementation. Endorsed by renowned researcher and author of Visible Learning, John Hattie, this workshop will equip participants with the what, why, and how of research based formative assessment. Participants will walk away with 65 tactics to check for understanding that can be implemented in classrooms immediately!  

In October 2015, the Kansas State Board of Education announced a new vision for education in Kansas, giving direction for a student-focused system and resources for individual success. The Board identified Kindergarten Readiness as one of the five outcome areas to measure progress and now expects every district in Kansas to utilized a developmentally appropriate snapshot tool. 

The goal of Kindergarten Readiness is to ensure that each student enters Kindergarten at age 5, socially, emotionally, and academically prepared for success. The BOE determined that do to this, Kansans needed a common Kindergarten entry data set across all elementary schools. The ASQ assessments were selected to gather this data. 

In this four-part module, the participant will engage in how to analyze ASQ data & consider what to do with the data. 

• Module 1 - Overview of ASQ-3 and ASQ: SE-2

• Module 2 - Analyzing & Interpreting  & Sharing Data

• Modules 3 & 4 - Interpretation & Organization of Data-Driven Action Plans

In 1997, the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development and the Secretary of Education were charged to convene a national panel to assess the status of research-based knowledge and instructional approaches regarding teaching children how to read.
This panel of 14 members included well-known researchers/educators who considered a databased of nearly 115,000 research studies and decided they would need to prioritize topics due to the sheer number of studies. They determined these Big Ideas would be:

    1. Alphabetics 
    2. Phonemic Awareness & Phonics|
    3. Fluency
    4. Vocabulary
    5. Text Comprehension.

This 5-part series takes the participant through a simulated reading experience, examines big ideas in terms of what it is and how it is taught, and will examine each big idea in terms of the KS ELA Standards and reflect on how essential components overlap & balance one another. This course is best for K-6 Elementary teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators, as well as ELA teachers. 

Guided Reading is an instructional approach that involves a teacher working with a small group of students who demonstrate similar reading behaviors and can read similar levels of texts (scholastic.com). Data, instructional focus, and student movement through groups are all part of best practices related to guided reading. 

Learn the ins and outs of what guided reading can look like in your classroom. The process, assessments, data, and sample groupings are all part of the learning in this video series with inclusive reflection activities. Participants will

• learn sample routines for small group lessons, 

• watch sample lessons, and 

• review activities for all students during Guided Reading time, and

• learn answers to a variety of Frequently Asked Questions.

Every student needs a target - something to aim for when learning. Setting objectives is the process of establishing a direction to guide learning (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). 

When teachers communicate objectives for student learning, students can more easily see the connections between what they are doing in class and what they are supposed to learn. Setting objectives and providing feedback is a focus of the "Marzano Nine" most highly effective strategies for student learning. These videos explore best ways to focus classroom experiences with 4 recommendations to be effective with learning objectives, strategies for applying these in the classroom, as well as activities to write on your own. Feedback on how students progress toward objectives is key - so tie in best practices for feedback & you'll be ready to make the most of Learning Objectives and feedback in your classroom!. 

Students who write about what they've read in ELA, science, social studies, and math on a regular basis are building skills to support the thinking required for on-demand writing tasks they will be asked to complete on tests, in other classes, and in the work place. 

On Demand Writing is a 4-session module designed to support participants as they design lessons and writing tasks to support students' learning needs.
Session 1 - Build a writing prompt guide to build stronger, clearer writing prompts for student writers
Session 2 - "Power of Paraphrase" provides a look at this most important life skill from a college & career perspective. 
Session 3 - "Writer's Workshop" in your own classroom through 4 tasks that include defining this learning structure, using John Hattie's work. 
Session 4 - "Building a Reading & Writing Vocabulary" with an opportunity to experience Marzano's Steps to Teaching Academic Vocabulary. 

Get students engaged, talking, and thinking! It's possible to get your students to take responsibility for their own learning, and for their future success  with Total Participation Techniques! 

An analysis of student academic growth over time suggests that teacher effectiveness is the #1 factor that influences student learning. Consider this: Every nine seconds, a student is lost due to dropping out (Lehr, Johnson, Bremer, Cosio, & Thompson, 2004), this is 1 in 4 students!  The most common reason for dropping out is boredom (Bridgeland, DiIulio, & Morison, 2006). The solution is not simple; however, student engagement is a key ingredient in helping students stay in school and be successful (ASCD, 2010; Bridgeland et al, 2006; Lehr et al, 2004; Ream & Rumberger, 2008; Voke, 2002). 

For our English language learners, using nonlinguistic representations (graphic organizers, diagrams, pictures, etc.) can be a way for them to show what they know as they learn the English language. Creating a nonlinguistic representation helps all students deepen their understanding of content knowledge because it requires them to think about the content in new ways. Asking students to explain their representations promotes even greater understanding. This workshop will share ideas across multiple content areas and can be a way to jump start your thinking about ways to provide scaffolding for your EL students. 

Explicit Instruction is systematic, direct, and engaging teaching that has been shown to promote achievement for all students. This highly practical and accessible resource gives teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area.

This workshop will provide clear guidelines for identifying key concepts, strategies, skills, and routines to teach; designing and delivering effective lessons; and giving students opportunities to practice and master new material. We will watch Anita Archer in real classrooms so that you can "see" how the strategies work and talk about the "Archerisms" that will make you the happiest teacher in your school.

Participants will learn to identify the key concepts in their curriculum to explicitly teach, design effective lessons, and give students the information they need to practice and master new material. Participants will leave with several templates that they can use to plan vocabulary instruction and lesson plans as well has strategies for classroom management.

No time for science? How about grabbing students' interest using science and then expanding their literacy skills by having then read and write about what they observed AND what they can infer from their investigations?
The Next Generation Science Standards shift science learning into DOING, thinking, observing, and then explaining science.
All of this will support both the state science content assessment and the science MDPT.

Teachers will:

• learn the organization of NGSS

• DO several activities that support NGSS

• practice reading and writing to support their learning about NGSS

• see ways to use science to support literacy and to support preparation for the science MDPT

• take away an AC2E Notebook with grade-appropriate science activities as well as writing activities and ideas

• take away knowledge about several apps that will support student writing.