Minutes from Wednesday, January 28

The Reading & Literacy Committee met this morning to discuss items related to the school's literacy action plan, the School Improvement Plan and other areas associated with reading and literacy at RHS. In attendance was Jennette Gonzales, the chair of the committee, Jim Smith, the school's reading specialist, Beth Abercrombie, math teacher, and Brette Book, English teacher.

Jennette opened the meeting and handed out materials for the upcoming 2009 Teen Lit Fest and hope members will encourage students to participate This fest will be held on Saturday, March 14th and students have the opportunity to meet 6 Chicago land authors. Participating authors are Ann Angel (Such a Pretty Face); Pamela Todd (Blind Faith Hotel); Adam Selzer (How to Get Suspended and Influence People); Stephanie Hale (Revenge of the Homecoming Queen); Claudia Martinez (Smell of Old Lady Perfume); and Simone Elkeles (Leaving Paradise and Perfect Chemistry). Books are available for check out at Eisenhower and RHS.

Jennette provided news regarding the Illinois Literacy Foundation. This program takes donations from local consumers of the Border's book store and converts the donations into gift cards that are then handed to our school as a gift. Every time you are asked a Border's if you would like to donate a dollar to the Illinois Literacy Foundation, this is where the money goes. As a result, Ridgewood is receiving one of its largest donations to date.

Jennette would like to use half of the funds to purchase a graphic novel collection for circulation and to update the Chicago history books in the reference section. The remainder of the money will be used to support the formation of classroom libraries. With that said, the committee decided that a representative from each team should communicate with their team members and develop a priority list of what is needed. If the team feels that several classes would benefit more by having content books for students, then those should be at the top of the list. If the team feels that more professional development books are needed, then those should be a priority. It is all based upon what the team needs.

Time was taken then to discuss questions and/or concerns regarding the SIP and the Gap Analysis that teachers were asked to complete for the February 4th all faculty meeting. Jim Smith will answer questions and concerns during Friday's union breakfast. Overall concerns include "does every box need to be filled in?" and the answer is no. No one is going to look and see what you are doing. Teachers will be responsible for completing what they know and will be responsible for having information to share with their peers.

Jennette revised the meeting dates in February to the 11th and the 25.

The next R&L Committee Meeting will be on Wednesday, February 11th at 7AM in the Board Room.