Minutes from Meeting

Minutes from Wednesday January 13, 2010
Duke of Connaught Junior and Senior Public School

Inquiry pathways are familiar with us as TLs
-We are familiar with research process
-Part of the library field
-Draft document put forth to the Ministry in request from the Ministry that another document be written to follow up Partners in Action (1982). This draft document continues to be in a re-write, accepted as a re-write to make it more in literacy in general and not libraries- have to redefine and revise our role as school libraries- not a policy
-Challenges with partnering because of scheduling
-As literacy leaders, we are involved in one way or another with collaboration
-Forwarding libraries in the 21st century; it’s about the facilities, but mostly about the programs around school libraries
-Creating a new version of the library website; more user friendly- icon based
-Wordle.net
-Have the latest javascript in the Enterprise Helpdesk- if problem then cc Katina and Kevin with ticket number
-Yonge, south of Wellesly on the east side of Yonge- store that produces wordle creations on t-shirts
-Guttenburg project (digital books)- is all online and can be done and shared with wordle

Guiding Question: How can we as learning leaders in our schools support inquiry based learning?
-Creating wikis, blogs: student run; control is off of shoulders, picked up by students
-Can be teacher created not just teacher directed
-Library website is still being used
-Physically having these different spaces: open and experimental learning commons
-Have part of the pathway lesson happen in the school library-another space for the students to apply their skills
-Conversation between teacher and teacher-librarian- collaboration- less stress for teacher knowing that there’s support

Agnieszka Grade 1 Pathway: Rules and Responsibilities
-Fundamental Concepts in the Curriculum
-Culminating Activity: Create a video clip on the Rights of Children
-Handout references books: “My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks,” “All Kinds of Families,” “Don’t -Lick the Dog,” http://www.milestonesproject.com/ and Be The Change OSLA website, -“Whoever you Are,” http://www.gr1rules.blogspot.com/
-Increase font size for the younger ones to be able to read it aloud
-Chunk with links so that the students can read the links

Ann What makes an idea community and how might this be accomplished?
-1.6: Making connections
Language, drama, geography
-Critical pathway on the wiki: just check to make sure
-Looked at grade 6 results form EQAO; found out where weakness is
-Moderated marking in teams of CASI
-Came up with the areas that need to focused on
-Looked at different questions and thought about how this looked in different areas of the curriculum
-Tell Me Why (book about how children can make a difference): How can one person make a difference
-Summarize what that person did, itemized what the person did to make a difference, infer character traits that person possessed and then give evidence
-A presentation on how that person made a difference
-Final: another child who made a difference and they did this on their own
-Another: How could things have been different had they had a plan of evacuation during ---Hurricane Katrina? Have to prepare a broadcast based on the wiki on natural disasters -
-Thought web using Ban the Birds unit for their own question
-Novel Study: Speechless (about child soldiers) Work with a partner using a checklist and redo some of the questions they had difficulty with and reassess- different ways of expressing their learning through differentiated instruction
-Bring kids who are high 2 to level 3: supporting literacy and numeracy secretariat—do this through extensive feedback
-Drama, Live Broadcast, Film, Create a Graphic Novel…contribute new websites that they feel will enhance webquest
-Agnes McPhail Speeches: 3-5 minute speech—canadian points of view
Choice being given to students at product level so that they have choice on how they communicate their learning
http://naturaldisastersxo.pbworks.com

Katina: Bloom’s Taxonomy for the Digital Age
§ Assessment and Evaluation and Differentiated Instruction
§ Use web 2.0 tools for assessment

§ Have an impact on students so results can improve
§ Growing Success: Provincial pilocy guide for assessment and evaluation from Ministry: http://www.ocup.org/resources/#growpdf
§ Fresh AER document is a guidelinebut not policy based on what Ministry has done
§ Assessment: Basketball Lay up- give skills, shoot for the basket- give specifics- direct feedback so they can improve
§ Evaluation: Game day- how well can they do this skill on game day?
§ Assessment for Learning
§ Overall Expectations are Evaluated
§ Use specific expectations to address but only report on OVERALL EXPECTATIONS
§ Peer Assessment should not be used for Evaluation
§ www.curriculum.org/secretariat/archive.shtml
o Assessment for Learning (teachers use assessment to determine what students are thinking)
o Assessment as Learning (children can actually self-assess- become good self-reflective, self-monitoring thinkers—learning should be a process as they move along learning continuum) should be the biggest part of the pyramid
o Assessment of Learning (what we do in classrooms; for decision making)

§ Extensive Feedback (Morzano)
· 34% increase when given extensive feedback
· Most single motivating thing for students
· Here I am…there I will go


Colour in the area to determine how far they are towards achieving goal
· Student would post and the kids can give feedback
· Effective Assessment: Learning goals, questioning, self and peer assessment and lots of feedback
· Planning with the End in Mind; Overall Expectations (content that Ministry wants students to know)
· Achievement Chart: what students can actually do - how well they perform the expectations
· Veritech , scratch: Research process (Ask helpdesk to install
· · Buzz&bite (ask helpdesk to install)- this was just an example of a PSA- can use audacity or moviemaker etc...
· Planning with the end in mind: Yes all expectations have to be taught
· All overall expectations have to be evaluated, not all specific expectations have to be evaluated

The New Bloom’s
-Create; taking content and putting it in another environment
-Digital taxonomy online: find the look fors
-Groupwork: can assess- can give feedback- when students have different roles, students can be assessed for that particular expectations; very defined roles, not a group assessment- research process: can work on it together for 3 stages of research and then the final stage should be done on their own
-Do not take an average of all the marks they get all term- look at most consistent mark
-Late assignments should be included in the learning skill section
10% reduction is the most that can be deducted for late work- but it’s the final stage of the process…after proper measure has taken to make every attempt possible
-Serious consideration being given before a 0 is assigned: “Evidence of Zero”: the child is able to complete the assignment, but the knowledge and skills in the assignment demonstrate 0 understanding…a child pending an IPRC, “Zero Evidence”: the child does not hand in an assignment, so there isn’t an opportunity to assess work…before you go to the 0, need to be proactive…communicate with parents and find a way to get some evidence
-SIS (student information system): videos and manuals for teachers
-Eworkshop resources: workshop.on.ca (K-8)
-Program website: IT: Assessment and Evaluation
-“Good Assessment advances learning, not just documents it”
-Different entry points with web 2.0 tools…this was another entry point to think about when collaborating with staff in terms of web 2.0 tools and pathway

How is academic workplace going to effect SE6?
· August 31st
· Discussion on migrating conferencing

-February meeting cancelled

-Wed March 24th meeting scheduled at Williamson Road 2:30-4:30: to focus on planning and being part of the planning for collaboration- share planning and get vendor to come to share some great books

-

Minutes from November 19 meeting

• Thank you to Agnieszka for hosting
• Kathy will attend one of our PLC meetings, but was also wondering whether we would be interested in showcasing our learning in the Jan/Feb success team meeting (information just received)- any thoughts?
• Forest of Reading program registration on
• Cindy and Ann are looking for TLs who have notebook lessons that they are willing to share and write. December 2nd, 2009 will be a day devoted to creating lessons that can be used in the library through notebook - email Cindy if you are interested in attending
• Books for boys reading club in our family are available at Kimberley. List of books there will be shared
• Thank you to Debra who shared the inquiry that her school is working on
• Shared frustrations over alligning enduring understandings, OFIP pathways and inquiry...still working through
• please continue to share inquiry questions and resources on our wiki
• please continue to share ideas on our wiki
• We will be cancelling our December meeting and will be meeting again on January 13th for our half-day PD (12:30-4:00) at the Duke- Thank you April for hosting this!
• Agenda for our PD in January will be determined and shared
• Thank you to everyone who attended on such a busy month!

Great Websites

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+Digital+Taxonomy

http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

Conservation of Energy Pathfinder

Recently I learned about pathfinders. At the elementary school level, pathfinders are an important part of the guided inquiry process. Pathfinders can provide students with a step-by-step model of the research process from initial investigation to the creation of a well considered inquiry question and forward into the research resources. Taking into account the understanding that a library is more than a book room, I set out to create a research tool for the 21st century information environment or "learning commons."

Working with two grade five teachers at Secord, I created a pathfinder on the topic of Energy Conservation. The site is particularly effective when used within the library since the library provides a great shared space in which to use both virtual and paper resources.

The first links in the menu cover the basics: Keywords, Research Strategy, and Rubric. These can be edited by the individual teachers to match their class' needs. The rest of the links are the resources and I chose to begin with virtual resources and then the hard-copy Secord resources (circulating and reference collection) follow.

Ideally, students begin their research with whatever medium appeals to them. The library, with its Smartboard and hard-copy collection, provides a space in which students discover and share with small groups or with the whole class.

In regards to the virtual aspect of the site, in particular the Web Sites Recommended section, our elementary audience gets a very broad selection of hand-picked sites and, of course, at least one teacher (but preferably a teacher and a teacher/librarian) is at hand to ensure "safe" Internet practices. But the most important aspect of this part of the pathfinder is the demonstration of the wealth of information to be found in virtual resources, be they National Geographic Kids videos or the Grolier online encyclopedia.

This is a web 2.0 tool. Students will see this when they find the word list and rubric edited by their teacher to reflect their class' research process. I hope to see each teacher create a page for their class rubric. Each grade 5 teacher has access and I'm working with two teaches who will lead the way for their colleagues.

Web 2.0 Aps and Distractability

While reading about the issues and challenges of using web 2.0 tools in the classroom I came across some pretty interesting things that I'd like to share with you in regards to distractibility and whether or not the new social networking tools have a place in our classrooms.

On the heels of a story about a Ryerson science professor who attempted to have a student expelled for creating a social network where students discussed work done in his class (the teacher wanted students to work completely independently) I learned about a professor who has incorporated Twitter into his class. Twitter, the most distracting social networking application yet!

Distractibility is an important part of our own nature. 2-million-years ago, human-like creatures that were not distracted by something rustling in the bush didn't survive to be our ancestors. Distractibility is an important part of our nature. It has followed that as we read a hypertext-rich text, we tend to go off elsewhere following related stories or background information. We do this because distraction is an integral part of our nature and therefore it has been built into digital media. Researchers may prove that this is actually a good thing.

When we read we build meaning by stopping and considering how new information fits into what we currently know. Our brain links existing knowledge to knew information via synapses or links of understanding. (Such links may also be destroyed if they don't stand up to tests of credibility.) Therefore, reading and then following suggested links provides us with extended means to make sense of information. The distractable nature of online reading actually provideds greater opportunity for deeper understanding.

So now I return to the professor who uses Twitter. Here is a medium that only allows users to publish 140 characters at a time, usually answering the question, "What are you doing?" I had seen how it was used and couldn't get past its banality.

This professor, however, simply rephrased the question. He asked his class, "What are you THINKING now?" and took advantage of those flash thoughts we have during lectures. Traditionally we write them in our own notes, sometimes we share then with a neighbour, but there are no opportunities to broadcast those little revelations. Using Twitter, however, this guy grabs onto the opportunity tobroadcasts these little observations to the entire lecture audience.

Overhead, accompanying his PowerPoint presentation is a parallel screen displaying a view of Twitter responses to what he is talking about.

A lecture on its own is a monologue but here the professor is allowing a multitude of ideas or connections to be broadcast, noted by others, and hopefully provide meaningful connections for some. His screen and and the Twitter screen take advantage of our innate tendency to be distracted during prolonged activities such as lectures, weddings, etc where our minds wonder. Ideas flickering onto a screen naturally attract our attention, making the lecture a less passive activity than a monologue.

This type of note exchange is being called back channelling and it provides the opportunity to think more deeply about concepts before they drift out of our short-term memory.

While I look forward to seeing how the battle will fare between academic spelling and txt speak in a medium challenges users to express themselves within 140 characters, I do look forward to the interactive nature of such lectures and the richer learning experience they promise.

Minutes for October 6, 2009

Agenda:

-Welcome

-Welcome to Katina and Cindy again and thank you for your time

-Success Team Meeting November 25th- idea to share with Kathy at our PLC instead...how do we feel about this?

-email Kathy the dates of our PLC and see if she can join us on a date

-Questioning Circles- what is happening at our schools- Ellie

• Post questions on the blog that each grade team is presenting




• Post resources that teachers are using to gather resources

-Astrid and Anastasia will discuss how to organize this

-History of PLC: Formerly always had a book that we were reading, this year not a book connected to it. We have 3 half days covered for release and Katina and Cindy to support us. Continuing on with the PLC model. A lot of web 2.0 tool training in the last year and the year of the Inquiry for SE6 for this year.

SE6 Year of Inquiry

What inquiry questions are schools working on and how is the library supporting this focus?

How are school teams using questioning? Overarching inquiry, 5 over the year

Action: Guided Inquiry, p. 3-5, 14-16

-Fundamental Concepts in the Social Studies and Science Curriculum are important to help us plan guided inquiry questions

-goal of guided inquiry is that students will develop their own questions by the end

-pick one opportunity where you are doing something with one teacher and focus on this

-one inquiry question with one teacher

-modeling in a read aloud the type of questions that are required in an inquiry

-along with everything we have been doing, let's take a look at what is already going on in our schools, understand it, common understanding

-when we are all working towards a goal, confusion will come around when dealing with change

-share our inquiry questions, contribute towards the blog and the wiki, post the questions online to share...Astrid and Anastasia will organize how this is done

How can we use web 2.0 tools to support collaboration with staff and guide student inquiry in the SE6 Planned Inquiry Units?

-Katina will email the presentation on TEL

Minds On (watching), Action (practice, participation, collective intelligence) , Consolidation (reflecting)

-mobi: like a tablet, comes with a pen, kids in group: one mobi to each and share their ideas

-BLOG: great for discussions, building upon knowledge, can be shared and open, question of the week so that the students can answer, K-3 best

-McMurrich JPS: Grade 6 Flight: grade6flight.blogspot.com

WIKIS: culminating activities: grades 4-12

-kinders on the move: healthy living http://www.kindersonthemove.pbworks.com/

-All blogs and wikis that Katina showed us are on our Blog list on the left hand side of our blog

-edublogs are best

-Agnieszka shared her wiki which is also located on our bloglist

-explore the web 2.0 tools to complement the inquiry units

NEXT MEETING

-November 19: 2:30-4:30: Secord

-December 8: 2:30-4:30: Kew Beach

SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT MEETING:

-sharing of inquiry questions

-bring texts in that support question

-any other suggestions, please email them to Astrid or Anastasia and we will post them

PLC for 2009-2010

Welcome Back!
Here is what we need for our next meeting:

A request to bring to the Oct. 6 meeting:
Guided Inquiry text
record of school’s inquiry questions
video, digital and audio capture of student work (i.e., of student practice in Questions Circles, Planned Inquiry Unit and/or to develop culminating tasks or Library classes)
&
to read p. 3-5 & 14-16 in Guided Inquiry (will post pages on SE6 TL conference)

More information will be posted on our conference