MADISON METROPOliTAN SCHOOl DISTRICT - School Information ...

Memorial High School
Description of plan:
School-wide Literacy Initiative: 1) Reading: Main Ideas and Supporting Details (ACT Reading Standards)
2) Writing: MEL-Con paragraphs
Under the umbrella of these items:
• Literacy Center:
o Embedded professional development for teachers including using the space for cotaught,
modeled, and peer-observed lessons in conjunction with the literacy coach, and
resource availability and accessibility for teachers including handouts, literacy books,
etc.,
o Individual student assessment with reading teacher as needed: SRI, Informal Reading
Inventories, Spelling Inventories, etc.
o Literacy Mentor Program: Peer writing lab and reading support with ongoing training for
student Literacy Mentors from staff.
• Literacy Focus Team: focusing on the MEL-Con initiative
• Literacy T earn (Innovation Team): focusing on the Literacy Center projects
• Systems Improvement Team: focusing on looking critically at interventions and supports offered
for struggling readers (and other groups)
Intended outcome:
Teachers will consistently incorporate discipline-specific literacy strategies into their instruction. Students
will gain literacy skills and be able to access support at their instructional reading level.
Project Participants:
All Staff
Alignment to Literacy Core Practices:
All work is in pursuit of aligning with research-based best practices in literacy and core literacy practices
at the secondary level.
Alignment School Action Plan:
Fully aligned.
Measurable Student Outcomes: number of students accessing the Literacy Mentor program,
scores on formal assessments:
EPAS, SRI, WKCE and formative/classroom-based assessments.
Ongoing Evaluation and Assessment Plan:
Number of teachers participating in professional development opportunities as well as the above
measures.
Memorial - End of Year Summary
Reading and Writing to Learn
In 2011-12, we focused in a school-wide literacy initiative, largely in two areas: 1) Reading: Main Ideas
and Supporting Details (ACT Reading Standards) 2) Writing to Learn: MEL-Con paragraphs. PCT was
used this year mainly to support this initiative. Job-alike curricular teams (for example, English 9), met
regularly to create a total of three common reading/writing assignments. These assignments asked
teachers to choose a common, discipline-specific text, guide students to actively mark/annotate the text,
and to develop and assign a writing prompt based on the reading and course content. Second semester
moved teachers to develop and use a common rubric to begin norming grading practices, checking for
student understanding, and refining disciplinary literacy expectations by making them clear to one another
and then to students.
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