Welcome to Preston County
The intent of the blog is for us to help each other out. For example if you are teaching a unit in Reading and find something really good to go with it you could share with the rest in your grade level. On the reverse of that if you are having trouble with a unit or are in need of ideas you can express those thoughts and maybe a colleaque could give some suggestions.
I have listed everything by grade level for grade K-5 and then for middle school I listed it by subjects.
What you need to do first is find the grade level you want to post in ....it might be easier to find the list on the right of the page.....click on it and then you will be able to make a comment in that grade level.
We can also add other topics for the good of the order for all grade levels.
If you have a smartboard here are the reading tests you can use with it.
ReplyDeletehttp://techtoolkit.wikispaces.com/5th+grade
Day 1: Arrived at WV Teacher Leadership Institute, registered for the conference, completed needed paperwork for the laptop used for sessions, and met up with other county participants prior to dinner. The evening session was featured by three guest speakers: Carla Williamson, Clayton Burch, and Robert Hull (all from the WVDE). Mrs. Williamson highlighted the need for some changes to disrupt the "status quo" that exists in many schools. She indicated that many initiatives are bent to the convenience of those working in the school and true change must transform the school and those within it. Mr. Burch detailed the importance of consistent quality teaching in our schools and shared a national statistic showing poor to inconsistent teaching being the norm in a majority of US classrooms. He also talked about the importance of our work in spreading the message of TLI and work to overcome those who are negative in regards to needed changes in our schools. He described these people as CAVEMEN (i.e. Creatures Against Virtually Everything). Robert Hull concluded the evening with remarks about the vital role of teachers in helping students to achieve their dreams regardless of social or economic standing. Upon arrival at home, computer needs charged and documents and presentations needed for tomorrow need to be downloaded.
ReplyDeleteDay 2: Today the majority of the day was spent in group sessions. The morning & afternoon sessions focused on exploring the Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives for Mathematics, identifying student learning related to the standards, and discussion of effective instructional math strategies for 4th and 5th grade students. Our facilitators broke us into groups and reshuffled the groups on several occasions throughout the day. Group work allowed me to talk with teachers, principals, WVDE representatives, and higher education supervisors with each offering unique areas of expertise and experiences. I felt the sessions did help to better familiarize me with the core content standards; however, I did feel like the training was a little "disjointed" at times. Some of our group projects were assigned with inadequate direction and I felt like time was often lost in trying to figure out what was being asked of our groups to accomplish. However, I must say that both of our facilitators were very willing to answer questions and provide guidance to groups as needed. I would not feel totally confindent to provide training on the Next Generation Standards at this juncture; however, our training has really just begun and I'm sure there will be much more to learn and share throughout the rest of the week. The final session of the day allowed our county team time to meet and share our experiences from the day's sessions. We were also asked to begin preparations on a professional development planning document that will be helpful in planning our training actviities for other county teachers and staff. It has beeing a long day and it is time to prepare materials for tomorrow!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMLOnSNwzA
ReplyDeleteDalton Sherman YouTube Clip used during Clayton Burch's speech on opening night of TLI.
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/2010/10/animate-graphic-presentation-sir-ken.html
ReplyDeleteSir Ken Robinson Clip used during Robert Hull's speech on opening night of TLI
Day 1: This day of the conference was more of a general session where all participants sat together. The general session speakers talked about why we are going to the Next Gen. Standards and showed us some very pertinent videos, in which Mr. Martin has posted on her. They discussed that this is just not something that will "pass" by after a year or two that this will be with us for at least the next 10 years! At the closing, we were told where to find the powerpoints, groups, and what sessions we would be in for Monday.
ReplyDeleteDay 2: Today was a very enlightening day for myself. The presenters were great! They kept us involved and it wasn't a lecture session. We worked on group activities and learned about what teaching the Next Gen. standards mean. I learned that the whole classroom dynamics is going to need to be changed. The biggest change is that classrooms are no longer going to be teacher "controlled" but more student "controlled". Students are going to need to perform and show teachers what they know and have learned. This is where performance assessments come into play. Also in the ELA session we discussed how the speaking and listening CSO's were skipped over during the school year because it wasn't tested on WESTEST. Teacher's are going to have to teach and work on these CSO's because of the performance testing that will be coming out in 2014. We as teachers are going to have to move away from "spoon feeding" our students and move on to letting our students take control and to problem solve on their own. We become facilitator's!! My presenters were Teresa Hammond and Megan Bacom.
ReplyDeleteDay 3: Today began with math group sessions and our first activity involved each table group circulating around the room and completing basic multiplication and division problems. Each group had to demonstrate a unique manner to complete each problem, and it was interesting to see the varied techniques that teachers use to assist their students in finding the method that works best for them. We also worked on developing decimal number sense by working some sample problems and developing generalizations and recognizing patterns through the multiplication of whole numbers by given decimals. In addition, we also created visual representations to demonstrate given fractions. Discussion insued as to why it is important for students to be exposed to varied learner-constructed algorithms-- Responses included: building of conceptual knowledge, reinforcing the idea that there are more than one way to work out a problem, building of number sense, and meeting students' needs through differentiated instruction.
ReplyDeleteThe overriding theme I've taken from the morning discussion is that it is important for students to utilize lots of techniques to solve problems, be willing to try new things and learn from their mistakes, and it is extremely important for teachers to work to create an atmosphere where this can take place.
Our mid-morning session began by asking us to craft a sample story-problem using multiplication and division and categorize each problem into groups of suggested methodology. We also reviewed specific goals and crafted ideas as to how students would demonstrate comprehension of the given goal.
The afternoon session featured two new facilitators, and the afternoon's focus was fractions. Major concepts covered: 4th grade teachers are going to be required to provide extensive instruction on fractions, due to a lack of coverage at the 3rd grade level based on current CSOs. The lesson began by demonstrating methods to introduce the concept of fractions (i.e. counting fraction parts), determining whether the counted parts would be more or less than 1, and placing fractions on a number line and where the who number 1 would fall on the number line when provided with fractional guidemarks.
Following a break, we compared fractions (which is larger) and discussed the throught processes involved in coming to a conclusion on each problem. Another activity involved creating fraction visuals and subdividing them to create new fractions (example: 3/4 converting to 6/8 when adding a horizontal line to the vertical lines)-- This changes the fraction itself but not the shaded portion) Homework assignment was provided at the conclusion of the session. I felt the afternoon session on fractions was very productive and well-organized.
Our final session of the day was led by Clayton Burch. He discussed the WVDE plan to utilize 21st Century Learning Skills and Technology Tools, Next Generation Standards, 21st Century Standards, and SPL (student personalized learning) over the next 10 years to strengthen WV students and schools. The remainder of the time in this session was devoted to development of the county professional development plan and completion of our county poster.
Below is a link for a product called the SmartPal Sleeve, which was widely utilized during today's training. Great tool when completing guided practice for math instruction.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eaieducation.com/Category/212_1/SmartPAL_Sleeves.aspx?gclid=CImgqcb_srECFYeo4AodFAwAgw
Day 3: Today began with the idea of thinking outside the box. Teachers and students both must be able and will to think outside the box. The big theme is that classroom's are not going to be the same anymore. There will be no more traditional classrooms, no more rows and worksheets, there will be lots of up out of your seat activities. The focus is rigor, relevance, and relationships!! With the first step starting on relationships. The big theme is PERFORMANCE! Simply having a checklist and saying that you've covered something is no longer sufficient, learning opportunities must transfer across disciplines. They also discuss how important common planning time was, however in small schools were most of us teach this can be hard to do! In the afternoon in ELA we looked at a form that helped us to put the Next Gen Standards into perspective and to help us prepare lesson that focus on these standards. Another important word mentioned a lot was collaboration. Students need to be working together and collaborating, no more pencil/paper desk work! Get them up and moving!!!
ReplyDeleteDay 4: The majority of the morning in my math group session focused on table groups reviewing one objective from the 4th and 5th grade clusters pertaining to fractions and devising presentation posters to display what types of skills and products students should be able to demonstrate to exhibit proficiency in the given standards. This activity really showed how each standards builds on another and reinforces the idea that the objectives should not be taught in isolation. Another activity involved individual work on fraction-based problems followed by group sharing of the varied methods used to solve the problems. It is really important that teachers allow time for their students to share which allows for lots of modeling of manners of problem-solving. Heading to lunch in a few minutess, will try and post again in the afternoon.
ReplyDeleteDay 4: As we entered the room to our session music was playing in the background. Once we were all seated our presenters had us up and moving to the music. It was a good activity to lighten up the mood or to begin the day. We began discussing how we might start out the beginning of the school year and preparing to use the Next Generations Standards. Some ideas were to do interest inventories, an art project on what students did over the summer, etc. We discussed what a Next Generation classroom looks and sounds like. There should be laughter, lots of movement, a relaxed and engaging classroom, and just enjoy the moment! We discussed as a group and made a list of the different student dispositions and teacher dispositions to learning. The groups came up with good and bad dispositions. Some examples for students were: curious, inquisitive, passive, reluctant, and defiant. Some examples for teachers were: creative, nurturing, dedicated, selfish, and unapproachable. The word of the morning was EVIDENCE. We were told that using evidence should be done more often in the classroom. For example, if reading a passage with the word magnitude you could ask students what does it mean and how do you know what it means. Find the evidence that shows the meaning in the passage. The Smart Balance testing that will start in 2014 will use the word evidence a lot. We were given a passage to read and then the presenters reread the passage to us and showed us what a lesson using performance looked like. You can find passages on the Teach 21 website by clicking on common core standards and then once on the next page click The Standards at the top right side of page. Then scroll down and choose any of the hyperlinks. In the morning session we did a lot of group work that was student centered!
ReplyDeleteThe afternoon started out with us taking a book that we use in class and going to lexile.com to find the reading level of that book. We were given text complexity rubrics on qualitative measures for informational and literary texts. We used them to decide what complexity our book fell under. This can help us to determine if our students are reading the right books that are in their level range. We learned that in grades 4-5 the distribution of literary and informational passages should be 50/50. None of the reading series that have been adopted in WV are 50/50! Finally we did what was called a Book Pass.
If you click on the "A" beside the clusters within the standards, you can review the cluster allignments across grade levels. In addition, when you click the "G" you can review the objective progressions across grade levels. We were not shown this during the math sessions.
ReplyDeletewww.lexile.com is a great tools to determine grade-level appropriate reading materials. A student's reading "sweet spot" is a lexile range that is runs 100 L points below and 50 L poiints above their current Lexile score. Student lexile scores are provided on their WESTEST 2 results.
ReplyDeleteSee--Think--Wonder--> A great technique to elicit student opinions and increase engagement prior to the writing process.
ReplyDeleteDay 5: In the morning ELA session we focused on Read Alouds and how to make the most out of them. It is recommended that when doing a read aloud you read the book 5 times, it does not have to be during the same day. The steps to read aloud are:
ReplyDelete1) Read through with critical vocabulary identified only
2) Re-read and begin think aloud
3) Re-read and begin text-dependent questions
4) Re-read again with more text-dependent questions
5) Read straight through
Then we did some activities that involved writing and the Next Gen. Standards. In the afternoon I went to a math session. During this session we broke down some of the standards and went over what they look like when mastered.
Key Point of the Day: Students must master the clusters, they do not have to master all of the objectives under the cluster to do so!!
Day 6: "Number Talks" a great resource for math teachers on teaching students different strategies on to how to solve problems.
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=p4B9F1u2T4kC&printsec=frontcover&dq=number+talks&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6EPXT_v4Nsbx0gGsx8CkAw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=number%20talks&f=false
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Link to Math Resources from this week's sessions
ReplyDeletehttp://wvde.state.wv.us/instruction/math.html
Everyday Mathematics http://everydaymath.com/
Investigations http://investigations.terc.edu/CCSS/correlations.cfm
Math Expressions
http://www.hmhelearning.com/math/mathexpressions/mx09/resources/MX11_CommonCore_K-5.pdf
EnVisions http://ttools.ccsd.net/tab2_math.html