<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Ed, <div class="">Shared your question with the special ed secondary literacy person at St. Paul Public Schools and here is her response tied with my ideas of a 7 period day with PLC time for teachers daily, time to be used for building literacy collaboration, shared across teams. We used many of these ideas in SPPS over a number of years at middle school and high school.</div><div class="">Barb</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">From: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">Christine Palmquist <<a href="mailto:christine.palmquist@spps.org" class="">christine.palmquist@spps.org</a>><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">Re: [External]Fwd: [Simtrainer-l] Failing middle school questions</b><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Date: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">April 2, 2019 at 10:30:20 AM CDT<br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">To: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">barb vallejo <<a href="mailto:bavallejo@minn.net" class="">bavallejo@minn.net</a>><br class=""></span></div><br class=""><div class=""><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">Barb,</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">I agree with your 7 period day with PLC time daily for collaboration. Students would need to have a period of ELA, a period of reading intervention, and potentially a period of writing. I also think that at some point within the intensively focused plan, there needs to be a "mandatory elective" that is more daily living/functional focused--so students can experience the relevance of improved literacy skills. I think in many plans this is missing, and I feel like this would help students answer the 'why is this important' question.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">I'm wondering if a school-wide specific strategy focus might be helpful? I know at one point, we had a school wide focus on a particular strategy (for a period of time, and then we moved on to another strategy after students reached mastery) like paraphrasing, and teachers in all disciplines incorporated this into their lessons. Students would get direct instruction in the strategy during their reading intervention or ELA class, and then have multiple opportunities to see it modeled (and have more opportunities to practice) in different settings. This would require that the ELA and/or reading intervention teachers take the lead in the PLCs, and would require a more "house" type version of PLC teams, where each of the core classes are represented in each team--along with an elective teacher and a special ed teacher, instead of a content related PLC. Data cycles can still be completed. As they look at data, they can also do some flexible grouping with the help of the reading intervention teacher and special ed teacher. </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">Another key component would be bringing in the speech language pathologists to help get a language processing perspective. I think teaching the Visualizing and Verbalizing stuff from Nanci Bell would be important in helping everyone develop language and comprehension skills as well. This could be done during the reading intervention time.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">Christy</div><div id="signature" style="font-family: LucidaGrande; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting', 'Apple Chancery', cursive;" class="">Christy Palmquist</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font face="Lucida Handwriting, Apple Chancery, cursive" class="">OSS Secondary Literacy Intervention Coach</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font face="Lucida Handwriting, Apple Chancery, cursive" class="">iRead/System 44/Read 180/Fusion</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font face="Lucida Handwriting, Apple Chancery, cursive" class="">651-334-8345</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting', 'Apple Chancery', cursive;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting', 'Apple Chancery', cursive;" class="">Your greatness is not in what you have, but in what you give.</span><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting', 'Apple Chancery', cursive;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting', 'Apple Chancery', cursive;" class=""><img class="" apple-inline="yes" id="5C498EEC-0AA9-4493-8F80-FFB9BF6E6C4E" height="183" width="275" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:1c6aea75-de89-4ab4-9a4d-7273bbb1a011"><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting', 'Apple Chancery', cursive;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting', 'Apple Chancery', cursive;" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div><div class=""><div id="appendonsend" class=""></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><br class=""></div><hr tabindex="-1" style="display: inline-block; width: 720.296875px;" class=""><div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr" class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;" class=""><b class="">From:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>barb vallejo <<a href="mailto:bavallejo@minn.net" class="">bavallejo@minn.net</a>><br class=""><b class="">Sent:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tuesday, April 2, 2019 9:28 AM<br class=""><b class="">To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Christine Palmquist<br class=""><b class="">Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[External]Fwd: [Simtrainer-l] Failing middle school questions</font><div class=""> </div></div><div dir="auto" class=""><div style="border: 1pt solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 1pt;" class=""><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 10pt; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 234);" class=""><a name="x__MailOriginalBody" class=""></a><span class=""><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="">This email originated from outside of Saint Paul Public Schools. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Please report suspected phishing emails using the "phish alert" button at the top of the email.</span></span></div></div><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><div class=""><div class="">Christy,</div><div id="x_AppleMailSignature" class="">Wondered if you have any suggestions for this middle school. Ed Ellis is a SIM person who has developed different strategies/routines for KU and is gathering ideas for this troubled middle school.</div><div id="x_AppleMailSignature" class=""><br class=""></div><div id="x_AppleMailSignature" class="">My suggestions are for 7 period day with PLC time daily if possible to allow teacher collaboration and planning for a literacy intensive core with additional literacy intervention times. </div><div id="x_AppleMailSignature" class=""><br class=""></div><div id="x_AppleMailSignature" class="">Anything else you have seen that might work?</div><div id="x_AppleMailSignature" class="">B<br class=""><br class="">Sent from my iPad</div><div class=""><br class="">Begin forwarded message:<br class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><b class="">From:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>edwin ellis via Simtrainer-l <<a href="mailto:simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu" class="">simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu</a>><br class=""><b class="">Date:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>April 2, 2019 at 6:43:29 AM CDT<br class=""><b class="">To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"<a href="mailto:simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu" class="">simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu</a>" <<a href="mailto:simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu" class="">simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu</a>><br class=""><b class="">Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b class="">[Simtrainer-l] Failing middle school questions</b><br class=""><b class="">Reply-To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>edwin ellis <<a href="mailto:edwinellis1@gmail.com" class="">edwinellis1@gmail.com</a>><br class=""><br class=""></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">Hi all, <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’m working with a failing middle school - roughly 70% of the 6th graders, 50% of the 7th graders, and 35% of the 8th graders are reading at or below 2nd grade level. Math scores are worse.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’m recommending that they take extraordinary measures - specifically, I’m recommending two 90 blocks of reading instruction and one 90 minute block of math instruction per day for the foreseeable future. The message below contains three questions from the school's’ leadership, Thus my question to you is, do you have any insights into middle schools who have taken similar extraordinary measures? Insights into answers to their questions? </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks, Ed</div><div class=""><br class="x_webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="">Edwin Ellis, Ph.D.</div><div class=""><div class="">Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama<br class=""><br class="">President, <a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FMakesSenseStrategies.com&data=02%7C01%7Csimtrainer-l%40lists.ku.edu%7C35c3463e2618482e63a808d6b783d628%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C636898174201398823&sdata=HRDCcHvRv7M4PyaCZ6X1ZvuGsP6JpLnAvrsF7qhPc%2BY%3D&reserved=0" originalSrc="http://MakesSenseStrategies.com" shash="kLlrYrL3aPf3Y40yqptCxyuLgYwh5pC631pJAtWKoZd6/D52duK2bjFfTyWShltiQj3t0ENUzZgE65WSukzV7i8KfYFB9sZcuc5aTUapM81XUPHjmpnZX1/QptmZio6Wz27zm7XqHgmBPDNyKw0f7vmiWtALabrvB8Cq1T3D0UA=" originalsrc="http://MakesSenseStrategies.com" shash="G4RPAZHOyepE97mfY8AyoqEJOFinKYyFeL2uXNirHCQXz/x6lH8rth8ZRH9Jb+MDx+R7/Yz7l3mU/NsuYL+GyGyzFti2ju4XLRB7QAq/lmJ6ykWVMd8jYxw/+KDbSReqhJFVBMe53sB1BmWC+y8vEeYTPvbiGlcnM9cYmvQqTDw=" class="">MakesSenseStrategies.com</a><br class=""><a href="mailto:edwinellis1@gmail.com" class="">edwinellis1@gmail.com</a><br class="">(205) 394-5512<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><br class="x_Apple-interchange-newline"></div><div class=""><div class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Dr. Ellis,</div><div class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br class=""></div><div class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Thanks for coming by today to speak with us. It's eye-opening to learn the harsh reality of our kids' reading abilities. Unfortunately, we need to know this so we can get about the work of getting better. </div><div class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br class=""></div><div class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">With this in mind, I did have a few questions. Thank you for offering to look-into these things for us. We're ready and willing to think and work outside the box to help our kids.</div><div class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><ol class=""><li class="">What non-traditional things are other middle schools doing as far as scheduling? 4x4, 6 periods, 7 periods, alternating block, no bells, etc?</li><li class="">How have administrators been able to successfully roll-out a complete paradigm shift (like the one we need) to faculty, students, and parents?</li><li class="">What are the things we absolutely have to do for our kids that are non-academic in nature (i.e. PE everyday)?</li></ol></div><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><font size="2" class=""><span class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Much of my anxiety of how to make this work will be answered in question 1, because I think our people, armed with the right resources, will be willing to do what it takes to get our kids right. </span></font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class=""><span class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><i class="" style="font-weight: bold;"><br class=""></i></span></font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class=""><span class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Thanks again! (Middle school assistant principal)<i class="" style="font-weight: bold;"></i></span><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class=""><span class="x_gmail_default" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br class=""></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class=""><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><br class=""></div></div><br class=""></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><span class="">_______________________________________________</span><br class=""><span class="">Simtrainer-l mailing list</span><br class=""><span class=""><a href="mailto:Simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu" class="">Simtrainer-l@lists.ku.edu</a></span><br class=""><span class=""><a href="https://lists.ku.edu/listinfo/simtrainer-l" class="">https://lists.ku.edu/listinfo/simtrainer-l</a></span></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></body></html>