Learning @ Hawthorn

Here are a few of the terms and acronyms you might be hearing around the district.

AAA -”Advanced Ability and Achievement” – Also known as “Triple A,” this is our gifted program for students in grades 3-8. More information can be found in our Student Handbook (available for download on this page).

Alignment – will assure that our curriculum, instruction, and assessment are all in sync.

Assessment – the ways in which we will know that students are making progress toward meeting our essential learning standards.

Bernstein Artful Learning Model – a model for organizing learning activities developed in 1992. It uses the arts and the artistic process to reinforce teaching and learning in all subjects; develops interdisciplinary units for students aligned with the standards and Understanding by Design (UbD) with a focus on literacy; and helps all students form a lifelong love of learning.

Change – something that is inevitable and that everyone at Hawthorn embraces!

Choice Theory – By Dr. William Glasser

Hawthorn Option School will be unique in that Choice Theory will give direction to all operations of the school. Choice Theory focuses on internal motivation and states:

• the only person’s behavior we can control is our own.
• all we can give another person is information.
• satisfying relationships are essential.
• all of our behavior is our best attempt to satisfy one or more of our five basic needs: survival, belonging, power, freedom, and fun.

Curriculum Review – The process by which our staff evaluate, revise, and enhance the learning experiences for our students. There are four steps in our curriculum process:

Curriculum – the essential learning standards, big ideas/content, and enduring understandings that are reflected in our grade level maps. Our curriculum is not programs; i.e., Scott Foresman, Everyday Math, etc.

1. A content area is studied to see what we are currently doing.
2. Current practices and content are checked for alignment with state standards and effectiveness.
3. New resources are piloted and then implemented.
4. On-going assessment and evaluation are conducted to ensure that we are meeting the goals we set for ourselves and our students.

DIBELS – Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills: Dibels is an assessment measure specifically designed to assess 3 of the 5 Big Ideas of early literacy: Phonological Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, and Fluency with Connected Text.

Click here for more information about DIBELS.

Essential Learning – statements of what students should know and be able to do, which are aligned with the Illinois State Standards.

Glasser, William, M.D., has been working with schools since 1956. His first book for teachers, Schools Without Failure, has been read by over a million educators, but the goal of actually running a school without failure has been hard to accomplish. In 1990 Dr. Glasser created a concept of a quality school – a school where there is no failure because all students are doing competent work and many are doing quality work. In the years since the first edition of this book was published, over two hundred schools are working in the Quality School Consortium trying to become quality schools. Several have succeeded and more are getting close. Dr. Glasser continues to generate new ideas, and this book has been updated to reflect some of his latest thinking on choice theory. His new theory is explained in depth in his 1998 book, Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom.

(Taken from : The Quality School – Managing Students Without Coercion by William Glasser, M.D.)

Grade-Level Mapping – process whereby a committee reviews the state standards and performance descriptors to design maps that include big idea/content, enduring understandings, essential questions, unit questions and performance descriptors.

HOSTS – “Helping One Student to Succeed” – a researched-based and nationally validated program for accelerating learning using one-to-one instruction in reading following an assessment to determine a student’s instructional level and learning objectives.

Learning Systems – provide a focus to learning and student achievement. The heart of a learning system has to be the alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. A system is a bunch of parts that interact together for a defined purpose. Systems’ thinking is not thinking about the parts, but how they interact.

Learning\@Hawthorn – a special website containing information about the most current initiatives and work being done in the areas of curriculum, instruction, programs, and planning at Hawthorn.

Masterworks - Masterworks are the primary source material that students experience in a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic manner as part of a Bernstein unit. Masterworks speak of human truths in unique and insightful ways. In the Artful Learning model, Masterworks are by definition human achievements: people and natural phenomena (such as the Grand Canyon) are not, in this sense, Masterworks. They are not limited to the arts; all disciplines have them, whether they are landmark discoveries or universal theories. Masterworks have the intrinsic power to engage across disciplines and cultures; are works that have exerted influence over time, are widely regarded to be the best examples of a genre, and embody a significant innovation, concept, theory, or insight.

Mentors – volunteers that help support one student to succeed in our HOSTS program.

Multiple Intelligences – The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are:

• Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”):
• Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”)
• Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”)
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”)
• Musical intelligence (“music smart”)
• Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”)
• Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”)
• Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)

Click here for addition information on Multiple Intelligences.

NWEA/MAP – Northwest Evaluation Assoc./Measure of Academic Progress – Computerized, adaptive achievement level tests aligned with local curriculum and state standards to provide the information most important to educators – scores that measure growth in student achievement.

Performance Descriptors – state-developed statements of how learning should look as students are working to meet the state standards.

Quality School Model – By Dr. William Glasser

• The school is free of discipline problems as a major concern—incidents will occur, but there are no serious ongoing problems with discipline.
• Achievement scores on standardized tests are at the seventy-fifth percentile or above for all students.
• In all subjects, all students achieve competence that they can demonstrate or explain. All grades below competence (or what is a B) will be eliminated, which means that the only records kept will be of competent learning.
• “Schooling” (rote learning of material divorced from relevance to students’ lives) is replaced by useful education.
• Beyond competency, all students do some work each year that both they and their teachers consider quality work. This is work significantly beyond competence. It will receive an “A” grade or higher, and give hardworking students a chance to show that they can excel.
• Students and adults know Choice Theory to a depth appropriate to their comprehension. They understand the concepts and how to use them in their lives and in their work at school. Parents will be encouraged to become familiar with the concepts in the book, Choice Theory, A New Psychology of Personal Freedom (Glasser, 1998).
• The school is a joyful place, and those working in it – students and adults – find satisfaction in their work. Quality education is a joyful process!

Rubrics – “Rubrics are a critical and vital link between assessment and instruction. They operationalize quality in our minds so we can more effectively teach and lead.” Alan D. Rowe

For most educators, a rubric is a printed set of scoring guidelines (criteria) for evaluating work (a performance or a product) and for giving feedback.

Spanish Enrichment – A new after-school program for elementary students (grades 1-4) designed to help learners 1) understand oral communication in the target language; 2) interact in the target language in various settings; 3) understand written passages/vocabulary in the target language; 4) understand manners and customs of various target language societies; and 5) use the target language to reinforce and further knowledge of other disciplines.

Standards – state developed goals that provide clear expectations for students and a target for student achievement.

TBE – a grant program for services provided to our bilingual students

TPI – a grant program for limited-English proficient (LEP) students.

Lightspan Network (TLN) - the largest source for student learning activities on the web that are aligned with standards and schools’ curriculum objectives. Provides instructional tools and resources to support effective teaching strategies and extends learning into the home with educational content and activities to increase family involvement.

Title I – low income grant that helps to fund our summer school program for students K-2 who are not meeting standards.

Title II – a grant that provides funding for class-size reduction, technology, and staff development

Title IV – a grant that provides programs promoting student wellness through prevention and intervention activities

Title V – a grant that supports our goal of “Learning for All; Whatever It Takes” to improve our local school-community partnership and helping students to improve reading and math skills.

UbD – “Understanding By Design” – A backward mapping model that identifies desired results first; looks at assessment next; and plans learning experiences and instruction last.