Literacy
1996-1997
FMS staff identifies the need to focus on writing instruction and begins investigating
the WASL requirement and the state standards for writing. Six Traits was identified
as an area of focus and plans were made for staff development.
1997-1998 FMS
staff begins a series of training sessions with Steve Peha.
Implementation of the Six Traits and writers workshop began. Along with the
trainings, Steve Peha joined classrooms and modeled
lessons and worked with teachers and students to get use to using the language
and working in the workshop environment.
1998-2001
FMS staff kept the Six Trait focus as a top priority for the next three years
with the understanding that nothing will be effective unless a concerted long-term
effort is made by the entire staff to make it work. FMS test scores increased
greatly in these three years. Writing across the curriculum was the focus
in the block classes as well as the content areas and elective classes.
2001-2002
In December of 2001 during a meeting to review test scores and our building
focus. The staff decided that it was time to move on to reading as a focus
while maintaining the intensity of the Six Trait focus. It was discussed and
decided that the natural next move would be to find a reading program or approach
that would mesh well with our writing focus and the writer’s workshop. During
a writing assessment in-service offered by the ESD, our facilitator mentioned
the book Mosaic of Thought as a
must read if we ever decide to look further into the same sort of model for
reading. She mentioned something called reader’s workshop. A building reading
task force was formed. The book Mosaic
of Thought had been read by a couple of the members and the committee
agreed to read the book.
The
task force brought their findings to the staff. It was agreed that FMS as
a staff would adopt the Reading Strategies and Reader’s Workshop as our new
focus and the entire building would participate in training and the implementation
of our new focus. Staff development began with facilitation by the FMS reading
task force. Staff agrees to use professional development $ to send three members
to the PEBC Fall Study in
2002-2003
The FMS staff begins the year with a full day workshop on implementing the
first of three strategies for the year. Everyone is brought up to speed and
the first three to four weeks was devoted to establishing the environment
of a reader, and preparing our students for “deeper” reading and the connection
to writing.
2003-2005 Full implementation of the three year plan is carried out with staff development centering on best practices for implementing startegy instruction throughout the curriculum. All staff development was organized as a model of instruction for the classroom and engaged staff in only the highest quality research and literature; all staff learning was rich in conversation and the dicsussions became a pivotal point for future staff development.
Forks
Middle School continues to focus on and support staff development around proficient
writer and reader research. We are stepping up our efforts in writing instruction
and aiming toward sustainability and growth in our reading focus. We have
sent staff members to