DREAM+Team+2014-15

=**DREAM Team- Decision and Response Evolving Around our Mission**=

Utilizing the principles of shared decision-making, the **DREAM Team** at Heritage Heights serves as our schools building leadership team. The DREAM Team is comprised of members from all the stakeholder groups that make up our school community. It meets monthly to help to coordinate and communicate activities and initiatives leading our school toward its mission and vision. Assuming important responsibilities of instructional leadership, The DREAM Team provides support and direction for the school’s efforts to improve instruction and learning for every learner. Its members work with our school community to examine student achievement information, set goals and develop a focus for professional learning. They support school-wide initiatives and develop support structures to help teachers apply what they learn while assisting parents in understanding their role and gaining their support. With a focus on continuous improvement the DREAM Team assess our progress toward our building-wide goals and our effort to improve instruction and learning throughout the school.

The DREAM teams responsibilities include:
 * Modeling the characteristics of a professional learning community
 * Supporting and facilitating (as needed) the collaborative efforts of our smaller grade level teams.
 * Reviewing assessment data and identify strengths and needs in our instructional program.
 * Mapping professional development activities for the year.
 * Exploring factors that influence student achievement and help us achieve our mission.

We are committed to operating by the following group norms and principles:
 * Everyone in the group is valuable and we will respect others ideas.
 * Practice good communication and listening- “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
 * We will be purposeful in our work by always having an agenda for each meeting and work diligently to follow it.
 * We do what we do for the good of our students and school community.
 * Our decision-making needs to be transparent and understood by all members of our school community.

2014-15 DREAM Team Membership/ Stakeholder Group Representing

 * Lindsey Cook: Interventionists-Consultant Teachers/ ESL/ Counseling/ Speech/ School Psychologist
 * Trish Miranda- Special Area Teachers
 * Marilou Nesteruk- K- Grade 1
 * Susan Stephens: Grades 2-3
 * Jennifer Battel: Grades 4-5
 * Morgan Chase: Primary Literacy Coach
 * Holly Olmstead: Intermediate Literacy Coach
 * Frank LiCausi: Math Coach K-5
 * Chris Lycett: Support Staff
 * Parent: Amy Battaglia
 * Scott Wolf: Administration

School Improvement Focus for 2014-15 **English Language Arts (ELA) SMART Goal** By improving the capacity of teachers to design and implement highly effective reading, writing and language lessons aligned with the NYS CCLS, by June 2015, 34% of our students tested in grades 3-5 will meet the state reading benchmark (with no more then 38% scoring at Level 1) as measured by the NYS ELA.




 * English Language Arts Focus for 2014-15**
 * 1) Teachers support students to be self-directed, independent learners across instructional contexts.
 * 2) Teachers model and support the use of talk moves that positively impact student learning and lift the level of discourse.
 * 3) Teachers gather evidence and/or collect student work in order to regularly assess individual student progress toward grade-level Common Core Learning Standards.
 * 4) Teachers strategically design lessons across a balanced framework in service of gradual release of responsibility, closely considering the Common Core, Sweet Home Curricular Calendar and students’ current work.
 * 5) Teachers confer with individuals and/or small groups, making notes in ways that illuminate the progress of individual students and trends of the group.

General
 * Teach reading utilizing the components of a balanced framework for instruction. A strong understanding of the purpose and connectedness of the components should be evident. Understand the writing process and its relationship to reading.
 * Organize and manage classroom environments to promote independent and self-directed reading and writing.
 * Follow the district-wide, grade-level specific units of study and curricular calendars in reading and writing based on the Common Core State Standards for ELA.
 * Demonstrate responsiveness to student data when planning lessons.

Reading
 * Model quality reading while developing discourse and meaning making of text during interactive read aloud.
 * Engage students in daily independent reading workshop (mini-lesson, independent reading, conferring, small group instruction, and sharing).
 * Ensure that all children are reading what they can and should be reading independently.
 * Utilize small group instruction (guided reading, strategy groups, mini-inquiries) addressing the unique reading needs of students
 * Utilize word study using Words Their Way-administer spelling inventories, analyze results, establish group and and routines to provide daily word study practice.
 * Understand the purpose, structure and planning process of shared reading- develop shared reading lesson responsive to the needs of readers.

Writing
 * 1) Teacher empower students to be self-directed, independent writers within a daily workshop structure.
 * 2) Student work is regularly used to assess individual progress toward grade-level Common Core Learning Standards.
 * 3) Mini or focus lessons are planned to guide students through each stage of the writing process.
 * 4) Teaching points are closely connected to the Common Core Learning Standards and Sweet Home indicators, as well as in response to students' current work.
 * 5) Teachers purposefully select and utilize mentor texts, including their own pieces and student samples, through each stage of the writing process.
 * 6) Teacher confer with individuals/ small groups to lift the level of student writing.

By aligning our daily math instruction with the NYS CCLS by June 2015, 37% of our students tested in grades 3-5 will meet the state mathematics benchmark (with no more than 33% scoring at Level 1) as measured by the NYS Math assessment.
 * Math SMART Goal**

Yearlong Big Ideas/Essential Questions:

 * What big mathematical ideas are being developed? How do we plan/build lessons around big ideas?
 * How do we facilitate the development of the Common Core mathematical practices through students’ daily experiences?
 * What does engagement look like in the mathematics classroom?
 * How do we effectively use student work/ evidence of thinking as a teaching tool in planning for and as part of instruction?
 * How do we collect evidence and give feedback to students?

__Focus of Study__: Student as worker – students will be doing the work, the thinking, and the talking.

__Planning__:
 * 1) Being able to name the big mathematical idea(s) being developed in the lesson
 * 2) Utilizing an opening question that engages students in thinking around the identified big idea(s).
 * 3) Selecting appropriate models that help kids make sense of mathematical content.

__Teaching__: >
 * 1) Launching lessons using the smallest amount of teacher talk possible.
 * 2) Examining Student Work/ Artifacts
 * 3) Teacher noticing, describing and responding to what students know and know how to do
 * 4) Students noticing and being able to describe what other students know and know how to do
 * 5) Use of "talk moves" to facilitate the development of students’ mathematical reasoning
 * Turn and Talk
 * Paraphrase
 * Tell Me More

Family Engagement
__Goal__: Through increased home-school connections, parents will develop an awareness of their role in their child’s schooling contributing to a positive school climate, as well as reinforcing essential literacy and mathematics skills by forming an authentic partnership that will positively influences student achievement in all areas.

Design Plans and Activities to Encourage Families to:
 * 1) Engage in conversations with their children.
 * 2) Improve and increase the amount of reading and math done in everyday situations.
 * 3) Increase their understanding of the NYS Common Core Learning Standards and their role in supporting these standards.
 * 4) Grow their participation in school related meetings and activities.


 * Family Involvement Plan- 2014-15**: [[file:Heritage Heights Family Involvement Plan 2014-15.pdf]]

__Past Meeting Minutes__
Meeting Summary- PowerPoint from Meeting-
 * Summer Meeting- August 13, 2014**

Meeting Summary-
 * October 14, 2014**

PowerPoint from Meeting-

**December 9, 2014**
Meeting Summary-

PowerPoint from Meeting-

January 13, 2015
Meeting Summary- PowerPoint from Meeting-

February 10, 2015
Meeting Summary-

April14, 2015
Meeting Summary-

June 9, 2015
Meeting Summary- Powerpoint- Family Communication Survey Results-