February 20, 2012

Here is what Vanessa and I did today in our PLC. First, we both registered to attend the Calgary Reggio Network Association Meeting happening on March 4th. We are excited to attend this meeting and to move forward with our learning around the Reggio approach. We are also hoping that this meeting will give us some ideas and inspiration for moving forward with our PLC work by continuing to incorporate Reggio-based philosophies. 

We then took a critical look at some recent student work and, much like a report card, looked the the areas of strength and growth within the task and made an action plan for how we would like to move forward. We would both like to have our students write more narratives about their pictures and journal entries, but because of their limited experience with writing we cannot just assign large writing tasks. In the past, we have had students dictate their stories to us and we write/type them out. However, with 45 students at such varying ability levels it takes an extraordinary amount of time to get through all of them, and by the time we get to the last few most of them have forgotten their story or idea anyway. Hence, we took some time to look at various technologies that could support our students in expressing their stories and ideas such as Dragon Dictate, Powerpoint, and iMovie. We learned that some of these programs are more "user friendly" than others, but are both keen to try them out in our present unit. This is an exciting prospect for us because we know that when our students draw a picture in their journal, for example, that there is a whole story and thought process happening behind it, we are just looking for a realistic and effective way of helping them to document it!

Thanks, 

Heather and Vanessa

February 20, 2013

PLC Notes

February 20, 2013

Derek, Cheryl, Harjyote

·      How do we keep students motivated during centers?

o   Immediate rewards

o   Loss of other activities until work is complete

o   What is it that is keeping them from doing any work?

§  How can we change what his reactions to the work?

§  Focus on success

§  Success plan

·      If you do this you will see successes

§  Finding his motivation

§  Find what is setting them off

§  Pick and choose, so that they have control over what they are doing.

·      How do we keep students accountable for centers?

o   Have very clear and concise expectations laid out for them

·      How do we manage transitions to make them better for those students who have difficulty with them?

o   During centers

§  Stop and clean up center, heads down at the desk, and then students move to new center

§  Only moving the students who are off task after 20 minutes to the next center, leaving the ones that are focused to complete their work.

§  The Daily Five: read to self, read to others, Listen to others, word work, and work on writing.  Also incorporate work on math. 

§  Pick and choose for center work, instead.

§  Timing the transitions, to occur during natural breaks.

                       

Feb. 20- PLC (Active Exploration: Math)

PLC – February 20, 2013

Jen Aruba, Terra Xavier, Lisa Thibeau and Anica Robinson

Terra brought student math assessment questions to the table, since report cards are on our minds.

The issue was how to assess student work when we are integrating multiple strands within the discipline.  During math class, students are participating in authentic and engaging activities that encompass many different concepts. 

The problem arises of how to accurately represent their learning in their summative numeric assessment for the reporting period.

We came to the conclusion that it would be best to assess on a particular strand each term.  This would not necessarily have to be the same strand for each student, however, by the end of the year each student would have a comprehensive assessment of math.

In two weeks, Arruda, Thibeau and Xavier will bring student work from the projects discussed during previous PLCs to look at and comment on.

Retention...Letters & Place-value...

Teachers are Designers of Learning

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Group Members: Claire, Tammy, Mike, (Diana is skipping ;)

Claire: 
Played a game called "Bang". Kids take a sight-word from a bag, if the card is "BANG!" they have to give up all of their cards. 'D' is trying to use the first letter of the word to identify the word. 'D' works well in the morning, during morning message. He is sometimes able to identify missing letters, but sometimes he just guesses. Recognition is one thing, writing it is the other. Making progress in:
-picking out letters
-recognizing letters
-future: Capital & Lower case (focus on just lowercase for now). 

Other:
-counting (can count, but can't pick out numbers (can't recognize them)). Can count with manipulatives. "Can you point out the number 6?" ... Pretty tough. 

Next time:
Claire will give him letters, and he will have to find all of that letter on a page. (Circles/Highlights/Stickers), and practice writing the letter as well.

** Digress & discussion about report cards ;) **
** Discussion about bottom-up literacy instruction vs. Whole Language; pendulums & extremes vs. personalizing for students **

Discussion about Edtech & iPads: Using "Explain Everything" as a way for 'D' to share what he can do. Perhaps making a page about a letter, and using his voice to explain pictures he has drawn.

Tammy:
'B': A lot further ahead than previously thought. Because of his speech impediment, thought it was lower. Realized that he is not as low. Knows numbers to 1000. 'D' is further behind.

Math: 'D' unable to use a number line. Struggles with place value. Struggles with counting and adding.

Plan: Take 'D' and 'J' and another and work with them using something physical. Three hoops, each student is gets a digit. Students need to move around to make a number. Using big number cards that students can touch. Tammy will use sheets of numbers to help students with "physical place value" and will record a movie of students problem-solving and trying to count up and down from a number endin gin '9'.

Mike: 
'D'  in the fifth grade is making NO progress in his reading instruction. He is unable to retain what he has learned from previous days, and we have to start from scratch every day. Have been working on vowels, but have noticed that we need to step back and focus on consonants (b, d, p) and (m, n). Also, 'D' is reading from right to left, and inventing sounds that aren't there. Need strategies to go from last to right and to find the difference between letters.

After watching video:
-make cue cards for 'b,p,d,t,m,n,h" as initial sounds.
-use the tricks as before.
-focus on each as only initial sounds.
-onset and rimes (word families)
-make cards with the onset, matching rimes. (Puzzles - so it has to fit in a shape to make the sound).
-phonics wheels for onsets & rimes - make it for 'big' kids?

Mike Will: 
-Adapt Phonics Games & Learning Activities for older kids, and to match the letter needs stated above. Will record 'D' reading his rimes & onsets.

Tammy Story: Hold fists with thumbs up, looks at them and sees the "b" on the left hand and "d" on his right hand. Say the letters infront of a piece of paper, "b" the paper doesn't move, "p" the paper has to move. 'MMmmmm McDonalds".

Feb. 6- PLC (Active Exploration: Math)

PLC- February 6, 2013

Xavier and Ndegwa were at prior commitments, so Arruda and Thibeau sat down to examine an activity developed by Arruda for her higher level math group.

Her concern was how to create a centre that fosters independence and make sure the task is authentic without confusing students with too many steps (visually appealing to meet various levels of abilities within her group).

As a pre-assessment of knowledge for graphing, each student will survey Keeler School for the most popular “fun” lunch.  The students will collect, tally, graph and interpret the data and bring their findings to the Generosity Club to help with the decision on future “fun” lunches for the school.

We came to the conclusion that it would be best to break down the larger task into clearer and more defined smaller steps to enable the students to work independently and be successful. 

The students will be introduced to the centre and will complete the task within the next month.  Once completed, Arruda will bring student work samples to review, as well as how she believes the project went (pros and cons).