SCMS Literacy Committee Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

The SCMS Literacy Committee met on Tuesday, January 06, 2009 in the Library
Media Center. Those present were as follows:

Terry Heick Pam Bale Ed Downs Erin Demyan

Ange Greenwell Michelle Gross Stacy LaRue Robyn Baxter
Lillian Mathews Susan Nichols

Mr. Heick addressed the purpose of the committee and gave a short history of
the development of the Year One Plan. He commented on the focus of the
committee regarding enhancing the level of literacy instruction, setting goals
and responding to students reading below grade level. Goals 1, 3 and 5 were
reviewed. Goals 2 and 4 will be addressed at the February meeting by Tish
Kennedy and Ronda Cox.

Goal 1: In order to monitor the number of books read by students, Mrs.

Bale will develop a form explaining the page equivalency for 1 book (100 pages)
and distribute that form to teachers for data. Mrs. Baxter will find out the
number of books read according to AR stats, in order to compile the two sets of
data for a clear understanding of our progress. This data will be available for
discussion at the February meeting.

Goal 3: Mr. Downs offered our faculty meetings as a time for 10-15
minute mini-PD regarding reading and writing strategies supporting Goal 3. Mr.
Heick and Mrs. Gross will meet to determine a specific pre-reading strategy to
focus on for the end of January faculty meeting. Mrs. Baxter will discuss with
Mrs. Coke the possibility of SCMS News 13 developing a news segment
highlighting the selected strategy. Mr. Downs commented on the effect of
staffing cuts on our Reading class. He is communicating with Mr. Adams on our
progress and is asking that the district look at not only 5th grade numbers, but
4th grade numbers as well in determining staffing for 09-10. Sherri Boatright
voiced concern for a method to address students reading below grade level.
She currently borrows a program from TES to work with SCMS students. These
concerns will be addressed again at the February meeting as we continue to
work on Goal 3.

Goal 5: The district curriculum committee led by Mrs. Thurman is working

on vertical alignment k-12. Michelle Gross, a district curriculum committee
member, emphasized that this work focuses on the Program of Studies. Mr.
Heick is working on the common language and Best Practices portion on the
Literacy website. Current forms of online parent communication include
Infinite Campus parent portal, Renaissance Place Home Connect for current
year AR student data, and Study Island. PAS, Star Reading and Star Math results
are readily available. Explore results are not back yet, but Mr. Downs will
check on this. The committee feels a need to make a decided effort to inform
parents of these resources.

Family Literacy Night: The committee discussed the importance of parent

communication and parent involvement, especially for our students at risk.
Susan Nichols commented on the number of parents who believe
communication is an issue. A Family Literacy Night will be planned in order to
showcase SCMS Literacy initiatives, distribute Reading and Math assessment
results to parents and establish a viable partnership with parents. Teachers
interested in organizing this event may contact Robyn Baxter. This event will
be a school wide student centered “palooza”.

Writing Rubric: Sarah Mansour would like to spearhead our effort to

establish procedures for using a common writing rubric. She will work with our
Writing Cluster leaders, Ronda Cox and Tish Kennedy. They will report out at
February meeting on this.

Mr. Heick would like to use the time between first and second bus run for sub-
committee work. Mr. Heick will organize this. The committee will continue to
meet on the first Tuesday of each month as well. The meeting was adjourned.
The next committee meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 3 in the
library media center.