MHTC+Action+Plan


 * STUDY GROUP ACTION PLAN**

__ NOTE __ : This is to be returned to MHTC following your **second** Study Group session.

TOPIC: Content Area Literacy FACILITATORS: Janine Guadagno and Trace Schillinger
 * Please describe the goals of the Study Group:** Our goal is to learn how literacy skills are used or can be used to help students become more proficient at reading, writing or speaking about a particular area of content. Through our reading we want to become more adept at identifying and naming literacy strategies and then use this knowledge to name the strategies we see incorporated in the student work discussed by our team.
 * Specify teacher learnings and students issues that will be addressed:** Individuals participating in this study group will become part of a professional learning community engaged in teacher research. As part of this community, teachers will develop strategic techniques and questions that will aid them in investigating their practice with supportive and reflective colleagues to understand how selected teaching strategies engage students in the learning of content material, make information comprehensible and accessible to students or assess learning outcomes in order to know what students learned-and what they have not yet learned.

Laura – What impact does a Ning have on literacy? Eric – Etcha Sketch – Multi intelligent activity to connect students to reading || Jack -Building a Reading Community: //Student Book Talks// || Presenters: Sally/Ellen, and Lisa || Presenters: Neil, Nicole, and Paulette- || We plan to capture our thoughts and lessons learned on a group wiki (|http://hvwp0910contentstudygroup.wikispaces.com).
 * What is your action plan? How will you proceed?** Our group set the following schedule to look at the text, __Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms__ and examine student work generated in the classroom of our group members to try to identify literacy strategies used.
 * 12/4/09 || PDS || Look at Chapter 2 in text and discuss
 * 1/8/10 || PDS || Text – Chapters 3 & 4
 * 2/5/10 || PDS || Text – Chapter 5
 * 3/12/10 || PDS || Text – Chapters 6 & 7
 * 4/9/10 || PDS || Strategies Learned; Next Step ||

We want to identify literacy strategies used in various content area classrooms that are clear, and practical and will help teachers improve their students’ ability to read and comprehend materials ranging from textbooks to Web pages to novels. The end result of using effective literacy strategies in the classroom is to increase students’ interest in learning content specific material on their own.
 * What are the intended results of the Study Group’s work?**

Our group is planning on presenting our findings at a Saturday workshop for the HVWP and will develop potential Professional Development workshops or professional articles centered upon our learnings.
 * Will there be a product resulting from the study group? (If so, please describe)**


 * How will you evaluate the effectiveness of your Study Group?** The effectiveness of our group will be evaluated by how well we can communicate our lessons learned to a larger community and continue these discussions with other content area educators.