7/28/2019 The English Connection - Woodward - September 2013

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TheEnglishConnection:LL2LUDay1LeadingLearnerstoLevelUpWorkshop

September27,2013

AgendaandFeedback 

I like....Jill's discussion was clear. We now have a great basis for moving forward. We adjourned at theright moment.the level up assessment so much. It encourages students to talk about their knowledge, learning,and goals in clear terms. I like the fact that the students themselves are helping us to "follow"them. I can see this type of assessment being a source of encouragement and drive for mystudents. I can see them pushing themselves and striving to "level up."I like the idea of using the levels and "I can" statements.

I like students being encouraged to identify themselves with "I can" statements.

meeting other colleagues from all schools.

learning anything that will help me teach my students effectively. I have learned a lot today!

I like the "I can" statements.I like that it teaches the students to advocate for themselves.

I like that we are aligning our curriculum. I think many of us have felt unclear about where our students need to be in order to be successful in the next grade level. I want my students to besuccessful when they move up from my class.I liked how we were able to see how others developed their four levels.

the way this process will bring continuity to our language arts program. I look forward to playingwith my class a bit, teaching them the "I can" language.WA is moving forward to aligning expectations academy wide across grade levels.

The morning introduction. It was quick yet informative and visually helpful. It's exciting to thinkabout students self-identifying where they are and what they need help with in order to grow.Even though this process seems overwhelming, I am so excited to be involved with this veryimportant process! The whole concept of Leading Learners will benefit the teachers as well asthe students. It is a win/win situation that will empower me as a facilitator in the classroom.Thank you!

the "fishbowl" lessons. It was helpful to see ideas in action.

 All of the hands on activities. I learn by doing!the practical. I am already revising my rubrics so they are more "student" friendly with thelanguage - and not so judgmental. I love that we started with that and then ended with practical. Iam writing my lesson plans for next week to begin this process.

I wish...

There could be more time to meet more frequently.

I had been aware of this type of assessment before. I used rubrics, but this is so much better!

I wish that I understood better how this will work with the faculty in my building.

I wish the process didn't sound so overwhelming at this point.all 90 English, reading, LA teachers had been paid to start this over the summer for an intensive

3-day workshop.everyone could be a part of this.I wish I had known about this sooner.I hope that my students will take this new information and use it to their benefit.I wish this was a little more clear cut! It will be hard to determine how closely we need to focus onsome of the strands. This could conceivably be never-ending.

I also wish we had more time and had been able to include all reading and English teachers inthis session.

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we could meet in small groups to see what we are expecting from one level to the next on aparticular skill.

there were more time to do this well; always so much to do; feeling that I am spread too thinI could have a hard copy of the step by step process to create levels of expectations or outline of presentation.

 As much as I liked the walking around and putting sticky notes on our leveled plans (and I

received some good suggestions), it might have helped to break into divisions afterwards. Iwould have liked to have a conversation among the middle/upper school teachers at that point,although that might have been jumping the gun on sessions to come on Oct. 11

I wish all of the teachers who teach reading and English could be in the class.we had more time with Jill!

that I didn't come in to this with a preconceived notion about what we were going to do. i confusedmyself before we began but i am not confused now.

we had more time. I am ready to begin the work!

I want to know more about...

 Applying these ideas in Social Studies.what the children are doing at each level, what kinds of knowledge they are coming in with, and

how I can support their learning at the next level.I want to know how the students that I teach this year will react to the words "I can" and the ideaof levels.

I want to know more about involving the students in writing the levels.

how to decide how granular we should go.

leading learners to level upI want to know more about how we are going to break down such large ideas and turn them intosmaller more manageable chunks.

How specific we should be.I just need more practice on developing the different skills for the substrands, but I know that itwill come with time.refining the substrands--defining exactly what we're tackling will make the beast seem smaller and more manageable.

How to agree about skills taught vertically to avoid repetition.How to continue to help students realize what they DO know... and how to build on thatknowledge, rather than just focus on what they don't know.

I want to know more about how the English strands will be integrated into other subjects.Leveling up with young children. Language to use with them. How do deal with the fear of failureand an "I can't attitude"?whether or not we will discuss actual content...? For example, Romeo and Juliet is repeated in8th and 9th grades - different levels, but if we have a student change levels (and a lot of studentschange levels) they read this twice (not a terrible thing, but I think content is worth looking at).

Anything else I want to share with Jill, Shelley, and Peggy.

We are off to a good start! Thanks for including me.

Thank you for this experience. This can have a major impact on our students, and I'm so excitedto see it take off!

This is exciting and a little scary at the same time.

I enjoyed the challenge of this new way of thinking today.

 

I use something like this to motivate students. I ask them what they want to learn? (Goal Setting)

 

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Thanks so much for working with us. This is still a little overwhelming, but it is feeling better eachtime we work on it. I am glad that we will be working together to come up with a curriculum thatwill be practical for everyone to use.This will be a long process, but it will be worth it! Thanks to all of you for being such excellentteachers and facilitators! Thank you for shedding light on a more excellent way! I have enjoyedthe day!

 In imagining what complaints the masses might have: I know sometimes parents/students/someteachers feel like writing here at Woodward is formulaic. How can we introduce them to thisprocess and make sure that it still embraces teacher creativity/flexibility as well as studentcreativity?

 

What a great session! I really appreciate all of the hands on learning we did.Please let me know how I can help in the planning, ideas, etc. I can be "English," "reading""technology," or I can be "curriculum" - whatever you need.