1. Icebreaker Famous Person Trivia 1.As a child he was labeled as slow. He clerked in a village grocery store. He suggested putting slow- moving merchandise on a counter and selling it for five cents. This venture was so successful that it was continued with new goods. He became the principal founder of a chain of five and ten cent stores.   2.When he was 12 years- old, he could not read, and he remained deficient in reading all his life. However, he could memorize entire lectures, which was how he got through school. He became a famous general during WW II. 3.He was slow in school work and did not have a successful school experience, but later became a well- known movie producer and cartoonist.  4.This noted Englishman had much difficulty in school. He later became a national leader and an English Prime Minister.  5.This young boy had difficulty reading but was able to write some of the world's best loved stories. 6.This boy could not talk until the age of four. He did not learn to read until he was nine. His teachers considered him to be mentally slow, unsociable and a dreamer. He failed the entrance examination for college. Ultimately, he developed the theory of relativity. 7.He is a famous movie star. He learns his lines by listening to a tape. He suffers from dyslexia. 8.This young man had much difficulty reading and throughout his life was unable to read well. However, he was the governor of the state of New York for four terms and later won congressional approval to be appointed vice president of the United States. 1. Icebreaker Famous Person Trivia See if you can match the following personal description to the names below: a. Albert Einstein b. Walt Disney c. Nelson Rockefeller d. F.W. Woolworth h. Tom Cruise e. Winston Churchill f. Hans Christian Anderson g. George Patton

Session Seven – Classroom Walk Through COLLABORATIVE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAMS Network 18 – CFN#11 – R.O.C.K.S. (Reflection, Outcomes, Collaboration, Knowledge, Standards) Session Seven – Classroom Walk Through Friday 16th April 2010 Presenter: Mr. Chris Lowrey AUSSIE Literacy Consultant chris.lowrey@aussiepd.editure.com

Our Visions Morning Our vision is to develop an effective learning community that is collaborative and respects each other personally by having a clear structure and positive attitude and working through a process of building understandings for conducting effective Instructional Rounds. By following a structure and working through processes of successful learning we aim to hone life long leaders who aspire to appreciate differentiation and aim to exceed expectations when considering academic goals. Afternoon Our vision is to share our school community experiences and be willing to enhance our teaching practice through networking and sharing our learning's transparently, to grow both personally and professionally through the process of Instructional Rounds. We understand the need to collaborate, to listen while others express their private thoughts and have ours respected reciprocally. The outcome of improving teaching practices will be at the forefront of our work and while accepting there will be challenges, we aim to turn these into our next goals in order to develop outcomes and successful thinkers and achieve measurable results that inform practice in our schools.

Overall Professional Learning Unit Collaborative professional learning Facilitating collaborative professional teams Supportive conditions for collaborative professional learning Using data Team planning and reporting Assessment as professional learning Classroom walk through Differentiated coaching Professional learning showcase

Contents 1. Icebreaker – Celebrity Quiz 2. Homework activities and discussion 3. View a comprehension lessons – take notes 4. Classroom Walk Through - Background 5. Classroom Walk Through - Activity 6. Article ‘The Changing Face of Education –Teachers cope with challenges through collaboration and reflective study’ 7. Presenting our ‘Problems of Practice’ - PS.191 8. Next Steps - Looking together at practice to improve practice.  

2. Homework Activities and discussion ACER article ‘Successful Professional Learning’ Summarize in groups. Report back. Value add. How are our three interventions working? Have we taken further descriptive notes? Can we confirm or realign our Theory of action and Problem of Practice?

3. View a Reading Comprehension lesson Participants move into groups of three. One person focuses on content, another what the students are doing, the third what the teacher is doing   Work on a summary of the key points. Write out on chart paper. Value add in groups.

4. Classroom Walk Through - Background 1. Comparison of various classroom observations 2. Five components of the reflective questions using positive pre-suppositional phrases and sample language. 3.Possible conversational attributes and sequence for an interactive and potentially collaborative inquiry of reflection 4. Attributes of classroom walk through with reflective inquiry.

5. Classroom Walk Through - Example Classroom environment Planning and Preparation Instructional Practices Effective Teaching Strategies Rapport between teachers and students Student Independent Habits Ease of movement for teacher and students Student understanding of tasks Monitor Roles

5. Classroom Walk Through -Blank

5. Classroom Walk Through Activity Participants create their own context specific class room walk through observational tool   Create the Guiding Principles for use Create a process of implementation.

6. Article ‘The Changing Face of Education…’ Participants to read through the document at their leisure taking notes and summarizing key points: What are the key issues that relate directly to PLT’s? What learnings can we take back to our own PLT’s?

7. Presenting our Problems of Practice Each group presents their ‘Problem of Practice’ over a 7 minute period. Groups to present according to: What the problem is? 2. Strategies tried in your school? Suggestions from professional learning workshop? Actions since May 19th Workshop?

7 a) Professional Learning Team P.S.191 Members: Ms. D. Cooper-Kemp; Ms. B. Simon; Ms. T. Jones; Ms. S. Wright 1.Problem of Practice (Writing throughout the grades) Students in early childhood grades (kindergarten through 2nd grade) and upper grades (3rd through 5th) are struggling with writing responses for higher order thinking questions using specific details from the text. Students are also struggling with paraphrasing as they summarize their ideas. 2.Strategies we have tried in our schools: Use of graphic organizers in helping with organizing ideas before they write Daily reading response journals (2 days response to literature and 3 days journal prompts) Shared writing using think alouds Student note-taking as the listen to literature Restating question in their own words as they respond to promote understanding Asking students higher order questions and also have them ask higher order questions to teachers and peers 3.Suggestions from professional learning team workshop Use Blooms taxonomy’s 6 level questioning To help with paraphrasing make a game: Write questions on sentence strips, cut the strips and have students manipulate words as they re-create the sentence Have students refer back to text underline evidence from the text (keywords) that prove answer. 4.Actions since May 19th Workshop?

8. Next Steps - Looking together at practice to improve practice. Continue taking descriptive notes, confirming or realigning your Theories of Action and Problem of Practice. Share ‘The Changing Face of Education –Teachers cope with challenges through collaboration and reflective study’ reading with your PLT’s. Continue working the three areas to address your problem of practice.

So until May 6th… “Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity’ – Samuel Adams “Teachers should guide without dictating, and participate without dominating’ – C.B.Neblette “The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn’ – Cicero ‘Teach your children by what you are, not by what you say’ - Jane Revell and Susan Norman