Third+Grade+PLC

Riverbend Elementary School Third Grade Professional Learning Community

Scheduled joint IST/Third Grade PLC meetings this school year: Oct. 3, Oct. 24, Nov. 21, Jan. 9, Jan. 30, Feb. 20, March 20, April 17, May 15

PLC & PLC/IST minutes: Friday, May 22 Present: Jerue, Cox, Badilla, Storey, Wittig, Doxey, Katasse

Reviewed the post-test from the writing paragraph intervention cycle. Collectively, the students seemed to say on topic throughout their paragraphs. Organization was the strand that made the most growth. Note for next time: prompt for pre- and post- tests should be of the same type (fiction or non-fiction, child's choice or teacher's choice) so we can better see what kind of growth they made. We should begin with paragraphs at the beginning of the school year next year. Deb shared a cute construction paper sandwich (connected with a brad) activity she did with her group. Doug had a scaffolded packet his kids did (identifying off topic sentences in a paragraph, etc.). Karen suggest starting next year with writing good sentences, then in their choice writing, deciding on a topic and then narrowing it down, then mid-year going into these paragraphs. Sheryl wondered if anyone in the school is using Kidspiration, and that once classroom teachers have their multi-media projectors next year, they can model its use in their classroom. Doxey showed us her narrowing down wedge, which would lead to multiple good paragraphs.

Coming up: Doxey would like her group to create Reading Rainbow podcasts before interventions end this year. Deb would like to continue working on paragraphs with her students as an extension of the science. We have three days next week, and two or three days the last week (depending on when the talent show is). Colleen can take Tamara's group. We will continue working on paragraphs with our groups.

(We also talked about Discovery SE and how it matches the district science curriculum and whether it is a worthwhile expense). Could we tie it in with science journals? Could Title One pay for some of it? We also need to remember to give Tina Pasteris an "Atta Boy" for the fine job she did inventorying and consolidating the science kits.

Reflection: Good things: Having the time to get together. Appreciated having flexibility to work on what ever was the burning need. Carmen was working through the idea of having the PLC meet 80 minutes every week, of which 40 minutes every other week would be with the IST.

Friday, May 1, 2009 Present: Katasse, Badilla, Doxey, Storey, Walker, Cox, Jerue, Wittig Follow up on the DRA2 assessments. The plan is still to bring in a couple subs (one for the third grade teacher and the other for Doxey) for a couple days (one per classroom). May 5 & 6 is the first choice. (Walker on the 5th, Jerue on the 6th). Cox will do her own students (5).

Meanwhile, back to the agenda: 1. During the intervention block, these people are available: Pat Holman (subbing for Jan), Doug, Karen, Deb, (and Sheryl after 16 May). We talked about how to address the next focus (writing a paragraph with 4 sentences, including topic, supporting and concluding, on topic), especially for students who need a lot of scaffolding. We also have Tamara (available through the 19th, so combined with Sheryl, that's a full person), so the students not leaving the room could be divided into three groups, with the classroom teachers. This cycle ends on May 21st. Maybe an option for continuing class on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 26 & 27. This cycle will begin this coming Monday.

Power standard for this goal: (The third writing goal on the State GLE) - student scoring at least a "4" on each of the six traits for this paragraph.

Pacing guide: )Karen mentioned that Nick had an effective "Sentence Smackdown" lesson, emphasizing that sentences have a noun and a verb). Scaffolding: 1) they can write a sentence 2) identify topic (supporting, concluding) sentence in given paragraphs, including out of typical order. 3) identify the off topic sentence in a paragraph. (Karen mentioned that when she had done something that works for her: model writing a topic sentence on a given topic, set timer for one minute, and have student write their own topic sentence for the same topic. 4) Maybe cut up paragraphs (blown up) into sentences and have the students organize them. (Hop ahead a bit:) 5) Identifying great words to begin sentences (first, next, then, finally) that help with paragraph flow. 6) mini-lessons on the each of the traits.

__Mechanically Inclined__ is a book Nick has that the group interested in looking at for staff development.

It was noted that students are not habitually using minimal standard conventions (capital at the beginning, punctuation at the end, writing their first and last name, proper use of upper and lower case). It was also noted that we need to insist on this across ALL grade levels.

We will stick with non-fiction paragraph writing.

Elizabeth mentioned that she did an effective thing in Nome: having the kids jot down two words from each paragraph they are using as a source, set aside the original text, and using only their notes, recreate the text in their own words.

Back to the suggested agenda: What assessments will we use to monitor progress of the intervention students: (Refers to the cycle we are just finishing).

When do we get the SBA scores back:

Friday, April 3, 2009

Present: Walker, Jerue, Doexy, Katasse, Faure, Storey, Badilla, Cox, Wittig

DRA-II: The DRA-II and the DRA scores should represent the same levels of performance. This brought up the conversation about how and why we should use the benchmark score. Carmen suggested that we all use a consistent tool across all (or a range of ) grade levels. This would be a discussion we would want to have at a staff meeting, where all grade levels are present. Discussion about, perhaps, having the K’s or K-1’s use benchmark scores (advantages & disadvantages). Discussion about what tools are being used in the six elementary across the district. (Varies, but DRA-II is becoming more prevalent). Discussion about training in the DRA-II, including bringing in a trainer ($3,200), using the training materials included in the kit (DVD & book), DRA-II webinar. Also talked about fund-raising for the online data management tool, and a fancy pen that records what’s been written.

Professional Leave: Carmen thinks two days would do a better job. Using leave to attend another school and observe a teacher there would be a reasonable use of the Professional Leave Bank, but probably not taking a couple days to do assessements in your own building. Carmen said she would get together with the IST team and figure out how to cover these services. Perhaps if Karen was coaching these two teachers, that would be a legitimate staff development reason to bring in a couple subs.

SBA’s – All interventions will be cancelled for the three main days of SBA testing.

Math interventions: Doxey – Has not addressed math in her group (they have been reading). However, the group has progressed from 12’s to 28’s so far this year.

Cox – She ran the math practice test with her group (a couple improved from 25% to 75% correct!!!) All improved, except one.

(Carmen’s note: We are down to 22 intermediate Special Ed. students, so we may have safe harbor in that indicator this year!)

Faure - Group is working hard. Bit of a question about some of the new immigrant students – do they “count”? What about students who are going back and forth to other countries?

Wittig – Students worked through CML and CML-like problems (Active Learning series – that breaks problems down into six strategies). Quiz scores are low, but improving. Most have been very good sports about working on challenging problems. Noted that some of the students are missing basic information (how many inches in a foot, feet in yards, value of various coins, etc.)

Walker – reviewed the pre- and post- practice tests for her class. Lots of progress!

Jerue – Also reviewed her class’s data.

Question about whether the third grade tests are partially computer scored & can the students write in their booklets? Carmen checked with Carolyn, but they will check with Phil.

Gave the group a brief preview of the possible NWEA interim assessments the district is looking at.

Badilla – in the fall, when they took the pretest, his group was in tears. However, the second time they had a positive attitude and no resistance. J

Cox – reminded us about the article she gave us about a new reading program for more severe students (Early Literacy Skill Builders). She met with Margarie, and it is possible that the stimulus money could be used to pay for this curriculum. The group asked that the grade level teachers also are provided with that article.

Our next shared meetings are May 1 and 29. Prior to that time, we will need to regroup students. Maybe the third grade teachers could talk about this in their next PLC meeting? (Thanks!)

Friday, February 27, 2009: Present: Badilla, Storey, Walker, Doxey, Wittig, Cox, Jerue, Faure We went through recent DRA2 scores, and chunked students into reading groups. Note: Everyone needs to make sure we have first and last name as well as date of assessment. Also, write down the actual time for the fluency check.We also looked at the spreadsheet that displayed errors on the third grade practice SBA test, and talked about the beginning of the year pre-assessment.Sheryl is going to work with about 8 students, doing CML. Karen is taking the 28 & 30's. It's a big group, so she will break the group into two groups and work with each group on alternate days. Jan is taking ESL. Deb and Doug are taking their caseloads. (Deb, Doug, and Karen are going to meet to find out what math intervention materials are available in the building). Karen will e-mail the lists off to the group.

Present: Wittig, Faure, Walker, Jerue, Katasse, Cox, Storey

Friday, February 6, 20091. Look at DRA scores. If the testing is not completed on all the students, bring the scores we have.We entered the data (fluency and total comprehension) we had available. We will continue testing and send finished DRA2's to Sheryl for entering into the database.

2. How is the DRA scored so that you achieve an independent reading score for the student? We saw some of the previously scored tests and noticed some discrepancies we didn’t understand. Shouldn’t all the scores be in the independent column? We will bring examples. We talked about this, and clarified that the one "level" that students were assessed at in the fall reflected only the fluency score, and not both the fluency and comprehension scores. So, we don't really have one score that summarizes both (except for the seven students who were independent in both).

3a. When will we re-group the kids for interventions?Didn't get to it.

3b. What interventions do various students need? How can we cluster them to maximize intervention services? Didn't get to it.

4. What assessments will we use to monitor progress of the intervention students? Didn't get to it.

5. When are the IST members available to help us modify lessons for differentiation? Is this something the IST can do? Didn't get to it.

6. During intervention time can the IST specialist somehow tie in our backward designed unit so that the students have some pre-teaching or is that not possible?Didn't get to it.

7. Do we want to look at math intervention this year? If so, how and when should we identify students who need intervention in math?We talked about what formative or interim assessments are available for third grade math. Maybe there is a beginning of the year math assessment in the third grade math binder (there isn't in first grade, but there is in fifth grade). Re-administer the beginning of the year math assessment.Carmen will correlate with the GLE's, et. al. and pull suggested work and practice tests.



Friday, January 16, 2009 Joint training with both the third and fourth grade PLC groups. Present: Badilla, Rinehart, Renouf, Weaver (facilitator), Walker, Jerue, Faure, Storey, Wittig (notetaker) Framework for the training was the goldenrod colored condensed summary created by Doxey (who's up in Anchorage at an NCLB training). Brenda mentioned that the author recommends that if you used fiction text in the fall, then use non-fiction during the next screen. A bit of a discussion about pre/post fidelity is compromised when you test on something different than what you've been providing instruction on in the interim. Reading engagement questionnaire - We need to decide if teachers want to do that whole group, or if we want to do that in our reading groups. We briefly looked at both the 24 level (dictation) and the 28 & above (student completes). Oral Reading - some discussion about inter-rater reliability, especially with expression and phrasing. Either the person who tested them in the fall should retest them or (preferably) we do some inter-rater training (and we do have audio samples of students reading to use). We looked at oral reading guidelines (and markings), which are similar to running records markings.

Make sure students do the prediction section (orally or written, depending upon level) BEFORE they read the rest of the book. Discussion about what to do with young readers who are reading well above grade level, and who's writing skills are at grade level. Because their writing level doesn't match their reading level, how do we capture their true comprehension level? The working solution for now is to have them do the written work as per protocol, go back and ask them orally and take dictation in the margin, so we can look at both scores. Discussion about which book to have a student read. Our suggestion is to use fewer book choices, otherwise when you go back to score the comprehension section you will need to read every book in the whole kit! Yikes! However, you will need to look and see which books they were tested on in the fall. Try to avoid those books if at all possible (so all reads are novel to the students). We did some inter-rater work, looking at a couple fourth graders fall packets from the book Storm Chasers, but we only go through prediction.

Brenda says it says in the instructions not to test more than one grade level above their assigned grade placement.

So, now we are waiting for the kits to arrive. Third grade: We will keep our intervention groups, have them do quiet work, and do our own assessments. Fourth grade: Kelley would like to do her reading group. Aimee doesn't mind doing the fluency only if we do some inter-rater reliability of the expression and phrasing. Right after school on Tuesday the IST and the fourth grade teachers will meet to do that inter-rater work.

Friday, November 21, 2008 Present: Doxey, Badilla, Jerue, Walker, Faure, Cox, Wittig Follow up: Linda Frame/Jan Faure about the sky/snow/etc. meshed with GLE's. Jan e-mailed Linda Frame about this and asked Linda to send the reply to the third grade teachers. Neither of the third grade teachers recall receiving any response. Jan sent a follow-up e-mail today.

Intervention block: Each interventionist gave us an update on: who's in their group, progress monitoring.

Doug used N.Norman: Test of Letter Names and Sounds 8/96 [(Four parts: name letters within 2 seconds, upper case and lower case (actually, they all have all their letter sounds), sounding out words, and sounds (like ai, ou, -ing, etc.)] and the "107 Most Frequently Used Words in Written English" .Doug got the assessment from Doxey - it's part of a lovely little packet. Question: Are these the same kids who did Nancy Norman K-1 phonetic work? Is there carry over from primary? It appears everyone is doing something different with it, so you couldn't say. Faure and Doxey said they use those skills through writing, more than reading. Doug is also using those same skills on the assessment in instruction. Student attendance is an issue for some of the students. Karen suggested we consider using non-sense words to ensure they aren't sight words they are recalling.

Doxey: One of the students' fluency level is notably lower than the rest of the group. Considered alternatives to address irregular attendance and attitude. Moving that student to Doug's group. Karen ordered the Reads Naturally materials that all of us can used to dipstick for all the kids to check with fluency.

Parking Lot: Check on eligibility for a couple of the kids for SES. The SES instructor also passed on to the third grade teachers that the attendance for the whole group hasn't been great, which is really sad, because there are a lot of kids on the waiting list who would really like to be participating.

Doxey:mentioned that at Harborview, each teacher has a binder in their room that the interventionist place assessments, including dip sticks, progress monitoring, etc. Then the classroom teachers has access to the lastest information and can use it for their instruction in the classroom. Everyone agreed that this is something they would like to do and was willing to do, and would find useful.

Cox: working with the five lowest students. Mark is working with doing individual guided reading during that block, and usually gets through two or three kids per day. Deb is doing whole group instruction with the other four students. Does comprehension on Thursdays. Deb will check with Mark (who's doing a practicum with her this semester - they are both working on their M Ed in Sp. Ed) to see if he is available next term for similar work.

Donita has 14, Caryn has 9. Working on fluency & sequence in retelling.

Sheryl has 7 students. They have been working on fluency and comprehension while reading through Junior Great Books. The same individuals have all been referred for EL testing, which is just starting this week. Group testing will occur during intervention block. Individual testing will occur on Friday mornings beginning in 2009.

Jan has been working on fluency and inflection. Her students have really gotten the hang of inflection, but still need work on fluency.

Question about when to regroup and when/what assessments we will use to monitor progress & figure out who needs what. We will run the DRA2 on all third graders the second week in January. The first Friday back we will use that IST meeting (1/9) to train everyone on how to administer and score the DRA2. We will start administering DRA2's on Monday, 1/12/09, and look at the scores at the meeting after that. We also discovered that some new kids are in the building. Karen will do their intake DRA2's during her available block.

Another school (Glacier Valley?) has had good success with primary Wilson materials. We think we might have it in the building; Deb will check and share it with Doxey if she finds it.

Other intervention topics for this year: We know there are some writing issues that need to be addressed. We discussed math: Doug and Deb have had good success with their replacement Trailblazers math groups.

Karen mentioned that on the State website, there are some good material/assessments that match each of the state GLE's. She also mentioned that there are some Brain Bank materials that Pasteris was able to use.

Karen has a disk with the Nancy Norman phonics wall stuff. She's out of colored ink, but is able to loan out the disk.

Debrief: "Just liked checking in with everyone".

PLC & PLC/IST minutes: Third grade PLC/IST meeting
 * Friday, October 24, 2008**

Present: Doxey, Storey, Cox, Walker, Faure, Katasse, Jerue, Badilla, Wittig

Third grade data points will be fluency and word attack skills – available next shared meeting. We should have an idea if there is any growth in intervention. Cox will be attending all IST/PLC meetings, rather than attached to one grade level. (Ditto with Lynn for the primary)

They are ending instruction of the new UbDWatershed & Salmon unit. Debrief on that unit:

Eggs, hatchery, estuary, red, are some of the vocabulary they developed (it would be good to include it with the unit).

Most of the focus was on salmon (watershed didn’t really fit). It was about the life journey of the salmon.

Anatomy of a fish (not a major component).

Essential question is “What is the salmon’s life journey in Juneau?” Unit questions would include, “Where do they go to lay eggs?” “What are the other kinds of salmon?” “What are the stages of salmon development? What are the stages of their journey? Is there a difference in life cycle of the different species? (Compare and contrast). Food chain: What do salmon eat, and what eats salmon (and at which stage)?

Performance Tasks: The most successful task was the creative writing assignment (shared the Sponge Bob finds a red ball and takes it home….). Karen has a mini-lesson on writing from other perspective. The dissecting puzzle probably would be better off with a different unit (slightly off focus). Karen shared one of the visual & artistic representations the students did “The salmon life cycle story board” They had a range of books to use for the research. Students were scaffolded in producing these story boards. It was suggested that they hang in the hallway, since the students would read them again and again (and they are a great product!)

Didn’t get to the beaded keychain. Didn’t really get into the culture and subsistence. Didn’t get to the self-reflection journals, but think they would be valuable next time. Maybe incorporate in the science notebooks next time?

Plan learning experience and instruction: would like to beef up the identify the different species of salmon.

(We had fun going through the unit while it was fresh in their mind).

They are now looking at doing something a unit on the sky (since that is a change in the third grade curriculum). What changes are observable in the day and night sky? The group tried to figure out how “snow studies/seasonal” fits into the unit – maybe Linda could help answer that question. Carmen said Brenda should be able to help the teachers find the suggested kits (DSM:Finding the Moon). We also noticed that the standards are the states’ fourth grade standards, but we recognize they will be tested on a lot of science material in on the fourth grade science SBA’s.

The IST has put in their to do list, printing out the state science standards and sample questions on the SBA’s.

Question about observation: If it’s Juneau, how can we stick to an observation focus, if it is overcast most of the time? (Discussion about the planetarium, Internet, Google Earth).

From yesterday’s science notebook: We have to get the kids to care. The ability to observe the changes in the day and night sky affect/effect your daily activities? Sailors, farmer’s almanac, dressing for the weather, etc.

Discussion about the last objective (recognizing that objects have properties, locations, and movements, etc..)

Tlingit calendar is an example of a culture who has used observation (for

Upcoming instruction: Math: Introduction to multiplication. Making Meaning: visualization. Science: Parts to Whole Junior Achievement – any topic they want.- probably the economics topic. Careers or goods and services. They want JA to help with G&S.

Reflection: What worked? Having more ideas, clarifying the sky part, the UbD template is a good tool, and it’s good to make more sense of it.

Changes? Knowing which week is the joint meeting. Sheryl will write it on the big calendar in the staff room.

If you need any resources, let the IST know.

IST Meeting with 3rd Grade 3rd Grade
 * Date: 10/3/08**

Attendance: Karen Doxey Caryn Walker Doug Badilla Elizabeth Storey Karen Walker Deb Cox Sheryl Wittig Donita Jerue Jan Faure

Agenda

1. Present roles of the IST team members. 2. Review DRA 2 test : Looked at “Summer Discovery” story. Review assessment categories and how the IST team scored each category. Determined student independent reading level. Also reviewed “Thin as a Stick” story.

DRA 2 Continuum: Categories and substrands reviewed:

Categories: -Book Selection -Classroom teachers will score Book Selection. -Oral Reading Fluency –expression phrasing, rate -Comprehension- prediction, retelling, interpretation, reflection


 * Concern expressed that the regular classroom teachers are missing out on the learning of their student’s reading because they didn’t administer the test.


 * Inter-rater reliability of DRA reading assessment to be revisted at future IST meeting.

3. Sort DRA 2 fourth grade class results. Sorted by independent reading levels. Deb will do DRA 2 with two students on Monday.

Questions: How will it affect the overall classroom instruction? DRA2: Focus of Instruction –Oral Reading Fluency: Expression & Phrasing

All students need QAR and Making Meaning

How will it affect the formation of intervention groups?

Divided into Discussion groups by students levels; Level 20 below- Deb, Doug, Karen, Elizabeth Level 21 and up- Caryn, Donita, Sheryl and Jan

Parking Lot: -Template for recording minutes.