NEWBERRY COUNTY — The Newberry County School District has received a grant from the Southern Regional Education Board to help train educators in Literacy Design Collaborative and Mathematics Design Collaborative.

According to sreb.org, this is changing the way teachers teach and students learn. The website states: “Our literacy and math training equips teachers with the tools they need to build engaging assignments aligned to college- and career-readiness standards.”

“When you agree to the grant, they write the grant, they do all the stuff. They provide us with the intense training that we need in the beginning for our first round of teachers and our local trainers,” said Katrina Singletary, director of Secondary Education at the District. “They then train us on how to be able to sustain this opportunity after the grant is over, and not cost any additional money.”

Singletary said the easiest way LDC and MDC can be described is as a framework that allows teachers to be intentional and planning their instruction to ensure that the rigor is constantly present in the assignment.

“For example, one of our principals said that we all have South Carolina standards that we are using. When you look at, for example with literacy, there are these modules and mini-tasks, so you have to really think about what you want your students to learn to be able to create these mini tasks,” she said.

An example of this would be if you are in a U.S. history class, and you are writing a mini task, it is not just about writing a paper. Singletary said the old school way of teaching would be to read the chapter, and answer questions at the end and then try to regurgitate that information.

“But we know that reading and writing should be happening in every class, that is what the LDC does. It ensures that they are reading and writing in all of their content areas,” she said. “We have P.E. teachers at the middle schools that are using this in their class. That is the whole idea, to ensure that reading and writing is happening in every class.”

When Singletary discusses rigor, this is when students have to explain and analyze. She said the way most of us learned would be to memorize and then regurgitate that information. With LDC the student will work to explain the answer.

“Do not just tell me who started the Civil Rights Movement, but explain to me how the Civil Rights Movement was different from the Women’s Suffrage Movement,” Singletary said. “Increase their level of understanding, and to me, if you can come back and explain or analyze, those are some of the high level STEMS — explain, interpret, not just look at the chart and tell me A, B, C, or D.”

With the MDC there are formative assessment lessons, which is a way to measure if the students are getting the information in the unit.

“An activity that allows them to collaborate with their partners, work together, it is a place where the teacher is the facilitator and not giving a right or wrong answer, but trying to gauge their level of understanding of the unit,” Singletary said. “The teachers collect data from the students when they do this, but it is more for the teacher to look at it and say, these many students are ready and I can keep moving on, but these seem to be struggling with this concept and I need to do some re-teaching. All of it is to help further drive instruction from the rest of the unit, before we get to the big unit test.”

In the classroom teachers have seen students collaborating more, and having content driven conversations. Singletary said one teacher said that when her students can have a discussion about a math problem, it is music to her ears.

“They always have the chatter in their classroom, but now that chatter is about content. Helping them to be more independent thinkers, helping them to be more critical thinkers,” she said.

Recently, the District was asked by SREB to have a showcase to discuss LDC and MDC to other school districts. Representatives came from Pickens, the Lexington districts and even as far as the Beaufort district.

“The grant is nearing its end. Their goal was to showcase a place in the state that was doing it and doing it well by their standards. It’s really an honor we were selected because there are other districts in South Carolina that are doing this. We were selected to be the showcase. Again a high honor for us,” Singletary said.

During the showcase they visited Newberry High, Newberry Middle, Mid-Carolina Middle and Mid-Carolina High. Singletary said she has received interest for more information from many of the representatives, and one district would like to visit again with a bigger group.

Katrina Singletary, director of Secondary Education, discusses LDC and MDC in Newberry County.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_DSC_0867.jpgKatrina Singletary, director of Secondary Education, discusses LDC and MDC in Newberry County. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

Superintendent Jim Suber gives a warm welcome during the showcase.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_DSC_0860.jpgSuperintendent Jim Suber gives a warm welcome during the showcase. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@civitasmedia.com

Reach Andrew Wigger at 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @ TheNBOnews.