Making Sure They Are Really Ready: Collaborating with EIU to help our Dual Credit Students Succeed in College

By Emily Mikuzis

Last week we had our first taste of warm weather, stirring up all those spring feelings: the hope that we may have shoveled snow off our car for the last time, the anticipation of shedding our winter coats & commuting during daylight, the excitement & anxieties we share with our students over the springtime rituals of AP testing, and the bittersweet acknowledgement that we will be letting our seniors go to pursue their various academic and career paths. Each year around this time, I look at my senior composition students, reflect on how tremendously they have grown in their writing and how delightful they are as young adults and wonder have I done enough to get them ready for the next step?

In the Dual Credit and English 101 courses, the question at the forefront of our planning is how to blend challenge and support so that our students can have as seamless a transition into their college coursework as possible. The new partnership with Eastern Illinois University has been instrumental in providing us with the insight we need to continue to do this better. On February 23, we were delighted to host Dr. Timothy Taylor, Director of Composition at EIU to speak with College Composition, Speech 101, and English 100 classes.

Dr. Taylor’s Presentation

Dr. Taylor began his presentation by defining growth mindset for our students. By sharing highlights from Carol Dwek’s research and using student responses to model examples of growth mindset, Dr. Taylor presented the following keys to success in reading and writing for college: 

(1) Students must have a growth mindset. They must believe they can and will improve their writing through practice and study.  

(2) Students must work hard -- they must seek to improve their skills. 

(3) Students must practice discipline -- completing writing assignments on time and with quality. 

(4) And finally, students have to care. When students care about improving their work, they will take feedback, apply it and see improvements.

Growth mindset is a concept that is familiar to many of our students. We discuss it in our classes, model it when we show them how to use feedback, and use language that supports growth and improvement. Dr. Taylor engaged students in a real-time critique session of an essay from a student in the on-campus section of College Composition. As students commented on the model, they identified some of the errors they are making in their own papers. Students were able to identify weaknesses in thesis, organization, and analysis in the model essay that correspond to the weaknesses they are seeing in their own essays. As Dr. Taylor then presented elements of the revised paper, students were able to see growth mindset at work - what was once an average essay (students graded the original a C) became an A essay with a complex thesis, well-argued points, and strong analysis of supporting details.

Implications for our Work

Dr. Taylor’s presentation echoed the messaging we pass on to our students as a course team. Writing is a complex set of skills that requires practice, attention, and revision. We strive to give them clear and timely feedback that focuses on the big picture - how well they are articulating and supporting complex ideas in writing, rather than on the specific - particular constructions for paragraphing or rules of grammar. Above all, we strive to make grades a benchmark for improvement, not an assessment of a student’s worth as a writer. Through our portfolios and student reflection processes, the team is working to improve students’ metacognition and integrate growth mindset in their writing.

D214 EdPrep Students Expand Opportunities with Social Media

By Linda Ashida

In the spring of 2016, District 214 kicked off the Educator Prep Program giving students yet another opportunity to gain workplace experience before they graduate high school. This unique program offers a sequence of courses, in collaboration with community partners in education, with the goal of developing future educators.

 

I recently enjoyed the opportunity to work with the students in Kim Sander's Teacher Internship Program at Elk Grove High School, to help them get started, or expand, their professional social media accounts to showcase their experiences in this program and build their professional digital presence and resumes.

Why social media?

By engaging in professional social media accounts, these students can multiply their opportunities to build their professional learning networks with other educators and professional organizations, and expand opportunities to learn, lead, and showcase their experiences with the community in D214 and beyond. Via social media these students can build a digital portfolio and resume which can lead to future connections and opportunities they might not even imagine. Using the hashtag #214EdPrep they can connect with fellow students in the program to share examples of their work and learn from each other.  They can build community with staff, parents and community members who can easily search the hashtag to learn about the program and their experiences.  The students can also follow other educational hashtags and participate in twitter chats that correspond to their specific educational or content interests. At year's end, their social media account will also serve as a portfolio of their work. This can be especially important since more and more universities and employers now do online searches of applicants. So, these EdPrep students, who will also post other academic and extracurricular experiences in addition to their EdPrep content, will have a positive digital presence that will impress and help them stand out in the crowd.

Getting started:
 
Before we got started with setting up our accounts, we discussed key considerations of digital citizenship and the importance of maintaining a positive and professional social media presence. After discussing the "how to" and the options for social media accounts, most students chose to use Twitter or Instagram.  They worked on their professional photo and profile and they prepared to do their first posts.  Even with just their first few posts you can get a good idea of the experiences they enjoyed during the first semester.

Next steps: 

Stay tuned and follow #214EdPrep for more posts to come from these students. They've already inspired me, and they are sure to inspire you! Consider how you could encourage these future educators by commenting on their posts, or sharing your own resources and educational wisdom with them.

I am looking forward to my continued collaboration with the group. As the students progress with Twitter and Instagram, some may expand and explore blogging for more in-depth reflection and sharing.  Stay tuned!

So just now I was wondering... what will our Dual Language Program look like?

By Jessica Maciejewski

2018, here we come! I had the privilege of attending the DLeNM (Dual Language Education New Mexico) sponsored conference entitled, "La Cosecha," or "The Harvest," from November 9-12, 2016, in Santa Fe.

A few key points. Santa Fe was colder than Chicago. At 7000 feet, it was an adorable and quiet town in its off-season, but still replete with tons of great local shops and delicious food. Everything was adobe, and there is are strong, proud Navajo and Mexican populations. We showed up to the conference with more empty space than actual questions at this point, ready to learn, and discovered a whole world currently in formation. Finally, and possibly of the most importance: I WON THE CONFERENCE. There was a weird game in the app, and I won (until I hit a minor glitch that no one could figure out and tied but whatever here is a picture of me in all my glory):

When I returned, I asked a few colleagues what they would most want to know~ here are their questions and, to the best of my ability (!), some answers:

1. How long is a DL program? What are its goal / benefits?

>So, it seems like the most successful DL programs start in kindergarten or, at the latest, 1st grade, and last through 12th grade.

For Elk Grove HS, we are fortunate that Salt Creek Elementary and then Grove Middle School started a program! The first cohort of kids are currently in 7th grade, so we have this year and next year to prepare our program.

In Woodstock d200 (IL), which is a unified school district, they recently graduated their first full 1st-12th DL students. For them, the superintendent was able to make the choice to start it in their pre-K/K/1st grades and have it continue all the way up; non-unified school districts will have to vertically articulate across districts/principals/superintendents to make it happen.

>The goal is to achieve academic reading/written/listening/spoken fluency in two languages, or more tangibly, a seal of biliteracy on their diplomas. Illinois adopted an "Illinois Seal of Biliteracy" in 2013 which means that when students complete the high school requirements (see footnote), they graduate with a second certificate/seal. Each school can then add special cords or a medal or whatever. One cool thing Woodstock did was have kids design a logo for their DL program, then use it to make medals for kids as they completed the program in 8th grade. There's not really an official seal for middle school, but the school itself can host a special awards night, make certificates, etc. 


>Benefits include future college resume & job attractiveness, and as of January 1, 2017, each public university in Illinois is required "to accept the State Seal of Biliteracy as equivalent to 2 years of foreign language coursework taken during high school if a student's high school transcript indicates that he or she will be receiving or has received the State Seal of Biliteracy" (thanks, IL House Senate Bill 4330!).

2. How does a student qualify to be in a DL program?

This is kind of what we're figuring out. Obviously if kids come into EGHS having completed the program through 8th grade, they are in. But what about English/Spanish fluent transfers? Or what about a kid who isn't fluent in English yet and who might benefit from weaning off Spanish into English? So, no definitive answer yet on who, or on how. There isn't one test that we can think of using; instead, maybe we'll do interviews and/or observations at Salt Creek/Grove.


3. What models of DL schools are near us?

Interestingly, we went to New Mexico because they have SO many awesome programs and are kind of at the forefront of development... but there were also presenters there from Waukegan (trying to recruit New Mexicans to move to the ol' Plain State) and a fantastic presentation by not-too-far-away District 200 - Woodstock. 

Woodstock is a unified school district, which means they can decide, "Hey, all of us are going to do a DL program, and it's going to be awesome!" In D214, we can offer/try to vertically articulate with our feeder elementary and middle schools, but we don't have the same superintendent so there's a lot more negotiating involved.

Finally, Salt Creek Elementary and Grove Middle School are the awesome schools that already started the program, to whom we'll be looking for collaboration and guidance. Their district, d59, is consolidated with 11 elementary and 3 middle schools. 


4. How can a non-bilingual teacher help/support a DL program?

Right now in the creation process, we can just really use support and positive word-of-mouth. :) 

This includes valuing students who have experience of other languages~ thinking of "ESL" students NOT as "remedial," but as having a kind of hidden superpower. One of the fancy new terms is "emerging bilingual," which is pretty cool because they aren't necessarily remedial at all... maybe in their native language, these students would be in Honors or AP, and now they are learning academic vocabulary in English, too. 

Finally, just being excited and positive about the program, talking it up to students and parents, and assuaging any fears by pointing people with concerns/questions to our current crew, which includes: Ricky Castro, Dean Burrier-Sanchis, and me, Jessica Maciejewski, as well as our administrative staff.


Bonus facts! 
Check out how many states (this is as of 2016) have or are in the process of having a seal:

#214OneDay - A Showcase of Learning in D214

By Linda Ashida

The #214OneDay campaign, during American Education Week, was a great way to showcase the engaging and innnovative learning experiences that happen on any given day in District 214.  A quick scroll through the #214OneDay tweets gives a glimpse into our classrooms to see the myriad ways students are preparing for their futures; to be Career Ready, College Ready and Life Ready.  I think it is impossible to read the tweets, see the photos, and not be inspired by our colleagues and students across the district! We have so much to learn from one another!


Check them out in this  #214OneDay Storify!

Have you seen the 214Ready Blog? Check it out!

By Linda Ashida

Do you want to be inspired by the ways that students are preparing for their future in District 214?  We suggest you check out the 214Ready Blog to learn about the many ways that we collaborate with students, parents and the community to insure that students are college, career, and life ready when they graduate.

This week's post is on the Power of the Hashtag, showing how Social Media can multiply our opportunities to showcase learning in action and build connections and community across the district and beyond. Check it out!

And, if you have suggestions for the 214Ready blog please contact Linda Ashida or Jen Delgado.