ImagineIT Phase 3: Action Plan
On this page, all my thoughts about my professional learning community
project are woven into a general action plan.
This is the map by which I plan to proceed!
August 2015
Marianna Jennings
Identify Desired Results
The Prosser Career Academy Math Department Professional Learning Community will focus on sharing STEM lessons that engage the student in a real world context. The decision to focus on engaging students in learning is based off of PLC needs assessment completed by the math teachers. Questions were based on Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching adopted by Chicago Public Schools. Below are the results from the Google form for the area of need that will be focused on for the upcoming year. Nine teachers completed the needs assessment survey.
Students who are engaged in learning develop deeper levels of understanding.
“Knowledge and skill, then, are necessary elements of understanding, but not sufficient in themselves.
Understanding requires more: the ability to thoughtfully and actively “do” the work with discernment,
as well as the ability to self-assess, justify, and critique such “doings.” Transfer involves figuring out which
knowledge and skill matters here and often adapting what we know to address the challenge at hand.”
(Wiggins and McTighe)
The desired results of this project is for teachers to identify, design lessons and activities that nurture engagement in the math classroom. Teachers will also be able to create assessments that allow students to demonstrate their level of understanding and interpret data to inform teaching. This engagement is necessary if we expect students to retain lessons from year to year. The engagement will be centered on the elements of STEM teaching and learning. STEM is a lens with which to look at math lessons that raise the rigor and increase students’ collaborative discussion and problem solving skills while focusing on math in the real world. Students will be able to explain their work and transfer knowledge from problem to problem and year to year. As a result of students being engaged in their math lessons, they will demonstrate increased achievement on common assessments and standardized tests.
Acceptable Evidence
Level 1: The teachers
Teachers will create a SMART goal for the department in September. Progress will be charted in terms of the SMART goal. Evidence of progress will be collected from an on-line survey that is a follow-up from the initial survey, minutes of meetings, non-evaluative classroom observations and a self-reflection on the teacher’s own use of technology in their classrooms. Videotape evidence will document teacher progress with new teaching methods. The progress will be documented for group viewing on our Edmodo page with links to individual videos and work products on our GoogleDrive folder.
Level 2: The students
Evidence of progress be collected in both formative and summative forms. Teachers will be creating common assessments for each class as a means to determine what methods are working in developing a deeper understanding of learning and which methods need to be revised. Scoring rubrics will be standardized and linked to the Common Core State Standards for math in order that scores entered in the on-line gradebook are a true reflection of student achievement. The use of the on-line gradebook will ensure transparency with students and parents who have access through the gradebook portal. Re-teaching efforts and subsequent assessments will be connected to original assessments. These common assessments and general comments on the overall trends will be posted on Edmodo. In addition, the school is contracting with an outside agency to provide interim testing products, scoring and reports. This data on student progress will be used to inform the teaching/re-teaching process and the entire cycle of student achievement. Students will also be asked to respond to journal prompts about their own thoughts about math as we move through the year.
Note: Student and teacher progress will be shared with other departments are the weekly instructional leadership team meeting. In addition, the administration and network officers will be reviewing all documented progress to determine overall success and provide appropriate professional development support as needed.
Learning Experience & Instructional Plan
Context: I teach juniors and seniors. I have juniors who often don’t remember linear equations - a topic that I know they were taught freshmen year. I wonder why their retention is so poor. Is it because they weren’t engaged during instruction and couldn’t make the connections necessary to deepen their understanding? And yet, some students do remember. What worked for them that didn’t work for other students? We need to collaborate as a department and talk about how to improve instruction for all students. I want to see my students transformed from “I’ve never seen this before” to “I sort of remember that topic, just remind me.” My role as a stem educator changes this year from classroom teacher to classroom teacher/math coach. I will still be teaching one class, but will spend the rest of the day supporting math teachers as our school strives to improve math scores. I will seek professional reading, assist in videotaping, support planning of common assessments, schedule interim assessments and interpret data. Teachers and students in Algebra 1, Geometry, Advanced Algebra with Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, IB Math Studies and AP Calculus will be included in this project.
Content:
Content is explored from a teacher and a student perspective.
Level 1: The Teachers
The Prosser Career Academy Math Department Professional Learning Community will focus on sharing STEM lessons that engage the student in a real world context. Teachers will learn how to create performance type assessments that ask for students to explain and demonstrate learning. Teachers will learn how to interpret and share student work in a collaborative setting. These discussions will inform our teaching and then help to shape re-teaching lessons to focus on student misconceptions. The teachers will learn the power of collaboration while seeking new methods to increase student engagement.
Level 2: The Students.
Student learning, in the various classes and levels (special education, regular and honors), will focus on the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice. These standards are how students are expected to think about and engage in math. Specifically, students will make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (SMP 1), construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others (SMP 3), model mathematics (SMP 4) and use appropriate tools strategically (SMP 5).
Pedagogy:
Both levels of pedagogy aim to reduce the role of teacher as deliverer of knowledge to one as facilitator of learning.
Level 1: The Teachers
This project asks teachers to collaborate. As a large group, we will meet weekly to discuss student work. We will review case studies of various teaching methods. I will meet individually with teachers and coach them on implementation of new methods. As a math coach, I will be modeling effective teaching methods (by demonstrating methods in their classes while they watch and having them shadow my class while I teach).
Level 2: The Students.
This project will focus on Socratic discussions, student driven inquiry, think-pair-share and small group projects. Students will learn to be interactive, collaborative and reflective in the math classroom.
Technology:
The CCS SMP5: “use appropriate tools strategically” is the framework for this section of ImagineIT.
Level 1: The Teachers
Teachers will communicate via Edmodo and share documents on GoogleDrive. Teachers will view videotapes of other classrooms as well as allow their own classrooms to be videotaped. New textbooks purchased by the school have several teacher resources that encourage the use of technology such as lesson planners, individual student study plans and on-line homework submission.
Level 2: The Students
Technology explored will include Chromebooks, cell phones, and ELMO projectors. Graphing calculators and on-line graphing calculators will be a resource for all classrooms. The use of Edmodo for student-to-student and teacher-to-student discussions will be utilized. Students will be encouraged “to do” rather than “to watch.” Students will be encouraged to explore technology on their own and bring new ideas for all to try back to the classroom. Bulletin boards in each classroom will document discoveries/finds that are useful for all students.
Bibliography
Wiggins, Grant P., and Jay McTighe. "2/Understanding Understanding." Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1998. N. pag. Print.
Identify Desired Results
The Prosser Career Academy Math Department Professional Learning Community will focus on sharing STEM lessons that engage the student in a real world context. The decision to focus on engaging students in learning is based off of PLC needs assessment completed by the math teachers. Questions were based on Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching adopted by Chicago Public Schools. Below are the results from the Google form for the area of need that will be focused on for the upcoming year. Nine teachers completed the needs assessment survey.
Students who are engaged in learning develop deeper levels of understanding.
“Knowledge and skill, then, are necessary elements of understanding, but not sufficient in themselves.
Understanding requires more: the ability to thoughtfully and actively “do” the work with discernment,
as well as the ability to self-assess, justify, and critique such “doings.” Transfer involves figuring out which
knowledge and skill matters here and often adapting what we know to address the challenge at hand.”
(Wiggins and McTighe)
The desired results of this project is for teachers to identify, design lessons and activities that nurture engagement in the math classroom. Teachers will also be able to create assessments that allow students to demonstrate their level of understanding and interpret data to inform teaching. This engagement is necessary if we expect students to retain lessons from year to year. The engagement will be centered on the elements of STEM teaching and learning. STEM is a lens with which to look at math lessons that raise the rigor and increase students’ collaborative discussion and problem solving skills while focusing on math in the real world. Students will be able to explain their work and transfer knowledge from problem to problem and year to year. As a result of students being engaged in their math lessons, they will demonstrate increased achievement on common assessments and standardized tests.
Acceptable Evidence
Level 1: The teachers
Teachers will create a SMART goal for the department in September. Progress will be charted in terms of the SMART goal. Evidence of progress will be collected from an on-line survey that is a follow-up from the initial survey, minutes of meetings, non-evaluative classroom observations and a self-reflection on the teacher’s own use of technology in their classrooms. Videotape evidence will document teacher progress with new teaching methods. The progress will be documented for group viewing on our Edmodo page with links to individual videos and work products on our GoogleDrive folder.
Level 2: The students
Evidence of progress be collected in both formative and summative forms. Teachers will be creating common assessments for each class as a means to determine what methods are working in developing a deeper understanding of learning and which methods need to be revised. Scoring rubrics will be standardized and linked to the Common Core State Standards for math in order that scores entered in the on-line gradebook are a true reflection of student achievement. The use of the on-line gradebook will ensure transparency with students and parents who have access through the gradebook portal. Re-teaching efforts and subsequent assessments will be connected to original assessments. These common assessments and general comments on the overall trends will be posted on Edmodo. In addition, the school is contracting with an outside agency to provide interim testing products, scoring and reports. This data on student progress will be used to inform the teaching/re-teaching process and the entire cycle of student achievement. Students will also be asked to respond to journal prompts about their own thoughts about math as we move through the year.
Note: Student and teacher progress will be shared with other departments are the weekly instructional leadership team meeting. In addition, the administration and network officers will be reviewing all documented progress to determine overall success and provide appropriate professional development support as needed.
Learning Experience & Instructional Plan
Context: I teach juniors and seniors. I have juniors who often don’t remember linear equations - a topic that I know they were taught freshmen year. I wonder why their retention is so poor. Is it because they weren’t engaged during instruction and couldn’t make the connections necessary to deepen their understanding? And yet, some students do remember. What worked for them that didn’t work for other students? We need to collaborate as a department and talk about how to improve instruction for all students. I want to see my students transformed from “I’ve never seen this before” to “I sort of remember that topic, just remind me.” My role as a stem educator changes this year from classroom teacher to classroom teacher/math coach. I will still be teaching one class, but will spend the rest of the day supporting math teachers as our school strives to improve math scores. I will seek professional reading, assist in videotaping, support planning of common assessments, schedule interim assessments and interpret data. Teachers and students in Algebra 1, Geometry, Advanced Algebra with Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, IB Math Studies and AP Calculus will be included in this project.
Content:
Content is explored from a teacher and a student perspective.
Level 1: The Teachers
The Prosser Career Academy Math Department Professional Learning Community will focus on sharing STEM lessons that engage the student in a real world context. Teachers will learn how to create performance type assessments that ask for students to explain and demonstrate learning. Teachers will learn how to interpret and share student work in a collaborative setting. These discussions will inform our teaching and then help to shape re-teaching lessons to focus on student misconceptions. The teachers will learn the power of collaboration while seeking new methods to increase student engagement.
Level 2: The Students.
Student learning, in the various classes and levels (special education, regular and honors), will focus on the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice. These standards are how students are expected to think about and engage in math. Specifically, students will make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (SMP 1), construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others (SMP 3), model mathematics (SMP 4) and use appropriate tools strategically (SMP 5).
Pedagogy:
Both levels of pedagogy aim to reduce the role of teacher as deliverer of knowledge to one as facilitator of learning.
Level 1: The Teachers
This project asks teachers to collaborate. As a large group, we will meet weekly to discuss student work. We will review case studies of various teaching methods. I will meet individually with teachers and coach them on implementation of new methods. As a math coach, I will be modeling effective teaching methods (by demonstrating methods in their classes while they watch and having them shadow my class while I teach).
Level 2: The Students.
This project will focus on Socratic discussions, student driven inquiry, think-pair-share and small group projects. Students will learn to be interactive, collaborative and reflective in the math classroom.
Technology:
The CCS SMP5: “use appropriate tools strategically” is the framework for this section of ImagineIT.
Level 1: The Teachers
Teachers will communicate via Edmodo and share documents on GoogleDrive. Teachers will view videotapes of other classrooms as well as allow their own classrooms to be videotaped. New textbooks purchased by the school have several teacher resources that encourage the use of technology such as lesson planners, individual student study plans and on-line homework submission.
Level 2: The Students
Technology explored will include Chromebooks, cell phones, and ELMO projectors. Graphing calculators and on-line graphing calculators will be a resource for all classrooms. The use of Edmodo for student-to-student and teacher-to-student discussions will be utilized. Students will be encouraged “to do” rather than “to watch.” Students will be encouraged to explore technology on their own and bring new ideas for all to try back to the classroom. Bulletin boards in each classroom will document discoveries/finds that are useful for all students.
Bibliography
Wiggins, Grant P., and Jay McTighe. "2/Understanding Understanding." Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1998. N. pag. Print.