PLMS Course Creator Training
October 14, 2016:
How can I use PLMS to organize and advertise the professional learning at my school? How can PLMS help me in meeting my professional learning goals? How can I build courses in PLMS that will effectively describe the learning being offered? In this one-hour session, we will be exploring the features of PLMS and learning how to effectively use it for our schools. Participants will receive training from PLMS representatives on searching for, creating, and managing courses within the PLMS system.
Target Audience: Individuals who will be charged with creating courses on PLMS for their school sites
Time: 9:00am or 1:00pm
Location: Central Office
Contact: Cory Kapelski
Course: 14612 Register
Classrooms in Focus- Class Climate
This month’s featured videos are the Classrooms in Focus- Class Climate pair. The two videos feature the ACPS classrooms of first grade teacher Mr. Todd Kilmer of Patrick Henry Elementary School and fifth grade teacher, Ms. Destini Artis of Samuel Tucker Elementary School. The videos focus on the artifacts present in the teachers’ classrooms, the structures used by the teachers, and the teachers’ established routines that are used to promote a positive class climate. These videos are perfect to watch at this point of the year to help guide teachers to re-establish their Classroom Climate.
Coach’s Cut- Proximity
This week’s featured professional learning video is a Coach’s Cut video focused on Proximity. This powerful video, produced from footage of Mr. Minor’s ACPS Cora Kelly Elementary class, features 5th graders during their mathematics course. The video unpacks the necessary steps for effective teacher proximity during a lesson. The use of effective proximity helps students to remain engaged, helps teachers to monitor student progress, and aids in classroom management. As always, the Coach’s Cut video is paired with helpful tips from ACPS instructional coaches to help you bring this strategy into your practice.
Celebrate the Middle School Co-Teaching Cadre
- From GW:
- Sonia Chintha
- Amber Grier
- Marilyn Lowry
- Karen Panth
- Felicia Tolliver-Johnson
- Peter Jones
- Eleanor Hein
- Lauren Smith
- Melinda Snow
- Jennifer Tutuska
- Melissa Tilashalski
- Ayse Nalcaoglu
- Sukhdeep Kaur
- Kailee Smith
- Denise Radomski
- Katelyn Charbonneau
- Irina Kress
- From Hammond:
- Rejane McCorkel
- Meghan Pope
- Nicole Davenport
- Janelle Kochis
Celebrate the Elementary Co-Teaching Cadre!
This month we celebrate the ACPS Elementary UDL Co-Teaching Cadre! Ten elementary co-teaching pairs from James Polk, John Adams, Mount Vernon Community School, William Ramsay and Cora Kelly participated in a 4-part professional learning series facilitated by Inclusion Specialists Nicole Barrion and Vivien DePeralta, and ELL Instructional Specialist, Jaime Knight. The teachers advanced their instructional practices in the co-teaching models and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as they learned to plan and deliver instruction accessible to all learners within their co-taught classes. During the professional learning sessions, they explored various ways to incorporate Multiple Means of Representation, Multiple Means of Engagement, and Multiple Means of Action & Expression. They co-planned with their co-teachers to use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as their framework, particularly as they focused on one of the three high-yield models of co-teaching (Parallel Teaching, Station Teaching, and Alternative Teaching for pre-teaching). The Cadre teachers noted that the most valuable activity was the video self-reflection portion in which teachers viewed and analyzed videos of each other teaching and provided feedback based on what we had learned.
Scott Mills, 5th grade teacher at John Adams and his ELL co-teacher, Michelle Nettleton, have been spotted successfully implementing Multiple Means of Expression as they asked students to demonstrate their understanding on either a slate, paper/pencil, or using the ShowMe app. Reka Barton, 2nd grade teacher at Mount Vernon Community School and her ELL co-teacher, Justine Hudec, used the website Padlet on iPads during a cooperative learning activity to increase student engagement while brainstorming ideas about animals. In addition, co-teaching pair Ali Shuster and Kelly Davis have been spotted implementing the best practice, co-teaching models they learned. All participating teachers reflected that they grew in their understanding of UDL and co-teaching, which was evidenced in student success and greater student engagement and achievement.
Cooperative Learning- Step 3
Team Cooperation Goals:
The Office of Professional Learning Strategy Series will supply teachers with the tools, templates, texts and teacher tips to bring research-proven instructional strategies into their practice. The first series will focus on Cooperative Learning.
The ability to collaborate and cooperate in a learning environment is a necessary skill for the 21st century, and improves learning outcomes for students (Prince, 2004). Students must learn to speak, listen, and work together in order to become successful students in higher education, and the job force. Cooperative learning strategies include student discourse techniques, strategies for management, behavior routines for pairs and groups, celebrations, assessment and data collection for individual accountability, and meta-cognitive strategies.
In order to bring these highly effective strategies into instructional practice, teachers must explicitly teach the behaviors associated with cooperative learning in a structured and purposeful way. With the end-in-mind, of a highly engaged, discourse filled classroom, we began this series with a structure for teaching partner and team routines- A Looks Like/Sounds Like Chart. To view Step 1 of the Strategy Series, click here. We then added to the series with a post on a simple student discourse routine, a Think/Pair/Share. To view Step 2 of the Strategy Series, click here.
Cooperative Learning- Step 3
Tool: Team Cooperation Goals- Team Cooperation Goals are a set of cooperative behavior standards teachers explicitly teach, practice, and reinforce in their classrooms for effective cooperative learning or team work. The standards, originally established by researchers Dr. Nancy Madden and Dr. Robert Salvin typically consist of five behaviors- Practice Active Listening, Help & Encourage Each Other, Everyone Participates, Explain Your Ideas & Tell Why, and Complete Tasks. Team Cooperation Goals are an essential component of cooperative learning. Although often thought of as tools for the elementary classroom, Team Cooperation Goals are essential for establishing, and using cooperative learning in the secondary classroom as well.
Establishing Team Cooperation Goals in the Classroom: To establish team cooperation goals, teachers should introduce, model, and practice one cooperation goal at a time; introducing, and focusing on a new standard once a week until all of the goals have been explicitly taught. Once team cooperation goals are established in the classroom, teachers should post the standards in the classroom on an anchor chart. Teachers may want to use a Looks Like/Sounds Like Chart to post the goals. Once posted in the classroom, teachers should review the goals with their class and refer students to the anchor charts for guidance. Before teaching a lesson with a cooperative learning component (partnerships, and/or small or large groups), teachers should pick one or two team cooperation goals to focus on, review what the behavior for that goal looks and sounds like, and then reward team cooperation points when the targeted behavior is demonstrated during the lesson.
https://acps.mediaspace.kaltura.com/id/1_5zsgml0t?width=854&height=480.375&playerId=25497721
- Practice Active Listening
- Looks Like: Eyes on speaker, body turned towards speaker, body language conveying understanding (head nodding, smile).
- Sounds Like: One speaker at a time, encouraging words, adding on when speaker is finished, summarizing speaker’s statements.
- Help & Encourage Others
- Looks Like: Eye contact to speaker, team or partners all participating, smiling at team members/partners, all team members have necessary supplies, sharing.
- Sounds Like: Encouraging words towards team members such as: “You can do it” and “Have you tried doing it this way?” and “Would you like me to help you?” and “Do you need more support from your team?”
- Everyone Participates
- Looks Like: All team members have an active role in the group, all team members doing equal amounts of work, smiling, busy team members.
- Sounds Like: On topic conversations, encouraging words towards team members, team members using kind words to ensure all team members are participating.
- Explain Your Ideas & Tell Why
- Looks Like: Eyes on Speaker, one speaker at a time, body language conveying active listening.
- Sounds Like: Using the question stem to answer (if the question is, “What color is the house?” the answer is, “The color of the house is brown.”), using evidence to support answer (“The color of the house is brown. I know this because on page 98, the author states, ‘The house’s brown color reminded him of the wet mud near the lake.’), summarizing other team members answers (“So what you said was…”), adding on to others’ answers (“I’d like to add that the roof of the house is red, because on page 99 the author states…”), and polite disagreeing (“Although I understand why you believe the roof is red, I disagree. According to the author on page 102, …”).
- Complete Tasks
- Looks Like: Busy team members with little or no down time, all assigned work turned in on time, all work thoroughly and neatly completed.
- Sounds Like: Team member(s) keeping track of time, team members reminding team of due dates/time remaining, check-ins on completion rate by team members.
Tools, Texts & Templates
- Team Cooperation Goals
- Template: Team Score Sheet
- Text: A Review of the Research
- A Model Lesson for Team Building
Related Videos
Cooperative Learning- Step 2
Think/Pair/Share:
The Office of Professional Learning Strategy Series will supply teachers with the tools, templates, texts and teacher tips to bring research-proven instructional strategies into their practice. The first series will focus on Cooperative Learning.
The ability to collaborate and cooperate in a learning environment is a necessary skill for the 21st century, and improves learning outcomes for students (Prince, 2004). Students must learn to speak, listen, and work together in order to become successful students in higher education, and the job force. Cooperative learning strategies include student discourse techniques, strategies for management, behavior routines for pairs and groups, celebrations, assessment and data collection for individual accountability and meta-cognitive strategies.
In order to bring these highly effective strategies into instructional practice, teachers must explicitly teach the behaviors associated with cooperative learning in a structured and purposeful way. With the end-in-mind, of a highly engaged, discourse filled classroom, we began this series with a structure for teaching partner and team routines- A Looks Like/Sounds Like Chart. To view Step 1 of the Strategy Series, Click here.
Collaborative Learning- Step 2
Tool: Think/ Pair/ Share A Think/Pair/Share is a very simple, yet highly effective tool to structure student discourse. During a Think/Pair/Share, students are given time to think (about a topic, their answer, an idea, etc.), given time to pair (discuss the topic with a partner) and then given time to share (share out with the whole class or large group- typically facilitated by the teacher). Think/Pair/Shares differ from other discourse routines, such as Turn & Talks because they are deliberate in giving students ample time to think before partner discussion and share out after partner discussion. Teachers often couple Think/Pair/Share with Random Reporter. Random Reporter is a way of randomly selecting students that helps to keep all students accountable. Some teachers like to alleviate the pressure of being randomly called on by allowing students to share what their partner said instead of themselves.
https://acps.mediaspace.kaltura.com/id/1_ze6m7l9a?width=854&height=480.375&playerId=25497721
Modeling: When introducing the Think/Pair/Share routine to your classroom it should be explicitly modeled and practiced.
- Model the Think: Use meta-cognitive strategies to demonstrate the thinking process to students. Be explicit- using language like, “I am thinking…,” at the primary levels, teachers may even want to point to their head.
- Model the Pair: Choose a student* or bring in a colleague, to model appropriate student-student discussions. Model to students how to position their bodies to speak with each other, think about how this would differ if students were sitting on the floor, or at their desks, model all the behaviors they may encounter. Demonstrate to students the appropriate voice level to use with a partner, and teach students to use discussion stems such as, “I hear what you are saying, Shane when you say…., however I think….” or “I agree (or disagree) with you about …… because…..”. Although these may seem common sense to you, they should be explicitly taught to students at both the primary and secondary levels.
- *Teacher Trick- It may be a good idea to chose a student who often misbehaves as a partner for the model. Choosing this student as the model for the class can create buy-in for him or her. If the student misbehaves later, the teacher can refer to when the student modeled in front of the class. “Melissa, I know you know how to do a Think/Pair/Share correctly, because you were the model for the entire class, can you show us again the correct way to do it?”
- Model the Share: Show students what a group or whole class discussion looks like. Describe and explicitly demonstrate your expectations for students. Do they “stand and deliver” or can they answer from their seats? How loud do they need to project? Make sure all of this is explained and modeled. Also demonstrate to students how their answers will be graded. If a rubric is used, make sure all the part of the rubric are discussed and explained. You may even want students to grade you using the rubric so that they have a complete understanding of the criteria needed for the different scores.
Tools, Texts & Templates
- Template: Team Score Sheet
- Text: A Review of the Research
- Blog Post: About Think/Pair/Share
- Think/Pair/Share Student Writing Template
- Discourse Rubric
Related Videos
Focus on Essential Questions
Have you seen our video on Essential Questions? Essential Questions (sometimes called EQs) are deep, fundamental and often not easy-to-answer questions that are used to guide students’ learning; they can be found in Stage One of the ACPS Curriculum. Essential Questions stimulate thought, provoke inquiry, and transform instruction as a whole. Our Essential Questions video demonstrates how a lesson essential question can guide the learning process at the beginning, middle and end of a lesson and offers ideas as to how to incorporate essential questions into student discourse, writing, and reading practices.
Focus on Student Discourse
Did you know that student discourse, or students talking on-topic in an academic environment, is vital to language acquisition, student engagement, and ultimately student achievement? The ACPS Professional Learning Website has many videos focusing on student discourse practices both at the primary and secondary level. Since student discourse routines need to be explicitly taught to students and reinforced in order to be most effective, it is essential that teachers have many discourse routines in their repertoire.
Check out our videos on some essential student discourse routines:
- Classrooms in Focus- Student Discourse: This video looks at student discourse routines in an ACPS secondary history classroom. Students take part in high level discourse at the partner, group and whole class level. The routines seen in this video are appropriate for both primary and secondary classrooms across content areas.
- Classrooms in Focus- Collaborative Learning: This video focuses on collaborative learning practices in a primary (4th grade) math class. Students demonstrate discourse at the partner, group and whole class level. The collaborative practices seen in this video are appropriate for both primary and secondary classrooms across content areas.
- Coach’s Cut- Random Reporter: These two videos look at a routine designed to increase student discourse and individual accountability. One video shows random reporter in a primary (1st grade) classroom, the other in a secondary classroom.
- Coach’s Cut- Think/Pair/Share: This video looks at a discourse routine in a primary classroom (1st grade). The routine seen in this video is appropriate for both primary and secondary classrooms across content areas.
- Student Discourse Videos from the Teaching Channel: These ACPS vetted videos from the Teaching Channel show various strategies and routines for discourse and are divided up into Pre-K, Primary and Secondary examples (with examples from both middle school and high school).