4+Feb+11+Meeting+Log

Bobbie, Trace, Michael, Janine, and Susan R signed on to the wiki and began reflecting upon their reading of the two articles; “Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy” by Timothy Shanahan; Cynthia Shanahan (//Harvard Educational Review;// Spring 2008; 78, 1; Platinum Periodicals pg. 40) and “There's No Such Thing as a Reading Test” by E.D. Hirsch and Robert Pondiscio (The American Prospect, June 13, 2010). Reflections are captured on their participant pages.
 * Writing into the Meeting **

General Comments - Social learning can be exhausting for both students and teachers – need to change up or students can get tired and some teachers not so comfortable with the less control that social learning requires. Many students want the passive learning of lecture and are reluctant to change so more success occurs when the teaching strategy is switched up a lot. The more you use social learning strategies, the more comfortable they get.
 * Discussion:**
 * Trace** – filled with questions from articles. If Hirsh is true we need to know about how students learn to devise teaching methods to work with content and literacy.
 * Bobbie**- Reading strategies can become like a lecture. Social learning is important – how to get them to read outside of the classroom.
 * Janine** - The idea of having students read as though they are having a conversation with an author. How do you read/talk to a scientist? How is this different from talking to a historian or mathematician? How do the reading/talking strategies look in each of the disciplines?
 * Mike** – we need to teach strategies to have these conversations and teaching to points of understanding – look at text together. This happens in elementary classrooms, not so much at high school. We do reading and do think aloud – explain how to read text. Show how to read text.
 * Trace –** interesting work happens at elementary level more than HS/MS. Not focused on decoding at elementary but more on experience.
 * Janine** – reminds me of Neil’s and Lisa’s(HS Social Studies Teachers) questions in our past study groups. They had students writing DBQ’s to try to understand what the authors of the text wanted.
 * Bobbie** – I tried something similar with 11/12th graders. They created study guides for chapters. Two students go through chapter 1 and create a 5/ 10 page quiz and each group presents information . They had to show me how they will you teach this review. The success of the work depended upon student’s attitudes. I also provide them with other resources. Students who spent time with the work did learn the best.
 * Janine/Bobbie** - Labs usually are in partners so if you mix the learning groups you get different results than if you have same ability students working together. If mix same ability the discussion is better.

For the Unit on the Revolutionary War – 4th Grade – I used the model called RAN reading and modified KWL. Students begin brainstorming about the revolutionary war. Then they read nonfiction books on the revolutionary war during their reading workshop( ½ fiction ½ non fiction). They use post notes to record facts as reading. This was very active. What was posted either showed new learning or confirmed something, or refuted something. Next they wrote a play on what they learned. The class was divided into groups and each group does an act. They must write dialogue, then the scripts are typed and the play is performed For the Declaration of Independence, we employed a the just leaned technique of persuasive writing. They wrote a letter to King George that had to have 3 parts; What they want, charges against the King, and what need to be done. Find when students learn for a purpose other than taking a test, i.e. to write a play or write a letter, they are more active in the learning because they must apply it. So there is a deeper learning.
 * Mike Presentation of Student Work: Question: How does Tony Stead’s work (RAN reading) or active reading impact content learning?**


 * What we noticed in the student work of the King George letters:**
 * Clear on freedoms desired.
 * Very clear on structure of writing – Freedoms; charges, desires… Structure is strong in all student writing regardless of ability
 * Can see different points in different student writing – some emphasis one area or another even though all covered same material in group talk you can see that their individual read did color their writing.
 * Would love to be a student in this class – can see passion – reading historical fiction is great not so factual as text book so students seem to relate to it better.
 * Had community learning so the playing field was leveled for the different learners.
 * Good way to provide an alternative assessment – not just a multiple choice test.
 * Allowed student voice in a history classroom.


 * What we noticed in the student play:**
 * Hear voice well – hear them trying to capture points of different parts.
 * More focused than letters but still get variety based on whose perspective they are representing.
 * Clear see how decisions were made and how risky it was to fight the acts.
 * Did get overarching idea of why taxes – to pay for the French/Indian wars
 * Allows kinestic into learning especially for those more active students.
 * Good alternative assessment of learning.
 * Question – how was this figured into grade – did they also get a multiple choice grade or was this the only assessment of their learning? (Students still took a multiple choice test).
 * See detail into learning of specific facts and affective things.
 * English class does some reading in class but most don’t . Don’t have a lot of reading from different focus.

Most math time is focused on learning the great number of strategies they must master for the Regents. This is especially true for Alg II and Trig. Not able to do put in many “fun” reading like careers, so instead I have them read a chapter, make a review and test from it. A wiki called, “Cool Math” says students do best if doing it rather than hearing it. Students read and then do an assessment and the next day go over it. I look at the homework and compare how well they do with this as compared to lecturing first. I don’t want to overuse this technique because weak readers don’t feel confident learning like this. The group is assessed. They discuss the answers then make final copy for grading. I have different levels of test based on the groups’ ability. I like to group students based on abilities. I want to give them tests they can be successful at. Get test work done in class. We work a couple of days, then submit answers. Some groups assign out questions to members but always they collaborate. Smarter groups discuss the most. They also look up stuff more. 20 minutes into period – they can use note books to answer not just each other. Submit a test for entire group. For feedback I write corrections on top and go over what is wrong. During the class work, I float. During work each member of group can ask one questions. It is a similar strategy as the show survivor. Pre-Calculus – Why are there more woman than men… Students pick a question from book and read the question to the class. Then discuss the rest of the day. Intermediate AlgebraIj- student work shown –we do a project a quarter. Maybe research a mathematician, can do paper or power point presentation. This year we did a career exploration. The student selects the career, but the questions that each student must address about the careers I set. All must relate it to math through the guide they write. We go to the library learn resources. Lean how to cite references, and how to work on grammar. Work on audience. They can use text books on careers and real life problems. Each student must give a rationale as to why they choose the career.
 * Bobbie Student Work. Question: How does social learning impact student learning of math concepts?**

CAST Group Question: Do you have any student review before submission. Answer – no but they can submit again if not passing.


 * What we Noticed in the Career Papers:**
 * Great example for using skills cross curriculum. Citation, library.
 * Must develop rationale.
 * Seeing real world application of math skills.
 * Allows student choice in math and get to see if are interested in
 * Answers question, “ why are we learning this?”.


 * What we noticed in student Financial News Update**:
 * What do you want to study – give options – debts, stocks…
 * Did financial update spend a day or two in library?
 * Formatting is stressed and citation.
 * Critical pedagogues – good example of using the class – work in math to think about the impact on the world of our decisions.
 * Culminating assessment.
 * Also find an ad and purchase it.


 * What we noticed in student Journal Topics:**
 * Once a week assign a journal writing do in journal given in paper.
 * Students respond in it and teacher responds back.
 * Get use to write in class so not so resistant.
 * In terms of community the journal is welcoming to non math students.