GR VIDEO 1 - Analyzing Student Work: Kindergarten
Overview:

The first video in this series is Analyzing Student Work: Kindergarten. It is divided into Sections, each featuring 2 or more associated video clips. The video overall shows a kindergarten grade-level meeting, interviews with the teachers, and a look into two classrooms. Teachers in their weekly grade level meetings analyze student data and work, and they discuss strategies for improving student learning, which then informs classroom practices. There are also clips of the school's Academic Achievement Leadership Team (AALT) and the school's GR consultant, Bill Saunders.

The school uses Success for All for its reading program, so you will hear references to 'SFA' and some of its instruction/curriculum (e.g., "red words," which are sight words). The school has also developed a strong writing focus. Although the writing program does not have a set curriculum (as does SFA, which focuses on reading), the writing strategies being used at the school have influenced language arts instruction.

In addition to good curriculum and instruction, there is also a context and culture at the school that promote focused, ongoing examination by teachers of what they are trying to accomplish with students and the degree to which they are succeeding. The school uses the Getting Results Model, which involves 5 key elements, or change factors: goals that are set and shared; indicators that measure success; assistance from capable others; leadership that supports and pressures; and settings where people regularly come together to get important things done.

The school in the video is in a highly urban and diverse area in Los Angeles. It has an enrollment of over 1200 students, over 90% of whom are Latino. More than 80% of the kindergarten and first graders are English language learners, virtually all from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. The school used to have a bilingual program, but since the passage of Proposition 227 all children have been in "structured English immersion."