Turlock Unified School District Educational Services Department Fall Newsletter | 2018-2019

Heidi Lawler, Assistant Superintendent Gil Ogden, Director of Student Services Jay Brem, Director of Technology and Innovation Shellie Santos, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Alice Solis, Director of English Learners, Assessment, and Special Programs Laura Fong, Director of Special Education Bret Theodozio, Director CTE and Program Equity

Heidi Lawler, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services

As the first quarter comes to a close, TUSD teachers have been meeting student needs through best “first dose” instruction combined with appropriate interventions and enrichment based on common formative assessments and the collaborative wisdom of our professional learning communities. During site and classroom visits as well as PLC Strolls , the Ed Services Team has been excited to see learning in action across the District. At this point in the 2018-19 school year, our students are well on their way to learning and mastering the content for each grade level and course to ensure that they are prepared for the 2019-20 school year! …While this seems like a long way off, we’re all responsible for high levels of learning for every student which will result in smooth transitions to subsequent grade levels and college/career readiness following graduation. To facilitate this process, our PLCs have increased their work with instructional coaches and have developed and implemented plans for vertical articulation. As always, the Ed Services Team is available to support TUSD teachers in reaching achievement goals for every student through professional development, educational resources, social emotional learning, technology, and assessment…TUSD where All means ALL !

Shellie Santos, Director of Curriculum and Instruction

Essential Standards Alignment for ELA According to Rick DuFour, the mission of a learning-focused school is to ensure that All students learn at high levels. High levels of learning is defined as grade level or better, so essential standards represent the minimum knowledge and skills every student must acquire to succeed in the next unit, semester, year, and course. Professional Learning Communities address this in critical question #1. What do we expect students to learn? Robert Marzano refers to this as a “Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum.” According to research, selecting a common, viable set of essential standards, is the number one variable most strongly related to student achievement. Kathy Glass, a consultant and accomplished author, will be guiding teams through the process of identifying ELA essential standards. Ms. Glass recently released her new book The New Art and Science of Teaching Writing which she co-authored with Robert Marzano. She has an extensive list of clients including Google, and several large school districts (San Francisco and Sanger). We are fortunate to have her supporting us in TUSD!  Kathy Glass Consulting Website

PLC Lead Meeting Dates

September 12 ▪ Grade 8   September 13 ▪ Grade 7 October 18 ▪ Grade 6                October 19 ▪ Grade 5                November 5 ▪ Grade 4

November 6 ▪ Grade 3 December 17 ▪ Grade 2 December 18 ▪ Grade K-1                January 14 ▪ Grade 9-10               January 15 ▪ Grade 11-12

Alice Solis, Director of English Learners, Assessment, and Special Programs

English Learner Info There are 3,646 English Learner students in Turlock Unified School District, 25% of the district’s total enrollment. There are 2,418 English Learner students in the elementary grades, TK-6. There are 1,228 English Learner students in the secondary grades, 7-12.

Questions to Consider Who are the English Learners in my classroom? What are their strengths? What are their proficiency levels?

How to Support ELs to Increase English Proficiency How to Support English Learners to Increase English Proficiency Present information in a variety of ways. Make it visual – sometimes showing our students what to do is all they need in order to do it. Incorporate pair share and build in small group work – students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. For newcomers, honor the “silent period” – students who come from cultures outside of America want to be perfect when they speak, so they will not share until they feel they are at a point where they’re perfect. Use sentence frames to give students practice with academic language – frames show students how to structure language in a formal way. Pre-teach whenever possible – opportunities for students to preview material will increase their understanding. Announce the lesson’s objective(s) and activities. Repeat information and review frequently – if a student doesn’t understand, try rephrasing or paraphrasing. Check often for understanding.

Jay Brem, Director of Technology and Innovation

Tech to Go The Ed Tech Team in TUSD has several events and learning opportunities scheduled for the beginning of the school year. Following on the success of his site-specific Google/4Cs PD tour last spring, Marshall Beyer, the district Ed Tech Instructional Coach, will do a similar tour of all school sites both in the first and second semester. Check out Marshall’s 4Cs website HERE ! To support TK-6 tech-minded teachers who want to move forward with tying technology to content standards and essential skills, TUSD Technology Ambassadors will be hosting a series of after-school “Tech To Go” PD offerings throughout the year at four elementary host sites. Tech Ambassadors will share lesson resources to help bridge technology and standards/skills, and give teachers frameworks to immediately implement in classroom lessons. Look for a flyer with more details in the coming weeks. Turlock Junior High School, Dennis Earl Elementary School, and Pitman High School are all hosting Parent Digital Citizenship Nights in the fall. These are pilot events for the Ed Tech Team, and it will use feedback from these to work with other school sites to help them host their own events. Don’t forget to check EdTech in TUSD website for resources, links to request PD, and information on how to have an app approved.

Gil Ogden, Director of Student Services

Integrating Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) in the Classroom

Step 1: Design Physical Environment of Classroom Implementing PBIS in the classroom begins with effectively designing a student-centered environment. This includes the creation of a classroom environment that minimizes crowding and distractions. In addition, students should know when, where, and how to store personal possessions, get supplies and turn in work.

Step 2: Establish Classroom Routines The most important part of PBIS is establishing predictable routines for students. This is especially true for behaviorally challenged students. Teachers may start by developing a common schedule to guide activities during their period (e.g., warm up, teacher directed instruction, small group work, independent practice, whole group reading, wrap up, etc.). Also, teachers should develop a predictable pattern for students to move through common classroom routines, including transitions between activities, accessing help, what to do after work completion, and lining up. To change behavior students require a consistent routine, and the more difficult the behavior the more structured the routine. You want to develop a behavior pattern or flow for your class activities.

Step 3: Establish Classroom Expectations The third basic classroom practice for PBIS is to develop, define, post, and teach 3-5 positively stated classroom expectations. Students should be actively involved in the development of the classroom expectations as this will increase their “buy in.” Students should be given multiple opportunities to practice expectations. Behavior should be seen as a learning opportunity and when a behavioral mistake occurs, teachers should reteach the expected behavior and later reinforce it when student demonstrates the expectation. The goal should be to clearly teach, re-teach, and let students continually practice expected behaviors.

Bret Theodozio, Director of CTE and Program Equity

Student Internships The Turlock Unified Career Technical Education (CTE) Department supports the District CTE programs to prepare all students for college and career. An interesting component of Career Technical Education is the student internship opportunities with local business partners. Paid and unpaid internships exist in the following areas of CTE: Culinary Arts, Welding and Fabrication, Business Administration, Physical Therapy, Early Childhood Education, and Landscape Design and Maintenance. Turlock Unified students who have actively pursued internship opportunities have not only developed essential employment skills, some have found their successful completion of the internship has led to ongoing employment, full time for some and part time for others, while they continue their education. Due to the demand for skilled entry level employees, two TUSD business partners, Gallo and the City of Turlock, have developed their very own career education training programs. During fall semester, high school students are encouraged to apply for these training programs through their agriculture teachers. Students are trained and developed as potential employees learning technical and soft career skills. Successful completion of the training program and internship typically leads to part or full time employment opportunities for students. Even if students decide to move on to other pursuits, the training they receive from these two organizations will definitely make them far more competitive in landing a great job in the future. For more information regarding internship opportunities and internship training programs, contact the Turlock Unified Career Technical Education and Program Equity Office.

Laura Fong, Director of Special Education

Tips for Managing Problematic Student Behavior Management of students is the primary component to a prosperous academic environment. However, what do you do when you get a student who does not respond to the traditional tried-and-true classroom management techniques and strategies that have work for so many other students over the years? We reached out to our own TUSD Board Certified Behavior Analysts for some strategies to support teachers with these types of student behaviors. They provided the following information strategies to try for that one student who does not seem to respond to traditional techniques. There are four common functions of behavior, the function is the reason why a child may behave in a certain way. Behaviors fall into one of the following four main categories:  Escape/Avoidance: The individual behaves in a certain way in order to get out of doing something he/she does not want to do.  Attention Seeking: The individual behaves to get focused attention from parents, teachers, siblings, peers, or other people that are around them. Seeking Access to Tangibles: The individual behaves in order to get a preferred item or participate in an enjoyable activity. Sensory Stimulation: The individual behaves in a specific way because it feels good to them. These are automatic behaviors and can be things like hand flapping, walking on their toes, etc. The following are strategies that can be tried for each behavior function:

Escape Offer choices Use a visual schedule Use a first-then board Set up rules Use social stories  Attention Seeking Replace inappropriate behavior with a more inappropriate way of getting one’s attention. Provide non-contingent reinforcement throughout day as long as individual is not engaging in inappropriate behavior. Put attention-seeking behavior on extinction and reinforce appropriate behavior.

Tangibles Redirection to other preferred stimuli/activities in daily routine/environment. Staff/adult has total control over tangibles Premack Principle – First this then that Transitional warnings Replace inappropriate behavior with appropriate behavior Teach child to accept “no” and follow through.  Sensory Stimulation Replace target behavior with more appropriate behavior (hand flapping-quiet hands) Provide sensory breaks

Turlock Unified School District Educational Services Department 209.667.0632 Ext 2282 (Office) 209.656.1674 (Fax) Website