Index of /members/papers/Psychology
Indian land rights
Tribal Affiliations
The injustices that happened long ago are still not fixed and need to be,
because they are visible everyday through the hardships these people face.
Introduction
Ever since Europeans discovered America Native Americans began losing their
land progress
Information Rules
Information Rules
I. Chapter 1
In this book Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian provide an overview of the
competitive playing field of the network economy, and highlight the key economic
rules that govern it. They assert that one does not need a New Economics to
understand the New
In-service Essay, Research Paper
In-service and Student Enhancement Program For Increasing Student Scores on
the State Writing Assessment.
Abstract:
An in-service program will be developed to train all teachers in the grading
guidelines for the State Writing Assessment. Teachers will be train in the
grading of essays according to the General Grading Rubric developed by the
State. Additionally, teachers will be helped to incorporate writing into their
curriculums. On the student side, an assessment of current writing skills will
be given to all 10th graders. The assessment will be graded by a team of English
teachers, and both students and parents will be notified of the results.
Students who are deemed to be at risk of failing the Writing Assessment will be
scheduled to attend after school enhancement programs designed to raise their
writing skills. The goal of the program is to raise the number of students who
pass the Writing Assessment by 10%.
Problem statement:
Last year a significant number of Glasgow’s 10th graders failed the writing
component of the State Assessment. In an era of school choice and
accountability, raising our scores is very important. Eighth graders and their
parents are using these scores to choose high schools. Unless Glasgow raises the
scores on the Writing Assessment, there is a strong chance that the "best
and brightest" will choose another high school. Indeed, there is some
evidence that this is already happening. Additionally, the retention of our
current students depends on our ability to maintain high academic achievement
especially on statewide measurements. Therefore, a strong diagnostic and
remedial program along with a school-wide emphasis on writing is needed to
improve overall student writing scores on the State Writing Assessment.
Goals:
1) Identify 10th graders who are performing below the acceptable level on the
State Writing Assessment.
2) Train teachers across the curriculum in the General Grading Rubric for
Writing.
3) Develop a targeted enhancement program to improve student writing ability.
4) Contact and involve parents the process of improving students writing.
5) Communicate to the student population the State’s writing expectations.
6) Fully train staff across the curriculum to use and evaluate writing in
their programs.
7) Create a long-term link between the English department and all other
departments to facilitate writing across the curriculum in ways that meet the
State’s writing standards.
Objectives:
To increase by 10% the average number of 10th grade students who pass the
State Writing Assessment.
Procedures:
Date: Activity
Oct. 2 English staff training
Oct. 8-10 Administer essay prompt to 10th grade English classes.
Oct.
March 29 State Writing assessment administered
To be announced State publication of test scores
Evaluation:
Evaluation will consist of examining the 10th grade scores on the Writing
Assessment. The increased percentage of students passing the test will be the
primary benchmark and the previous year’s percentage of passing students will be
the baseline. Secondarily, the overall improvement in terms of average score
received will be established and compared to the previous year’s average score.
The English department will keep longitudinal data on these evaluation measures.
Dissemination:
The results of the State testing will be announced in the school’s newsletter
to parents and at the 1st faculty meeting after the results are published by the
State. An effort will be made to have an official school comment be printed in
the issue of the newspaper which publishes the results of the test. The comment
will address our goal of a 10% increase. Additionally, the improvement shown by
Glasgow’s students in terms of our goals will be posted. The focus of our public
statements must be in the level of attainment we have achieved in reaching our
goal.
Personnel:
Active personnel will consist of English teachers who will be trained in
grading according to the State’s General Grading Rubric for Writing. All English
teachers will be partnered with other departments to work as buddies in
assisting across-the-curriculum writing. Additionally, 6 teachers will be
trained to work in the remedial writing program where they will work in the
after-school enhancement program with those students identified as writing below
the State Standards.
Budget:
Item Expense
Initial training during English Dept meetings No cost
Faculty training during scheduled in-service No cost
Development of curriculum 2 days * 6 staff + 1 coordinator
at $25 per hour * 2 hours * 2 days =
$700
Enhancement days 7 staff @ $25 * 2 hrs * 3 days per week * 22 weeks = $23,100
Total $23,800
Materials will be provided by the English Department out of allotted
supplies.
Criterion Checklist for Understanding the New State Writing Standards
1) Have you seen the State’s General Grading Rubric for Writing?
2) Do you use the Rubric when evaluating student writing in your class?
3) Could you explain to students how they could improve their writing
according to the Standards?
4) Would you like to learn more about evaluating student writing by using the
State’s General Grading Rubric?
5) Did you know that how students perform on the State’s Writing Assessment
influences other students’ desire to attend Glasgow High School?
6) Do you agree that all teachers share in the responsibility to develop
their students’ writing ability?
7) Are you interested in helping our students here at Glasgow meet the State
Standards on the Writing Assessment?
Personal Accountability System
This year I took on a difficult assignment. The assignment is 10th grade
general English. Historically, no teacher has established ownership of this
program and the result has been a weak curriculum and consequently discipline
problems. This fall the failure rate in my class was high and in one class
behavior was awful. I identified 2 areas in which I wanted to be more
accountable: focus and organization. I hoped that these would allow students to
be more accountable in the areas in which they were weak: preparation and
performance.
The first thing I changed to increase focus is to simplify the curriculum.
Instead of a long unit consisting several readings, several vocabulary list, and
multiple writing exercises, I have reorganized the course into weekly units
focusing on 1 reading, 1 vocabulary list, and 1 extended writing assignment.
Each week ends with a quiz on the reading assignment and the vocabulary. Class
activities and discussions are kept in an organized notebook which I collect and
grade.
Organization is greatly improved by the new weekly unit system. Students are
put on notice that all the week’s work is due on Friday when the quiz is given.
The week’s work is posted on a board dedicated to this class. The point values
of each assignment are posted. Additionally, due dates are established at the
beginning of the week. Each Friday, I grade the week’s quiz and calculate the
weekly unit grade for all students. They receive both the quiz grade and their
weekly unit grade 1st thing on Monday, and the students record these in a
gradesheet I gave to them. At the halfway mark of this marking period, the new
system has resulted in a 95% passing rate.