Issue 100: Aug 16, 2010 Connections Newsletter

Making the Most of Team Meetings

Jennifer Partrick
Aug 16, 2010

How can team meetings be more effective and productive?

One of the challenges that most teachers face is time. Many teachers lament that there is just not enough time to get everything done that needs to be done. One way that we can use our time more efficiently is to think about how we use grade level meetings. One of the practices that often happen at grade level meetings is using that time to air grievances about things that are bothering us, but this is not an effective way to use that time. The best way to avoid using grade level meetings as a dumping ground is to have an agenda. Some of you will say that that is one more thing to be done. True, but if an agenda will help you better use the time to get things accomplished, then taking the time to create the agenda is worth it.

What are some things that need to be on the agenda? Here is a simple idea:

Please note this is a sample of notes from a grade level meeting. Understand that discussion is not noted, only feedback and ideas.

Date: January 10, 2009

Members present: Jan B, Sharon O, Bruce T, Macy L

Notes from principal (if information is shared by grade level chairperson):
Reports due by Jan: 21
Parent meetings completed by Jan. 27
List of students not going on field trip
Teachers interested in the upcoming workshop

Response for principal (if grade level chairperson takes feedback to principal):
Students not going on field trip: Matthew L, Lonie H, Tate H
Workshop interest: Macy L

What is going well instructionally (personal information to share with team):
Collaborative Pairs, love the graphic organizers,

Where do you need support instructionally (personal information to share with team and gather ideas from team):
Still don't quite understand the Assessment Prompts, need to continue working with them
My low students are not moving

Sharing ideas for upcoming instruction (ideas to share with team):
Next week focus is: cause and effect, blends, quotation marks:
Use the graphic organizer in the book, students love it
Low students could use their leveled book to locate cause and effect
Phone conversation to highlight speech and quotation marks
Spaghetti and elbow noodles to highlight speakers and narrator
Center ideas:
Students could be given an event: falling, crashing my bike, surprise, and they have to create causes and effects based on the event they chose using the graphic organizer
Students could write an essay using the graphic organizer
Students could write about events in their lives and note causes and effects of the event
Could tie centers using cause and effect to science:
Plant is dr ooping
Drought
Oil spill

Dividing jobs related to upcoming instruction (based on decisions made by team):
Copies of graphic organizers (if students are not creating their own)
Gather low level readers for centers for low students
Sharon: oil spill picture graphic organizer, low level center for quotation marks and narrator
Bruce: bike crash picture graphic organizer, middle level center for quotation marks and narrator
Macy: surprise graphic organizer, high level center for quotation marks and narrator

In this example, teachers brought suggestions with them to share. As a team, they decided on which ideas they would use and then each person had certain tasks to complete and share with members of their team. For example, Sharon would create an oil spill graphic organizer and the low level word center for each member on the grade level. Therefore, if the low level quotation mark center was for students to identify the narrator and dialogue in a simple story, Sharon would make enough copies of the story for all low level students and then share them with the members of her team. Likewise, if the oil spill was a choice in the writing center, Sharon would make copies for perhaps two thirds of the students (all students most likely would not all choose the oil spill task) on that grade level and then share with the team. Sharing the load eases some of the stress related to time.

Planning the grade level meeting ensures that time will be spent working on grade level issue. Dividing up the work across the grade level helps to keep stress at bay.

Preparing for the Future

Debbie Cargill
Aug 16, 2010

What can we plan to do to make our students globally competitive?

Creating schools for the future is certainly a challenge. Gary Marx, in "An Overview of Sixteen Trends: Their Profound Impact on Our Future" (2006), writes about the move from the Industrial Age to a Global Knowledge/Information Age and its impact on education. "The skills and knowledge students will need include: basic management and entrepreneurial skills; the ability to collaborate with others; the ability to separate truth from fiction as they explore conflicting information that is expanding exponentially; critical and creative thinking skills; technological savvy; and an understanding of different cultural backgrounds." (p. 15)

How can you plan and develop lessons and units that provide learning opportunities for students that address the need for global competence?

Below are just a few of the issues that were identified by Gary Marx as necessary in planning for a global education. The connection with the Learning-Focused Strategies Model follows.

Thinking and reasoning: Within the Learning-Focused unit framework, teachers are expected to provide opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of essential content. This understanding leads to retention, application, and transfer of knowledge. At Level II, Extending Thinking, students move beyond the acquisition level using higher order thinking strategies.

Collaboration: Collaborative pairs is a part of the Learning-Focused framework and is an organizational tool for grouping students for the purpose of engaging their thinking about new learning. Talking about the learning helps students to make sense of it and internalize it. Eric Jensen says that talking about new learning may be the single best memory device we have. In learning to work in a partnership or as a part of a team, students are learning those social skills that are so necessary for their future success.

Student engagement: The research says that students are more likely to retain new information if they are actively engaged. The Learning-Focused Strategies Model provides multiple opportunities for engagement throughout the lesson and the unit. Summarizing strategies, distributed guided practice, and collaborative pairs are a few examples.

Real-life connections: All learning occurs in levels. Level I is the acquisition level. At Level II, students deepen their understanding of content. Level III is the authentic, meaningful use, and maintenance level. At this level, students make the connections to real-life, applying and using their knowledge in meaningful ways. The Learning-Focused framework addresses each level of learning.

Designing learning experiences that will challenge and prepare students for a role in a global society is a goal all teachers. The Learning-Focused Strategies Model provides the framework for planning to meet the needs of all students.

The Acceleration and Scaffolding Tango Advances Student Performance for Struggling Learners

Cindy Riedl
Aug 16, 2010

How do Acceleration and Scaffolding work together to help struggling learners?

Coupling Acceleration and Scaffolding practices and strategies is how general education teachers and support teachers have the greatest impact on guaranteeing access to grade level instruction for struggling learners. Among other things, Acceleration provides direct instruction that prepares struggling students for what will occur in the classroom before it happens. It is a major scaffold that builds background knowledge, previews vocabulary and organizes upcoming learning with advance organizers, while it also reviews or re-teaches missing pre-requisite skills and concepts. The goal is simply to stay ahead of what will happen in the classroom so that these students have a greater chance for success with their grade level peers at the same time. They enter the instructional situation better prepared - armed with knowledge and skill s that will increase confidence and commitment.

In addition to Acceleration, it is up to the general classroom teacher to adjust instruction and lesson activities using scaffolding strategies in order to meet the needs of these students while maintaining high standards and high expectations for all learners. Scaffolding is comprised of specific strategies and practices that general education teachers use to help struggling, at-risk and special education students to learn grade level concepts and skills. As students become independently successful at a task or skill, supports are gradually removed.

Struggling students may require differentiated assignments, text materials modified, the use of alternative materials, graphic organizers with built in support, or note-taking techniques that are more suitable for their learning style/writing ability. The following are examples of scaffolding instructional materials:

1. Modifying Existing Text - add graphics or change font size by putting the text section into a Word document. Use the Auto-summarizer tool to summarize or identify key concepts, main idea and supporting details. Also, add notes and text effects in order to aid text readability.

2. Use Alternative Materials - locate different abridged versions of the same story or information that is on different reading levels. Use the internet to search for alternatives.

3. Use Modified Graphic Organizers - provide pages where information can be located, start with a partially completed organizer, include an information or word bank, add visuals, or restructure or reduce the number of responses required.

4. Teach Note-taking Strategies - create note-taking forms that utilize hints and cues for students to record important information from texts and other written sources. Use adapted Cornell note formats with a ‘Cloze' format where students fill in only key vocabulary and concepts.

5. Differentiate Assignments - use tiered assignments where the basic task has more supports built into it for struggling learners and more challenge build in for those students who are much more able.

Example: How do I use visualization to understand what I read?

Tier 1: Explain to a younger student how visualizing can help him understand what he reads. Choose a picture book that would appeal to a younger student. Plan where you will stop and do a think aloud describing what you visualize. Put a sticky note at each place with notes about what you will say!

Tier 2: Write an article for our class newsletter describing how visualization helps us as readers. Be sure to give examples from your own experiences.

Tier 3: Write a response to someone who says that visualization is not an important skill for readers. Be sure to use specific examples to support your position that visualizing is very important. R.A.F.T. (Role, Audience, Format, Task) assignments allow choice for students to demonstrate what they know.

• Role: Who is the writer? What role does he/she play?
• Audience: To whom is student writing?
• Format: What form will the writing take?
• Topic: What topic will student be writing about?