May 29th- PLC (Active Exploration: Math)

PLC:  May 29, 2013

Lisa T., Brittany, Katrina, Jen

Brittany and Katrina took the suggestions made in our last meeting and implemented them into their math groups.  They were extremely impressed with the successes observed with their students. 

Katrina tried grouping math groups differently and keeping them consistent and working with the same teacher for the week.  She felt better with the learning and engagement going on and the students seemed more settled with the groupings.

Brittany made the lessons in her math group more individualized and is noticing greater success with her students.  She is also not focusing on one objective for a long period of time and students are excited for math because it is “fun”.

She is working towards a final project with fractions where the students will use fractions to create a pizza and then they will create their own individual pizza to eat.  Fun!

We discussed how well the PLC went this year went.  The ideas, conversations and projects that were discussed were engaging and exciting.  It was great to get a different perspective on activities and also to feel free to discuss successes and things that didn’t go well in a safe environment.  We look forward to continuing with this PLC format for next year.  

May 15- PLC (Active Exploration: Math)

Wednesday May 15 – PLC

We took a look at math activities that Katrina and Brittany tried with their math groups.  We discussed the task, the successes and challenges, suggestions for growth and the next steps that could be taken.

Katrina

-       Fractions to decimals challenge

-       ½ of the class is working on this challenge while the other is doing the Lego challenge in Learning Commons

-       Learning to say fractions, draw fractions on grid paper and then convert to a decimal

-       Relating it back to area and perimeter (previous lessons/sequencing)

-       Do the students have success with so much switching between groups and concepts?

-       They are continuing with lessons, but having a week break from new lessons is tricky

-       Having a lessons being taught by one teacher and then challenge being organized by another teacher… going back and forth can cause chaos in the classroom.

-       Can you plan an activity that takes all week? Creating extension for students.

-       Key to success is being able to follow up with students after lesson plans.

Brittany

-       Working on the foundations of fractions – anchor chart, review

-       Creating art with fractions. Writing our name and writing fractions. Ex. 2/5 letters are vowels.

-       Extending fractions into science. Creating a design on a plane using fractions. Ex. 3/10 of the plane must be grey, ½ of the page must be blue.

-       Current project, 2D and 3D shapes.

-       Began with iPads using geo-board. Review of lines and vertices.

-       Next step… creating shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks. Using iPads to explain sides and vertices.

-       Ability grouping is very successful

-       Interactive lessons using art, iPads and going outside allow students to feel successful

-       Cooking…. Great way to reinforce fractions!

What to do with kids who finish early?

-       Extension questions

Number of the Day

-       Give students a strip of paper with different numbers for them to complete until the end of the year

-       Switching up the chart using Post-It notes

Next PLC: 

-members will bring student work and discuss the successes/challenges of a new math task tried with students

ELL Boys & Their Use of the English Language

Bent: Has been working on speech with them all year. Used the iPad to work on hearing their speech. Has worked on readers' theatre with the students. Students were really connected to their characters, so they were more open to speak.

Authentic Student Work: Video of readers' theatre. Alexander & The Terrible, Horrible, Nogood Very Bad Day. The work was fluency, not on acting.

Observations:
(T) - Able to read and write, and listen, but his speaking is incomprehensible. Can't pronounce TH, T, K sounds. And he says 'D' for 'T'. Doesn't finish endings of words. "My mom was say" not "my mom was saying".

(R) - Only one that didn't get really into it, and so his fluency wasn't as good. Can't pronounce the 'F', can't say P, he says B. Real challenge, because he is too cool for school.

(J) - Super enthusiastic. Excited. Fluent and expressive. Good intonation. Animated.

Next Steps:
Choose a letter or letter combination with each of them that they are working on. Find words, have them read them. Show them how to say those words. Have them work on different letters.

Story Idea:
Students are given a picture from a David Wiesner book (interesting, picture-only fantasy book). They get to dictate a story, which then becomes a readers theatre that they will perform.

Next Time:
Tammy will share math with grade 5s.
Tammy will share (B) and (K)s work.
Tammy will share about her reading group with other grade 6s.
Mike will share something.
Claire is trying to work on numbers and letters with (D).

Sharing Student Work at All Levels

We looked at student work based on ideas and topics we discussed last month. Thibeau shared a video of her students doing an “awesome” math center that incorporates multiple levels of math operations work with physical activities. Her students were engaged in authentic learning and collaborated together to solve problems, while having fun (and body breaks).

Arruda shared student work from her graphing center. It is an excellent authentic assessment piece that followed a more structured lesson.

Xavier shared some math challenges and the student work that went along with it.

With all this sharing, our newest members (Brittany and Katrina) were able to ask questions and get ideas for their math groups too.  

In 2 weeks Brittany will bring student work of new lessons she is going to try with her math group. 

April 17, 2013

Claire Matheson

'D' is not really making progress in his letters... He can write on his own, which is a step forward. The 'b' sound is still tricky for him.

Video:
Claire is sharing a video of D talking about B. She thinks they're bad, but they're actually fantastic. A+ in videography.

In the video 'D' demonstrated inattentiveness by looking everywhere except where he is supposed to. But, D was starting to use the classroom displays as reference material to find the letter B.

Interesting discussion: Using the short a in the word 'ball' it is different than in words like cat and hat... So it was slightly confusing between the short u and the short a sounds. D was able to find the letter B and write it. When asked to write a small b he wrote a capital B smaller (scale).

Claire is working on the initial sound with B.

Everything discussed in previous PLC meetings seem to be working.

Focus on the letters in 'D's name. Don't worry about the lower case letters...Unsure about the support at home.

Mike MacKenzie

Mike remains stuck with D & D. He really feels like progress is not being made. They are forgetting everything they learned in the previous bunch of lessons, so even though we review the lessons.

After trying a number of interventions, students are not making the progress that he'd like them to make.

After discussion, we have decided that they need to do a bottom-up approach to phonics instruction with an iPad app called Explain Everything used to include oral reading skills.

Tammy
The cards are hugely successful! Students are working on place value, and they are adding and subtracting by 10s, 100s, 1000s, and 1s. Only Do can go over the 9.

D doesn't understand thousands, he believes that there is only 1 digit in the thousands place. For example, he thinks that 12300 is 1 million 2 thousand, 3 hundred. Kids can do all sorts of shapes and can use the geoboard on the iPad. Students have a hard time drawing it, but can do it on the ipad. Students can count the sides of a figure and tell what it is.

Now students are working on perimeter with quadrilateral for the upcoming Lego Logic unit.

Next will be a focus on perimeter and adding numbers.

Bent
Talked about needing to work with a few students at a time for an entire month or so, instead of working with kids for 40 minutes once per rotation. That way she could focus on a number of things instead of 1.

Next time Mike & Claire will present something amazing. Must be incredible.

March 6-PLC (Active Exploration: Math)

PLC notes

March 6, 2013

Lisa Thibeau

Terra Xavier

Jen Arruda

Anica Robinson

Terra presented a lesson on Area that she did with her students.  Within the lesson the students demonstrated their understanding of area using Explain Everything.

Within the student work, there was evidence of students varying levels of understanding.  Through the explanations it was clear what the learning had been and which concepts needed to be revisited.  Students also demonstrated connections to other mathematical concepts that were articulated in the explanations that they gave of their work.

Throughout the unit on area, students are learning about how area helps to inform how things are built in our world.  The students will be furthering their understanding by building a Lego city that will allow students to demonstrate through this engaging learning experience. 

Designers

Teachers are Designers of LearningWith Diana, Claire, Tammy, MikeMarch 5, 2013

Claire: 

Brought in a video of 'D' trying to figure out the letter B. Chose B because 'D' has shown confidence in. It really helped to clarify what he can do, and what he struggles with:

What he can do:
-identify uppercase letter B out of a given bunch of letters.
-can write the letter B without needing to trace it, but it still needs to be beside him.

Struggles:
-to make the sound of the letter B (often makes the 'P' sound).
-pointing out words with an initial sound of B.

Where to go:
-Want to go through the letters so he can identify the letters in a similar way.
-Want D to understand the 'B' sound... So will keep working at it during station time.
-Will focus on identifying letters so he knows what letter he is writing.

Claire will bring in more videos for next time.

Ideas:
-Use the SMART Board to write extra huge letters and draw pictures of things that begin with the letter B.
-Create a poster with the letter B in the middle and cut out pictures of things with the initial sound and paste them on.
-Should he focus on upper-case? Or should the focus be on lower-case? Claire is not only working with one, but is focussing on both.
-How can we get him to say that sound?
-What should teachers teach first, the lower case or uppercase?

Tammy

Update: J is absent a lot... So have only been able to go through "this" twice. Today was the test. Tammy made 10 numbers up to thousands, but it was too high. Using place value cards, without hoops (upstairs in the hallway).
Students raced to put numbers together (as discussed last time). Then students had to pick chance cards. For example, they may have to make a card that is 1 smaller or 2 bigger based on what place value students are representing. Students not getting it on paper, mentally, verbally... Only 1 student can do this.

Next Steps:
-Not going to do thousands anymore. Doing hundreds until they get it down. Going to give the kids a reference chart to help them. The numbers were too big. Hard for them to take it from their mind and put it on paper.
-Students will listen to a number and write it down...
-students are enjoying the movement of this.

Idea:
-Price Contest, students make numbers.
-Bring in cars
-take out 1000s
-Keep practicing what she's doing

Diana

Diana brought in a book called spelling Through Phonics. She has been working with C & H. Both are good readers (around an f). Getting closer to reading level. Playing a game b/c H needs practice on sight words:

Focus: Vowels and letter sounds. Students trace their hands on a piece of paper. Students role a letter and a vowel dice. Students need to make a 3 letter words. 1 vowel in each finger, and students write the words above each finger. Focus on short vowel sounds.

Sight Words: Through cards students are learning sight words.

Ideas: To put the sight words together based on a connection of some kind. For example, initial sounds, consant blends, digraphs, L, S, FL, BL type blends. Use bingo to go over diphthongs and digraphs, etc.

Order of Letter Learning (open for discussion!):
-Start with single consonants that 1 sound
-Move in to single consonants with multiple sounds (c & g)
-Move into short vowels
-consonant blends
-digraphs
-power of the e
-vowel combinations