Category Archives: Lesson Updates

LLED 320 – Intro to Group Presentations & Start of the Writing Assessment Task: Update for Thursday, 20 January 2011

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Introduction to the Group Presentation Assignment

To start I showed you a sample handout and video prepared as part of a presentation on the Containers for Characters strategy that was delivered last year.  Here’s the handout:

To follow that up, we took time to:

  • Go over the task
  • Find groups
  • Make a tentative choice of a strategy to use as a presentation topic

Here’s the task sheet and the assignment rubric:

In Tuesday’s class, we will randomly choose the speaking order and formally assign topics.  Please make sure you have a back up topic in case your first choice is scooped up by another group.

Student Writing Assessment Task

The goal of this task and the work around it is to improve your assessment skills and to develop strategies for using assessment to inform instruction.

After looking at the task itself – here’s the handout: LLED 320 Writing Sample Assessment Handout – 2011 – we did the following:

We’ll follow up this class by looking at the connection between the Performance Standard Quick Scales and letter grades and by having you assess samples of the student writing you gathered on practicum.

As an extension to this assessment activity, you might be interested in checking out this short video that raises some interesting questions about the role of rubrics in writing assessment:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH3PSjh2G20[/youtube]

For LLED class on Tuesday, 25 Janurary 2010, please bring:

  • 4 to 6 student writing samples
  • A fully charged laptop

See you on then.

– Lawrence

EDUC 310 Coyotes, Model Inquiry, and Question Revision: Update for Wednesday, 19 Jan 2011

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Today’s class was focused on prepping for completion of this term’s Inquiry Project.  To that end, we did the following:

The Coyote Project Readaloud Using Thinking Bubbles

To get you in an inquiry frame of mind, I read The Coyote Project, a story about one girl’s process of writing a school report on coyotes.  As I read, I asked you to use the during-reading strategy “Thinking Bubbles” – a strategy I found in Brownlie, Close, and Wingren’s text, Beyond Chalk and Talk.

After the reading, I asked you to consider the reading and your thinking bubbles then answer the question: “What qualities of inquiry are evident [in the story]?”  You came up with a wide variety of responses.

Analyzing a Model Inquiry Project, “Joining Learning to Living” by Nick Sluyer

The goal here was to show you the shape of a completed inquiry project.

You arrived to class with a completed graphic organizer related to the content of the Joining Learning to Living article.  Here’s the G.O.:

As a means of processing the content, I grouped you by page # – 19, 20, 21, & 23 – and asked you to summarize your thinking on the What? and So What? of your particular section of the text.  Then, we engaged in the One Stays, Others Stray Strategy.  One member from each group stayed at their table to share the group’s understanding while the others strayed to other groups and gathered info.

After 8 minutes or so, all TCs returned to their original groups and shared the info they found during their research process.  To end, we discussed what stood out in each section of the text in terms of content or process.

Here’s an example of how to use One Stays, Others Stray.  It was implemented as part of a Grade 8 Music unit:

Reviewing Your Inquiry Question

To end class, I handed back the inquiry questions that you had submitted before the end of term 1.  I mentioned that I thought the questions fit roughly into 7 categories, as follows:

Curriculum

  • Maria
  • Ross
  • Lars

Lesson Design

  • Shaun
  • Christian

Assessment

  • Melanie

Ss/Te Relationship

  • Kat K.
  • Kat M.
  • Lou
  • Sally

Motivation

  • Farisha
  • Miguel
  • Jennifer
  • Aaron

Diversity

  • Devin
  • Sarah
  • Alice
  • Amber
  • Ian
  • Jeremy

Management

  • Jenna
  • Caitlin

I mentioned that you may have new topics of interest that emerged over your 2-week prac.  As such, I urged you to review your question using the suggestions outlined on the Developing and Refining Your Inquiry Project Question handout found here:

Your final inquiry question and the Inquiry Project One Pager you sketch out based on that question – the same One Pager template that you completed when you posed your initial question at the end of Term 1 –  needs to be brought to class on Monday, 24 January. Here’s the One Pager handout:

Please include at least one specific source of information (include the bibliographic details) related to your question, as this will show that there is in fact information related to your topic.  The librarians at the Education Library should prove a valuable resource to consult as should Google Scholar.

That’s all for today.

– Lawrence

Welcome to LLED 320 – Shape of the Course & Building Community Through Drama: Update for Tuesday, 19 Jan 2011

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Welcome back to campus for Term 2…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVS3WNt7yRU[/youtube]

Hell0 to the 9 Elementary TCs who are joining the Middle Years cohort in this section of LLED 320.  I’ll post class updates on this blog so be sure to check here if you’ve missed class or misplaced a handout.

Here’s what shook down today:

Preview of Thursday’s Class

Please bring the following items to class:

  • the 4-6 writing samples you gathered during your 2-Week Prac
  • a laptop computer (fully charged, please), if you have one

We’ll be using both in class on Thursday, 20 January.

Revised Course Schedule

The course meeting times have been changed and are now as follows:

  • Tuesdays: 1:00 – 4:30 in Scarfe 1328
  • Thursdays: 12:30 – 4:00 in Scarfe 207

Course Outline

Here is a copy of the course outline and a calendar that shows dates we will be playing with various topics:

Looking Back & Looking Ahead

I accessed your prior knowledge – the info covered in LLED 310 – so I didn’t overlap my instruction with what had already been covered.  Also, I asked you to indicate topics you’d like addressed in the course so I can determine how best to focus the class time we spend together.  Here’s the graphic organizer I handed out to gather the info:

Building Classroom Community Through Medieval Drama

You’ve heard of the European Middle Ages, right?  A time of brave Black Knights and, well, “coconut” horses…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno[/youtube]

I had a few goals in mind when I planned this task for today’s class:

  • Getting the MY and Elem TCs working together
  • Modeling how the LA strands and literacy, in general, can be infused across the curriculum
  • Having some fun at the end of a long, long day

To those ends, we engaged in variety of dramatic activities, including:

  • At The Fair – an riff on the active (and very competitive!) game Fruit Bowl
  • Exchanging Objects – trading imaginary objects with fellow fair attendees
  • Rubbing Shoulders at the Fair – determine your social status based on people’s verbal and non-verbal reactions to you
  • Preparing for the Royal Feast – create a tableau the depicts some aspect of the preparations for a grand medieval feast.

Here’s the handout with all the details:

To bring closure to this piece of the lesson, I asked you to consider two questions:

  • What aspects of literacy were involved as we engaged in these activities?
  • How might you use or adapt these activities to good effect in your practicum (or another) classroom?

After taking up responses to these questions, we adjourned for the day.

Please remember your writing sample and laptops for next class.  See you then.

– Lawrence

Looking Back At The 2-Week Prac & Looking Ahead to 310 & 419: Update for Monday, 17 January 2011

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Welcome back to campus.

After collecting your 2-Week Prac paperwork, we took some time to look back at the experience using a strategy called…

Walk-About Review

This is a powerful way to structure conversations and build in accountability.  Here’s the template we used in class.  It can be adjusted to suit your needs in any course.

To put a button on 323 and look ahead to the long practicum – EDUC 419 – I asked you to complete a one pager that outlines your main goals for the first two weeks of the long practicum.  This task is to be emailed to your FA and is due on Wednesday, 19 January 2011.

To remind you of the goals you set, your FA will be emailing you your piece about a week or two before you start the long prac.

The Shape of EDUC 310 in Term 2

Here’s the calendar for our EDUC 310 classes in Term 2:

As you can see, most time is devoted to work related to the Inquiry Project.  I’ll work in a few seminars on hot topics – management, assessment, communicating for employment, and practicum tips – as well.

Examining a Model of The Inquiry Process

To help show you what your inquiry process and project might look like, I asked you to read an article written by a teacher researcher and take some during-reading notes in a graphic organizer.

Here’s a link to the article “Joining Learning to Living” by Nick Sluyter and here’s the graphic organizer I want you to complete and bring to class on Wednesday, 19 January 2011:

That’s all for today.
Cheers,
Lawrence

5 Classroom Management Skills & More: Update for Wednesday, 1 December 2010

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Well, Movember is over and so is the term.  Here’s how we wrapped up:

Nonverbal Communicative Intelligence for Classroom Management

Seeing as management is a concern for all beginning teachers, I wanted to address the topic in some manner before you headed out to your 2-week prac.  That said, the topic is huge, so I wanted to keep the session short, practical, and focused on skills that you could use on the morning of Tuesday, 4 January 2010, if need be.  Thus, I focused on five nonverbal skills:

  • Choose voice
  • Pause
  • Frozen hand gesture
  • Incomplete sentence
  • Freeze body

that research has proven to be very useful in creating effective learning environments.

Here’s a link to the Prezi I created to introduce the topic:

Also, here’s the full article on which today’s class was based:

We used the Learning Stations strategy to process the skills-based content of the article. Stations are a great way to allow students to set the pace of their own learning.  Here are some links to sites with info on LS:

After the station work, I took a few questions and provided suggestions for how management skills can be stacked – done simultaneously – to increase their effectiveness.

If you feel like kicking it old school, watch the classic training video below – “Maintaining Classroom Discipline” – to see how Mr. Grimes teaches and manages his Math class:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHzTUYAOkPM[/youtube]

Bits & Pieces:

Writing this heading reminds me of Kibble and Bits and that product’s TV commercials.  Check it out as we skip down memory lane:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP9dn3j6uDk[/youtube]

Now, where was I?  Oh, ya, bits and pieces:

– 2-Week Practicum Observation of Your Teaching

  • Bob and I will see you teach once during this practicum
  • We’ll drop by to see you and set up an observation time

– Practicum Binder

  • Please set up a practicum binder to house paper copies of your prac-related paperwork
  • Please have your binder handy at all times for your SA or FA to flip through
  • Here’s the required Table of Contents for your binder:

– LLED 320 Writing Samples

  • Please collect 4-6 samples of student writing (photocopies are fine) to use in your Term 2 LLED 320 class.
  • The samples should reflect the range of writing abilities you find in your students.
  • The writing samples could be from lessons you teach or from work your students do with your SA.
  • We will be completing a writing assessment task in LLED 320 and the best samples to work with for this assignment are:
    • Short stories
    • Paragraphs
    • Poems
    • Essays
    • Reports

Here’s the first page of a sample writing sample:

Pre-2-Week Practicum Letter

  • Bob and I will send out a letter to both you and your SAs to outline expectations some point in mid- to late-December.
  • Please read the letter thoroughly and be in touch with any questions.

Unit Planning

  • The unit plan you’ll be using in January is due a email to both your SA and FA on Monday, 6 December 2010.
  • Your advisors will look it over and give you feedback
  • Please revise the unit with the feedback in mind.
  • You cannot start teaching in January until both your SA and FA have viewed and approved your unit plan.

Inquiry Task One-Pagers

  • Thanks for handing in the one-pager with your inquiry question on it
  • As you teach, your question will likely evolve
  • We’ll delve deeply into the inquiry task in 310 class during January and February

That’s all for now.  All the best for a relaxing holiday.

– Lawrence

Unit Plan Conferences: Update for Monday, 29 November 2010

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Thanks to everyone for being so prepared for today’s 2-Week Prac Unit Planning Conferences.

I mentioned the BC Performance Standards several times in my meetings so I thought I’d post links to the resource here for easy reference.

What are the Performance Standards?

The BC Performance Standards have been developed for voluntary use in B.C. schools. They describe the professional judgments of a significant number of B.C. educators about standards and expectations for the following key areas of learning:

Why use the Performance Standards?

The BC Performance Standards are intended as a resource to support ongoing instruction and assessment. Teachers can use these standards to:

  • monitor, evaluate, and report on individual student performance
  • identify students who may benefit from intervention
  • develop a profile of a class or group of students to support instructional decision-making
  • prompt discussions with parents, students, and other teachers about student performance
  • inform professional development activities
  • collaboratively set goals for individuals, classes, or schools
  • develop evidence for school growth plans
  • provide models for designing performance tasks

How to use the Performance Standards?

Performance standards describe levels of achievement in key areas of learning. Performance standards answer the questions:

  • How good is good enough?
  • What does it look like when a student’s work has met the expectations at this grade level?

The BC Performance Standards describe and illustrate the following four levels of student performance in terms of prescribed learning outcomes:

NOT YET WITHIN EXPECTATIONS

  • the work does not meet grade-level expectations
  • there is little evidence of progress toward the relevant prescribed learning outcomes
  • the situation needs intervention

MINIMALLY MEETS EXPECTATIONS

  • the work may be inconsistent, but meets grade-level expectations at a minimal level
  • there is evidence of progress toward relevant prescribed learning outcomes
  • the student needs support in some areas

FULLY MEETS EXPECTATIONS

  • the work meets grade-level expectations
  • there is evidence that relevant prescribed learning outcomes have been accomplished

EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS

  • the work exceeds grade-level expectations in significant ways
  • the student may benefit from extra challenge

In fact, the Performance Standards include a variety of rubrics and exemplars for the assessment of student work.  Here’s an example of a simplified rubric, called a Quick Scale, from the Grade 8 Reading Performance Standards:

Don’t, ahem, reinvent the wheel!  Use these rubrics and save yourself some time and frustration (a good rubric is really hard to develop.)

See you on Wednesday.

– Lawrence

Sims Says, Assessment Evidence, & 315 Bits and Pieces: Update for Wednesday, 24 November 2010

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“Sims Says Inquiry Is…”

We started class by considering the EDUC 310 Inquiry Task.  I used a PPT slideshow to structure the lesson, and the presentation aimed to answer three key questions:

  • What are the qualities of teacher inquiry?
  • What’s involved in the inquiry project?
  • What constitutes a good inquiry question?

After recalling your prior inquiry-related knowledge to answer the first question and picking out a few highlights from the EDUC 310 Course Outline and elsewhere to address the second, we discussed the attributes of a powerful inquiry question through the lens of the article “How My Question Keeps Evolving” by Michele Sims.

Here’s the slideshow that supported this lesson:

At the end of this class, I assigned the exit slip – completing the EDUC 310 Inquiry Project One Pager – MIDDLE YEARS COHORT.   On the front of the page are some questions to stimulate thinking about research questions, if you’re stuck at the moment, and some sample questions drafted by Elementary TCs.  On the back of the page are four questions that you need to answer on the handout and bring to class on Wednesday, 2 December 2010.  Please note that, in a manner similar to what Sims experienced, this question may evolve as you think on it and as you spend more time in the field.

If, as Confucius declared, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” consider this your first, tentative foot forward.  A baby step. if you please.

Oh, that reminds me.  Here’s how Bob (Bill Murray) “baby steps” in the comedy opus, What About Bob?:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JPa2mvSQ4[/youtube]

Bob sails, too:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrbY4hsNh64&feature=related[/youtube]

Here’s the one-pager in electronic form:

In the end, let’s hope your inquiry proceeds more smoothly than this woman’s:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FRVvjGL2C0[/youtube]

UBD Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence

In preparation for the completion of the unit plan you’ll use on your 2-Week Prac, I presented some information related to the assessment of your desired results via this PPT slideshow:

Here are a few key slides from that presentation, for your reference:

Lastly, here’s a good case for assessing beyond the test:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCuHTMHRBS4&feature=related[/youtube]

Bob and I will be meeting with you on Monday to discuss your unit planning. All meetings are in SCARFE 1310.  Please bring:

  • Your completed Desired Results
  • Your thoughts on possible assessment tools
  • Any key resources that you may use in your teaching to this meeting.

The Conference Schedule is in the previous post.

At the end of class, I asked you to pick up a handout with samples of and information on how to create engaging and well-constructed Performance Tasks.  Here’s that handout if you didn’t get one or if your dog ate it:

Check out this link for a website with more details on Performance Tasks. For even more info, use Google to search the Interwebs using search terms such as: “performance task” “rich task” “authentic assessment” and “authentic education”.

I did that and found this site – Authentic Assessment Toolbox – that has a huge collection of information on PTs, including a bunch of tasks created for all subject areas in middle school.  Here’s a screenshot so you can see what’s on offer:

That’s all for now.  Bob and I look forward to meeting with you on Monday.

‘Til then,

– Lawrence

Microteaching, Take 2 & Housekeeping: Update for Monday, 22 November 2010

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Microteaching

Thanks to the groups that presented today.  Please watch your video, reflect on it, and submit your analysis – done individually or as a group – to me by Monday, 29 November 2010. Please use the format on the task handout and reviewed in previous posts.

Housekeeping

– Microteaching Analysis Due: If you presented last week, your analysis is due to me today.  Thanks.

– EDUC 315 Reminders: Please send me a copy of (1) a lesson you taught and your reflection on it, (2) a copy of your SA’s teaching timetable, and (3) your end-of-prac feedback form.  This last item should be the focus of a prac-wrap-up conversation tomorrow.

– Upcoming Classwork Items: (1) Read the Sims article and create an entrance slip for it complete with some of your own possible inquiry questions and (2) complete the Desired Results piece for one or more PLOs you’ll be using as you teach during the 2-Week Prac.  Bring both items to Wednesday’s class, please.

– Unit Plan Conference Schedule: Thanks for signing up for these conferences.  The schedule is below (mine on page 1 and Bob’s on page 2).  All meetings are in SCARFE 1310.  Please bring your completed Desired Results, your thoughts on possible assessment tools, and any key resources that you may use in your teaching to this meeting.

For your reference, here are a few 2-Week Prac unit planned in previous years.  While the template for these units is a little different than the one we’re using, take a look and get a sense of what your finished product might look like:

That’s all for tod… oh wait, I almost forgot.  Here’s a beginning-of-class-rant-related reminder about the importance of handwashing:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOeQh2-ci3M[/youtube]

– Lawrence

Admin. & UBD Planning – Stage 1: Update for Wednesday, 17 November 2010

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Administrivia

– Calendar: There’s been a change to the schedule.  As such, here’s what the next two Wednesdays will look like:

  • Wednesday, 24 November – 10:00 to 12:00 = Sims Article Discussion & More UBD Unit Planning
  • Wednesday, 1 December – 10:00 to 11:00 = Pre-Prac Preparation

– Reading: Please read the Sims article, “How my question keeps evolving” and develop an entrance slip for it.  As a part of your entrance slip, please jot down a few teaching and learning-related questions that you might be interested in exploring in more detail.

– EDUC 315 Paperwork: There is one formal paperwork requirement as a part of the Tuesdays practicum.  The forms are below.  You and your SA will each complete the appropriate form and email them both to me.  Before you send them off, however, I suggest that you both discuss your completed forms next Tuesday – 23 November, the last school visit of EDUC 315.  This conversation can serve to wrap up this prac experience and look ahead to your two weeks in January.

– Microteaching: I handed back the rubrics completed by the peer assessors and a feedback sandwich that summarized my thoughts on your presentation.  After you’ve completed your reflection – the post-microteaching task due on Monday, 22 November for those that presented on Monday – take a look at the feedback and see how it jives with your thoughts on your performance.

UBD Unit Planning – Stage 1: Desired Results

Now that you have a good idea of the subject, topic, and PLO(s) that you’ll be working with during your 2-week practicum, we started to look at how to design a unit that will develop student understanding on the topic.

To that end, I presented a PPT slideshow that highlighted how to unpack PLOs to uncover the:

  • Big Ideas
  • Understandings
  • Essential Questions
  • Skills
  • Knowledge

that, when played with in class, will lead to student understanding of the topic under study.  Here’s my slideshow:

Here’s a copy of the chart for the HCE 8 Substance Use PLO we unpacked in the guided practice part of the lesson:

… and here’s a blank template you can use to unpack one or more PLOs that you will work with during your January prac:

The unpacking process can be a bit tricky for new and experienced teachers alike.  Seeing as the process starts with identifiying the Big Ideas – the concepts, themes, issues, debates, problems, challenges, processes, theoriex, paradoxes, assumptions, and perspectives – that lie at the heart of the topic, here’s a short blurb on how to identify the Big Ideas more easily.  This excerpt comes from Tomlinson and McTighe’s book, Integrating Differentiated Instruction + Understanding by Design:

Here’s the complete UBD unit planning template:

We’ll be working with the other sections of it in future classes, namely on Wednesday, 24 November.

The rough draft of your 2-week prac unit is due to your SA and FA on Monday, 6 December 2010.  What we expect you to submit at that point is:

  • a completed unit plan template
  • full lesson plans for the first two lessons of the unit

Bob and I will be meeting with the TCs we supervise to discuss your unit planning ideas on Monday, 29 November.  You will have a chance to set up a meeting time with Bob or in class on Monday, 22 November.  For this meeting, you should have a firm idea of Stage 1 – Desired Results and have considered the sort of assessment you’d like to use to determine if the students understand what you’ve been teaching.