Year+7+PLC+2013+DP,+TE,+TT,+VP

Inaugural Meeting: 7th Feb 2013

Attendance: TE, DP, TT, VP

Begin and end meeting on time and make an effort to stay full engaged Maintain a positive attitude at team meetings- no complaining unless we offer a better alternative We will make constructive comments, offer positive feedback and support to each other We will contribute equally to workload and share lesson plans, ideas and student work Listen respectfully to each other We will celebrate student and teacher achievements Always take minutes and send to DP We will liaise with other faculty members to broaden our knowledge base and share our experience Encourage people to honour the norms and openly discuss any problems We will make decisions based on consensus Review minutes from the previous week and focus on a smart goal
 * Norms:**

__**Week 4: 21/2/2013**__ Team Members: VP, DP, TT, TE School Goal (from 2012-2015 Strategic Plan): To improve student learning outcomes Faculty Goal: To improve student achievement in writing || Today our PLC decided on a focus for our smart goal for Term 1. We decided to align our goal with the faculty goal of improving student writing. As students are writing a letter to the teacher we are going to use this as our benchmark (their score out of 12) and then compare this with a piece they do later in the term. We can measure how many students have improved their score out of 12 as a result of focused teaching of writing strategies such as generating ideas activities. We assigned different tasks to each teacher which they will share and present throughout the term; all tasks will aim to improve students’ ability to write a paragraph. We also discussed the new writing folio unit and how to create the student folios most effectively. Everyone was on time and participated fully. We will not have a PLC in Week 5, due to camp, but all members agreed to bring their Year 7 letters for moderation and discussion in Week 6.
 * **Strathmore Secondary College - Student Achievement SMART Goals** Team: Year 7 PLC
 * **Team SMART Goal** || **Strategies and Action Steps** || **Responsibility** || **Timeline** || **Evidence of Effectiveness** ||
 * To increase the number of students who are achieving an eight or above in their writing folio, from 80 to 85 students out of 103. ||  || Week 5 - cancelled due to camp ||   ||   ||
 * ^  || Sharing letters || Week 7 All ||   ||   ||
 * ^  || Terri’s three word phrases || Week 8 TE ||   ||   ||
 * ^  || Writing folio ideas || Week 9 TT ||   ||   ||
 * Minutes 21/2/2013**

1. //Today we looked at some samples of H, M and L of the letters. What level is expected at the beginning of Year 7?// Low- list of ideas, issues with sentence structure, using capital letters incorrectly. High- sophisticated language, correct paragraphing, use of linking language, followed the TEEL structure.
 * Week 7: 14/3/2013**

2. //What action can we take to get students to ‘get it’?//

More scaffolding – slow down. TT discussed his process at the beginning of Year 7, focus on sentences making sense. Words, sentences, paragraphs. TEEL powerpoint- Camp. Provide scaffolding by giving students the topic sentence and examples of what they can include for the other parts of TEEL. (See TE for ppt) Word choice- peer editing, swap for correct capital letters (do it in groups) With fables it was also suggested that we could give them the moral before and then guide students to look for it as we read. This will help weake students gain access.

Next week TE will present three word phrases, as an example of a strategy that can be used to improve students' writing of paragraphs. TT and VP agreed to share the number of students they had scoring below an 8 on their letters. The group will then decide on an achievable number of students(for our smart goal) that we feel we can aim to improve their scores to above an 8. We also need to set a timeline in terms of when we will next mark their work to compare it to their results on their letter at the start of the year.
 * Minutes:** After moderating and discussing H, M and L letters we were able to narrow down what we need to focus our teaching on in order to improve student learning and work towards achieving our smart goal.

TE presented 'three word phrases' as a strategy to improve student writing. We looked at some student samples and could see how for some students the strategy enabled them to improve the description in their work. Students are expected to use these strategies in their upcoming assessment on fables so we can also look at how well they use them more independently in the future. TT also shared a great task on paragraphing. We agreed that next week TT would share a creative task for writing folio. As Donna and Claire were also present for today we also discussed how students in the lap top classes were progressing and how activities (like the one Tony presented) could be modified/enhanced using online tools to suit their classes as well. In Term 2 we agreed that we would start comparing more recent student work with their letters from the beginning of the year, with a focus on the structure/paragraphing section of the criteria. This would enable us to revisit our smart goal and look at the progress that students have made with the strategies that we have used to target paragraphing, sentence structure and writing folio.
 * Week 8: 21/3**
 * Minutes:** Today we discussed our smart goal in more detail, adding a numerical figure of how many students we wanted to aim to help improve their scores on the next writing folio task. We also discussed what steps we have taken so far to achieve our smart goal and what has worked well. We agreed that teaching the TEEL structure explicitly has enabled the vast majority of students to improve their writing of paragraphs. We also discussed the need to use proofreading, drafting and peer editing processes, as well as having a clear focus on sentenc construction and parts of speech early in Year 7.
 * Week 9: 28/3**
 * Minutes:** Tony shared a great resource for writing folio which used a visual of a robot as a stimulus for vocabulary building, development of ideas, and short persuasive writing pieces in the forms of opinion pieces and advertisements. We discussed how we could use this resource in a range of ways and for different purposes.

TE shared a resource for revision of the TEEL paragraphing structure. DP and TT also discussed a range of other strategies that use for developing ideas for writing, similar to the arrow type brainstorm we had looked at. We also discussed how we will approach assessment of 'Falling From Grace' and agreed that a focus on correctly structured body paragraphs would be preferable to trying to tackle a whole essay. Greater clarification was made in relation to the purpose of the Narrative Study unit with a focus on reading and responding. As a result it was decided that a writing folio piece would be preferable to use when comparing students' responses on the letter to another piece. We will focus on the structure of their writing as well as the mechanics of language. It was agreed that in our next meeting (in 2 weeks time due to Anzac Day) teachers would bring their classes next piece that they have marked and have drawn some comparisons as to how well students have improved since the beginning of Term 1. This comparison can be done in a range of ways although DP showed a great excel spreadsheet which TE hoped to try to monitor student progress.
 * TERM 2**
 * Week 1: 18th April**


 * Week 3-5: 19th May**

teaching of the text. We discussed the need to develop a new topic for Falling From Grace as an option, as some of us felt that writing on how the characters changed didn't work all that well. Now that we have focused on structure (TEEL) we discussed the need to focus on development of ideas. It was suggested that a topic like "Should the reader feel any sympathy for Ted?", where there are two sides to the topic, may aid students in developing a greater range of ideas and encourage them to write more.
 * |||| Number of students who scored at or below 7 ||
 * || On the letter || On the second piece ||
 * TE || 8 || 5 ||
 * TE || 9 || 6 ||
 * VP || 8 || 6 ||
 * TT || 3 || 4 ||
 * Identified strengths**: overall improvement of use of the TEEL structure and use of some sort of paragraphing generally.
 * Areas to improve:** Topic sentences are not always clear or focused on one main idea. We can build on this in our

We also clarified which rubric we would use to assess it.

Next week it would be good to look at the data from the survey and discuss some areas that we may like to focus on. It would also be good to discuss some of the strengths of our PLC so far.

We had a great discussion today about what we would focus our teaching on for 'Falling From Grace'. Some alternative suggestions were made for topics for writing on, other than the 'how do the characters change' topic which we used last year. We also came up with a range of ideas for the oral presentation, connected to themes/genre/characters of 'Falling From Grace'. VP and TT said that they would like to do some more work surrounding use of rubrics for self and peer assessment. TE indicated that there are some great resources from Terri Campbell on this strategy which she will share in Term 3 when we focus more on Writing Folio and newspapers.
 * Week 7: 30th May**

TT agreed to share his homework procedures for Year 7. The team also agreed that it would be good to discuss and perhaps formulate some comments for reports.

Homework tasks at Year 7 were discussed. TT shared his reading folios which students work on both at home and in their library session. Teachers agreed that consistent and well structured homework is best for Year 7s, as it enables them to work on it at their own level and pace. Following this, teachers shared work samples of paragraphs on 'Falling From Grace' and other creative writing tasks. We looked at two samples in particular and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each piece. Most students have benefited from our clear focus on TEEL throughout the year. (Donna and Cathy were also present and contributed their ideas. Donna suggested colour coding to highlight what parts of TEEL they had used and to highlight arguments that have been introduced in the introduction and then match up with a body paragraph. Cathy shared a creative piece; students wrote about what the characters were doing the next year. Both suggestions were well received.) //VP agreed to bring in some of her students' paragraphs next week.// //It would also be good to discuss how we will approach the teaching of Newspapers this year. A focus what worked last year and what didn't may// //be a good starting point.//
 * Week 8: 6th June**

Reflection on how we could improve how useful our time in PLCs is, in terms of improving student outcomes and improving our working week by helping us with our planning, teaching and assessment. Suggestions included: type of instruction, instruction to a smaller target group, paired work with peer feedback.
 * TERM 3**
 * Week 1: Thurs 18th July**
 * Having a clearer goal set for what we want to achieve that meeting.
 * Sticking to the norms such as arriving on time and bringing in samples/data when we agree to.
 * More focus on formative assessment, particularly in regards to 'closing the gap' when students aren't getting it. Changing
 * More emphasis on creating products that we can use.
 * Setting a goal for the next week at the end of each meeting.

Our goal for next week is to design a rubric for the media unit. This discussion will also inform our development of a new smart goal for the Media Unit. TE also suggested the need to do some more moderation early this term which DP said would also help us test out the new rubric and whether or not it needs any modifications.

Following last week's meeting where we developed a rubric for the media rubric we did some moderation of Year 7 work. TE and VP shared samples which we all marked using the rubric. We found the rubric worked quite well but decided we would need to add a couple of parts to cover the review text type. We developed these and TE added these to the rubric after the meeting. Some good suggestions were also made about how to help students 'get' the structure of a news report and how the voice, 3rd person and structural elements are important, as well as quite different from what you would have in a letter to the editor or review.
 * Week 2 and 3: Thurs 1st August**

DP ran today's session on SMART goals, revising what they are and how to create them. VP and TE shared their latest class results and used these to inform our discussion of what we wanted to focus on next. We identified a desire to help students take more accountability for their learning. We also discussed the school and faculty goals: improving student outcomes and improving student writing.
 * Week 4: Thurs 8th August**


 * SMART GOAL |||||| Strategies and Action Steps || Responsibility || Timeline |||| Evidence of Effectiveness ||
 * 85% of students will achieve proficiency in structuring cohesive paragraphs. (C+ or above) |||||| 1. Newspapers: drafting their work, focusing on correct structure.

Action steps: peer feedback tasks, extraneous information editing activity, sentence structure editing activity (Terri) || All TE- peer review, editing activities || Term 3 Wk 4-5 || Peer editing rubrics

Drafts and final media pieces ||  ||
 * ^  ||||||^   ||   ||   || Revision activities on writing folio piece ||   ||
 * ^  ||||||^   ||   ||   || Drafts and final writing folio pieces ||   ||
 * ^  |||||| 2. Fantastic Mr Fox: focus on evidence and use of quotes.

Note taking as viewing the film. Model paragraphs that show how to integrate quotes and explain their relevance. || All || Term 4 || Note taking whilst watching the film ||  || We identified a short term goal to measure and created a rubric to help us observe how effectively students can edit their work for sentence structure: variation and fluency.
 * ^  ||||||^   ||   ||   || Final essays ||   ||
 * ^  |||||| 3. Fantastic Mr Fox: interpretations of characters, building complexity of ideas. || All || Term 4 || Final essays/ paragraphs ||   ||
 * ^  ||||||^   ||   ||   || Concept map on character/theme ||   ||
 * ^  ||||||^   || All || Term 4 || Oral presentation on a character or theme ||   ||
 * Week 5: Thurs August 15th**
 * Week 5: Thurs August 15th**

(0-4) Only a few up the top on a 4. Most students on a 3. A moderate size group on a 2 (8 in TEs class). Less on a 1. || 1. What has been done well? Terri's vocabulary building worksheet and narrowing the focus down to one or two of these columns at a time. Teachers using models to demonstrate skills works well. Keeping the self rating criteria specific and simple.
 * **Short term goal** || **Evidence collected** || **Feedback** || **Team Decision** ||
 * To collect evidence on students' ability to edit their sentences. || Data collected through observation, using rubric

2. What is the next step for this student or for the class? Going over key sections of the vocab. building sheet at a time. Collecting books of those students who are struggling (self assessed at a two or below) and providing written feedback to them on how to use the vocab. to build up their sentences. Set for homework and then reassess. Students setting own goals of areas to improve on (for students working at a higher level). Possibility of pairing up 3s and 2s - 3s need to help 2s in order to move up to a 4. 4s to work independently on other columsn of the vocab. building sheet or to move on to a new skill. ||  || Next week: teachers agreed to bring in the evidence they collected using the rubric.


 * Week 6: Thurs August 22nd**

Today we reviewed the data collected by DP and TE around students' ability to edit their own sentences for structure and fluency. We discussed what went well with the editing process and self assessment criteria, as well as some strategies that we will now use to try and extend our higher performing students. I have added this feedback discussion into the table above (see week 5), in relation to our short term goal. We agreed to trial some of the strategies listed in the feedback column and bring in some samples, or discuss how students went.

VP also agreed to try to bring in some of her students' ratings on how they went on the editing sentence structure activities.
 * Goal for next week:** To look at how we differentiate our instruction, with a focus on catering for higher order thinking.

Today we reviewed the data other members collected on students' ability to edit their sentences. VP had similar results in terms of the number of students at a 3 and a 4, which led in nicely to our discussion on how to extend our 4s. TE discussed some of the strategies she trialled in her classes, including 3s helping the 2s and 4s working independently on a more challenging column of vocabulary building words/connectives. She reflected that the pairs activity worked well but the 4s struggled to maintain focus on their independent work.
 * Week 7: Thursday August 29th**

Other strategies we discussed to extend our advanced students included changing our expectations and changing students' expectations of themselves. In relation to specific areas we are teaching now, we discussed encouraging students to research a more controversial figure during their research and writing of a biography. In relation to memoirs we discussed students including more literary devices to enhance their memories and reflections.


 * Next week we agreed to trial and share an extension activity that we used in our classes.**


 * Week 8: Thursday 5th September**

Today we shared some extension activities that we had used in our classes. VP trialled her advanced students comparing two people for their work on biographies. TT trialled students developing their own arguments, using a for and against table, for their persuasive piece as part of the media unit. TT also suggested some activities for teaching dialogue which could be integrated in our teaching of memoirs. TE trialled some work on figurative language to extend her students writing of memoirs. Most teachers reflections were positive and only a few students were reluctant to complete the extension work. We disucssed some strategies to try to encourage these students to view the work as worthwhile.

With Fantastic Mr Fox in mind we also discussed how we could extend students' understanding of TEEL and get our advanced students writing a full essay.


 * For next week we agreed to create a rubric for assessing writing folio.**

Today we discussed the effectiveness of the writing folio rubric and TE shared some resources for peer editing and student goal setting around editing writing folio.
 * TERM 4 Week 1**

The remainder of the meeting was spent discussing our expectation for Year 7 essay writing at this stage of the year and choosing topics for the written and oral assessment tasks.We decided that students should attempt a full essay this time, with a scaffolded approach and many practice TEEL exercises leading up to it as formative assessment. The topics we decided on are below: · **ESSAY TOPIC: What do the characters learn in Fantastic Mr Fox?** //Students can write an essay with three main body paragraphs. Students should choose one character per paragraph and explain what they learn. Most students should be able to link the character to one of the themes above.// || · Behind the Scenes (extended animal metaphors) || In week 3 we agreed to bring student samples of a TEEL body paragraph.
 * Themes worksheet – AntiHero vs Hero, Identity, Acceptance
 * · Identify underlying structures such as taxonomies, cause and effect and extended metaphors || · Fox About Town newspaper column (cause and effect)
 * · Use interaction skills when discussing and presenting ideas and information, selecting body language, voice qualities and other elements (music and sound) to add interest and meaning || · **Oral: ‘The film tells us more about what humans are like than animals’ OR ‘The film shows that stealing is justified’ OR ‘How does Wes Anderson use cinematic techniques to enhance Roald Dahl’s picture book?’** ||


 * Week 3**

Today we discussed some samples of student work and used the analytical essay rubric to moderate them. This was helpful in terms of identifying what level of thinking and structure we are expecting students to achieve on their 2nd text response essay of the year. It was also beneficial for a new staff member who had many questions about the assessment and how we go about formative and summative assessment. TE also shared some resources for the assessment task. We also discussed how to identify modified students and some strategies for modifying their work. Next week we will work on creating a rubric for assessing the oral presentation on 'Fantastic Mr Fox'. If there is time we can also discuss the Lit. Circles books and how we start the groups off.


 * Week 4**

Today we created a rubric for assessing the 'Fantastic Mr Fox' oral presentations. We also discussed the timeline of when we would need to finish up the essays and presentations in order to allow enough time to complete Lit Circles.

TE, DP and VP then shared resources and ideas for teaching Literature Circles to support Rob; a teacher who has not taught it before. We discussed how to run the discussions, how to break up the reading, other activities to do during the week, skills focused tasks, as well as some options for the final assessment. Members agreed to send around and or bring in resources over the next few weeks to support his teaching of the unit. TE and DP also brought in their examples of A3 books to show some examples of what students complete in this unit.


 * Week 5**

Today we moderated some students' final essays on 'Fantastic Mr Fox'. We found that students had definitely improved in their use of the TEEL structure, however, some still needed to work on explaining the relevance of the quotes they used and including linking sentences. It was discussed that we could revise these areas when students do some more writing for their Literature Circles assessment. We also discussed how an advanced student would be including broader ideas that relate the text to the real world, particularly in this case to the destruction of the environment that is caused by the three farmers desire for revenge. TE shared some resources for the library session which could be useful in introducing students how to use the non-fiction section of the library. The call numbers take some students some time to get used to. It is good if they have used this area before they do some research on the background of their Lit. Circles novel and just in general to introduce them to it.

Next week we discussed creating a resource for teaching questioning as a skill more explicitly. TE said that she would aim to provide some short stories to choose from to use.

Today we produced a new resource for teaching questioning during Lit Circles. We based our lesson on an extract from Roald Dahl's 'The Witches' and used a questions matrix as a resource to start students' questions off. We also produced some questions of our own as samples based on the image and on the first passage of the text.
 * Week 6**

For next week TE asked VP and Rob to bring along their data from the 'FMF' essays so that we can review our SMART goal and our progress towards it. We also identified the need to review how we will assess Lit Circles and what rubric we will use in particular to assess their workbooks.

Today we worked on our presentation of what we have achieved in our PLC this semester. As two team members were absent for administrative reasons some of the time was spent sharing resources with a teacher who is teaching the content for the first time, and the other time was spent preparing the presentation. Next week it would be good to create another resource on a skill- perhaps clarifying. We could also discuss further how we plan to assess Literature Circles overall.
 * Week 7**

Today we developed a rubric for students to use when rating themselves and reflecting on their development of the five key comprehension skills used during Lit. Circles. DP started it and then as a team we added to it, developing descriptions of advanced to low level skills in predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarisin and visualising.
 * Week 8**

We also sourced a good short story to use and began to create a task on clarifying. This involved filling in a "How well do I know these words?" sheet, picking out words that students then need to rank how well they know the meanings. Students will then use the Clunk sheet to help them use a range of strategies to clarify the word's meaning.