Focus Group Meeting/Curriculum and Instruction
Modesto Evening Group

May 13, 2002

.Edusoft, STAR Test, and Rubrics were discussed by Cher, noting that we have more than one method of evaluating students’ progress–very helpful for the accreditation process.

It was suggested that we give each parent the 4th and 7th grade State Standards for the Writing Exam. If parents gave students one type of writing to do each month such as a narrative, students will have practiced each; by the time the writing exam comes along, the students will be prepared to write.

We discussed changing the scoring of the General Writing Rubric from 0 and 1 to a 1 to 4 to align with the state standards. Sherry said that we will keep it this way for now and make improvements later.

A suggestion was made to anaylize one document of writing as a group so we could have more input on the state standards and how to evaluate writing; also we could share our impressions and how each ES evaluates. By practicing, we can then be able better to help our parents. 

Joy mentioned the http://www.writing-edu.com/index.phtml  Excellence in Writing program; we wondered if there would be a workshop in the area in the coming year, or perhaps we could have Andrew Pudewa join us for our convention.

Teachers are subjective and parents have trouble being objective in grading their own child’s writing.

Sherry suggested that we form a group to meet and come up with state standard based curriculum choices for each grade level for ES use and Parents use; this would also be helpful for new families who need suggestions.

We all divided into twos and evaluated and scored two to three writing samples using the provided rubric.

Cher suggested that those who were interested in writing the observations made by our team should express that interest. We would be getting together in summer to write a presentation for the book that will be available for the visitors in the spring. She asked Charlene if she would like to assist; Charlene said she would.