Suggested Student Notebook Standards

SUGGESTED STUDENT NOTEBOOK STANDARDS

Student Notebooks are valuable memory aids as well as daily documents of key concepts and skills learned by a student. Notebooks are evidence to parents and evaluators that the school is teaching the program of study and that the student was exposed to key learner outcomes.

Each Division Professional Learning Team is invited to adapt the notebook standards identified below to suit your local needs. Some PLC Teams may choose another system of ensuring mastery of key concepts, vocabulary and documentation of student learning- ie- a student portfolio system.

Once the PLC members have identified their student notebook standards, it is important that administration and staff ensure that these standards are consistently met and shared with parents in the Agenda Book or during teacher-parent conferences.

DATE ON EVERY MAJOR DAY OF STUDY or ITEM ENTRY

Students need a format to show the day in which an activity is done. Here are some options:

Primary:           Wednesday, August 29, 2011

Gr. 1-3             Wednesday, August 29

Intermediate:  Wednesday, August 29, 2011

Gr. 4-6             Wednesday, July 8

                        Wed. July 8th

Junior High:  Wednesday, August 29, 2011

Gr. 7-9             Wednesday, August 29

                        Wed. August  29th

                        Month/Day/Year :    08/29/11

High School:   07/29/09

IDENTIFY THEME/ACTIVITY/ITEM ENTRY

Notebooks help students identify and reflect on major activities, conceptsin and academic vocab in a field of study. Also, the student notes provide parents evidence that homework was assigned and the material is being covered as per the teacher’s long range plan. The notebooks are invaluable data to be used at teacher-parent conferences.    

Primary:           Wednesday, September 28, 2011

(Theme)           About Our Weather In September

Intermediate:  Wednesday, Sept 8,

                        Addition: Ones and Ten Columns

(Activity)        Key Examples:   Add Ones                        Add Tens

(HWK)           HWK: pg 32- 1-6, 8,10, 14-17

(New Words)  Carry over, the sum,  ones column, tens column

Junior High:  Wednesday, Sept 8th

                        Pollution & Statistics: Local & Provincial

By having a chool or division standard, students can move effortlessly from one grade to another. Further the consistency in practices makes it easier for peers and family members to help each students meet school or class standards. Finally, it demonstrates to parents that the professionals at the school are implementing easily discernible standards.

REVIEW OF SUGGESTED STANDARDS FOR LOCAL STAFF DECISIONS

DATE:                        Wednesday, Sept 8,

THEME:         Addition: Ones and Ten Columns

ACTIVITY      Key Examples:   Add Ones                        Add Tens

HWK               HWK: pg 32- 1-6, 8,10, 14-17

The Division team needs to decide how to handle NEW ACADEMIC VOCABULARY.

Do you want to create a Section at the back third of the Notebook OR Do you want to highlight the NEW WORDS at the start of a lesson or as they pop up during a lesson?

Our students will continue to under achieve if they do not increase their academic vocabulary in each discipline. Mastery of key academic concepts and words are essential for student academic success.

New VOCAB:  Carry over, the sum,  ones column, tens column

The vocabulary needed for each academic activity is subject specific. Scientists, mathematicians,, artists, and writers need specific vocabulary to carry out their activities as well as understand each other as they discuss problems in a discipline.

Acquisition of Science vocabulary is extremely important since it is based on Latin and Greek words whose “roots” are alien to most students. The earlier that students acquire the basic technical words in a field of study, the greater the chances that they will begin feeling comfortable using sophisticated subject matter concepts: ie-cell, mitoses, meiosis etc.

The teacher needs to identify the words but also introduce the words in various subject matter and everyday contexts. If the word is representative of major concepts then these should be illustrated as diagrams or major examples in the Student Notebook. 

Weekly vocabulary activities within each subject are valuable and can be integrated into your review, KWL, Word Wall or test strategies.

Some teachers may wish to consider a Double Entry System for their Key Vocabulary:

1^st it may be introduced as part of your daily lesson vocabulary. Lesson “KEY MATH WORDS” Entry is by heading: KEY MATH WORDS.

This option gives students and adults a clear picture of the new technical words acquired or covered by the students during that lesson. It can be the basis for tests and discussions or exercises on family of words and meanings, multiple meaning of words or how a meaning is determined by its context: ie cell-

The prisoner is in his cell.

The cell of an amoeba splits in two.

 The cell in this battery is dead.

The monk prayed in his cell.   

2^ND teachers may wish to create a GRADE 6 NEW VOCABULARY WORKBOOK or a KEY VOCABULARY Section at the back of the student’s workbook.

Notebooks can make an invaluable contribution in student skill and subject-specific concept acquisition. By providing a Notebook format that is school-wide both parents and students can be enlisted to help the individual learner make use of illustrative  examples as well learn key concepts and vocabulary.

Another Option: COLOR CODE NEW VOCAB SECTION:

You decide on how to use colors to spice up the notebook.  For example, all blue in math, green in science, red in social studies etc. Ultimately, students will realize that the same word may be used to mean different things in different contexts. Also, the earlier that they deal with the literal or figurative meaning of a word the better they will be in building their language arts comprehension and writing skills.

OTHER USES OF NOTEBOOKS:

1. Teachers may have open notebook exams.
2. Use the new words in one or more subjects as a basis of Friday or end of unit test materials.
3. Have students glue to their notebooks key diagrams, picture prompts for a story, marking matrix, graphic organizer templates, study tips, math measuring units etc. Essentially, the notes are a source for students to study key concepts and a place to return to when reviewing a discipline.
4. Teachers may have students who miss classes ( our less than 75% attenders) catch up on their notebooks. By having a format, it’s easy for students to know what they need to do. It is evidence for parents who are called in for a conference.
5. Teachers may award recognition or prizes for best notebook, easiest to read, best illustrated etc.
6. Teachers may take an activity such as a story outline or story and use the student’s narrative as an illustrative example.
7. The vocabulary words may be used for a classroom or inter-school Spelling Bee Competition.
8. Each day or week students would be asked to post the Key words or concepts on the Word Wall or Smart Board sheet for later use by teacher and students.
9. Students are asked to type the words on a computer and put them on the Teacher’s memory stick. The word, its meaning and an illustrative example in context is typed and then printed by the teacher at the end of a Unit. Then the list is glued to the student notebook as part of a test prep activity.
10. Create your system of Notebook Cues: *****,     ****.   ***,   **, *
11. Teachers need to review the quality of student work and ensure that HWK is corrected on a daily or timely basis. Put your initial and date reviewed!!!
12. In the higher grades, teachers may have students and TAs assist with the correction of homework. This is especially useful for ensuring students are involved in maintaining quality standards and assisting with timely marking of notebooks.
13. For those teachers that have students write First Draft and Second draft of a Story, please ensure that 1^st draft is on the Left side of the Notebook and 2^nd draft is all on the Right side. This allows the student to compare the drafts. Some teachers have another student of choice write the 2^nd draft etc.
14. Teachers need to review the student notebooks to gather data in handwriting and spelling skills of students. What are the recurring student problems that show up in a student notebook?
15. Since Student Notebooks ensure that students write everyday, they promote  adherence to Alberta’s printing (K to early Grade 3) and cursive writing standard (Grade 3 on).
16. Students need to be reminded to have a Title for each picture or diagram.
17. The Division’s teachers are encouraged to adopt standards for their whole Division-Primary, Intermediate, Junior High , or High School rather than for each grade!
18. Ability to take notes or summarize key concepts in college and university are a determining factor in student course success.  

CTS and the Global Economy

In the past decade provincial education departments have adjusted or twigged their Career and Technologies Studies (CTS) options in the hope that schools would orient students to the new technologies that are transforming daily realities. There is no sense of urgency as western societies are losing their manufacturing industries to China, India and the Third World. Until Obama sounded the alarm with his phrase that we must face up to  our “Sputnik Moment” by facing up taking to the West’s massive loss of its manufacturing base, we merely complained about the low labor costs elsewhere and the friendlier business and environmental regulations in the Third World societies.   Unfortunately, while we lost millions of jobs to overseas economies, our CTS strategies and reforms were cosmetic, superficial and detached from any local economic or job market realities. This failure to to have a comprehensive CTS approach to curriculum delivery, during the massive transfer of companies and manufacturing jobs, continues to cost western societies billions of dollars in lost jobs and opportunities.

As Obama stated in his recent State of the Union address, we are at a “Sputnik Moment”. Essentially, our challenge is to have all our institutions meet develop strategies that create new jobs for the new technologically driven economies with the same vigor and focus as occurred when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space in the fall of 1957. That threat from the Soviets focused the energy and creativity of every institutional leader to be more creative and to shed those aspects of our curriculums that were redundant or not in tune with the developments occurring in math and sciences. The “spiral curriculum” and a raft of school reforms such as the “new math”, problem-solving strategies, peer group learning and cooperative learning strategies, new commercial ability testing, gifted and special education programs, and more specialized sciences options in high school all grew out of the effort to expand the scientific and engineering base of our endangered western democratic societies. Unfortunately, until Obama sounded the alarm about the need to be more proactive in transforming our approach in meeting the new challenges, we created no national or provincial committees focusing on the specific challenges and implications in reforming our educational institutions. All provinces dealt with adjusting the program of studies to 21^st Century realities but these discussions were detached from the local economic realities. For example in Northern Alberta, our local school administrators and staffs had this or that excuse to introduce career and technology courses and wireless computer and e-learning systems to access specialty courses, even though the school division was dead last in student learner outcomes and high school graduation rates. Even more tragically, local resource industries had to import workers from Canada and abroad to fill local jobs while local FNMI and rural community employment was extremely low due to the lack of even entry level skills

The drift in transforming our Kindergarten to high school Program of Studies must be arrested. The provincial departments of education, political parties, school officials and professional association executives need to form provincial, regional and local Work and Training Committees to overhaul our current piecemeal approaches. Failure to develop a comprehensive approach contributed to massive labour and resource development problems faced by all stakeholders in Northern Alberta and Fort McMurray area. The problem of matching work opportunities to a trained work force will be faced in North Western Saskatchewan unless all provincial educational, business and resources stakeholders plan specific strategies that meet their future needs.

Educational leaders can contribute toward ensuring that we take advantage of the global challenges in developing a workforce that innovates and feel comfortable in working with the new technologies. Perhaps a movement to make Career and Technologies studies a mandatory component of our curriculum from kindergarten up would help Canada meet its Sputnik Moment. We are a land blessed with resources and strong provincial educational systems but if we do not focus in meeting and exceeding the challenges of the new technological realities we shall remain the cutters of wood and not the developers and engineers of the new green technology.

As the beneficiaries of the Canada-UD Trade Arrangement, the greatest trade agreement on earth, the one that exceeds even the China-US trade levels, Canada must create better learner outcomes and talents that increase economic, technological and trade opportunities that are increasingly mutually beneficial to both nations and that meet the challenges of the global economy. We cannot compete with the Third World labour force but we must ensure that our labour force is trained to be the source of innovations, new patents and skill sets in the new technologies in both the resource and new technologies and green manufacturing areas. Without a more comprehensive educational strategy, each province will continue to have huge number of unemployed youth in the North and urban centers while potential employers seek labourers, engineers and innovators overseas.

Promotion of Excellence at Schools with FNMI Students, Part 3

In this third article in the series, the focus is on two effective classroom strategies that teachers may want to implement in their daily practices. If excellence is to occur at schools with FNMI students, the focus needs to be put in assisting teachers to implement best instructional practices on a daily basis.

The first series of instructional strategies is based on the latest educational research compiled by Robert Marzano and associates and the second comprehensive instructional strategy is based on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. For these two strategies to work effectively, teachers need opportunities for systematic professional development. If teachers and school support staff are given enough professional development in the application of the approaches suggested by both Marzano and Gardner student academic excellence is sure to increase within a year or two of steady application of instructional strategies in the classroom. The two elements that need to be implemented by local administrators are first teacher training in implementation of the strategies and secondly, teacher commitment to student proactive involvement in their learning. The classroom teacher must be the master facilitator and professional designer and the student must become an active researcher and participant explorer in the disciplinary tasks before the learner.   

In 20001 Robert Marzano and associates identified nine major instructional strategies that affect student achievement.  Their findings are summarized succinctly on page 7 of Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (ASCD, 2001), and are reproduced in the table below:

In the application of these nine instructional strategies, the teacher must constantly engage students through use of open end question strategies and through ensuring that the content studied is relevant to the daily lives of the learners. An ongoing challenge for all learners and teachers is long-term retention of materials and academic approaches in a discipline. In Part 2 of this series I had suggested that a handy retention strategy is having pre-post tests for each unit and a strategy for having some of the previous content reviewed and re-tested periodically during the school year in order to ensure that students are given ample incentives to retains previously learned materials.

In 1983 Howard Gardner shook the foundations of educational practices with his Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. He argued that both teachers and learners had multiple centers of intelligence. Unfortunately, today’s curriculum offerings are limiting the development of the student’s interests and propensities toward an intelligence center that is not valued by our state funded educational systems.  

If the modern school is to be more responsive to learners it needs to cater to more than the traditional Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical centers of intelligence. The school needs to engage Musical, Kinesthetic, Visual, Special, and Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Naturalist Intelligences as well as the two traditional areas of study. Each intelligence center leads to new research, innovations and job opportunities needed by a modern society. Gardner linked each intelligence center with concrete professions and careers as he argued the need to have greater breadth and depth to the modern state curriculum. He felt that more students and teachers would get excited about each discipline if two of more intelligence were applied to each area of investigation or study. Thus, FNMI students living in rural and northern areas should be encouraged in their Naturalist studies and surroundings and the curriculum should be approached from that angle rather than from the emphasis on English and Mathematics. He felt that each intelligence center contributed to the development of others. The great aim of education that bound all intelligence centers there are the study of The True, The Good and the Beautiful.

Teachers who want to excite their learners about their studies need to know the ideal approaches for each intelligence and need to formulate great issues or questions that challenge students to use an develop new skills as they solve major issues in a discipline or intelligence center. There are many resources and student assessment tests available for teachers in each of the eight major intelligence centers. Currently, the leading Canadian school for the application of Multiple Intelligence Strategies across the curriculum is Westmount Charter School at Calgary Alberta. For other charter schools specializing in an intelligence area such as Music or Language Acquisition see the Association of Alberta Public Charter Schools website at http://www.taapcs.ca/charter-schools/ .  The charter schools have greater success in promoting student excellence since they are clear as to their aims and are focused on approaching student learning based on their specific educational aims. All the schools report that although they focus on a discipline (science, music, performing arts) most of their students perform as well or better than their provincial peers in the annual Alberta Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) for grade 3, 6, 9.

In closing, teachers interested in promoting excellence in student achievement may wish to buy Rick Wormeli’s, Summarization in Any Subject: 50 Techniques to Improve Student Learning (ASDC, 2005).  

It delves in detail how to implement some of the instructional strategies identified by both Marzano and Gardner.

A First Nation Attendance Board for Alberta’s Treaty 6, 7, and 8 Schools

First Nation Grand Chiefs and members of First Nation Education Authorities across Alberta should consider the creation of a Treaty-based Attendance Board as a way to help raise Alberta aboriginal student academic and attendance levels. Under this proposal, the Grand Chiefs may wish to ask the federal and provincial government to fund a Treaty-based First Nation Attendance Board to hear appeals brought by each First Nation school authority.

This proposal for a fully funded First Nation Attendance Board would put teeth and resources to the historic  February 23, 2010, Government of Canada, Government of Alberta and the Assembly of Treaty Chiefs in Memorandum of Understanding for First Nations Education in Alberta. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides a common vision for strengthening learning and educational success for First Nation learners in Alberta. The MOU provides a framework for collaboration to support a range of education-related issues including parental and community engagement, Treaty and cultural awareness, and on-going work on tuition and education service agreements. If the MOU is to bring significant change in local First Nation classrooms, resources and mechanisms must be considered to deal with endemic issues such as student truancy, bullying and youth in trouble with the law. Without concrete strategies that directly impact on classroom and school practices, the tripartite MOU may do little more than provide for leaders at all three levels of government to meet for photo opportunities and grand press releases.

The Attendance Board proposal is meant to empower local classroom students, teachers and education authorities. The lower attendance levels of First Nation students when compared with their provincial peers is a major contributing factor to lower performance and academic acquisition levels and an abnormally high rate of drop out levels among First Nation school students. So many of our Alberta First Nation students are absent from schools that by the time many reach junior high and high school too many students have missed from 180  to over 360 instructional days or the equivalent of one to two years of schooling.

Absenteeism has a particularly negative impact on the acquisition of mathematics and science skills since these disciplines demand sequential mastery of key concepts. In the humanities, English and Social Studies, the impact is the same since absenteeism contributes to the steady decline in student performance levels from as early as Grade 3 onward to Grade 12. Each First Nation School and the Alberta Regional Offices of Northern and Indian Affairs have access to the deplorably low attendance levels. The annual efforts of isolated First Nation school authorities to raise attendance levels could be helped if each Treaty Area had an Attendance Board to hear appeals related to repeated and systematic truancy, absenteeism due to parent lack of involvement or follow-up. Currently, unlike their provincial counterparts, local First Nation school authorities have no recourse for follow-up beyond their local community school level. The various strategies and incentives have short term impacts but do little to deal with the annual truancy and long-term efforts to combat absenteeism. Further, due to the extended family systems, limited local school resources and lack of inter-school authority jurisdictional coordination, the more severe cases of absenteeism are not being dealt with in other than an ad hoc manner.

Researchers have repeatedly shown that truancy is often the first visible sign of other problems a student may be experiencing.  In most cases, truancy problems are resolved at the local school level where students, parents and school board employees can work together before there is a need to involve an application to a provincial Attendance Board. Where a truancy problem cannot be resolved locally, this proposal argues that a First Nation school authority should have a mechanism for referring the matter to a Treaty-based Attendance Board for assistance and a ruling.

Who Is On The Attendance Board?

The First Nation Attendance Board and panels of specialists drawn from it should be made up of aboriginal elders and professionals recommended by the Grand Chiefs and approved and funded under the current Memorandum of Understanding signed by the three Alberta Grand Chiefs, federal and provincial governments.  First Nation Members (elders and professionals) may come from many walks of life; they may be First Nation parents, lawyers, school board employees, school directors of education or superintendents, members of the general public with experiences in dealing with First Nation youth, retired aboriginal educators, business people and other professionals. Attendance Board panels of two to five members should be convened to hear an attendance case referred by a First Nation school authority and dealing with youth between the ages of 6 to 16 years.

When a student who is under 16 years of age fails to attend school as required by law, the local First Nation school authority may ask for a panel of the First Nation Attendance Board to deal with the matter. This is currently available to public and separate school boards and should be extended to all students attending First Nation administered schools at each Treaty area.

The Authority of This FN Attendance Board could be a Modified Model of the Alberta System

The Treaty-based Attendance Board and the panels drawn from it should have teeth and authority. By this, I mean the same power as the Court of Queen's Bench to summon witnesses and obtain information and records as is provided by its provincial counterpart.  The panel may direct the student to attend school or to take an education program or course funded by the federal government beyond the current nominal roll provision and September 30^th deadline.  

Under the proposal, this impartial Treaty-based First Nation panel may direct the parents to send the student to school. And, the panel may even impose a graduated schedule of fines on parents not exceeding $100/day up to a maximum of $1000. The panel may give any direction to the student, parent, or school that it considers appropriate and enforce that ruling by registering its order in the Court of Queen's Bench. The order then becomes an order of the Court. Failure to obey the order may result in contempt of court charges being brought against the student or others. By creating an impartial and graduated system of consequences it is hoped that parents and students would dramatically decrease repeated incidents of truancy between the ages of 6 and 16. Also, pressure will be put on school officials to demonstrate that they have documented and followed-up on incidents of truancy, individualized student academic rescue plans, bullying and major repeated misbehaviors. By dealing with student and family support issues early, it is hoped that all stakeholders can lower the unacceptably high rates of truancy and student misbehaviors that impact on the delivery of quality learning and teaching opportunities.

What Does A First Nation Attendance Board Panel Do?

A Treaty-based First Nation Panel, acting in a quasi-judicial capacity, will subpoena the truant student, parents, social worker, school administrator, counselor, teachers and anyone whom the panel feels can shed light on why the student is not attending school. The panel may also subpoena documents such as the student’s school record, psychological or medical reports, etc.  On a date set for the hearing, the panel will question the parties and witnesses and study the documents. After obtaining all the details of a particular case, the panel will explore options and strategies, decide what the best course of action will be, draft an Order and order the student, parents and other local authorities to obey this decision.

What Rulings Are Issued by a FN Attendance Board or Panel?

The First Nation Panel may decide that the student will return to the same school as originally attended. Or the panel may direct the student to attend a different school or, with the agreement of the parents, a home education program. The panel may order through a referral under the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act that a local Children’s Services branch intervene in some way, or that other agencies become involved:  for example, a First Nation Tribal or provincial AADAC agency. The Attendance Board panel will decide, on the basis of all the facts before it, on an education program or direction which is in the best interests of the student.

If First Nation leaders and education authorities want further details related to this proposal please contact me. The First Nation Attendance Board proposal is a way to assist local First Nation school authorities with a formal back-up appeal and remedial system that is adequately funded. It is a new tool for having First Nation role models in Alberta work collaboratively with federal and provincial governments as provided in the Memorandum of Understanding.

As we approach our fourth decade of Indian Control of Indian Education, there are many First Nation role models, professionals, experienced elders and retired FN teachers and administrators whose experiences can be brought to bear to lower repeated incidents of truancy, drug or alcohol abuse or school bullying. A proactive approach will contribute to raising First Nation high school completion and graduation levels and may even lower incidents of students in trouble with the law.