Sept.+25,+2008

Agenda: Department meeting: 9/25/08


 * 1) Update on Course Selection Book changes: C&C, Writers Workshop & Shakespeare.
 * 2) Using Google Calendar to schedule the laptops.
 * 3) Being absent & substitutes locating your plans.
 * 4) Your concerns for upcoming mini-curriculum meeting.
 * 5) Pay attention to morning attendance.
 * 6) Printer...is there a need for one w/in the department?
 * 7) Test Taking Strats
 * 8) Middle States - going to have to sit on a small committee to address 1 of 12 standards Middle States Looks at.
 * 9) October 23: 9th & 10th graders will have an Internet Safety assembly.
 * 10) PSSA: Reading Areas of Weaknesses: Anchors 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
 * 1.1 Identify the meaning of vocabulary – synonyms, antonyms, compound words, and possessives.
 * 1.2 Apply word recognition skills – context clues, roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
 * 1.3 Make inferences and draw conclusions based on text.

Notes from meeting Missy - Make sure 1.1 and 1.2 are used in 10th grade especially, so students are fluent in meaning and word recognition. Koren - Vocabulary workshop books used here? Lauren - useful, but consumables are expensive Koren - make sure that we are not being repetitive George - Max Thompson chided us for teaching vocabulary. Which horse are we riding? We can't do both. Wes - There are not two different horses. We're trying to bring the vocabulary skills up, but doing it in a way that hasn't been done recently. Direct vocab needs to be done but done in a way that uses the LFS strategies to develop vocabulary, focusing on 10 words instead of 30, seeing how the words are used in different parts of life. Colette - Lit. based vocab. Vocabulary building in the book is pretty darn good. 5-10 words per story...It has a graphic organizers. Preview page-review words and then have students write the word, definition, synonym, and original sentence. Have the students write a summary paragraph of the story using the vocab. words. Sometimes they write a "story" of their own using the vocab. words. Students tested during the Unit test. Round table of how vocabulary is taught. Lauren - uses vocabulary book in M-L series for one intensive week Scott - 5-7 words in context of the literature George - 10-15 words per week, know words, synonyms, antonyms, write a story, test at end Julie - 15 words used in a story on the Wiki every two weeks Bob L - words selected from the literature units, write a sentences, matching, quiz Liz - T&F quiz using the vocabulary words/synonyms/antonyms/quiz in context of sentences Missy - context clues used to show meaning of words in literature as well as vocab Colette - sentence completion questions with vocab. words removed on Smart Board. Have students identify which vocab. word is matched with which sentence. Lit. based Jocelyn - throughout the week, do synonyms, antonyms, essay for the test at the end of the week/team kids literature based Ann - use words from the story, students write a story of their own, podcast Princeton vocab review/musical connection, guess meaning, use in writing Koren - short story units with about 40 words in the unit selected from the story. Something due each week/huge mastery test after 100 words. Jen - pulling words from unit being studied. 15 vocab words answering essay questions using 10 of the 15 vocabulary words. Wes - preview vocabulary at start of unit, daily vocab game, direct instruction on the board with picture, synonym, picture of clip to relate, student learning maps with vocab, vocab words must be used to answer the essential questions, at the end of the unit all of the words must be used in a project or an essay
 * 1) 7 Test Taking Strats - Possibly proposing that it be only required for those students who do poorly on 8th grade PSSAs. Is there a class that would be beneficial to all sophomores to replace test taking? Send note to Scott if you have an opinion. Wes noted that 4Sight testing might be sent to other classes if not used in TTS.
 * 2) 3 Carts - Sign up from Bob. Make sure the kids always sign out the same cart each time it is used. We already do that.
 * 3) 4 Mini curriculum - May be selecting textbooks and rewriting curriculum on Oct. 31 and one of the conference days. Two publishers should be presenting their materials. RL and CC must agree.
 * 4) 6 Printer - Printer requested for room 207 for the department to use.
 * 5) 8 Middle States - Other faculty members need to join the committee. Most everyone will be asked to sit on a subcommittee. Bob explained rationale of everyone being aware and involved.
 * 6) 10 PSSA: Anchors of Weaknesses

Back to discussion We do this stuff. George thinks leveling C&C would take care of some of these problems.Block scheduling: less is less. No simple way to cure this. Who has the Bubble kids weak in 4Sight testing? No one knows.

Add ONE THING that you do in class to improve 1.3: Make inferences and draw conclusions based on text
 * Colette-At the start of the semester we discuss the meaning of inference, deductive reasoning, and drawing conclusions based on evidence. On each selection, we look at characters and situations presented in the selection; and, in my review, I may say something like, "Based on what you just read, what are you able to infer or deduce about what is important to Native Americans? What examples led you to draw those conclusions?"


 * Ann - I ask inference questions during Socratic Seminar discussions of literature. We can be sure to select the literature from our books that include the specific inferences skills.


 * Koren-we do small group discussions where they have to address what they think happened in what they read, why they think it happened this way and they have to cite proof from the reading to support their claim. I think people call these "literature circles". It sometimes generates arguments/disagreements which is actually a good thing. Like Colette mentioned, we do a lot of "Based on what you've read..." type questions.