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SCMS Literacy Committee Meeting MinutesTuesday, January 06, 2009

The SCMS Literacy Committee met on Tuesday, January 06, 2009 in the LibraryMedia Center. Those present were as follows:

Terry Heick Pam Bale Ed Downs Erin DemyanAnge Greenwell Michelle Gross Stacy LaRue Robyn BaxterLillian Mathews Susan Nichols

Mr. Heick addressed the purpose of the committee and gave a short history ofthe development of the Year One Plan. He commented on the focus of thecommittee regarding enhancing the level of literacy instruction, setting goalsand responding to students reading below grade level. Goals 1, 3 and 5 werereviewed. Goals 2 and 4 will be addressed at the February meeting by TishKennedy and Ronda Cox.

Goal 1: In order to monitor the number of books read by students, Mrs.Bale will develop a form explaining the page equivalency for 1 book (100 pages)and distribute that form to teachers for data. Mrs. Baxter will find out thenumber of books read according to AR stats, in order to compile the two sets ofdata for a clear understanding of our progress. This data will be available fordiscussion at the February meeting.

Goal 3: Mr. Downs offered our faculty meetings as a time for 10-15minute mini-PD regarding reading and writing strategies supporting Goal 3. Mr.Heick and Mrs. Gross will meet to determine a specific pre-reading strategy tofocus on for the end of January faculty meeting. Mrs. Baxter will discuss with

Mrs. Coke the possibility of SCMS News 13 developing a news segmenthighlighting the selected strategy. Mr. Downs commented on the effect ofstaffing cuts on our Reading class. He is communicating with Mr. Adams on ourprogress and is asking that the district look at not only 5th grade numbers, but4th grade numbers as well in determining staffing for 09-10. Sherri Boatrightvoiced concern for a method to address students reading below grade level.She currently borrows a program from TES to work with SCMS students. Theseconcerns will be addressed again at the February meeting as we continue towork on Goal 3.

Goal 5: The district curriculum committee led by Mrs. Thurman is working

on vertical alignment k-12. Michelle Gross, a district curriculum committeemember, emphasized that this work focuses on the Program of Studies. Mr.Heick is working on the common language and Best Practices portion on theLiteracy website. Current forms of online parent communication includeInfinite Campus parent portal, Renaissance Place Home Connect for currentyear AR student data, and Study Island. PAS, Star Reading and Star Math resultsare readily available. Explore results are not back yet, but Mr. Downs will

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check on this. The committee feels a need to make a decided effort to informparents of these resources.

Family Literacy Night: The committee discussed the importance of parentcommunication and parent involvement, especially for our students at risk.

Susan Nichols commented on the number of parents who believecommunication is an issue. A Family Literacy Night will be planned in order toshowcase SCMS Literacy initiatives, distribute Reading and Math assessmentresults to parents and establish a viable partnership with parents. Teachersinterested in organizing this event may contact Robyn Baxter. This event willbe a school wide student centered palooza.

Writing Rubric: Sarah Mansour would like to spearhead our effort toestablish procedures for using a common writing rubric. She will work with ourWriting Cluster leaders, Ronda Cox and Tish Kennedy. They will report out atFebruary meeting on this.

Mr. Heick would like to use the time between first and second bus run for sub-committee work. Mr. Heick will organize this. The committee will continue tomeet on the first Tuesday of each month as well. The meeting was adjourned.The next committee meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 3 in thelibrary media center.