May+20th+Meeting

Meeting Summary May 20, 2009 This meeting was convened to: 1. The 8th grade novels under consideration fall into two categories, those in the Prentice Hall basal series and those that are not. Those that are in the basal series are: Other books suggested are: In order for these books to be ready for Board approval in the fall, the committee is asking that parents, students and staff at each junior high school read the books and complete the book form. Books have been ordered and will be delivered to the principal except in the case of OJH and CJH where many are available in the Media Center. Please work with principals and Media Specialists/committee members to distribute the books for the maximum number of readers. It would be ideal that when people finished the books they could return them to be read by others. 2. The district has in the past had a list of books at each grade level that also guaranteed that specific genre of book be “guaranteed” to the students by the time they left 8th grade. We will be looking at this list to align with the new LA series. Currently the committee believes that the guaranteed genre stands as follows: 6th-science fiction, fantasy and mythology 7th –historical fiction and auto biography 8th- mystery, classics and biography Please let me know if this is not correct. 3. Novel Selection Procedures Fast track books are those books that are included in the text adoption (such as Prentice Hall). As these books have been aligned to standards and have been deemed books appropriate to read and have been adopted, the timeline for approval may be shortened. These books will be read by the committee, parents, students teachers/staff and administrators and the district novel form will be completed. The committee will include the literary reviews of the book. The book will be approved by the Board of Education but will not need to be put on 30-day display due to prior approval. Traditional track- Books that have been highlighted by the committee or other staff will be read by the committee, parents, students teachers/staff and administrators and the form completes. The literary reviews will be researched and the committee will discuss the merits of the book. If the committee decided to proceed with the book it will be put on public display for 30 days prior to Board approval. 4. Per the recent survey, teachers asked for staff development in the following areas (LA): Workshops will be offered using the after school format and we will experiment with other formats as we progress. Staff development will begin with the introduction of the new materials from the reading series in the summer. 5. Crate books- the committee’s idea is to have collections of current novels in quantities of 150 in a ‘crate’ that the LA teachers could check out from the Media Center. This would eliminate the need for teachers to search out enough novels to be able to teach them. In addition, our new model is to have one book available for each students to encourage reading at home. Purchased novels- Each teacher was able to purchase one novel for each child to keep. The novels will be taught using CRISS strategies. The Curriculum department will survey students, parents and LA teachers to determine if this is a practice that we would like to expand. In this event student fees would be increased to cover the cost of the books. Our partner high school already uses this format of student purchased books. Teachers will not be restricted on the quantity of novels that may be taught, however students should be taught, at least once, to the personally owned book using CRISS strategies.
 * 1) Finalize suggestions for 8th grade novels
 * 2) Guaranteed novel genre at grade levels
 * 3) Write procedures for future novel selection for “fast track” books that are part of the Prentice Hall adoption and the “traditional” adoption of novels
 * 4) Discuss Staff Development needs
 * 5) Write procedures for “crate” books
 * The Schwa Was Here
 * Code Talker
 * The Watson’s Go To Birmingham
 * Red Kayak
 * The Hunger Games (this book is quite expensive and we would have to wait for paperback editions)
 * How to teach novels with CRISS strategies
 * Differentiated Instruction
 * RtI in LA Classroom
 * How to teach reading in Junior High School