As a result of the collaborative efforts of the DCISD administrative team, expectations were developed and agreed upon for conducting distance learning at home with DCISD students of all grade levels.
According to Superintendent Gary Davis and Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Taunya Campbell, daily assignments will be meaningfully connected to the course curriculum. These lessons should take no more than 20-25 minutes to complete for elementary and secondary, 10-15 minutes for early childhood students, and should be reviewed by the teacher to ensure expectations of learning are met. Longer lessons for specialized services are to be expected.
Instructional templates should be shared with inclusion/resource, ESL and bilingual teachers in the event that accommodations or modifications are necessary. “Ongoing collaboration between general education and special education teachers will be critical to ensure that all students have access to the curriculum”, Campbell said.
Teachers will each have office hours listed on the DCISD website and they should respond in a timely manner during those hours. “We ask that parents and students be respectful of our teachers’ time”, Mr. Davis added. “They have personal lives beyond the virtual classroom and we ask that you be mindful of their need to manage their own households in addition to working tirelessly to provide instruction for each student.”
At least one day per week, teachers will host a virtual lesson through Zoom, Google Meet, or some other platform. These will be listed on the website in the campus Zoom Schedule. The teachers will also document attendance for these sessions.
Teachers have been in contact with almost every student and plans have been put in place for students not having internet access. These students have been given paper packets for instruction. Administrators have protocols in place for the distribution and return of these packets to protect both students and educators from contamination.
Because academic growth measures are of great importance during this time, students will need to demonstrate and provide evidence that learning occurred by submitting the work requested by each teacher. Teachers will provide feedback and opportunities to reassess for student learning. In keeping with the expectations of the Texas Education Agency, teachers will retain at least one sample per student of student work for documentation.
Grading for assignments for grades K-8 will use Satifsfactory (S) & Unsatisfactory (U). Grades for 9-12 will be according to the Denver City High School Guidelines for grading. Because of the need for numerical grades for GPA, class rank and course credit, DCHS will offer grades of Pass (100), Incomplete (70) and Exempt. Students will have the opportunity to improve upon incomplete grades. They will have between 1-3 assignments per week in each class, that will be averaged for the final 9-week grading period.
Mr. Davis said, “Our teachers have stepped up to the challenge that COVID-19 has presented. I realize that it has not been easy or convenient, but I can assure you that our staff has worked diligently to make this work for the good of our kids.”
