2017-2018: Kevin McLennan, Principal of Mile 108, takes on the role of PLC Facilitator this year. The staff will investigate the focus area of:
2016-2017: Don Kinasewich continues as the PLC Facilitator this year:
Primary: How will the use of hands-on math activities (games, manipulatives) and classroom structures, such as Guided Math and Daily 3, increase engagement and enjoyment during Math class, and contribute to the development of fundamental mathematical skills?
One teacher in our group, with the assistance of the PLC Facilitator, implemented a daily Guided Math period utilizing the strategies detailed in Daily 3 for Math. The students transitioned well to this approach, which included the use of math games and completion of math activities on an iPad. The teacher found these sessions productive and easy to manage. Her one concern was the difficulty she had controlling and monitoring the pace at which students completed assigned work from their math workbooks.
Another teacher utilized math games as activities for students to engage in after completion of assigned math work. She also explored the use of computer-based math activities (Sumdog) to provide additional practice for her students.
Both teachers noted increased engagement in Math activities by their students and sensed greater enjoyment compared to traditional pencil and paper tasks. Both also saw the potential of games and technology to reduce the need for math workbooks.
The evidence gathered for our analysis was exclusively anecdotal. Unfortunately, due to an extended absence by the PLC facilitator, a student satisfaction survey and assessments of basic math skills were not completed as part of our inquiry this year.
Two members of our Primary group used PLC time to work on separate inquiries involving outdoor education for K/1 students. One of the teachers provided the following information:
Outdoor Education allowed for a unique vehicle to explore literature, science, and a general exploration of the outdoors. The majority of the students were consistently focused on activities, despite interruptions, such as vehicles driving by, planes overhead, dandelions to pick, and other distractions. I believe that the class had more opportunity and success trying to focus on the story or task at hand since they gradually learned to 'tune' out the distractions, and this focus has slowly begun to transfer to the indoor Kindergarten classroom. In addition, as the year and our lessons progressed, the children became increasingly more confident with their natural surroundings, complaining less about the distance that we walked, or the insects that flew on or near them, etc. They developed a greater respect and appreciation for nature, while expanding on their own curiosity for the outside world.
The Primary PLC meetings also provided the opportunity to discuss the issues that will need to be resolved to help teachers with the implementation of alternative methods of instruction. The need to have easy access to technology was identified along with the importance of having additional support in the classroom.
While the group’s participants felt that the changes to instruction examined in the inquiry led to positive outcomes, the evidence for this was exclusively anecdotal. It was agreed that it will be necessary to explore the impact on math outcomes by gathering more concrete data.
One of the teachers involved in the outdoor education inquiry offered the following reflection:
Next year I would like to continue with Outdoor Education, and during the fall, spring and summer months, attempt to have two sessions a week, while having one session during the winter months. I would like to continue with the inquiry question 'How will I foster in children a respect and appreciation for nature?' I hope that the children will display enthusiasm for the outdoor activities and take ownership for their behavior, both in and outside of the classroom.
Intermediate: How will involving students in assessment and increasing the amount of personalized descriptive feedback they receive, using tools like the 5 Point Writing Scale and other scoring rubrics, impact the quality of their writing?
The PLC facilitator was away on medical leave from February to April. The group continued to meet during this period. The participants reported that the focus of the group during this time was sharing and discussing lessons from their classrooms that they found particularly effective in engaging students in writing activities.
Throughout the year the teachers in our group tried different strategies to foster engagement in writing and develop writing skills. The members of the group reported improvement in these areas, however, this evaluation was exclusively anecdotal. The formal assessment of student writing to evaluate the impact of new approaches for assessment and feedback did not take place.
It was agreed that it would be worthwhile to pursue the topic of writing further next year in order to include the elements of this year’s inquiry that we were unable to get to, namely more formal assessment of student’s improvement in writing. There was consensus that we should continue to look at assessment and feedback, and other strategies such as presentation of student’s work and writing activities/topics that students find more meaningful, in order to foster student’s engagement with writing.
2015-2016: The work of the Mile 108 PLC will be facilitated by Don Kinasewich this year:
Primary Literacy Inquiry (Susan Soules, Steve Almond, Andrea Keller, Diane Matlock, Cheryl Goin, Janice Yakura, Rubina Johnson, Kristine Monnon, Rod Schneider, Don Kinasewich, Lynn McArthur, Julie)
One teacher provided a picture of her ‘Stamina’ chart from her Daily 5 sessions to show the development of her students’ independent reading.
Another teacher commented that use of the Daily 5 structure for ‘Read to Self’ provided the time to work with students on an individual basis to meet specific needs. He also noted that providing time for students to practice reading resulted in significant gains in reading level. Some students advanced as much as two grade levels over the course of the year.
A teacher who had partially implemented Daily 5 last year used the support of the PLC Facilitator to introduce the writing component. She found that her students became more independent writers and increased their writing stamina. In addition, she noted more variety in the type of writing her students undertook (e.g. poems, letters) compared to her previous writing program.
The Kindergarten teacher was impressed with how implementation of the Daily 5 structures fostered independence in a diverse class with a variety of behavioral challenges. She saw how teaching, modelling and practicing expected behaviours for ‘Read to Self’ quickly increased uninterrupted reading time from 30 seconds to 11 minutes, enabling her to provide more individual attention to students.
Another teacher commented that the impact he saw on students resulting from the inquiry have given him the idea of incorporating the writing component of Daily 5 into his literacy program next year.
As PLC Facilitator I spent a great deal of my time for the Primary Inquiry in classrooms helping teachers with the start-up of Daily 5, specifically Read to Self. This involved planning and delivering the initial foundation lessons and assisting with implementation of Read to Self sessions. This type of support clearly helped foster buy-in from the participating teachers and facilitated more interesting and in-depth discussions at our bi-weekly meetings. It provided teachers the chance to try something new without any additional workload, and provided them the opportunity to observe and reflect without having to worry about delivery of the lessons.
Intermediate Math Inquiry (Janice Yakura, Don Kinasewich, Lynn McArthur, Kristine Monnon, Rubina Johnson)
One teacher observed higher level connections made by students during lessons with manipulatives, and they were excited to share these connections with the teacher and other students. Another teacher noted that students were better able to come up with their own ‘rules’ to understand and explain concepts and found the use of manipulatives and Math journals helped her differentiate instruction and reach all levels of learners in her class. The same teacher had students requesting manipulatives to use during Math lessons. She also commented, “From the beginning of the year, with a traditional lesson and textbook work, understanding and performance was low. With the introduction of manipulatives and differentiated tasks, student understanding and performance (even completion of assignments) increased.”
Teachers found the lessons on the Educating Now website to be particularly helpful in giving them ideas about introducing concepts in ways that would foster student understanding.
2014-2015: Don Kinasewich, the Reading Recovery and Learning Support Teacher, is leading the PLC at Mile 108 again this year. This staff is working on three inquiries:
Primary:
Intermediate:
Whole School: