Grade+2+Collaboration+2013-14

// We will use this space to keep track of our work together during team collaborations. Members are free to include comments, insights, add content, etc. Click edit to add content. // =Team Notes=

**__September 16, 2013__**
Joint Meeting with Grade 2 Present: Scott, Jen, Jackie, Michelle, Mary, Cindy, Darcy, and Joann Absent- Cindy

Purpose of our Collaborative Meeting Together
The 4 P's of Collaboration We want our collaborative time and conversation to encompass the following P’s:
 * __Purpose__ – a focus in student learning that is results -oriented and data driven
 * __Practice__ - discussing and sharing instructional best practices
 * __Participation__ - each member of the team engaged in accountable talk, sharing ideas, present and prepared for meetings
 * __Product__ - making student work the focus of our collaborative efforts

September Assessment- How did it go?
Jen- Good shape- needs to enter HFW's (written) Michelle- Good (had help- will not take credit for doing it all- thank you Marty, and Joyce) Jackie- Good shape- needs to enter HFW's (written); Need to resolve North Star issue Kindergarten- Will have Amanda support teachers (Mary already discussed this with Morgan)- Deadline- September 30th

**Comprehensive Assessment System (CAS) and AIS**
Passed out expectations and calendar for submitting data into Northstar. Scott will meet with each teacher during the next 3-4 week to review classroom data.

Know- Need- Teach- Check
After reviewing student data, use KNTC to isolate next step for striving students in the areas of reading, writing, word study or literacy behaviors

**SLO's**
Began to write SLO's. Many team member had trouble logging in. Copies last years SLO to a word document.

**__September 19, 2013__**
Joint Meeting with Grade 2 Present: Scott, Jen, Michelle, Jackie

Personal Narrative
__**Rubrics**__- Opinion Writing- Narrative Writing- Informational Writing-

Passed out 2nd grade narrative rubric from Lucy Calkin's and writing learning progression. Read through the personal narrative progression- What did you notice?
 * Our students might not have the structure yet- writing around pages, using word wall words, etc.
 * Authors intent- deliberateness in how they begin or end pieces
 * Big jump between grade 1 and 2 expectations

Practiced process looking at one narrative writing piece.

Teachers should use the legal size writing progression rubric to score writing and see where their students fall out. Consider overall class results for mini-lesson. Do the same for informational and opinion writing piece. We will compare baseline to other writing piece after units of study.

**__October 10, 2013__**
Present: Scott, Morgan, Michelle, Jennifer, Marty and Jackie


 * Reader's Workshop**
 * Michelle- Into a routine- mostly following it; Michelle and Marty know the "fakers" and are monitoring this; moving into the new unit- focusing on self- monitoring
 * Jackie- Stamina fairly good- up to 20 minutes reading independent; did a lesson on what to do when your getting off check; most selecting just right book; monitoring some students; self-monitoring strategies match to writing (supporting the unit of study).
 * Jennifer- Stamina fairly good- articulating this is your reading work- student come to the share prepared (balance between reading work and actual reading independently). Students are taking responsibility coming to the share prepared.

__Ideas and Collecting__ Teachers shared collecting folder or notebooks:
 * Writers Workshop**- Looking More Closely at the Personal Narrative Baseline Task
 * Michelle using a writer's notebook for ideas and collections; Jackie- lots of papers during collection- many choices- students then choose one to move to revising and editing. Jennifer- students needed to learn the difference between writing list and writing stories and paper choices; Both Jackie and Jennifer using writing folders for collections.ELL's using picture instead of word to remember; Some kids lack experience. Helping kids to zero in on smaller moments. Goal right now- **volume of writing and fluency.** Make sure you are collecting many pieces before going to a drafting (revising then editing). Students should write drafts and final process pieces on a loose paper of their choice.
 * At the end of the narrative writing unit- Teachers should give same demand task they gave for the baseline task (in a booklet), score and bring student writing to their day with Ginny Lockwood on November 15th.

__Writing Expectations-__
 * Student still need to learn to write in small moment then elaborate- look at annotated writing samples K-2 from Lucy Calkins to better understanding the writing progression. Also consider the writing process

As you look over student writing consider trends/ needs/ then establish goal or focus areas that can be addressed during mini-lesson in each of the three main areas: Trends/Focus Needs Structure Development- Conventions-


 * Reminders**-
 * Use shared reading and interactive reading aloud to prepare for Novembers units of study.
 * Team will be getting their own set of Lucy Calkin's Writing Units to use as a resource to support the work

Scott will be collecting __monthly__ writing snap shots (collection, process pieces, on-demand writing) from the following students. Teachers just need to make copies of their work.
 * Action Research- Evidence of Learning- Tracking Student Growth in Writing**
 * O'Brien- Jayden Nimako, Lily Ratinski, Derek Sampman
 * Starks- Ahlam Sayad, Ryan Hill, Lucas Alvarez
 * Wilson- Alexander Kosowski, Daniel Hu, Gianna DiNatale

**__October 21, 2013__**
Present: Morgan, Michelle, Jennifer, Marty and Jackie

Informational Text Writing; We all worked together to grade the writing using a common rubric. We talked with each other aloud and made observations and and noticed some issues that need to be addressed. Issues such as putting different parts on different pages, leads for non-fiction writing, etc. This was very beneficial to show and talk about our students writing, so we are grading on the same page and then teaching on the same issues that came up across the board. Examined Lucy Calkin's Information writing progression Scored students work

**__November 1, 2013__**
Present: Scott, Morgan, Michelle, Jennifer, Marty and Jackie

Launching the Coaching Cycle- Student-based Instruction

Teachers completed the pre-cycle reflection- Teachers were encouraged to provide specific things they would like to get out of the coaching experience this month.

This cycle involves much planning time and //some// coaching around direct teaching methods with kids. Cycle:
 * Collect & Analyze Data
 * Identify Needs and where should be best met within the literacy block (individual/small group/ whole group)
 * Plan Explicit Lesson
 * Teach Explicit Lessons
 * Reflect- (redo cycle if possible)

Morgan shared the coaching schedule- each teacher will get 10 coaching sessions.

Reviewing the pieces in the coaching cycle (red) folder: To the first planning session bring student data to review and analyze- (see cycle sheet for examples of data)

Which lesson is this planning informing? Once we look at the student needs, we will decide where to meet the student need (see planning sheet- 5 Step Process). Process will be address by different coaching sessions. Note: during the teach phase- make notes to inform future teaching (student evidence). There may be more than one teach day before the reflection day (i.e. a strategy group might have a 5-6 day plan).

Teachers discussed how they are making notes and collecting data/observations
 * Jackie- labels- sorted by + (strengths- what they are doing can complement student there) - (needs)- label kept intact on a clip board to see everyone in a glance before moving them to their individual pages.
 * Jen- Index cards- ancedotal- conferring sheet, uses the anchor chart sample to monitor the workshop teaching point
 * MIchelle- conferring sheet for reading, notebooks for writing
 * Marty- LLI groups

__**Nov 12, 2013**__
Began by discussing the new math kits. Looked at the common core inserts. Checked to make sure all of the units were there.
 * Math Investigations**

Looking at the end of the unit personal narratives to compare it to the first narrative written in Sept. We are scoring the new narratives on the same learning progression chart in a different color in order to be able to quickly observe any advances.
 * Writing**

We discussed what we noticed, how students developed new writing strategies. Discussed how to move forward with our teaching to address student needs.

__**February 10, 2014:**__
We went on the elementary mathematics website. Frank helped us navigate through the site and offered help when needed, and answered questions. Great site! Offers a lot of information and help on how to teach the units. Also, it has teacher friendly tools to help organize students work, i.e. rubrics, homework and checklists. All sorts of things!!!

We also watched a video of a class during math class. The video covered math talks, kids must work on listening to each other so they can add on and contribute to the conversation!

We also discussed possible kid responses and how to react to them.

Another good resource-Howard County Second Grade Math.

**__March 14, 2014__**
Present: Scott, Michelle, Kerri, Frank, and Marty

Creating a unit assessment for Unit 4 and 9- Data and Measurement (used the Charlotte- Mecklenburg (CM) unit) CM- create a group performance assessment Looked over the assessment from the Investigation units and bring them together. Look at assessment- agreement and disagreement critical skills for the unit.


 * Measure in a standard unit (ft, in, cm, m)**
 * Session 4.7 End of Unit Assessment- measure the length of line with ruler (units- cm & in.) Which unit give you a greater number. Explain why?
 * Compare two measurements**
 * Measure a length of adding tape/paper (Given two lengths of paper. How many centimeters bigger is paper A then paper B?)
 * Estimate in standard unit (ft, in, cm, m)**
 * idea: Have student evaluate an estimate (The pen is about 20 cm long. Do you agree or disagree and explain why?)
 * Represent and interpret data**
 * Gate /Chili Unit 4 assessment- read: picture graph, line plot, create: bar graph
 * Extra Question- Form Investigation**
 * Addition number story
 * Subtraction number story

**__March 17, 2014__**
Present: Scott, Michelle, Kerri, Morgan, and Marty

Reflection: Current Unit of Study- Short Realistic Fiction- Well Crafted Stories
 * Lots of writing during collecting phase; students had trouble moving away from personal narrative.
 * Students using the read aloud as support for structure for their writing
 * Jackie- adapted the rubric and created a checklist and had student self evaluate their first piece; divided the cycle into two writing writing process- using community writing to "kickoff" the second cycle.
 * Michelle and Marty shared they are using more of the revising mini-lessons earlier in the unit. More elaboration lessons currently.

Need- Introduce Writing About Reading ( Immersion lessons leading up to the Writing Persuasive Book Review)
 * Write about a book that interested or impacted me- write about read aloud text
 * Take jots (model during interactive read aloud)' move to community writing (model writing)/ move toward independence. Look at characters or theme that touched or impacted you. What is your evidence. Why did that touch you?
 * Move to persuasion
 * Teach summary- Somebody.. wanted... but... so... not a retell.
 * Morgan presented a nice summary and ideas for persuasive writing from the resource- __Non- Fiction Mentor Text__ by Dorfman & Cappelli. Help students become an expert on the book they are writing about so they can present an argument. They also need to know their audience. She also shared of list of mentor text that students could write about (text with different perspective or point of view between the characters). These should be read prior to the unit of study (see Morgan for a list of titles).
 * Sample: __Williams Doll__- Group individually created their own sample book review and shared them.

__**April 4, 2014 with Frank**__

 * Looked at student work from 3rd and 4th grade. How did different kids solve a problem? What did they do right? What did they do wrong? Focused on analyzing student work and modifying teaching to meet the kids' needs. How can we use 1 problem that was difficult for the kids to enrich our teaching? We need to analyze the work, then lead the kids in a discussion of their work.
 * Kids need to struggle with the math and work outside of their comfort zone. After they work and struggle and try to make sense of the problem, we can help clarify their understandings and misconceptions.
 * Looked at our current unit. What misconceptions are the kids having? What do we need to change in our instruction to meet the needs of our class?
 * Discussion about how to sequence lessons. Frank talked about mixing things up instead of focusing on the same type of problem every day (ie. area) until they become experts. If we focus on one thing the kids aren't understanding, they may learn one thing, but not the big idea. How can we use problems that may get at the same kind of ideas without being exactly the same. Value in having kids go back and do a difficult problem a 2nd time after the misconceptions are cleared up - can they then transfer their learning to completely different problems?
 * Talked about having the kids look at student work and critique it. What's good about it? How could you help them?

**April 7, 2014**
Present: Jackie, Kerri, Marty & Morgan
 * Group kids' topics so they aren't too specific (sports, animals, weather/climate, space, etc.)
 * Guide kids to craft 'meatier' questions... give these as options to choose from and contrast these from other typical simple "wh" questions
 * It's okay to use some texts that are above students' independent reading level... ensure you teach a lesson about how to navigate texts that are above students' reading level
 * Use digital sources to acquire additional information is okay
 * Use a log for kids to record their topic, question, books read, responses, and synthesis of new understanding
 * Collect books in a bin... can put bins in the middle of tables if resources are limited, so kids have a bigger selection when choosing

**April 29, 2014**
Present: Jackie, Kerri, Marty, Morgan, Scott

Grade 2 will be called upon to share their impressions of the recent inquiry-base/ technology integrated science project at the next faculty meeting.

Launching the writing coaching cycle-
 * Teachers complete pre-cycle reflection.
 * Morgan distribute- Cycle folder- introduced its content- Weekly/daily writing template- They are also available on Google Drive
 * Chapters from the Lucy Calkin's- __Art of Teaching Writing__ (older text with some good points)- It may not always follow our teaching moves. Katie Wood Ray's- __What You Know By__ Heart (Big ideas easy to grasp- teacher friendly text- practical); __Celebrating Writers__ by Overman and Ayres (very practical ideas for end of the unit closing celebrations- varies) Kerr mentioned she used a silent celebration last week.

Schedule- Will have an extend time period for coaching. Addressing classroom with co-teaching. What is the current form of co-teaching?
 * Marty/ Michelle- plan together, will team teach the mini-lesson (occasional parallel teaching), share the parts of the mini-lesson (some charting, chiming in); there is at time for small group after the mini-lesson. Marty- focus on his small group of 4 students.
 * Gloria/Jackie- Jackie generally takes the lead in mini-lesson due to the mentor text being used, Gloria explains vocabulary, does the charting; will break into the smaller groups (not pre-planned but groups divided after the mini-lesson), Gloria misses the share of the lesson.
 * Ashleigh/Kerri- will use Google Drive for planning- tries to keep Ashleigh informed of mentor text. Share the parts of the mini-lesson (team teaching). The role are shared and articulated on the planning document. Both teachers confer, share roster of students- quick reflection of what we are seeing in the student writing. Some articulation at the end of the lesson.
 * Do we want to explore parallel teaching as a co-teaching model? Goal, meet the needs of the kids (what are they doing). Look at a variety of structures.

Quick Look- Where are classrooms in the unit of study- Finishing well crafted stories, Beginning writing book reviews.

**May 12, 2014**
Non-Fiction writing unit