San Fernando High School SLC Plan

Communications Page 1

San Fernando High School

Smaller Learning Community Plan

Communications

Communications Page 1

San Fernando High School SLC Plan

Communications Page 1

San Fernando High School SLC Plan

Submitted by: / Approved by School Site Council:
Jared Dozal, Lead Teacher / Kenneth Lee, Principal
Jim Coyle, Redesign Team / Martin Barajas, SSC President
Jose Garcia, Redesign Team / Robert Stromoski, UTLA Chapter Chair
Toni Romero, Redesign Team
Lydia Soto, Redesign Team
Pouri Jozani, SLC Teacher

Unifying Vision and Identity

The Communications SLC strives to help our students develop into educated young adults who are prepared for higher education and the working world. Students will receive a rigorous, standards-based curriculum that will improve oral and written communication skills as well as critical thinking skills. Peer mentoring groups are established so that students can encourage and support each other. It is our vision that we develop a close nit family of students, teachers, parents, post secondary institutions, and community sponsors who work together to support the educational goals of all Communications students.

In the coming year, we hope to gain feedback from our students, parents, and community partners on the vision and direction of the SLC. This will promote cooperative partnerships between all stakeholders and garner buy-in as well. Our goal is to make all parties aware of our shared vision and how it will positively impact the educational process. This will be done with conversations in advisories, distribution of the agreed upon vision, and parent/community meetings.

Our SLC began in fall 2006 and houses approximately 400 students and 20 teachers. We have a heterogeneous student body, which includes nearly 100 ESL students and 50 special education students. All of our students receive access to challenging, rigorous courses and have the opportunity to fulfill the A-G requirements. In addition, all classes are aligned with the LAUSD instructional guides and students take district periodic assessments.

The Communications family strongly believes that all students, including special needs or English language learners, are capable of succeeding in rigorous courses. Thus, we made a conscious decision to mainstream our resource program students, as well as our sheltered program students, into our general education classrooms. The master schedule has been set up in such a way that allows for any student to have access to any class, regardless of sheltered or special education designations. Additionally, Communications-designated core subject classes were added to the master schedule in the fall of 2006. These are classes set up specifically for Communications students, and the majority of our students have three or more of these SLC specific courses in their schedules. In the coming semesters, we plan to structure the master so that most of our students have four or more Communications-specific classes, which would be two-thirds of the school day.

The academic identity of our SLC is communications, and once students have graduated, they will have strong oral and written communications skills. Our academic identity will be evident in all core classes, as an emphasis will be placed on students explaining their learning through presentations, group discussions, projects, debates, reports, and portfolios.

The lead teacher of our SLC is Jared Dozal. He oversees the budget; helps plan and conduct professional development activities, and works with the design team to ensure that we stay on track as we implement the SLC plan. Mr. Dozal also attends weekly meetings with the other eight lead teachers to offer support to fellow SLCs and discuss best practices, challenges, and other school-wide issues. Budgetary decisions are made by the design team and are always made with the vision, goals and objectives of the SLC in mind. In the coming months, Mr. Dozal will work towards establishing committees to handle issues such as the master schedule, fundraising, recruitment, and activities. Plans are also in the works to look for potential community partnerships that can be established.

As far as facilities, Communications is currently housed in various areas of the San Fernando campus. In the next few years, we will be developing a plan, along with the other SLCs, to house the majority of our students in a specific section of the school. This will cut down on the need for students to travel large distances to get to their next class. Once we have a set location, it will help develop a sense of identity and community. We plan to involve the students in decorating our building so that we have a unique area that the students themselves have helped to design.

The current plan is to develop a hiring committee composed of the lead teacher, administrator in charge, student representative, parent representative, and a teacher from the same subject field as the applicant. The applicant would sign a contract that he or she is in agreement with the vision and direction of the SLC. We also plan to have our own attendance/counseling office to keep closer watch over our students. Instead of a general attendance office for the entire school, this smaller approach would allow clerical staff to keep track of students with attendance concerns. As far as administration, we plan to house the administrator in charge in the same building as our core classes, so that the administrator can easily observe classroom instruction.

Rigorous Standards-Based Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

All instruction and academic content in our school are standard-based. Teachers are trained in and utilize the latest teaching and assessment strategies. All teachers in our school are highly qualified and hold degrees and credentials in their respective fields. Many teachers in our smaller learning communities hold a master’s degree in a variety of fields. Several have been certified through the National board certification program. All our teachers hold a CLAD/BCLAD certification. The newer teachers are in the process of obtaining such certifications.

All our smaller learning communities’ proposals identify specific course offerings and sequence of classes that align to district graduation and university admission (A-G) requirements. Our SLCs focus is to adapt and modify all instruction to provide access for all English Learners and Special Education students and other students with special needs. We work with students in the regular strand and enable them to enroll and succeed in the honors and AP classes. Our counselors ensure all students are properly enrolled in the courses required and are appropriate to their strength, ability, parent request, and teacher recommendations. Our teacher’s utilize variety of assessment tools that are standard-based to ensure student learning. They include technology in delivery of instruction, as well as project based assignments for student through the use of technology.

Our SLC meets with our feeder schools such as San Fernando, Pacoima, and Maclay Middle School to ensure continued and coherent instruction throughout the educational program of each student. Our intervention programs such as after school tutoring, Saturday schools, CAHSEE Boot Camp and intersession classes provide structured academic assistance to meet individual students’ needs and prepare students for graduation and continued higher education. We are planning on expanding our articulation through recruitment of students in private and charter schools in our school vicinity. Our representative including parents, students, counselors and teachers visit these middle schools to inform students and parents about our programs. Prospective students and parents are invited to visit our schools and campus to participate in orientation, or family nights for obtaining more information about our programs.

In order to follow up on the progress and status of our alumni, our future objective is to maintain communication with students who have graduated from our school through emails, telephone calls, or mailing. This will serve two purposes. One, it will help us improve our instructional programs based on the needs of the educational and employment environment outside high school; second, it will help us recruit those graduates who have entered the field of teaching to coordinate student teaching opportunities, observations, and job placement at our school site.

Multiple assessments will be used throughout our students’ high school experience; Standardized test, California High School Exit Exam, District Assessments for all core curricula, and pre-post tests within the department. Variety of assessment forms will also be used in order to address different learning modalities. Computer-based projects, research papers, and critical book reviews, as well as analytical and critical writings are included in the assessments to enhance student learning. Service Learning projects are used to promote students learning of and participation in the civics and political process. Cooperative group learning projects and assignments improve student social skills, linguistic skills, and critical thinking. Oral presentations, Power Points, portfolios, and workshops provide opportunities for student to gain self-confidence while providing a diverse and effective mode of evaluation. In all, students complete at least one rigorous activity on a weekly basis in each of the core subjects.

We believe that all students are capable of learning and deserve success; therefore, we have incorporated numerous accommodations for our English learners, Special education students, and other students with special needs. Sheltered courses are offered in all academic areas, where students are integrated with proficient English speakers. SDAIE techniques are implemented to enhance instruction, learning and assessment. Teachers in our SLC actively collaborate with other teachers within our community to learn about all areas of needs for our students. This is done more specifically through the Advisories. For students who demonstrate difficulty in achieving academic progress we have provided structured academic interventions such as the math an science tutoring lab staffed by CSUN students provided by Project GRAD, Extended Learning Academy, and intersession that is offered twice within each academic year. Students can also get support from an older student via our peer mentoring program.

To provide access and proficiency in the use of technology for our students, we offer computer programs such as Thinking Maps, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, access, Vanguard, and Carnegie Learning systems. These programs are used by the students to develop power points, videos, WebPages, and tutorials. We will soon develop a web page for our SLC so our parents, students, teachers, and community partners be able to communicate more effectively with each other.

Equity and Access

During the recruitment process from our feeder schools students can self select from the various academies offered at our school. Students are presented to each of the various academies, their mission, and the opportunities that each program provides. After their selection they are programmed accordingly within the SLC. There are no requirements for becoming part of our SLC. Therefore, open enrollment is encouraged in order to be inclusive and to diversify our SLC and general school population.

There are many diverse groups and our SLC collects data on sub-groups enrolled in ESL, SPED, Honors, and AP courses. We address the need for accommodating student interests and parental desires in admissions by sending letters home with the enrollment package. The letters inquire as to what the student and parents educational goals and objectives are for both secondary and post-secondary education. The responses are then taken into consideration by the counselor for course programming. The various courses offered provide support for students of various proficiencies. The courses accommodate a mixture of English learners, sheltered students, special needs students, and gifted students. Among the many courses offered are AP Calculus, AP Statistics, AP English Language, AP English Literature, AP Government and Politics, AP Spanish Literature, and AP Spanish Language. Students are encouraged to take AP courses whenever feasible by the counselor and teachers, and one of our Communications students has set up a club to promote awareness of the AP program and college requirements. UAPS, United Association of Persevering Students, was founded in 2006 as an organization for students who are seeking a college education to offer support to each other.

Our SLC supports high expectations for all students and provides them with rigorous academic instruction delivered by CLAD certified teachers who utilize Best Practices teaching strategies; included are the school-wide strategies of Thinking Maps, Cornell Notes, and cooperative groups. These are used to address all students with diverse needs. For our struggling students’ safe and supportive environment, academic intervention options include intersession, offered twice within the academic school year, Saturday school, after school tutoring, and peer tutoring. We plan to have our classes within the same building or close proximity.

Personalization

One of the main reasons for starting a small learning community is the benefit of the increased personalization in a student’s school experience. We have several initiatives centered on personalization. They include advisories, peer mentoring teams, incoming 9th grade orientation, and scheduling.

The advisory program is a daily 28 minute period in which students get to know their teacher advisor and address several topics that support student growth, both academically and socially. Students discuss and get information about colleges, careers, CAHSEE, character education, CST, drugs and alcohol, peer mentoring, and other pertinent topics to student life. In addition, advisors keep track of their students’ grades and attendance. Students get a chance to sit down with their advisor and discuss their report card and any issues they are having in their classes. Advisors offer suggestions for improvement and act as a mediator between the student and his/her teacher. The lead teacher meets monthly with student advisory representatives to discuss how the program is going and students get a chance to offer feedback, which is shared with all advisory teachers.

Peer mentoring teams are also a big part of the personalization piece. This is organized through the advisory classes. Each class is assigned to a “buddy” advisory, 9th and 10th grade advisories are each paired up with an older 11th or 12th grade class. Our goal is for each older student to choose a younger buddy student to mentor. These students will develop positive relationships and help support each other to excel and plan their future. Homework and study halls will also be offered to allow students to get help from other students and teachers.

Personalization is introduced even before students get to high school. Current 8th grade students are bussed for assemblies on small learning communities. Each SLC gives a presentation on what their program has to offer. Communications puts on a slide show for the students, which explains the theme of the SLC, introduces the teachers, shows photos of SLC activities, and offers the benefits of joining our family. After all the presentations are complete, prospective students are able to choose which SLC they would like to join.