Active Exploration December 5, 2012

Today in our PLC we reflected on our work this week around the celebration of Hanukkah. We talked about how students connected the new information to their own experiences with celebrations, how they began to understand new vocabulary like "tradition" and "symbol", and areas we would like to further explore in the weeks to come. In the following weeks we will be researching other winter celebrations such as Kwanzaa, Chinese/Vietnamese New Year, Eid, and Christmas; so spending this time looking back on our first go at the research process with this group of kids was very valuable. As we learn more about each of these holidays we would like to have students start to compare the similarities and differences among them. We have introduced the Venn diagram as a means of sorting information and ideally would like students to use this as a method of comparison in the coming weeks.

Teachers are Designers of Learners

Describe the Learning Outcomes of the Task: 

Diana: 

ELL Students conversation skills. Students should be able to answer questions about food/restaurants.  She’s been working with 2 students in small groups. There has been lots of improvement with one child (because of social behaviour?) and a small amount with the other (shy and reserved). 

Feeback: Looking to improve engagement and to increase how much each student is speaking in full sentences during instructional time. 

What other teachers see: 

Good real-life task. Not silly. Practical (helpful in real life). Working for 1 kid, but not the other... Maybe too long. 

What does this tell us: 

-Need to make it more exciting or challenging. 

-that we need to find a topic that is more interesting to the boys...(soccer, etc.). 

-need to focus on engagement...

What will we do to enhance the student learning: 

-make extrinsic rewards (board game for competition) for class time. 

-move the unit forward faster (students will take cameras home tomorrow). 

-Students will take pictures of their food (mandatory)

-Students will take pictures of things they like to do (optional)

Big Ideas: 

-we need to get the boys talking as much as we can with more engagement. 

-risk taking... How can we get 1 boy to take risks...

Adjust the Task: 

-move things forward. Make them happen quicker. Increase engagement through cameras and personal stories. 

Claire: 

As Claire is new to the class, she’s going to take more time to learn capabilities of students and to familiarize herself with the needs. 

She would like to focus on Language Arts and Math. D is a student in the class who struggles with academic engagement and social interaction. He is getting better (he is trying), but has a long way to go. 

Focus: Trying to get D to work 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off. 

Strategy: Highlighting words and he traces over them. 

Strategy: Helping him memorize a simple story, and having him read it to Sandi (another teacher in the school that he adores). 

Action Plan: 

Claire will bring in some of D’s written work for discussion. 

Mike: 

Learning Outcomes: Getting students familiar with vowels and memorizing sight words. 

SWBAT: Recognize vowels and connect them with the correct sound. 

SWBAT: Immediately recognize the sight (“Cheat”) words. 

Feedback On: Helping students read left to right (students appear to be struggle with reading right to left). Getting strategies to help students with dyslexia (haven’t formally been assessed as dyslexic, but strategies may help). 

What do you see: 

-lessons are engaging and fun. 

-enjoyable lessons/ students don’t feel forced. 

-students are learning. 

-students are motivated

-gaining social skills. 

What does it tell us: 

-kids need to work on reading left to right. 

-learning vowel sounds (recognition). 

-reinforcement on outcomes. 

-I need to learn more about dyslexia. 

What will we do to enhance student learning: 

-I’ll do some pyscho-motor tests

Big ideas: 

-students learn at different paces and in different ways. 

Action Plan: 

Diana: Will bring in sound recording of conversation which we listen to, to think about next steps. 

Claire: Will bring examples of D’s work to look at his printing and to come up with strategies. 

Mike: Will bring in a video recording of boys reading words to see what they are actually doing. 

Board Game PDF

Deal or No Deal Dec. 5

PLC December 5, 2012

Terra, Megan, Jen, Lisa T.

-       Terra showed us Deal or No Deal center from a high, medium, low student

Learning Outcomes

-       Terra explained that the outcome of this center was that students would be able to estimate and add using decimals to the hundredths place.

-       She showed us how they started estimating first with flyers and then moved on to adding with decimals.

-       She asked the group how she could take this center and push it forward

Feedback

-       Differentiated instruction

-       Authentic - using real life situations (i.e. food flyers)

-       Modeled examples  (posters, journaling)

-       Different expectations for each learner (lower- just single digit estimating, higher- estimating and calculating with decimals

Next step

-       Students have a budget of $300 to spend on holiday wish lists

-       Use various flyers to do this

*Some students may get disappointed looking at all the toys and wishing they had them so we thought we could frame the question as making a wish list for gifts or food for Miriam our sponsor child or another child in need.