Study+Group+2

=Year 2011-2012=

March 13, 2012
Present: Laurie, Betsie, Hilary, Melissa Fabienne Leader: Fabienne We shared work. Fabienne spoke about the results of her research. She showed us sample work involving writing in French class from K through 6th. We refered to Joyce Pickering and talked about the importance of indirect preparation. We looked at writing developement through a three period lessons angle.

March 6, 2012
Present: Laurie, Betsie, Hilary, Melissa and Fabienne Leader: Hilary. We met briefly and shared work. We split into groups to do our research.

February 28,2012.
Present: Fabienne, Laurie, Betsy, Hilary, Melissa. Leader: Betsy We met briefly and shared work. We each did individual research based on our goals.

**February 21, 2012**
Attendance: Betsy, Hillary, Laurie. Fabienne Absent: Melissa We scheduled meeting leaders and then did independent research related to our respective topics. Tuesday, February 28 - Betsy Tuesday, March 6 - Hillary Tuesday, March 13 - Fabienne Tuesday, March 20 - Melissa Tuesday, April 10 - Laurie Tuesday, April 17 - Preparation for Study Group Share Tuesday, April 24 - Preparation for Study Group Share Tuesday, May 1 - Study Group Share

February 14, 2012
Attendance: Melissa, Betsy, Fabienne, Laurie with special appearance from Linda and Jenn. Absent: Hillary Leader: Fabienne We enjoyed Fabienne's king cake and writing templates - Think Sheets. [|think_sheets.pdf]

**February 7, 2012**
Present:Fabienne, Laurie, Melissa, Hilary. Absent: Betsy. Leader Laurie: Today we made a plan for the remaining of the year and decided of our goals:

1/ Big Questions? Do we push writing because it is developmentally appropriate or because we want to show what they produce or because it is requested by the curriculum? How do we address students who need to be pushed.

2/ Goals.. Mellissa'a goal is: Stop and take stock. What works what does not work? Hilary's goal is to look at what are the standards for the Toddlers. NAEYC. Should we add anything to the toddlers level. Laurie's goal is to learn from Sarah's workshop 6 traits and blend it with what she has down so far in the classroom. Fabienne's goal is to list the activities in the French room by age group with the goal to evaluate how much writing is actually done in French class and how it is integrated in the process of learning French. Betsy's goal is to research invented spelling at the pre-school level.

January 31st.
Present: Fabienne, Laurie, Hilary, Betsy, Melissa Each age-level in the group presented work from their students. Discussions took place.

January 17th
Present Fabienne, Laurie, Hilary, Betsy, Absent: Melissa Each age-level in the group presented work from their students. Discussions took place.

**Study Group Log Dec 6, 2011** __Study Group # 2__ Date: __12/6/11__ Leader: Fabienne Timekeeper: __Betsy__ Scribe: Jennifer Present: Laurie, Melissa, Hilary, Fabienne, Betsy, Jennifer Absent 0 Next Study Group Meeting: __12/13/11__ Leader:

//Summary of discussion and activities. Keep artifacts in notebook.// Fabienne continued her summary of Handwriting without Tears. Key Facts: Handwriting is a multiple step activity. Skills required include memory, orientation, placement, size, control, spacing. Requires mulit-tasking. Multi-Sensory Skill- important to incorporate movement to build muscle memory for writing letters. Engages cognitive and physical elements. Stages of Writing: Imitation, Copying, Independent Writing. Similar to Three Period Lesson. Also noted: handwriting without tears is designed to be remedial and therefore may not be necessary for everyone. Other methods can include skywriting, wet/dry writing. Melissa summarized characteristics of Lucy Calkins theories on Writing. Concluded that children need to be able to create close approximations of 52 geometric shapes to form letters. Important to build confidence first by allowing children to get letters down on paper first before being concerned with spelling. Two letter words are also acceptable at this time. || Laurie demonstrated a method of writing used to tell a story. The exercise occurs during circle with the group. One child takes a turn describing an event while teacher writes sentences on board and creates two pictures to illustrate the story. This method of oral storytelling helps children understand that they tell stories all the time and that writing is simply another way of presenting their stories. || Jennifer brought a card made by a 4 yr. old. It included several properly formed letters sequenced together in imitation of words. || **Study Group Logs Nov 8, 2011** __Study Group # 2__ **Date:** __Tuesday, November 8, 2011__ = =
 * //What happened today?//
 * Conversation of the importance of modeling for children with learning disabilities and that this period of Copying will need to be longer.
 * //Classroom Application: What are students learning and achieving as a result of what you are learning and doing?//
 * //Did you examine student work today? Who brought it?//
 * //General comments � What are you ready to share, I/C, Reps meeting?// || //What concerns or questions do you have for leaders or what do you want them to know?// ||
 * Leader:** __Jennifer (absent due to illness)__ **Timekeeper:** __Betsy__ **Scribe:** __Laurie O.__
 * Present:** __Fabienne, Betsy, Hillary, Laurie O.__
 * Absent:** __Melissa, Jennifer__
 * Next Study Group Meeting**: __December 6__ **Leader:** __Fabienne__

= = We spent the time reviewing our own readings as well as the presentation Linda made at last week�s meeting on current best practice and research on **//writing//**. Key presentation points we discussed: This is an ongoing discussion which __is__ definitely impacting our classrooms, but as of yet, not necessarily in direct ways. Each teacher is clearly weighing and contemplating ways to improve and extend current classroom practices. || The group decided our goal is to bring student work to the next meeting and read the �storytelling� article, which was distributed last week. || NA || **//What concerns or questions do you have for leaders or what do you want them to know?//** NA || = =
 * **//What happened today?//**
 * //Summary of discussion and activities. Keep artifacts in notebook.//**
 * a child�s innate drive to write; we agreed that we see evidence of this but also that it appears to wane as the student senses there will be an evaluation/judgment of his/her writing - particularly at the 5-7 level. We posed the question: What can be done to preserve the desire to write so evident in the younger years as the student advances through the school?
 * activities and instructional strategies we currently employ that are considered best practice, based on our tour of each other�s classrooms and conversation
 * the importance of instilling a strong desire and confidence in being able to tell one�s own story and how that leads to writing
 * the ideas for handwriting exercises and preparation as listed in Betsy�s albums
 * comparisons to acquiring confidence in a second language and in expressing oneself on paper, especially when the work is hard or demanding.
 * we talked about our own writing, which types we prefer and do not prefer as well as which types are difficult. ||
 * **//Classroom Application: What are students learning and achieving as a result of what you are learning and doing?//**
 * **//Did you examine student work today? Who brought it?//**
 * **//General comments � What are you ready to share, I/C, Reps meeting?//**

= = = =  **Study Group Log Oct 25, 2011**

__Study Group # 2__ Date: __10/25__

Leader: __Laurie O__ Timekeeper: __Laurie O__ Scribe: Hillary Present: __Everyone was present__ Absent : Next Study Group Meeting: __November 8__ Leader: Fabienne

//Summary of discussion and activities. Keep artifacts in notebook.// Today we all brought resources such as books and albums to research anything that has to do with children and handwriting. We spent about 45minutes reading and taking notes from materials. Then some of us shared information we found. Jennifer looked through the book //Discovery of the Child//. She talked about how the book discussed how preparations have to take place for writing and how the hand and brain development need to make a connection. She also talked about how this can take place when the child is drawing simple shapes and practicing sensorial motions by using repetition and drawing in the same direction. She gave the example of the sand paper letter as another sensorial experience in preparation for writing. Betsy talked about some things she found in her penmanship resource album. Her notes stated that children need to have mastered small and fine motor control in order to get to handwriting. These skills, she said, can be practiced by doing practical life work such as polishing work. Her resource album also mentioned that doing arm exercises such as arm circles can strengthen muscles and help body control with handwriting. The next study group meeting we will continue with Betsy and finish with the others in the group who did not have time to share their research. We will also discuss the article �Storytelling.� || We all brought books and resource albums. || //n/a// || //What concerns or questions do you have for leaders or what do you want them to know?// //n/a// ||
 * //What happened today?//
 * //Classroom Application: What are students learning and achieving as a result of what you are learning and doing?// We are sharing new ideas and information during our study groups and finding ways to refresh ourselves with ways to strengthen the students� handwriting skills.. ||
 * //Did you examine student work today? Who brought it?//
 * //General comments � What are you ready to share, I/C, Reps meeting?//

= = =YEAR 2010-2011= = = = Study Group 2: = = Technology, UbD, Betty Garner and Assessments = = **A Sampling of Our In-class Practice/Work** = Betsy, Fabienne, Hillary, Laurie, Jennifer, Karen, Maribeth

=__ **Getting to Got It** __= Betsy Haas  Betty Garner-Conservancy Tasks : While I was working with Betty Garner�s Conservancy tasks with my preschool group, I was very surprised at the number of children who did not yet have the skills to complete the tasks. As an adult, I think we assume that the answers to the questions are obvious, but to a three, four, or five-year-old, that is not always the case. They seem to be perplexed by questions like �what straw was longer� or �do we still have the same amount of water in the container if it is flipped�. Using the questions that Betty Garner suggested during her MTAD workshop she said that we should ask �what did you notice�, �what changed�, or �what stayed the same�. These questions seemed to help them answer the questions more accurately.

For the week of 02/08 to 02/15.

Members discussed the experiences we each had incorporating one of Betty Garner's cognitive structures/ideas into our classrooms.

**Karen**- asked a group of students to answer the question, "What do you wish you could understand better?" in a journal entry. Students answered in a variety of ways, some academic and some personal. All displayed mindfulness and gave insight into each child's thinking. A few of the answers received: 1) "Why my mom and dad broke up when I was little, that just gets me angry!" 2) "How others think more clearly, why there is not gravity in space, physics and why I am hungry at 9:00am." 3) "Other people, infinite understanding, the center of the earth, calculus, myself. It seems so impossible to have something go on forever and I get dizzy when I think about it too hard." 4) " A person's soul, what does it do after a person dies? Does it go to a different person, a baby being born? Does it exist?"

**Betsy**- began using an assessment kit with some of her students. She presented the materials in the kit and shared some of her findings. Then we discussed possible methods of presenting the exercises to children.

**Jennifer**- experimented with the "beautiful thought" exercise with her pre-schoolers. She was impressed with her students' willingness to participate and their level of reverence during the activity. Children shared their "beautiful thoughts" with the group. When asked what they were thinking about during the reflection, some children answered, "my teddy bear," " Grace & Annie," "my friends," and "the bike I got for my birthday."

**Hillary**- worked on spatial relations with her toddlers, particulary during circle time. She introduced mats for each child to carry and sit on for circle. She will continue to use this method to assess it's effectiveness.

=__ **UbD** __=

__ Technology in the Classroom __
9-12 Cultural Project - //"The Coliseum"// created in part with Google Sketch-up

Triangles - Photos by K-1 students as a part of their geometry work


** Courtyard Signs of Spring - Photos by K-1 students **

=__ Teachnology __=

In the 7-9 classes:
Each week the children write a newspaper article which they voted to call it __Room 19�s Hollywood News__. This is a fun way to see the children�s perspective on daily life in the classroom even as they practice their writing, technology and collaboration skills. This is posted as a weekly job so each child has equal opportunity to be the new reporter several times throughout the year.

The children pick their topic based on what might be happening in our school or classroom for that week. They take pictures of the event and write up the copy that will later be typed into the computer. On Friday the editors (two children who have been preselected) help the news reporters with the setup and downloading of pictures to the article. It is then typed and printed/published and hung on our bulletin board. Each child receives a copy to take home.