Minutes from Wednesday, September 17

The Reading and Literacy Committee met at 7AM in the Board Room to discuss the following:

Present: Jennette Gonzalez; Jim Smith; Bethany Abercrombie; Mark Lippstreuer; Dolores Miller; Giovanna Portanova

I. Celebrations:

Thanks to Jim Smith for reading the Word of the Day.
Thanks to Monica Hansen for creating word of the day laminated posters.

II. Updates
A. Words of the Week - see celebrations
B. Secondary Reading League’s Conference - offered to committee members. Presenters include Chris Tovani. The Conference is Saturday, November 8, 2008.

III. Discuss Chapter 2 in “Creating Literacy-Rich Schools For Adolescents”
A. Universal Literacy Instruction - Seven Defensible Strategies
B. Pro / Con issues -Good ideas that come from everyone. Successful schools appear to have developed common language. The strategies are transportable from subject to subject and can be seen in every content area.

IV. Needs Assessment
A. Student Survey - may need to wait until we have information from faculty
B. Faculty Survey - need to know what is actually be used in the classrooms. Jim Smith will develop a "survey" that will ask for teacher examples regarding the seven defensible strategies. This can occur for the first 15-20 minutes of a team meeting. The strategies will be collected and reviewed by the R&L committee to develop and share common strategies.

Adjourned at 7:50 AM