Meeting+9-24-10

=** Week 5 PLC: **** Studying Teaching Practice in Professional Learning Communities **=

PLC Meeting Location: Walnut Bend Elementary Library PLC Meeting Time: 3-5 p.m.

There is also a portion of the Elaborate section—reading and viewing Modules 4 and 5 of the QUEST Teacher Research Initiative that you might want to have members do ahead of time. Consider where you are meeting—if you will not have internet access or separate computers, you may have them do this ahead of time.]

Hour 1
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.)
 * //ENGAGE//**

[]
 * //EXPLORE://**

Hour 2

 * //EXPLAIN//**


 * 1. What priority is teacher discussion time in the school?**


 * 2. Where are teachers supposed to find time to talk with each other when they have so much testing and other work to do throughout the week?**


 * 3. Is it beneficial to have a day when the teachers get together and plan while a substitute covers their class?**
 * Students may not do as much with a substitute/ teachers may not get much planning done/ teachers may lose a day of content review with their students.**

First, take turns discussing the data you have collected so far on your Child Inquiry. These questions might guide your conversation:
 * //ELABORATE//**


 * Who did I choose?
 * What did I see?
 * What does it mean?

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. 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:


 * Grouping
 * Presenting
 * Classroom management
 * Communicating
 * Technology use

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?
 * Strategy -**
 * The opener - Teacher uses a puppet to open up the day. The puppet does all of the morning tasks (calendar, day of school, date etc.) and students guide the puppet through each aspect of the morning tasks.**
 * Teachers using manipulatives to help students do hands-on work and understand concepts.**
 * Students love being able to write on their desks with dry- erase markers.**


 * Something that doesn't work -**
 * - The teacher has established community work groups and it has been noticed that there is always one student who is disruptful. The group/ community is not working for everyday use. It may be useful when working on a project.**
 * - There are computers in the room but many of them do not work and are therefore useless.**
 * - Any change in the routine is disruptive to the students.**


 * Something that was noticed -**
 * Teachers are not using stations.**
 * Students only go on the computer for AR tests.**


 * The PLC group can help us initiate, analyze, and write-up this inquiry by collaborating, discussing, and brainstorming. We also help each other problem solve and figure out what direction the inquiry should be going in.**

Hour 3
1. As a group, reflect on what you have learned today about studying teaching in collaborative groups.
 * //EVALUATE//**
 * Studying teaching in collaborative groups is a very useful tool. However, after discussing the topic our group has come to the conclusion that there is simply not enough time in the day for teachers to successfully collaborate and discuss during the day. We feel that in order to have time to do this one solution would be to hire substitutes to cover the class while teachers go and have a private meeting somewhere else at least once every grading period. However, we feel that there may be a catch 22 with this being that the students may lose valuable time and/ or focus by having a substitute.**

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.


 * We learned about the community in the classroom. After discussion we concluded communities in the classroom is a great way to give students individual choice, responsibility, and ownership in their learning process. We agree that by giving students the ability to make decisions for themselves in the classroom that this trait will transfer easily to the real world. We liked the idea of Frank Thomas' class making math word problems for Ms. Sangita's class to solve. This is a great opportunity for students to engage and do content work while expanding their community.**


 * We like the idea of Ms. Sangita's class of allowing the students to work in partners. However, she made it very clear that students are selective in picking the best partner for peer editing instead of their best friend. We do not think that students will do this, even if it has been recommended by the teacher.**


 * We know we grew and learned through this PLC meeting because we were able to evaluate these strategies and ideas based on first hand experience in the schools. If you would have posed these ideas to us a month ago we would have probably been more idealistic about them. However, now that we are in the schools and see how little time the teachers actually have we are able to judge these ideas more realistically.**

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:


 * What/Who worked well in today’s PLC meeting?
 * What/Who didn’t work so well in today’s PLC meeting?

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