4+Dec+09+MHTC+Session+1+Log

SESSION #: 1 (December 4, 2009) Group Discussion: The following are comments prompted by looking over discussion points from our first meeting held 11/3/09: - Trace – haunting thought from last meeting – if we accept substandard work students’ won’t know what is best – trouble is how to assess capability of students so know best of each. - Maybe an area to concentrate on for all content teachers would be footnoting, citing work and editing pieces. To do this content teachers need to evaluate more than just the ideas presented in the piece. - Literacy skills are important in all classes. Challenges exist in motivating students to use literacy techniques in a variety of curriculum settings, especially reading strategies. (Janine and Sarah) - Reading could be improved by using more print media than just text book but students need to see the text book as a genre of print media like test or timed writing should be viewed as a genre of writing. Scanning and skipping should be practiced as a valued literacy technique in textbook reading. (Laura, Nicole, Ellen, Janine, Kristen) - Is the textbook a valuable print media source or simply an outdated piece of literacy? Textbook reading could be used to help students learn strategies for reading nonfiction text. Need strategies to help students become more active readers especially with the text book. Strategies such as interactive questions seem to help. (Jack, Elllen, Nicole, Lisa) Group members read Chapter 2 of the text, __Reading for Understanding, A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms__, prior to our meeting. The following are group comments prompted from the reading: - It is difficult to discern is a student has the capability to read a text for comprehension. Many struggling readers can decode, so it sounds like they are reading, they and their parents think they are reading but can’t answer questions about it. (Lisa, Sarah, Jack) - At the middle/high school level intervention is focused on passing tests and not so much on reading strategies that promote comprehension. - As a content teacher, I do not routinely take the time to teach reading comprehension (Janine and Lisa) - Strategies that I use and was taught either as an adult or as a student that help me with comprehension are (Janine, Lisa, Sarah, Eric, Jack o double entry learning (using two columns to take notes) o  Structure of T-Chart  o  Think a loud – what blog writers thinking as creating a blog – Personal deminsion – blog writer writing blog and speaking what they are thinking about. Love to hear what students are thinking as they break down the questions. o Annotating text – describe setting – underline what they are thinking from the reading. Best way to understand their reading is to see what they do when they are reading. - Modeling strategies are very important to help students learn when and how to use them (Eric, Sarah, Jack). - Social interaction is an important aspect of learning on the middle and secondary level. By using reading strategies and discussing them, the opportunity of socialization is brought into the content classroom (Janine, Eric, Jack) Eric presented a strategy he calls “Etcha Sketch” that he uses in his classroom to connect students to reading – this fits in with the text reading from p. 32 – helping students monitor their reading and engage with the text. The strategy works as follows: - Purpose of strategy: To help students engage with the text by taking notes. -<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Procedure of the strategy: o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Fold a piece of note book paper into quadrants. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Read a section of the text. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> In one of the quadrants, students make a picture; students also have the text book to read along only 2 minutes to make a sketch. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> In the box next to sketch, students write a note about the sketch -<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Benefits seen from the technique o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Sharing in pairs good for social point §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> 2nd read good to show why you need read things twice (sketch and resketch) §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Multiple Intelligences accessed by drawing and writing §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Pace and time is good so they know it to be showed soon §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Sketch to stretch – (Ellen) use to visual a fiction book – they write about why they did that – also to explain drawing or multiple drawings help understand where kids are. §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Good for kids who I don’t know what to write – scaffolding towards note taking. §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Can use as a form of assessment – tells if students are picking up the main points. §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Personal aspect – get to make own meeting. §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How to decide what text to use this tool with (clear sequence of events) – wouldn’t use it with really broad information – need some central text, hard to pick the important topic – won’t see commonality in the responses §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> This is fun and taking notes §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Listening section on English test – maybe draw pictures 1st time then label it. <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"> Laura presented her work with class journaling using the Ning. -<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Process: o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Poughkeepsie Day School is committed to digital technology. Each student has notebook computer and wireless internet access throughout the school. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Create a Ning for the class and set-up a group. The posted work is only open to group members o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Assign a daily student logger and a student digital documenter. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> At the end of each class, the logger stays behind and writes a log of the class which is saved on the class flash drive. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> The digital documenter takes 10 pictures each day, saves them on the flash drive and email the teacher picture they want uploaded to represent the day. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> The teacher posts the log and the picture.

-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Literacy Noticed by Study Group: o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Very excellent writing – wonder if audience helped this. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Journal helps build continuity on the classroom o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> The Ning also helps build community with parents. Students create a scavenger hunt for information located on the Ning. Parents, once the students open the Ning as members, allow the parents to search the Ning for answers to the questions and then there are discussion questions for the parent and child to complete following the hunt. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> The Ning also provides a place to post writing prompts – prompts are used to start the class with writing. Students then read others responses and reply to them. The responses create a threaded conversation which can be used as a form of assessment for the teacher as to what the student learned. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Student entries show that over time voice is developing. They put more into each entry over time. Next Steps: The group developed the following schedule for reading the text and presenting classroom literacy work: -<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> 1/8/10 Chapters 3 & 4 Jack -<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> 2/5/10 Chapter 5 Sally/Ellen, Lisa -<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> 3/5/10 Chapter 6 & 7 Neil, Nicole, Paulette