May 12, 2023

Teams visit Mark Twain Elementary School

Mark Twain Elementary School in Lake Washington School District just closed out its inspirational and transformative 2022-2023 tour season. This year they hosted school teams from all over Washington and Oregon. Led by the administrative duo of Principal, Craig Mott and Associate Principal, Malia Goodfellow, visitors learned about the school’s inclusive journey and how they have created an inclusive master schedule to support student access and engagement in core content instruction, as well as flexible service delivery. Additionally, participants learned about the school’s commitment to grade level common planning to support strong tier 1 instruction as well as how to leverage “power groups” (I.e., intervention blocks) as a way for students to receive targeted instruction on a six-week cycle.  

During most tours, MTSS Coach, Sara Celms spoke about Mark Twain’s work supporting teams’ progress in their implementation of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, differentiation, and resource mapping. The goal of resource mapping is to look at collective resources and strengths of a community in order to fully optimize school resources as a way to support all learners.  

5^th grade special education teacher and case manager, Alisha Poling, took visitors through some learning about grade level common planning, as well as the important journey toward writing more inclusive Individualized Education Plans (IEP). Drawing from the TIES 5-15-45 planning tool, grade level teams engage in the collaborative process of planning to ensure that all students are appropriately supported during core content instruction. Common planning occurs every Wednesday morning before school and is kept sacred, meaning that no other meetings occur on Wednesday mornings. Additionally, Ms. Poling provided visitors with examples of inclusive and non-inclusive IEP goals and discussed how changing the way goals are traditionally written open so many more opportunities for students to learning in the general education setting as well as in more naturalistic and generalizable ways.  

Finally, 3^rd grade general education teacher, Jamie Chapple, shared her journey with visitors as she learned how to teach students with extensive support needs (ESN) and the importance of communication and collaboration with families. One of the tools that Ms. Chapple and other teachers find helpful is the Ohio State Extended Learning Standards. These standards provide teachers with information on how to break down state standards to support student learning growth through targeted scaffolds.  

We appreciate the Mark Twain Elementary Team for opening their doors and allowing participants at various stages in their inclusive journeys the opportunity to come and learn from a school and a group of inclusive leaders so open and transparent about their work! 

“Our visit to Mark Twain was amazing! We were heartened and motivated to continue our inclusion work.” 

“Thank you for sharing your journey and being transparent about the work. We are so grateful for this opportunity!”