Tuesday...our last day! We have sure learned a lot during ALP 2014-2015 and have lots of "take-aways" to bring to our school to better our scholars' literacy skills! Above is a look at our agenda, posted before the day began, as we chatted and enjoyed our yummy breakfast items.
Penny brought us together once again as we started with the community building. We were told to stand up and not talk. We then had to line ourselves up alphabetically by first name (cover your name tags!!!). With this quickly accomplished, we joined with our first-day partner and shared either our "powerful piece of learning" or to revisit what we wanted to accomplish in our 5-day session (from the first day of community building).
Housekeeping details:
Then, we discussed our 2.5-3 hour follow-up visits. The follow-up sessions were scheduled for September 18 (4-7) and January 15 (4-7). The location is TBA. Share Fair is scheduled for March 28 at the Galt House (8-3) with breakfast and lunch included.
Returning members were asked to share about coaching visits to help the newbies (like Philip and myself, Janet) to feel more comfortable. The suggestion was that we choose one day that works best for the whole staff.
Next, we were then invited to draw a stick figure on a blank piece of paper that represents a struggling reader/writer who we had in mind and write characteristics of this struggling reader/writer that we envisioned. Words such as "unprepared," "inpatient," "anxious," "angry," "unorganized," "lack of confidence," "truant," "low self-esteem," "disengaged" came to the surface during share time.
Kumar's struggling reader
Katie's struggling reader
We were then asked by Penny to write the stick figure and write what this envisioned scholar does well. We were encouraged to not look at literacy with a "deficit perspective" and to focus on our "positive lens" when we look at our scholars so that we can help them become independent readers and writers.
Geena's positive stick figure
Research time:
Reasearch time began as Penny talked to us about our Mind Map for Literacy: Do we have a Deficit or a Potential Mind Map when it comes to Literacy? In this, she shared with us the following poem as we were encouraged to remember that our scholars are still in the "developing" stage of their development.
Anything Can Happen
Shel Silverstein
Listen to the Mustn'ts,child, Listen to the Don'ts Listen to the Shouldn'ts The Impossibles, the Won'ts Listen to the Never Haves, Then listen close to me -- Anything can happen, child, Anything can be.
We then shared out the Mind Map of our schools. Some of our schools are in the "anything can happen" mindset, while others shared that, though the schools have the above mindset, the work is very difficult.
Take home point: we can offer literacy strategies that help to engage scholars and give them independence.
Hypothetical exercise:
We were given a hypothetical child and asked to brainstorm supports we could give the child and then asked to envision where that child would be in five years. The Cases were difficult to envision; however their identities were surprising! A was Eleanor Roosevelt, B was Thomas Edison, and C was Albert Einstein.
Blog Share: Westport Middle School
On-Demand Writing/ Math Journals &SMP's
At this point we moved into working on on-demand writing strategies. The math teachers broke apart and began work on Math Journals and SMP's.
There are two types of on-demand writing:
Passage-based
Stand-alone
Deborah teaching about writing and evaluating on-demand prompts
We worked on teaching our students to analyze a prompt by identifying the purpose, audience and form/mode. Then we were given a sample prompt and writing task along with some sample responses to score. We were given two samples. With the first, we were able to come to a consensus without much struggle. However, the second sample showed us that we all read the same responses differently but if we stick to the scoring guide and but out bias behind us we will be effective scorers who will help our students develop their writing skills.
Amy and Kariane evaluating an on demand piece.
Next we went examined some LDC templates for argument, informational or explanatory and narrative on-demand writing tasks. Based on our own individual content-area text sets we were asked to decide which templates we could use effectively.
Elizabeth writing her on-demand prompt using the provided LDC templates.
Amy S. continued to work with the math break out session in which she modeled using a math journaling prompt that engages students in productive struggle.
From Amy S:
Following the math prompt, they analyzed the Standards for Mathematical Practices (SMPs). Teachers commented that SMPs challenge students to engage in work that challenges their problem solving skills as well as perserverance. By incorporating more challenging and relevant tasks, we may open student thought and engage more students through writing in the mathematics classroom.
productive struggle in the math break out!
Writing Time:
During writing time, we were encouraged to finish our on-demand prompt and draft a model of a response to it.
Sandy working on her draft during writing time.
Math PQP:
The math break out group broke into PQP response group in order to get feedback concerning their student reflections, math journal prompts, and their inquiry questions. Response groups: PQP for other contents:
Then, we went into content-based response groups to get feedback on our prompts and drafts.
Derek and Elizabeth interacting in response groups.
Marsha leading response group with Jeremy participating.
Math Group: Writing Time
The math break out group then used their feedback to work on creating and revising student reflection prompts.
Whole Group:
The whole group got together to share "aha" moments from the week.
School Groups:
Next we met with our school groups and discussed our literacy plans. We worked on what things we wanted to take back with us and how we will implement it.
Day 5 Blog Space--Seneca High School
Tuesday...our last day! We have sure learned a lot during ALP 2014-2015 and have lots of "take-aways" to bring to our school to better our scholars' literacy skills! Above is a look at our agenda, posted before the day began, as we chatted and enjoyed our yummy breakfast items.
Penny brought us together once again as we started with the community building. We were told to stand up and not talk. We then had to line ourselves up alphabetically by first name (cover your name tags!!!). With this quickly accomplished, we joined with our first-day partner and shared either our "powerful piece of learning" or to revisit what we wanted to accomplish in our 5-day session (from the first day of community building).
Housekeeping details:
Then, we discussed our 2.5-3 hour follow-up visits. The follow-up sessions were scheduled for September 18 (4-7) and January 15 (4-7). The location is TBA. Share Fair is scheduled for March 28 at the Galt House (8-3) with breakfast and lunch included.
Returning members were asked to share about coaching visits to help the newbies (like Philip and myself, Janet) to feel more comfortable. The suggestion was that we choose one day that works best for the whole staff.
Next, we were then invited to draw a stick figure on a blank piece of paper that represents a struggling reader/writer who we had in mind and write characteristics of this struggling reader/writer that we envisioned. Words such as "unprepared," "inpatient," "anxious," "angry," "unorganized," "lack of confidence," "truant," "low self-esteem," "disengaged" came to the surface during share time.
We were then asked by Penny to write the stick figure and write what this envisioned scholar does well. We were encouraged to not look at literacy with a "deficit perspective" and to focus on our "positive lens" when we look at our scholars so that we can help them become independent readers and writers.
Research time:
Reasearch time began as Penny talked to us about our Mind Map for Literacy: Do we have a Deficit or a Potential Mind Map when it comes to Literacy? In this, she shared with us the following poem as we were encouraged to remember that our scholars are still in the "developing" stage of their development.
Shel Silverstein
We then shared out the Mind Map of our schools. Some of our schools are in the "anything can happen" mindset, while others shared that, though the schools have the above mindset, the work is very difficult.
Take home point: we can offer literacy strategies that help to engage scholars and give them independence.
Hypothetical exercise:
We were given a hypothetical child and asked to brainstorm supports we could give the child and then asked to envision where that child would be in five years. The Cases were difficult to envision; however their identities were surprising! A was Eleanor Roosevelt, B was Thomas Edison, and C was Albert Einstein.
Blog Share: Westport Middle School
On-Demand Writing/ Math Journals &SMP's
At this point we moved into working on on-demand writing strategies. The math teachers broke apart and began work on Math Journals and SMP's.
There are two types of on-demand writing:
We worked on teaching our students to analyze a prompt by identifying the purpose, audience and form/mode. Then we were given a sample prompt and writing task along with some sample responses to score. We were given two samples. With the first, we were able to come to a consensus without much struggle. However, the second sample showed us that we all read the same responses differently but if we stick to the scoring guide and but out bias behind us we will be effective scorers who will help our students develop their writing skills.
Next we went examined some LDC templates for argument, informational or explanatory and narrative on-demand writing tasks. Based on our own individual content-area text sets we were asked to decide which templates we could use effectively.
Amy S. continued to work with the math break out session in which she modeled using a math journaling prompt that engages students in productive struggle.
From Amy S:
Following the math prompt, they analyzed the Standards for Mathematical Practices (SMPs). Teachers commented that SMPs challenge students to engage in work that challenges their problem solving skills as well as perserverance. By incorporating more challenging and relevant tasks, we may open student thought and engage more students through writing in the mathematics classroom.
Writing Time:
During writing time, we were encouraged to finish our on-demand prompt and draft a model of a response to it.
Math PQP:
The math break out group broke into PQP response group in order to get feedback concerning their student reflections, math journal prompts, and their inquiry questions.
Response groups: PQP for other contents:
Then, we went into content-based response groups to get feedback on our prompts and drafts.
Math Group: Writing Time
The math break out group then used their feedback to work on creating and revising student reflection prompts.
Whole Group:
The whole group got together to share "aha" moments from the week.
School Groups:
Next we met with our school groups and discussed our literacy plans. We worked on what things we wanted to take back with us and how we will implement it.