Tag Archives: Student Diversity

LLED 320 – Group Presentation Organization & Writing Assessment Task, Part 2: Update for Tuesday, 24 January 2012

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After I asked you to prepare for a trip to Nitobe Gardens at the start of Thursday’s class – be sure to bring your UBC student card – and our Daily Write, we got down to the meat of the matter

Group Presentation Organization

We developed the following schedule for the 20-minute presentations:

and you can find the task handout and rubric on the Assignments page of this blog.  For all you visual learners, here’s the schedule at a glance compliments of EM:

Engergizer #1: Hum That Tune by Amy V.

Student Diversity Readings (Intro, Chapter 1, & Chapter 3) Discussion

We took some time to process this lesson’s readings.  I asked you to use your Sticky Notes and structure the conversation in any way you saw fit.  Below is an image that summarizes our conversation regarding the form and content of these conversations:

 

Writing Assessment Task, Part 2

As an intro, I mentioned that some goals for this task were to:

  • Introduce you to the Performance Standards
  • Encourage you to engage in professional conversations about assessment
  • Increase the reliability (repeatability of your measurement) and validity (were you right?) of your writing assessment
  • Examine how to determine weaknesses in writing and consider strategies to address these areas of need

Next, we did a Carousel Brainstorming / Graffiti activity aimed at listing strategies to address weaknesses in student writing.  Here’s how I structured the activity:

  • Each TC received a bullet point from the Not Yet Meeting column of theGrade 8 Writing Personal Essays and Opinions Quick Scale Here’s the list of all 10 bullet points: Gr 8 Writing PE & O QS NYM Bullet Points
  • Find others with your bullet point and get a piece of chart paper and a pen
  • Write your bullet point as the title on your paper
  • Brainstorm a list of ideas you could use in classroom instruction to address bullet point – the weakness in the student’s writing – for 2 minutes.
  • Move to a different paper when given the signal.
  • Add your ideas to the paper you’ve arrived at.
  • Repeat the “move and add” process.
  • When asked to stop moving, highlight the 2 or 3 best ideas on the page you have in front of you.
  • Report those ideas out to the class.

The photos below show the ideas generated for each of the bullet points…except #7 (We missed that one for a bizarre reason that I won’t go into here – LH):

Energizer #2: People Machine by Liz W.

Assessing Your Writing Samples

After I presented a think aloud on how I’d assess and evaluate the speech from last day’s session, we got down to the assessment of the writing samples you’d brought to class.  Here’s the process we followed:

NOTE:  The document below is recycled from last year’s post and, as such, has an inaccurate due date.  The due date for this year’s In-Class Writing Assessment Task is Tuesday, 7 February 2012.

I will take some time in Thursday’s class to review the key components of this task and to outline the format I’d like you to use as you complete it.

Energizer #3: Make Them Laugh by Amy S.

BLOG ONLY BONUS CONTENT: Assessment and Reporting Resources

While the assessment process is a complex one, there are many resources available to help you out.  One excellent source of information is the BC Ministry of Education website’s page on Classroom Assessment and Student Reporting.  On this page, you will find the following info:

Key Links and Resources

Other Related Resources

I reckon that’s enough for today.

Cheers,

– Lawrence

LLED 320 – Intro to LLED 320, Literacy Placemat, Medieval Drama, and Student Sketching: Update for Tuesday, 17 Jan 2012

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Welcome back to campus for Term 2…

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

Hell0 to the 6 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:

Daily Write

We took 5 minutes to think and write about the topic:

  • Everything I really need to know about teachign I can learn in a K – 12 classroom

or anything else that’s on your mind.  We took up a few responses when we were done.

Preview of Thursday’s Class

Please bring the following items to class:

  • the 4-6 writing samples you gathered during your 2-Week Prac

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

Revised Course Schedule

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

  • Tuesdays: 1:00 – 5:00 in Scarfe 1328
  • Thursdays: 1:00 – 5:00 in Scarfe 207

Course Outline

Here is a copy of the course outline:

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.

Energizers

Hey, it’s a long class for a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.  To spice things up and to model the types activities that you can do in your classroom with your students, we will be working some energizers into our session together.  I kicked it off by modeling Hot Categories and, later in the session, a Medieval version of Fruit Bowl/Basket:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GruDA8LrUcc[/youtube]

Each TC will need to present an engergizer to the class and we drafted a schedule to that effect.  Here it is:

Please email me or hand me a short description of the activity for posting on the blog.  I’ve set up an Energizers page on the blog for ease of reference.

How Might We Define Literacy Placemat Activity

We used the placemat strategy – described in a goodly amount of detail here – as a means to access your PK on literacy.  I’ve posted the completed placemats in 1328 for all to see.  Below is a template of the graphic organizer used to do this activity:

Here’s a link to a fairly comprehensive definition from the folks at The Centre for Literacy.

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 newly arrived 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/Basket
  • Exchanging Objects – trading imaginary objects with fellow fair attendees
  • 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?

The Students We Teach

To wrap up the session, I asked you to consider a student in your class that made a strong impression on you.  Then, as best as you can, I asked you to create a poster with their likeness on it that described their:

  • Personality
  • Background
  • Strengths as a learner
  • Challenges as a learner
  • A slogan they’d likely have on their t-shirt

We had time to finish the poster creation but not to take them up.  We’ll do this in Thursday’s class.   Please remember your writing samples then, too.

– Lawrence

Administrivia & Classroom Management: Update for Monday, 28 November 2011

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After I presented a lot of admin-related info we got down to the business of considering how to effectively manage your classroom.  Here’s a rundown:

Admin

Paperwork

  • EDUC 315 TC Feedback Form:  If you have not yet submitted your completed form, please do so by the end of Tuesday, 29 November 2011.  It is OVERDUE.
  • Inquiry One-Pager Posted on VISTA: Please have your post up by Wednesday, 30 November 2011
  • SRL Consent Form:  Please hand in your completed form to Dave or I ASAP.
  • Videotaping & Still Images Consent Form:  In order to videotape a lesson and collect still images of students or their work, you need to get parental consent.  Please use this form – Permission for Classroom Videotaping & Still Photography Form – and personalize it with your details.  Hand this paperwork out and collect it on the 2-Week Prac so you are ready to videotape and what not when your 13-week in-school experience gets rolling.

Unit Planning

  • Performance Standards:  The BC Performance Standards are a great source for rubrics and work samples in the areas of writing, reading, numeracy, social responsibility, and healthy living.  Don’t spend hours creating a rubric of your own.  Stand on the shoulders of giants and tweak an existing rubric.

LLED 320

  • Student Diversity, 2nd Edition Textbook:  I showed you the text we’ll be using in class and noted that you can order it directly from Pembroke Publishers.  Also, I indicated that they have a Book of the Month preview on their website.

Bits & Pieces

  • EDUC 310/316 Coping Fees:  Please bring $5 in coins to Wednesday’s class.  In class we will indicate the Term 1 copying fees and we’ll collect the amount of money owed by each TC.
  • SD43 Usernames and Passwords: We gave you your U & PW and urged you to change your password immediately upon logging on to the SD43 system.  You can access the SD 43 home page here.  Click on the “my email” link to access your SD43 email account.

Classroom Management

Your EDUC 315 reflections indicated to Dave and I that classroom management is on the minds of many of you.  As such, we wanted to take some time to introduce you to some management related materials that should help you on your 2-week prac in January.

The materials we presented today were adapted from Classroom Management: A Thinking and Caring Approach by Barrie Bennett & Peter Smilanich.  The PPT slideshow below supported Dave’s presentation (Please note that I’ve had to remove the slide themes in order to shrink the file size to post on the blog):

Here’s what we did:

  • Considered the qualities of ineffective & effective teachers
  • Categorized student behaviours based on how you think and feel about them.  Here’s a photo of the categories you came up with courtesy of Jerin, the photographer, and Liz, the scribe:

  • Considered Dreikur’s 4 Goals of Misbehaviour – attention seeking, power, revenge, assumed disability
  • Thought of how best to match a response to a behaviour with the Law of Least Intervention in Mind
  • Read info about and prepared a short NO/YES role play on how to use responding and preventive low key management techniques

We ran out of time to present the role plays so we’ll do that next session.

If you’re interested – and I suspect that you are – here is the section from Bennett and Smilanich’s book that identifies all of the low-key management we’re playing with in class:

You’ll need to muster one or more of these strategies if Russell’s in your class 🙂

See you Wednesday.

– LH

LLED 320 – Whole Class Novel Study & Unit Plan Group Share: Update for Tuesday, 23 March 2010

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Here’s how today’s class went down:

Mindful Breathing

Speaking of breathing, nothing will get you breathing harder than running a sub 4-minute mile.  I’m not speaking from experience, of course, but Roger Bannister’s collapse at the finish of the “Miracle Mile” race against John Landy (and others) on Saturday, 7 August 1954 at the Empire Games in Vancouver at long-gone Empire Stadium are my evidence.  Here’s the race courtesy of Mr. U. Tube.  Be sure to watch the interviews at the end with Landy and Bannister:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_NzZP_LK0&feature=PlayList&p=88E0C2F9A12AB6F7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1[/youtube]

Here’s the statue on the southwest corner of the PNE grounds that captures forever Landy’s ill-fated over-the-shoulder glance.  Landy notes about the race and the statue that commemorates its most famous moment:

“When Lot’s wife looked back she was turned into a pillar of salt. When I looked back I was turned into a pillar of bronze!”

The Martha Game Warm Up

This activity caused a lot of laughter.  Here’s a link to online instructions for The Martha Game in addition to other Improvs and Warm Ups.

A Whole Class Novel Study… in Microcosm

The reality of your existence is that you will likely need to do a whole class novel at some stage.  We played with some approaches to doing this in the following ways:

  • Read “What Was” & “What Can Be” on page 71 & 72 in Student Diversity and considered what resonated.
  • Modeled the various parts of a novel study using the short, short, short story, The Choice by W. Hilcton-Young. Here’s what we did:
    • Connecting
      • Gallery Walk with Story Artifacts & Prediction
    • Processing
      • Listen-Sketch-Draft as I read the story aloud
      • Modified Sticky Notes & Group Discussion
    • Transforming
      • Hot Seat starring Williams, the time traveller, and the story narrator, Brian (my name for him)

I mentioned other options for exploring one novel in a class and set out a potential weekly time line.  Chapter 6 – The Whole Class Novel in Student Diversity has a lot more detail on the above strategies and much more.

Unit Plan Sharing

We took some time to have each of you mention the topic of your unit and one highlight.  After that, time was provided to speak to the unit’s authors about their product.  Feedback was given using the PQS – praise, questions, and suggestions – strategy.

At the end of the sharing session, I collected hard copies of each person’s:

  • Unit Outline
  • 2 Lesson Plans
  • 5 Resource Evaluation Sheets

Call Back to The 2- 3 Things You’d Like Out of This Course Piece at the Start of the Course

While we didn’t get to everything LLED-related on this list, I did keep the list in mind as I planned.  I think we touched on many of the key items over the course of the term.  You can check the list out here, if you’re interested:

LLED 320 What I Want To Learn Info Gathering List

That’s all folks…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBzJGckMYO4[/youtube]

– Lawrence

EDUC 310 – Restitution: Update for Monday, 1 March 2010

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Welcome back to campus.  Here’s what happened in today’s class:

Administrivia

  • LLED Text: Please bring your Student Diversity textbook to tomorrow’s (Tuesday, 2 March 2010) LLED 320 class.
  • MIndUP Training: Here’s the schedule for Wednesday’s MindUP training:
    • 10:00 – Noon @ Angus 426
    • 1:30 – 4:00 @ Scarfe 1130

As per the email I sent you earlier today, please read the following articles before the training session:


  • EDUC 310 Interpretive Paper: Please note that the interpretive paper is due anytime between today  (1 March 2010) and next Monday (8 March 2010).

    Teachable Moments

    Shep asked you to think about the highlights of your experience during the Olympic Break and, afterwards, to consider how you might create a “teachable moment” by bringing world events into the classroom.

    Restitution

    The classroom management ideas of Diane Gossen were front and center for the final part of the lesson.  Here’s the PPT slideshow that Shep used:

    Introduction to Restitution PPT

    – Lawrence