Professionl Learning Community (PLC) Meeting Notes & Template

PLC (Professional Learning Community) Meeting Agenda after primary curriculum has been determined and assessment has begun. Adapted from notes on guest speaker Doug Snow Logan City School District 9/20/2010

 

Five Steps:

Step 1-collect and chart data

Step 2-analyze strengths and obstacles

Step 3-Establish goals: set, review, revise

Step 4-Select instructional strategies

Step 5-Determine results indicators

 

Assessment Analysis Sheet for Goal #1
Teacher
#of students that took assessment
#students Proficient
%Students Proficient
#Students Not Proficient
% Students Not Proficient
# and names of students likely to be proficient after instruction- students who are relay close
# and names of students likely to be proficient after instruction-student who have fare to go
# and names of students Not likely to be proficient after instruction- students in need of extensive support

 

Have fellow teachers collect data and discus results as a team, other teachers may have insight or know the student and how to help them better.

 

Cause Data Tracking Sheet for                  Assessment
Teacher	% of h/w devoted to writing in content area	%of effective teaching strategies that are deliberately used  to support learning goals	% of lesson plans that were collectively created	% attendance at data team meetings	Did you use the common scoring rubric?	Did you score the assessment collectively?	Is the assessment connected to “Power Standards”?

 

This Cart can be used to show the effectiveness of the PLC and how the outcomes came about.

As PLC’s Make Goals they need to fallow S.M.A.R.T. Goals:  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Framed

What We Know and What We Wont to Know

What we know and what we want to know

 The ideas for this lesson come from Values Clarifications: a Handbook of Practical Strategies for teachers and Students (Simon©1972) Strategy Number 65 

Standards Covered 
 Idaho: G 4.2 /4.4
 Utah: G 4.2 /4.3

This lesson will be a starter lessons for most any subject I will use Election Possesses.

Have students Brain storm individually and write on a scratch paper or work sheet what do you know about the Election Presses? Local, State, and National offices etc…(can be substituted for any unit or lesson)

After a few minutes have two students come up to scribe on the board (two students are better because it will keep Ideas flowing without as much interruption in writing. Have students share answers and write them all down true or not. Clarification will come latter.

Once all answers are written, ask what don’t you know about Election Process and make another list these will be in the forms of questions.

Have students organize the knows and don’t knows into logical clusters and teacher talks about the different clusters and corrects some of the misconceptions and assigns reports based on the lists created by the class

Begin by looking in books if possible reserve time at the computer lab or media center.  Reports do not need to be long one or two pages in order to answer the question …

Spread of Opinion: Liberal vs. Conservative Views on the Constitution

U.S. History I or Government

Constitution/ Founders

Spread of Opinion: Liberal vs. Conservative views on the Constitution

Concepts can be adapted to many other lessons

Objective: there are many beliefs concerning constitution this is a great way to introduce Federalist vs. Anti- Federalist views and can be called back upon during the remainder of the term.

 The Idea for this lesson came from: Values Clarification: a Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students (Simon ©1972) Strategy Number 9

This lesson should be used after studding the constitution so that students understand the powers given by the constitution but before studding the views of the Federalist papers to try to keep bios untainted.

If Desired Divide students into groups of 5 or 6 assign these groups if desired to mix students from what you know of their views to create more discussions in groups (Friends usually think alike).

Reminded students that their views are to be valued and that what is shared within this discussion are in some circumstances to be considered personal and should not be shared out of classroom without their consent.

Give each group the topic of Views of the Federal System (Federal system should have been covered in lesson in the constitution)

State Standards
Idaho: G 1.1 / 4.1 & US1 1.2 /4.1
Utah: G 1.1 / 1.3 & US1 6.1 /6.2
 

Assignment: from what they know students should come up with 5 or 6 possible position from ultra conservative to ultra liberal, each member of the group takes one of these positions and writes a paragraph about one of the views not necessarily their own if group thinks of more than members in group have them write a sentence view

-          Have packet prepared with information on views if after a students have tried to come up with ideas and if they are not coming up with appropriate views

When finished in groups have group members reveal their views and discuss. After individual groups discuss have each grope reveal their place on continuum, in fact of class and begin discussion once each group has gone to their place in the continuum.

Example of a possible continuum, Views of the Constitution:

Ultra Conservative	Jefferson	Limited Government all rights to the people. Constitution makes government to big anti federalist against the constitution	Other examples: KKK
Conservative	Madison	Need for some government. Believed constitution suppose to limited government to protect the rights of the people. Constitution is a sealing to keep the reach of government limited, believes constitution gives more power to strong states over the central government.	Tea Party
Leans Conservative
Moderate	Washington	Can see the pros and cons to both sides believes that slow progress is stable.	Balance within Supreme Court (5-4 rulings’)
Leans Liberal
Liberal	Adams	Central government key to be strong constitution is a floor to build on. Central government should be stronger than the states.
Ultra Liberal	Hamilton	Central Government to control all rights if not in the constitution can still be able to do it	Black Panthers Roe v. Wade

Assignment/ Assessment: Participation and paragraph as well as any notes gathered on perspectives on the constitution.

Language Development

Developmental Psychology: Language Development

11^th /12^th Grade

Objectives: Students will acquire an understanding of the formation of language through a short activity and apply how language develops form young children.

Background required: None

Materials needed: colored shapes pre-cut enough for several groups to have two sets or so, 

 

Bell Ringer: Language Development Game: Students learn to acquire language without and prior language aside from the ability to produce phonemes. This game is meant to be a fun and engaging introduction. It gives students an active role in their learning and it gives the instructor many opportunities in future class sessions to refer back to their experience.

The basic idea is create an imaginary word where you students are in a community without language. Of course, an entire imaginary world would take so long to devise a language for, it's not at all feasible during a single class. So we simplify the word, by cutting out many different shapes in different colors and sizes. To demonstrate the way language works, you should stand at the front of the room and make a picture with your shapes on the board. As you do this a volunteer student is at the opposite wall of the classroom with an identical collection of shapes. The student doesn't turn around but he tries to make the same picture as you. The only way he can do this is by listening to you say what you're doing. You speak in English and you point out to the students how complicated it is: you need to talk about shapes and colors and relative positions and so on. We couldn't even do it perfectly and we're using English.

The students are given the exact same goal except they may not use any English! All they can use are phonemes (explain what they are and give a preview to infants development of phonemes)! To make the task a more constrained, the class will break into small groups and each will be given a unique list of phonemes. They are reminded that they're not allowed to use any English so they can't simply say, "Ugoo" means "red."

Students are given two packets of shapes, and list of their groups’ phonemes. A list of all English phonemes and sample groups are at the end. They can do whatever they want so long as they don't speak a natural language and they only use their phonemes. Call "time in" to start these rules and "time out" for our brief pauses for mini lectures.

Your students will probably look at you completely dumbfounded! Some groups will probably figure out how to start but if not you will have to give them their first word. Simple walk up to a group, look at their phoneme list, combine two phonemes, point to a single shape they have and say the phoneme combination you made. That gets a group started because they invariably take your word as the name of the shape. Of course, you never gave them that interpretation so why did they think that? This is actually your first "time-out" for a mini-lecture/discussion of the "whole-object constraint." 

Whole Object Constraint

Place any object that is mainly a single color on your table (exp: a pencil or the overhead projector) and call a time out. With everyone's attention point to the object and say something arbitrary (exp: goobar). Ask, "by a show of hands, how many of you thought "goobar" means [pencil - or your object] (most hands go up) Ask, "by a show of hanfs, how many of you though "goobar" means [yellow - or metal - or some prominent quality of your object]. (few hands go us). Ask the rhetorical question, "Why do you think you naturally believed the word means the object and not, for example, the object's qualities." Developmental psychologists have noticed children make the same assumptions you did when they're first learning words. It's called a "whole object constraint" because without any special information we think a new word means the whole object and not its part or qualities. When you started playing the game, did you use the whole object constraint? (short discussion) Call time in.

Language Explosion

As children get close to two years of age, the start to learn words incredibly fast: about 10 to 20 new words a week! Many of these words are names for things like nouns. When you were playing the game, did you have a language explosion? Did you have a time when you suddenly acquired learned many more words? (short discussion)

Over-Extension & Under-extension

When children learn words, it can be really difficult figuring out just what a word means. For example, a child might use the word "bear" only to talk about her favorite teddy bear. But lots of teddy-bears could be called "bears" so what she did is an "underextension." Another example might be a child who uses the word "car" to describe his family's car, all the other cars, trucks, bicylces, and even tricylcles!" What he did is anm "overestension." Do you find yourself making over-extensions or underextensions as you figured out your language?" 

Pragmatics

Write the following sentence on the board before calling time out: "The spy sees the police officer with the gun." Ask students, "By a show of hands, how may of you think the police officer has the gun?" (most hands go up) Now write directly underneath your sentence, the following sentence: "The spy sees the police officer with the binoculars." Asks students, "By a show of hands, how many of you think the spy has the binoculars." (most hands go up). Then look puzzled and ask, "By a show of hands, how many of you think the police officer has the binoculars." (few hands go up) Say something like, "Okay, I'm confused. This sentence (point to top sentence) has exactly the same grammar and almost all of the same words as this sentence (point to bottom setence). How come most of you felt the prepositional phrase "with the gun" means the police officer has the gun BUT you also felt the prepositional phrase "with the binoculars" means the spy has the binoculars?" (draw out from the class how they're using background knowledge. This will happen very naturally because you'll get responses like "because cops carry guns" and "the spy is seeing and binoculars are used to see far away." Give the following explanation and ask the following question: "So you used your background knowledge about police officers, spies, guns, and binoculars to understand the sentences. How we understand language by using the context and our background knowledge is called "pragmatics." Have you used any pragmatics so far while you were playing the game?" (short discussion) Call time in. 

Nativism

(As you finish up the game) How was playing the game? (they'll probably tell you it was challenging). Say something like, "Isn't it amazing that a two year old has a vocabulary of several hundred words and even a simple grammar. At the same time she can't even tie her own shoes!!! How do children learn language so rapidly? Many developmental psychologists who study language take a nativist perspective. Remember learning the basic developmental theories the first week of this class including nativism, the idea that children start life with basic concepts. One nativist idea of Noam Chomsky's is children have a module, a special part of the mind, that's entirely devoted to learning and using language.

Allot some time at the end of class for each group to show their langauge to the entire class. For each group, half of the students are speakers at one board and the other half are listeners at the other half. I've seen students have a wide range of responses. Those who weren't trying very much during the game just kind of fumble through this activity or find 'short-cuts' that ignore the spirit of the game. Other students who were really trying have gotten really excited when they see how much they were able to communicate. My personal feeling is to let this activity be self-reinforcing where the whole class indicates informally how they feel about each group's performance. For example, I always express how impressed I am with their pictures and when they take those 'short-cuts' I just say, "lame!!!" 

Phonetic Symbol: As used in: p b m f v (th) (th) t d n s z l (ch) (j/g) (sh/ch) (zz/gg) r y w k g nn h i I e Ee ae ee aw u U o AU a ay oy pit, tip, stop bat, tab mitt, ham, smoke fig, gift, muff vat, save thin, bath thus, bathe tip, put, stick dip, pad know, pan, snow sun, bus zoom, fuzz lit, till, slit chew, hitch gem, badge show, bush, chaperon tresure, garbage right, tire, shrimp you, yew win, when catch, back, skin give, plague thing, tongue how, who see, each, machine it, myth able, weigh, great said, says, guest at, plaid about, son, cup, easily out, cow, bough fruit, ooze. Move book, full, could flow, road, open raw, fought, taught tot, father my, eye, buy toy, boil, lawyer

Sample Groups: Phonetic Symbol: As used in: i oy (th) p s see, each, machine toy, boil, lawyer thin, bath pit, tip, stop sun, bus Phonetic Symbol: As used in: e aw (ch) b z able, weigh, great out, cow, bough chew, hitch bat, tab zoom, fuzz Phonetic Symbol: As used in: a e (sh/ch) m g tot, father able, weigh, great show, bush, chaperon mitt, ham, smoke give, plague Phonetic Symbol: As used in: o I (zz/gg) f k flow, road, open it, myth tresure, garbage fig, gift, muff catch, back, skin Phonetic Symbol: As used in: AU u (th) t h raw, fought, taught fruit, ooze, move thus, bathe tip, put, stick how, who

 Reference:

http://www.devpsy.org/teaching/language/language_game.html