FantasticFiveWk5

= Fantastic Five : Week 5 Studying Teaching Practice in Professional Learning Communities  =

Hour 1
ENGAGE Please view the video below as an anticipatory set for today’s lesson, to get your attention focused on using Inquiry to study Teaching Practice in collaborative groups: [] (seems to take a while to load and displays very small, but is worth it! Approximately 15 min.)

EXPLORE [[])]

Hour 2
EXPLAIN Open-Ended Questions: ﻿1. How can other teachers be helpful to you when teaching? 2. What would be an effective way for teachers to meet and discuss together to help one another?  3. Why is reflection on your own teaching so important? ﻿﻿[Please reflect on these three questions and we will discuss our answers before class!]

ELABORATE First, take turns discussing the data you have collected so far on your Child Inquiry. These questions might guide your conversation:
 * Who did I choose?
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">What did I see?
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">What does it mean?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Next, it is time to analyze the data you have collected, or in other words, figure out what is going on with this student! Either individually, or in partners, take some time right now to read and listen to Modules 4 and 5. Once everyone has gone through these, discuss. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Finally, the Inquiry #2 assignment requires you to select a teaching practice of your cooperating teacher to study—something that seems to work or something that doesn’t seem to work or something that has just caught your eye. Could be:
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Grouping
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Presenting
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Classroom management
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Communicating
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Technology use

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">As a group, make a list of teaching strategies that you see used in your class. Take turns formulating a “wondering” about one strategy. How can your PLC group help you to initiate, analyze, and write-up this inquiry? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">﻿[Please reflect on these questions and we will discuss and help each other before class]

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Hour 3
<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">EVALUATE 1. As a group, reflect on what you have learned today about studying teaching in collaborative groups.

2. As a group, draft a brief statement (approx 1-2 paragraphs) of what you learned or new understandings you came to during this discussion. What did you agree with/about, and what did you not agree with/about? How do you KNOW you learned and grew?! Post this statement to your PLC page. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">During this PLC meeting we were able t discuss a lot of different things. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Overall, we learned about how important it is to reflect on our own teaching. It allows us to grow because it helps us to see who we are as teachers and if there are any areas that could use improvement. We feel like reflection says that we care about the impact we have on children and that we do want them to learn from us. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Also, collaborating with other teachers can be very beneficial. By cooperatively working with other teachers, we can help each other out by listening to one another and giving each other advice. Having several points of views by other teachers can help you see things differently and sometimes give you ideas that may work in your classroom. It is always helpful to have other people around for help, support, and encouragement. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Finally, we discussed the inquiry assignments and were able to help each other out and get some ideas for improvement or encouragement for what we already have accomplished. We discussed the importance of these inquiry assignments. We felt that they help us become well rounded teachers because they allow us to explore how we can improve our teaching strategies to ensure that all of our students are reached and taught effectively.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">3. As a group, please look at the Assignments page for the description and grading rubric for the Inquiry #2 assignment. Now is the time to being Inquiry #2, selecting a teaching practice of your cooperating teacher to study. The format is the same as your Child study, and you should use what you learned through the five QUEST Teacher Research Modules.

4. Individually, please send your PLC Check as an email to Caroline so that she can get you recorded as "attending" in the gradebook:
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">What/Who worked well in today’s PLC meeting?
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">What/Who didn’t work so well in today’s PLC meeting?