Literacy+-+6th+Grade

6th Grade Literacy Meeting Summaries


 * Wednesday March 17th ~ 2010

Present: Jeanette Bergman Janet Jennings Katie Lane Kathleen Cummins Chris Bunting Debbie Collins Bruce Vosburgh John Sanville

Discussion:

Common assessments. How we enter them into the database (all using the same language), how we score them, how we discuss them as a grade, creating a policy that is clear and understood by all, how many and how often we give them, what can we do to improve them

We also discussed that we (all language arts teachers) will begin prepping for the PSSAs. Study Island will be finished when we return from Spring Break.

Wednesday February 17th~2010

Present:** Jeanette Bergman Janet Jennings Katie Lane Kathleen Cummins

Katie Lane was introduced to the group and briefed on Literacy and its objectives. Welcome, Katie!

The group discussed the Determining Importance common assessment and decided not to combine the assessment with the Asking Questions assessment. We agreed that some of the questions were not worded in a way which corresponded with what they were learning. We would like to edit part of the common assessment.
 * Common Assessments:**

We reminded eachother that Bruce would like the C.A. grades into the Database by the 22nd.

Janet shared a project she did with the kids in which they took pictures of the snow and wrote a poem of reflection. The projects turned out great and we all thought it was such a fantastic way to foster the students' creativity.
 * Curriculum:**

E team and C team are working on their research projects in English which also uses some of the library time in Literacy. C team is collecting project in the beginning of March.


 * Wednesday February 10th~2010

Present**: Jeanette Bergman Janet Jennings Chris Bunting Labroure Rafferty Kathleen Cummins Honey Beth Kropp

The group discussed perhaps combining the Determining Importance assessment with the Asking Question assessment. We decided to cover throughly but not formally assess the biographical sketch.
 * Common Assessments:**

We discussed why reading strategies are importing. They help the students: relate, learn, understand, and remember. We agreed that the connections the students made on the last common assessment could have been stronger and that it is important to reinforce that connections made should help with understanding of the test.

Present:** Jeanette Bergman Janet Jennings Honey Beth Kropp Chris Bunting
 * Wednesday December 16th~2009

__**Common Assessments-**__ Together, we answered the survey from the assessment committee. We all agree that common assessments must be revised. There is too much memorization involved and not enough applicable practice. A, C, E team remains consistent with points awarded, time given, and same exact test.

We looked at the **Making Connections** common assessment. We feel it needs revision. We found a good article to use for the assessment that is easy to connect with the curriculum. We will revisit this next week during "option 3" meeting.

Honey Beth shared that **Time for Kids** can be used as a valuable resource for nonfiction articles. All information can be found online.

We looked closely at the **Literacy binder** and Chris Bunting is going to make packets to supplement some binders that are missing some resources.


 * __Study Island-__ Chris shared that there may be a website with open ended questions that directly corresponds with Study Island that will be helpful for whole class instruction. We all think this would be useful to help our students meet and/or exceed the demands of state testing. **

Present:** Jeanette Bergman Janet Jennings Chris Bunting Honey Beth Kropp Kathleen Cummins
 * Wednesday, September 30th~2009


 * __Common Assessments__-** We looked closely at the common assessment for text features and decided what information was important and applicable to the students. We decided to blend the multiple choice (part 1) common assessment with the scavenger hunt in social studies text (which shows practical use of text features). Jeanette will type the two parts to create the final assessment.


 * __Curriculum__-** Louise has taught all students about Alexandria and how to renew online and set new passwords.

Independent reading is going well with students enthusiastic about reading.

E Team completed group projects on text features and they turned out very nice while also allowing kids to apply the knowledge they learned about the features. Students used red handbooks to help them with definitions of features and examples.


 * GRADES** are mostly complete. Many absences made getting GRADES finished on time difficult. Some learning support students are still finishing up.

5 days should be allotted to teach text features.


 * Wednesday, September 16th~ 2009**

Discussed Open House, handouts to give out, and what will/should be discussed during the allotted time for Literacy. Shared materials.

__**Curriculum**__- discussed GRADE testing. E and C team doing them this this week and planning on taking three days to complete. A team is doing them next week for three days. GRADEs must be completed by Sept. 25th.

Friday, September 18th, AT starts and students will begin to be pulled.

Study Island- discussed managing techniques with Study Island and how to maximize its use. Try to get in the computer lab every other cycle to give students time to complete SI assignments and get help on particular problems they are struggling with.

Read aloud- Seedfolks which will be used to introduce, reinforce, and model comprehension strategies.

E team has started on text features and elements. Students are presenting in groups two features and convincing the class of the features' importance and defining features' purposes. A and C team started with a project that involved writing and learning more about the students' interests, strengths, weakness, and reading ability/desire.

Meta. and reading logs- E Teams has students write reflections, summaries, and use strategies in journal format. A and C team uses individual sheets. All teams accomplishing same goal.

__**Assessments-**__ Discussed common assessments and need for revision. Will bring binder next time to look more closely at common assessments. Common assessments have study guides to go along with them that may or may not be useful to the students.


 * __REMINDERS FOR NEXT MEETING:__**

BRING BINDER WITH YOU