The Summit

We just finished visiting the Marketplace where all got to visit other projects.  We have some great ideas.

I loved this project.

We are at the TLLP summit

We have arrived at the TLLP summit and we set up the table for tomorrow's marketplace.  Marc and I were laughing that it is like a High School Science fair.  That brings back memories.

It is also great to see some of the teachers we met at the first TLLP training conference.

We have to set up the laptops and projectors tomorrow for the Marketplace but here is the start of our booth.

We also heard some suggestions for taking our projects to the next level and sharing our work beyond our PLC and our school.  I can hardly wait to look at the other projects tomorrow.

Our project is coming to an end

We submitted our report today and we are just finishing up our blog and website.  It is sad to finish up because it has been such a wonderful experience. We will post our original proposal and our final report to the website in case anyone reading wants to apply for a TLLP grant in the future.

Working on the Final Report

We spent the day working on the final report.  It is difficult to put so much learning into the small boxes we have been provided.  We have one more day to wrap up the project and we have to add the comments and suggestions from our sharing day to the blog and add all the documents to the google site.

What a great journey it has been!

Reactions to our Sharing Session

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When we did our sharing session, we discussed using DI in the classroom and asked our colleagues some questions about using DI.  After we were done demonstrating the DI strategies we used in the TLLP, we also asked a few questions.  Here are the answers:

 

Reactions and comments from the discussion and exit cards used in our sharing session with colleagues

What barriers do you have when trying to use DI in the classroom?

•   The barriers we encountered was [sic] lack of time to complete a lot of these activities

•   Many explanations needed if students missing the day assignment given

•   Some DI assignments need exemplars to demonstrate (not possible if its your 1st time assignment)

•   Marking varied choices fairly seems difficult

•   In an Applied class all students pick the same DI as their classmate and/or the only want to do one activity over and over

•   Too noisy

•   Took too long

•   Too much time to prepare

Reactions to the TLLP DI structures and strategies shared

What did you like and what will you try?

• I liked the Auditory Version/ Garage Band - only difficulty: Need at least 2 computers and a Mike
• I will use it for Othello
• I'll for sure use the masks, letters and pockets for an Applied and Academic class. I'll be a challenge for me the technology but I could try
• I liked that the students move around.  It incorporates reading, writing, technology and watching.  The gift basket. I will use this for my Romeo &Juliet or drama unit.
• I really liked the strategy used.  All activities can be done as movable centres or individual options. 
• Some good ideas were presented.  Some ideas can be adapted.
• I liked the speaker assignment poster, how you covered all types of learners so everyone could struggle and do well, all projects could be used on a multiple-purpose or multi-topic basis on units

What challenges to you foresee?

• The teachers expressed these worries:
• Expensive
• Time consuming
• Might be difficult to do with large groups
• Noise issues could be a problem
• The only obstacle I see in implementing these strategies is the expense from year to year
• Technology never runs smoothly for me so I know that it will take so much time.

Our P.D. session to share the project

Here are some photos from our sharing.

Preparing to Share

We are preparing for the first face-to-face sharing of our project today.  We have teachers from our school coming for a session during Period 4 today.  While I am blogging, I am also burning our activities, assignments and movie clips to a CD to give to the teachers attending.  We have also purchased supplies for a basic DI kit for each teacher, including some of the supplies needed to carry out a Learning Centre activity for Romeo and Juliet or another literary work. 

I am including the URL for the blog and the Google site so teachers can access all our material.

We have also ordered lunch, as food seems to facilitate learning (ha ha).

I am also going to ask teachers for feedback after the session.

Our plan is to run the Learning Centres with the teachers (briefly) so they can get an idea what takes place at each station.  Then, we will discuss the other DI strategies we have used.  Finally, we will ask for their ideas for improvement and get their feedback.

On Monday, one of the teachers attending will run the Learning Centres in her class so we can see how this aspect of the project will work for others.

I am excited!
Liana

The Facts

Recently, my grade 9 Locally Developed Class studied Elements of Fiction and Literary Terms.  As an experiment I decided to teach this unit the 'old way' with no DI. My intention was to compare the results of the Mythology unit which employed the Choice Board each and every day.  After every class I made flash cards with words, definitions and facts from the Mythology Unit and we began class the next day with a quick review game.  The students really looked forward to seeing which new cards were added each day. To them, this was a fun game that sometimes even had prizes.  To me, it was a daily drill of the unit.  The final test average for Mythology was 71.5%.  The final test average for Elements of Fiction was 57.5%.  Quite frankly, I was very surprised that the difference was so great.  One small change, probably 5 extra minutes of work each day and it made a world of difference in the end.  So, the facts here are that DI really does work.   

TLLP Meeting

Joe and I began developing formal lesson plan outlines for both the Madden Football Simulation (Grade 10 Business) and the Proportion , Ratios and Rate Unit (Grade 10 Applied Math). We utilized a lesson plan template provided by the ministry.

I began with the first two activities in the unit:
a) Ratio Webquest - where students were exploring proportion and ratios through a variety of websites.
b) Currency Powerpoint - where students utilized online calculators and MS powerpoint to create a Foreign Exchange presentation

Two more lessons remain before beging to develop our final report as a group which should be completed at the end of May.

April 19th Session

Marc and I continued to discuss options in tasks to stem-off of the Madden simulation. Thus far, Marc has found it to be a success in engaging students and reinforcing course concepts. We frameworked two additional DI activities to implement. In addition, we've completed the basic outline for each DI strategy implemented in our courses. The outline was based on the Contextualized Learning Activities that we completed for the High Skills Major Business Studies program at Holy Names Catholic High School. Our next area of focus will be the report due sometime in May.

March Meeting

Joe and I began preparing and scheduling for the introduction of the Madden Simulation. First task after the March break is to conduct the pre-unit survey to gather data on what level our students are at. We will conclude the week by conducting the fantasy draft and choosing teams. Second stage will introduce Economic Basics with a Case Study on the NHL. Students will also be simulating the 1st half of the Madden season. Third stage introduces a unit in Marketing. Studnets will be revamping their teams logo, colours and outerwear. At the same time, students will complete the second half of the season.

Upon completion of these three stages, the group will meet again for another TTLP session (April 13th ??). Joe and I will complete the planning for the 4th stage and final evaluation for the Madden Simulation.

A Change of Plans

Well, today was supposed a day to modify the Romeo and Juliet centres so that they can be used with the Dracula unit. However, in talking this over Liana and we decided to leave the unit as a R&J unit and make changes that we see as necessary. I will then help implement the centres in the classroom of the ENG1P class this semester. This will allow us to improve what we created last semester and try it again. I prefer this plan because although the centres were successful the first time, I would like to make some improvements. It will also be nice to help facilitate in another teacher's classroom. So although the day did not go as originally planned - a success nonetheless.

Reflections on another productive day...

I took some time today to add our materials to the Romeo and Juliet page of our Google site.  Today, we had quite a good discussion about what good teachers do.  The PLC has offered me a great forum for collegial discussion with teachers I trust and I have come away with great new ideas and insights.  We shared some ideas from our collection of professional learning books, both in discussion and on the blog.

It was also nice to get some of our work onto the website and blog.  I have many notes and suggestions to organize and share here in anticipation of our next session but I still need a few days to absorb the results of my discussions with students involved in the first learning sessions and my fellow PLC members today.

My goal for the next meeting is to make adjustments to the DI activities for my ENG 3C class so I can use these ideas for the Macbeth Unit.  I also have some highlights from the professional learning books I chose for the project.  Stay tuned.

In Retrospect

Another useful day of meeting, discussing and planning. I can say with certainty that I am comfortable with our progress, our plan, out timeline and the prospect of completing everything we set out to complete. Our next meeting day is Monday, March 5, 2012 where I plan to take everything from first semester and modify it for a Dracula unit. This should give me a chance to fix what was weak and practice was worked.

DI Resources Continued

Redefining Fair - how to Plan, Assess, and Grade for Excellence in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, by Damian Cooper (ISBN 978-1-935542-14-8)

A large focus of this text consists of assessment. Cooper discusses the necessity to keep the end-learning product in mind in trying to be proactive in planning for each individual student. In other words, in order to provide appropriate evaluation of individual students we need to fully understand what engages them as learners and determine the culminating evaluation accordingly. Cooper also demonstrates the on-going process to develop assessment in a mixed-ability classroom using multiple teaching scenarios. The concept of assessment for learning versus assessment of learning continually surfaces throughout the text. Ultimately, from my interpretation, we should use assessment for learning to improve our assessment of learning. Basically, how a student learns is as important to what a student learns when creating assessment pieces.

The end of the text centres around reporting to parents. Cooper thoroughly discusses five significant areas when reporting DI results in a mixed-ability classroom with regards to parental concerns:

1) What has my child learned?
2) How well has my child demonstrated his or her learning?
3) What has my child not learned?
4) How can I help with what has not been learned?
5) How well behaved is my child?

In all Cooper has numerous examples and materials within the text to help teachers design and implement DI in a mixed-ability classroom.

DI Resources Continued

How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, by Carol Ann Tomlinson (ISBN 0-13-119500-x)

Mainly, this text was a simplified read for understanding the basic concepts of DI. The text reinforced the essence of Readiness, Interests, and Preferences in delivering DI. Keep in mind, the text was written by the biggest proponent of DI, Carol Ann Tomlinson.

In all, I found Chapter 4 - The Learning Environment in a Differentiated Classroom to be the most useful. This chapter focused on the classroom as a learning community. The author provides multiple approaches to having an inclusive classroom that supports all level of learners. Tomlinson stresses the concepts of scaffolding and collaborative learning in unison with DI to establish a learning community.

DI RESOURCES

I took the liberty of reviewing and assessing the DI book entitled "Using Technology with Classroom Instructions that Works" written by Howard Pitler, Elizabeth R. Hubbell, Matt Khun, and Kim Malenoski (ISBN 978-1-4166-0570-6). The book is geared towards utilizing computers and technology in the classroom and discusses a variety of applications to assist students in the learning process and tools for teachers to implement. Here are a few things I found that can be an asset:

Assessment:

Set your objectives an then Create a Rubrics to communicate to your students.

The following are websites that can assist (pg 31-32)

a) http://webquest.sdsu.edu/rubrics/weblessons.htm

Discusses Rubrics designs and also has a base template

b) http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Has a search tool to find existing rubrics and a tool to create your own rubrics online

*** star rating

c) http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html

A wide variety of pre-made Rubrics

WebQuests:

Can be a very engaging activity for students and allows them to work at home if they have internet access. Webquests are designed to focus on using information given rather than looking for it (hence - googling it). The following websites were recommend (pg 146)

a) http://webquest.org/

Able to create a WebQuest using a template and post online. Has a search feature to find WebQuest from a variety of subject areas.

*** star rating

b) https://www.teacherweb.com/tweb/twquest.aspx

Directions on how to create an effective webquest

Surveys:

Online surveys can be utilized in a variety situations. For example, creating a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of a Unit of study. Have students complete a pre and post survey and evaluate the results. Surveys can be used in Business classes to gather data in a marketing project. Student council can use surveys to evaluate school needs and wants and overall student spirit. The following website was recommended (pg 26)

a) http://www.surveymonkey.com/

The site enables anyone to create a professional survey. Their is a free basic service.

More to come.......

Differentiated Instruction: Making It Work

Another book that I found worth reading is - Differentiated Instruction: Making it Work by Patti Drapeau (ISBN: 978-0-439-51778-2). The book is targeted for Grades 3-6, but the ideas and the facts are applicable to ALL LEARNERS. In particular, I am interested in the idea that most students can be placed into six categories. Gone are the days when all students (even in an academic class) are eager, high functioning learners. Drapeau breaks it down like this:

Academic Learner - these are the kids who are adept at 'doing school'. By all accounts they are the model students ("Can I hand this early?")

Perfectionist Learner - these kids are often this way in school and on the sports fields. They are NOT always high achievers because they do not always complete a task and hand in work. They will often quit if the work is not 'perfect' ("I can't do this, forget it.")

Creative Learner - these are the 'idea people' who thrive in school if they are able to think creatively in school. There are the 'out of the box' thinkers. ("What about looking at it like this?")

Struggling Learner - these students struggle to find success, but they also struggle with motivation and often have low self-esteem because the material does not come easily. ("I don't get this, it is stupid.")

Invisible Learner - we all know these kids, they rarely participate. They are shy and sensitive and often try and go through entire classes without speaking out loud. They often need one on one help. ("I won't be right, so I am not going to bother.")

High-Energy Learner - these are the kids who are often the life of the party and as a result are difficult to manage. They thrive on stimulus and tend to have several tasks on the go and rarely complete them. These students make it easier for the Invisible students to remain invisible. ("MISS, MISS, HEY MISS!")

For the purposes of this TLLP I think my focus (our focus) is on the Struggling student and the Invisible student - certainly food for thought.

DI Resources

Differentiation and the Brain, by David Sousa and Carol Ann Tomlinson (ISBN 978-1-935249-59-7)

The book explored multiple implementation issues with DI. However, I found Chapter 2 - Mindset, Learning Environment, and Differentiation, and Chapter 8 - Managing a Differentiated Classroom to be the most useful.

Specifically, Chapter 2 stressed the importance of having a supportive classroom environment towards student individuality. More importantly, the book reveals how to ensure that students have a sense of ownership in their learning in delivering DI. Ultimately, the authors stressed that teachers need to expect high levels of achievement in order to drive students towards academic success within their potential.

Chapter 8 provided a different perspective on classroom management in order to support DI. Rather than managing a classroom, we should use the approach of leading a classroom. Ultimately this means focus on students as being human beings rather subordinates. Also, we need to stress a vision for learning in all aspects of teaching and celebrate success when that vision is achieved by the students. Lastly, the text demonstrates how to establish a flexible learning environment in using the classroom management philosophy.

Notes for Next Time - and a book review

The Romeo and Juliet centres while successful will need some editing and refining for next time. Interestingly enough some of these weaknesses were made even more obvious after reading Differentiated Literacy Centers by Margo Southall (ISBN 978-0-439-89909-3). Most importantly was the need for an "I'm done" zone and a "catch up" zone. I guess I just assumed that everyone would work at the same pace - clearly that was WRONG. The other suggestion Southall has is the possibility of self-rotation to allow students to move when ready. I fear that this option might not work for a locally developed class. However, if an EA or teacher was present at each centre they could help to re-focus the new joiners.
I also would like to add a writing component to each centre - especially the Podcast centre. Liana's group would have like to also film this one rather than just record voices. Either way I think this centre is the one in need of some tweaking.
Lastly, two good activities from Southall's book that I would like to try next time are the Read, Relate, Respond form (there is a good starting point on page 84). This might be a good activity for the "I'm done" zone. A place where the students can think about the text with respect to themselves, the actual text, and finally the world. She also has an excellent Critics' Cube - page 131 - that we could complete as a whole class at the end of the unit. Since we started with a survey and KWL chart we can end with the follow up survey, the L part of the KWL chart and a Critics' Cube.

Assembling the Romeo and Juliet Portfolio

Just a note while this is fresh in my mind... assembling the portfolio was not nearly as easy as I imagined it would be.  It took nearly 30 minutes to get all the students to get the handouts and put them in the right order in the duo-tang.  I think maybe we need to put the framework for the portfolio together ahead of time.  You just never know when a task you think will be simple turns out to be much too complicated for your audience.  The learning centers went smoothly but putting together a duo-tang was a bumpy ride. 

Liana

Some photos from our first learning centers

Here are a few photos from the Learning Stations Activity

The kinesthetic station - Masks

 One of the bins (for the kinesthetic station)

Our pocket charts for the choice board assessment

The Romeo & Juliet project was great

Daniella and I ran the learning centers last week and they were a success.  We had help from Joe (who ran the podcast studio).  We saw some problem areas and have a few adjustments to make for next semester but all our students loved it.  The next few blog posts will include our personal reflections, successes, areas for improvement and some pictures of the stations.  All the documents/handouts and rubrics will be archived on the project site.  Stay tuned.

After establishing several DI approaches and target group for our TLLP in November, 2011 we used the January, 2012 session to discuss implementation and budgetary issues. Marc and I will be ready to launch our DI activity for his BBI class in April. Thus far, our TLLP is well under budget and we will be able to achieve all learning/teaching goals without going over. Although we have not completed going through our DI resources and texts as of yet, we have committed to having done so by our next meeting.

Here We Go

Well the implementation has begun. With a few hiccups at the beginning we have begun the Romeo and Juilet unit. The GLE100 class seems to be enjoying the play so far and loved the KWL chart - partly because they were familiar with the concept and partly because they could 'show off' what they knew about the play. Reading was a bit difficult because they struggle to follow along and several student forgot their role by the time it was there turn. In order to deal with this Liana and I created a chart with the cast of characters and velcro name tags so that it was visible for all to see. Yesterday the kids thought we should use a dry erase marker to mark a red X as characters died - the boys especially liked this marker of death. We should finish today and begin the centres tomorrow.

Planning List for Romeo and Juliet Project

Updated on Jan 18

I am going to put our planning list for Romeo and Juliet so I don't lose it.

• Romeo and Juliet character chart (done)

• student name tags to assign roles on chart (done)

• Assignment sheet for students

List of tasks accomplished by students

• complete survey (done)
• read play (done)
• Minds On (done)
• KWL chart
• journal entries (Would you date someone your parents disapproved of?)
• Action
• reading play (done)
• guided reading (done)
• inferencing discussions (done)
• vocabulary - word wall
• making predictions (done)
• verbal questions to class (done)
• cubing - using Blooms to make questions
• Learning Centers (ready)
• masks
• letter (Juliet to Romeo after banishment)
• podcast of scene
• watch scene from Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)/Zeffirelli (1968)/Lurhmann (1996) - respond to media interpretation
•  Laminated Instructions for each Learning Station (x2 classes)
•  Consolidation 
• use choice board - pick some of the completed learning center work to polish and submit
• Rubric for Summative Assessment -  Choice Board/Learning Center hybrid
• Signs for Visual/Auditory/Reading&Writing/Kinesthetic  

 All documents will be uploaded to Equal is Not the Same Google Site

Surveys

Revised surveys are live!!

Pre-Survey Link:
https://docs.google.com/a/wecdsb.on.ca/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFNPZHZNRjJzYkZrMHNzOTJrdUdoTkE6MQ

Post-Survey Link:
https://docs.google.com/a/wecdsb.on.ca/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHA1TENyZlgyenJzVVdqSUpKeUIzcWc6MQ

Marc

Upcoming release time: final preparations

We have a release period on Monday to finalize all our activities for next week's unit.  Joe will be working on the budget.  Marc will be working on the surveys and Daniella and I will complete all the handouts, instructions, learning center stations, assessments and rubrics.  I am quite excited to put all our ideas into final form and my students are excited to begin.

Liana

The implementation phase begins

I began the implementation phase with my ENG 1P0 class today.  We did the pre-survey and it was easy for them to understand the questions and complete the survey.  It took them less than 5 minutes.  I am very anxious to take a look at the results for my class. 

We chose to use the term "topic" rather than be specific about the subject matter so that we could all use the same survey.  I was a bit worried that some students might find that wording hard to follow but I explained the topic was Shakespeare and/or Romeo & Juliet and there were no problems at all.  Daniella is having her ENG 1L0 class try the survey tomorrow and we will see if her Locally Developed or Life Skills students have any trouble with the wording.

A few reminders for us later, when we write up the project:

• To make it easier for them, I turned the url into a bit.ly url : http://bit.ly/cotesurvey.
• There is a repeat question in the survey which needs to be changed.

Liana