Professional Learning Communities

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In the upcoming episode of Middle School Matters we mention part of Senge‘s 5 Disciplines which can be found here.  The 5 Disciplines are:

  1. Systems Thinking – Integrating disciplines, creating a body of knowledge and tools that help understand patterns and how to change them and take into consideration the Law of Unintended Consequences when changing systems.
  2. Personal Mastery – The “chain is only strong as the weakest link” idea.  A school’s strength in learning is only as strong as the weakest teacher-learner.
  3. Mental Models – What assumptions about learning do I have?  Since teachers focus on the experiences that reinforce their own beliefs and observations about how learning happens, creating a space for dialog and reflection among teachers is a beginning to changing the culture in a school and creating a Professional Learning Community.
  4. Shared Vision – Remember World War II movies in the Pacific?  The submarine trying to sneak into an enemy base and sink the fleet without being caught?  The captain was the only one who got to look through the periscope and see what was going on.  In order for the crew to know what was going on, the captain had to relay information to the various parts of the boat.  (I always thought passing the message down the boat from one end to the other was a little humorous.)  The crew saw the surface through the captains eyes and made adjustments to the boat with quick and relevant information.
  5. Team Learning – Teams of teachers use their areas of strength and interest to raise the level of learning in their team.  The team focus is centered on two parts:  1.  Interdisciplinary Learning and 2.  data that allows changes and implementation quickly and easily.

Whether developing a PLC is an active goal in your school or you find it being practiced informally in your learning community, what kinds of things do you see colleagues doing to create a PLC in the school?

Direct Downloads

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On the “Podcast” tab you can listen to the show directly. No need to download or go to iTunes.

Try it with the latest show.

NMSA07

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We’re looking forward to attending the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference. We hope to provide you with several posts about our experiences there. This is always one of the very best conferences around. If you have the opportunity- Go.

DuFour Common Assessments

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In episode #6, we take a look at Common Assessments. We discuss the various levels of common assessement, the structure and Formative vs Summative assessments. We also take a quick look at the assessments from a students point of view.

We even take a look at a video from Carpenter Middle School. (This one is from TeacheTube).

We also take a look at some technology that can help.

Finally, we discuss rubrics (and where you can make them easily).

Links:
http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/caf/ http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:zs7bPB9twksJ:www.fremont.k12.ca.us/ahs/Small_Learning_Communities/May%25201/Common%2520Outcomes%2520Master%2520April.pdf+Common+Assessments&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:1NtthAmUDvgJ:www.smcaa.org/file_library/Five%2520Ws%2520Common%2520Assessments.ppt+Common+Assessments&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us&client=firefox-a

http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/dufour231.cfm

http://www4.nau.edu/assessment/main/course/csexamples.pdf

http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=46
Let us know about the new opening.

Homework Help

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Hey, on this week’s show we take a look at Homework. Why do we even have homework? What is the theory behind homework? Why are some parents trying to stop homework? Shawn and I discuss whether or not homework should be an every night experience and how much is enough? how much is “too much”? What are some ideas behind getting more homework turned in? Tune in to the podcast for all the answers, but here’s a taste of some of the discussion.

Vicki Quinn is a new teacher who writes about her experience in examining homework. She found that the best came from (surprise, surprise) students. She had started by always giving homework under the belief that it would help students stay focused and learn new skills. However, she soon discovered that the students weren’t participating in class discussions, (why read the stuff for homework if the teacher is just going to discuss it anyway?), and were failing basic comprehension quizzes. She also came to the realization that her 20-40 minutes of homework was combined with other classes to add up to 4 hours of homework every evening. She asked around about homework policies and discovered that there was no uniformity in ideas, beliefs or theories. She decided to ask the students. They also gave her mixed results. Some had no problem with time management or outside activities. Others preferred to do homework during the week and have weekends to relax.

One idea is to make sure that the homework has more relevance. Wormeli points out that students will quickly tire of copying sections (answers) from the chapter. There are a myriad of other ways that students can demonstrate knowledge, or move the information from short term into long term memory. One of those methods is called RAFT (Roles, Audience, Formats, Time). This allows students to take a point of view and “argue” from that point. Wormeli provides an example, borrowed from his article, below:

RAFT [from Rick Wormeli’s “Help With Homework“]

Figure 1.

Roles Audience Formats Time
Joseph McCarthy PTA Comic Strip 1950
Coach Parents Bookmark Preseason
Zoologist Reporters Invitation Arrival of Endangered Species
Dot.com CEO Senior Citizens Card Game 1995

One of the really nice things about this is that a teacher could quickly set this up. It allows for students to take different roles without a ton of time or work from the teacher. Once the students had done a couple, the teacher could provide a couple for each row and then solicit other examples from the students.

Some tips for parents (or to share with parents):

  • Emphasize quality over quantity.
  • Take time to discuss homework completed. Ask your child to explain the key ideas.
  • Ask to see homework that has been checked by a teacher. If students know homework will be checked, they are more likely to complete it.

from the NMSA webpage, The Family Connection, 2004, Vol. 8., No. 1

Tips for Success! [from: http://www.waunakee.k12.wi.us/midlschl/homework.htm ]

  1. Write down assignments. Calendars, planners, or learning logs are great!
  2. Use self-stick notes. Attach them to books needed for homework. Take home everything with a note on it.
  3. Get organized. File papers and divide a binder into sections or designate folders for each subject.
  4. Make “to do” lists. Create a list of tasks to complete during study time. Crossing them off will help stay focused and feel a sense of accomplishment.
  5. Set up a study spot. Choose a place that is well lit, quiet, comfortable, neat, stocked with the needed supplies, and attractive.
  6. Stick with study routine. Consider setting a required work time when your child is most alert.
  7. Set priorities. Make test preparation a priority over other activities. . It is probably best to start with the hardest subjects because they demand the most energy and attention. However, sometime starting with the easy parts may help get started. Short, regular breaks help most people think better.
  8. Be supportive. Expect that homework/studying will always be done well. Keep a positive attitude. Keep criticisms to a minimum. Be a good listener to your child’s frustrations, and help your child set reasonable goals for reading and writing assignments, test preparation, and projects.
  9. Follow through. Encourage your child to review all assignments before placing them in his/her backpack If your child doesn’t complete homework, consider reducing the freedom your child has until grades and effort improve.
  10. Reward orderliness and hard work. Display well-done work in a prominent place in your home.

We also discuss the movement against homework. Most of this seems to be centered at the elementary level, but still we need to be aware that there are some parents against it.
Homework Articles:

Join us next week. Our intended topic is Common Assessment. Drop us your questions at middleschooleducators@gmail.com

Podcast 4

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As noted in the previous post, podcast #4 is ready to go. This podcast revolves around the issue of grading with emphasis on zeros. We take a look at an article by Douglas Reeves, an article by the wonderful Rick Wormeli and an article from the Principals’ Partnership.These take a look at the effect of zeros. Dr. Reeves states “Most state standards in mathematics require that fifth-grade students understand the principles of ratios — for example, A is to B as 4 is to 3; D is to F as 1 is to zero. Yet the persistence of the zero on a 100-point scale indicates that many people with advanced degrees, including those with more background in mathematics than the typical teacher, have not applied the ratio standard to their own professional practices.” This is a very powerful statement.

There is a lot to consider in terms of grading. The one thing that educators really need to do is to understand how grades are determined and figured. We need to understand the realities of how grades are earned. Even more importantly, students need to understand how grades are determined and figured.

Also in this podcast, we take a look at a couple of way to address tardiness and homework. Specifically, we look at a couple of ways to get homework turned in (see post below)

Next week, we’ll take a deeper look at homework and common assessments. If you have questions you’d like answered, contact us.

There is a difference with this podcast. This one is an enhanced podcast. The difference means that you have clickable links (if you’re listening using iTunes), album art, and chapters (which allow you to skip to a particular part of the podcast easily). The tradeoff is that it is harder to sync to non-iPod players. We can easily provide a link to an mp3 version, which should play on anything that plays mp3’s if need be. If you’d like an mp3 version, just let us know.

Homework Solutions and the Power of Zero

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This week on the broadcast we mentioned some homework solutions. We’re going to do a podcast on homework and common assessment in a future podcast. Homework seems to be the primary issue in the “Zero Tolerance Policy.” Finding ways to get homework in or mitigate the experience. Barbara De Santis has a creative solution that engages student responsibility. She gives her students a “pink slip” on which they write their name, assignment, and date. They also have a place to write down their “excuse” or check off the standard ones. (Didn’t see “Dog ate it” though.) Here’s the link to “The Pink Slip“. If you’d like to see the layout you can click here. I like Harry Wong’s statement at the bottom of the page, “Call it sharing; call it stealing; call it research; call it collaboration, call it collegial learning. Our ears, eyes, and mind must always be alert for what others are doing and how it is working for them.” In that spirit, share with us what you’re doing in your classroom.

Podcast is posted

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It looks like we have our technical issues licked. That’s right, if you subscribe via iTunes, you’ll be able to grab both shows so far. This would also automatically download the freshest podcasts as they are posted. You can preview each episode in iTunes as well. We are happy as a well, let’s just say that we are happy. Now we can get on to important middle school stuff.
One of my first adventures will be working with our Advisory programs. This year we are going to use some of the ideas from the Adventure Education program. What an exciting time!

Show Notes #2

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 Today’s news story:Test Scores show early prep key

Here’s what I found most interesting about the story:

  • “The effective way to raise ACT scores is to strengthen the rigor of the curriculum,” Drew said.
  • Summer reading — reading during summer vacation
    has been expected of older students for a long time, but Drew said the
    summer reading requirement was extended to second grade recently.

  • “The summer reading program isn’t enrichment, it is required. The
    students are scored for their projects associated with the books,” Drew
    said.

  • “Vocabulary books are used starting in the second grade. These vocabulary books correlate to other subject areas.”

The first point seems obvious and we say it often enough. But do we really implement it?
The second point is the one that fascinates me the most. It really talks about several different things. All of these things are quite beautiful. First of all, there is the presumption that students will work “independently”. Second, this assumes that parents will play an active role in the education of their child. Thirdly, there is a spiraling effect in place. Students are expected to just learn stuff and then move on.
The third point is equally interesting. It’s really easy to forget about the basics when teachers are told to teach to higher level critical thinking skills. And that is what we need to do. However, that doesn’t preclude the teaching of basics. Teachers do feel time pressures. That can lead to “skipping the basics” to get to the teaching of higher skills. However, what really needs to happen is that teachers need to fully utilize their time. Certainly teachers can’t take all of their teaching time on basic skills but need to incorporate them into the lessons.
 Email us here:middleschooleducators@gmail.com

You can download the show directly here: http://www.divshare.com/download/1745883-708

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