Language+Arts+-+8th+Grade+-+Meeting+Notes

May 19, 2011 Marcia, Frank, and Cheryl Finalizing the final! Talk of extra honor's reading groups. Talk of next years groupings and plans.

April and May to the 12th Usual three Discussed the trip. Follow up activities, etc. Have started going over the curriculum to see what we still need to cover. Looked at the final exam to see if we can all give it for harmony across the grade level. Lots of time hashing over NWEA results.

March 24, 2011 Usual three We explored different media forms of the classic short stories that we will see performed at the Merrill in two weeks. We tried to determine which ones needed to be clarified before our trip.

March 10 & 17, 2011 Usual three Both days have been devoted to hustling slips and attending details concerning the April theater trip. We have found copies of all the short stories that will be acted out by the theater group and have decided which ones to read before and prepare the students for and which ones to read and compare with the theatrical production afterward.

March 3, 2011 Usual three Frank and Cheryl worked on a list of bargain books Amazon.com for reading groups. Marcia filled out the bus request for our April theater trip. We discussed the logistics of the trip and planned the preparation as far as reading the short stories that will be acted out.

February 10, 2011 Usual three Marcia worked on purchase order for Merrill Hall Theater trip in April. Frank shared Quizlet.com-a site which allows students to create flashcards for vocabulary or any info one needs to memorize and do games with them. We also talked about doing a unit on plagiarism where students use paperater.com. Talked about the reading of Diary of Ann Frank, the play.

February 3, 2011 Usual three Made official plans for plays at Merrill Hall. Worked out numbers, etc. Planned how we will prepare students in class. Which stories will we read ahead, etc.

January 27, 2011 Usual three Worked on curriculum and syllabus for tomorrow's vertical meeting with the high school staffers.

January 20, 2011 Usual three Collaborated on teaching writing techniques. What works and what doesn't with our eighth graders????

January 13, 2011 Frank, Cheryl, & Marcia Organized trimester 2 book luncheon. Divvied up Ender's Game books. More discussion of field trip to theater options.

January 6, 2011 Frank & Cheryl(Marcia out sick) We worked on the details for the theater trip in April.

December 9, 2010 Frank & Cheryl(Marcia was working on next year's 7th grade social studies budget!) Finalized budget. Inventoried books we presently have before putting numbers on the titles we had chosen on budget forms. Frank helped Cheryl with her LA website on Goggle docs. Thanks, Frank!

December 2, 2010 Usual three Budget, budget, budget! We tried to list books that would enhance our independent reading programs and also supplement our group reads.

11/25-Thanksgiving :)

Monday, 11/22 & Tuesday, 11/23-Meetings during workshop days Marcia, Frank, Cheryl We developed a Differentiated Instructional Plan for our Civil War reading unit. See attached. We also worked on PLC budget.

November 18, 2010 Usual three Talked extensively about sub folders that are meaningful for when you are out. What do you leave? What are your expectations for student behavior and what consequences used if not met. Reviewed idea of plays for 8th graders to go to this year. Discussed which technology best fits our LA needs, Moodle vs. Goggle Docs, etc.

November 11, 2010-Veterans' Day

November 4, 2010 Usual 3 Marcia shared info and book ideas from the conference she attended yesterday. Discussed problems cropping up with no time for vertical meetings(with other grade levels). Overlapping of themes and books from class to class, etc. Also, how are we coping with no school-wide scheduled silent reading time.

October 28, 2010 Cheryl & Marcia Frank was at an IEP today. We met with Trish Brasslow in the library. Talked about using the book blogging site and also encouraging students to check for late books on gmail accounts. Discussed some new books. Trish shared a few new websites of interest.

October 21, 2010 Frank, Marcia, Cheryl Worked on goals and aligning them with CEP and also Pillars of Excellence. Talked also of an interdisciplinary unit for the mock elections. We will do persuasive essays concerning either a referendum or gubernatorial candidate to dovetail with social studies class.

October 14, 2010 Usual 3 suspects Discussed 8th grade book club. Choose Grisham's Bleachers to read. Cheryl will run this by Matt for approval. Hashed over NECAP testing and our frustrations with the writing section.

October 7, 2010 No meeting-NECAP testing

September 30, 2010 Frank, Marcia, and Cheryl Discussed results of practice persuasive essays. Compiled a list of practice prompt ideas that students could react to in order to clarify questions and what would be a stylish beginning to the essay response. Also, spent time of how to approach grammar study and vocabulary. Talked about concerns over total disconnect with special education this year. Students who are pulled out for LA are often lost during cross curriculum activities.

September 23, 2010 Same three More discussion of persuasive essays. Frank shared an interesting website that walked students through the persuasive process. Picked some reading practice materials as well.

September 16, 2010 Present: The usual three! Looked over released NECAP materials. Picked what will be used to review. Decided to do a practice persuasive essay together with each class and then one practice on their own during one class period. Will share the same topics or prompt ideas and then compare notes.

Present: Marcia, Frank, Cheryl Talked about materials to be used to start the year with basic grammar and vocabulary. Coordinated shared materials. Shared NWEA scores and what they might mean for this year with these students. How will we get ready for NECAPs in October??
 * NEW YEAR- September 9, 2010**

May 27,2010 Present:Sue, Frank,Cheryl Poured over NWEA test scores. Frank found the website with the new average scores,etc. Talked about some changes in how we administer them next year. We all experienced interruptions while giving test. Went over final exam and made sure that we were on the same page as far as expectations for end of year. Discussed worries about ELL students. What do you do with verbally bright ones that are slightly behind due to their language situation? Cheryl shared her ideas of contrastive rhetoric when speaking of writing.

May 20, 2010 Missed meeting due to workshops running in our classrooms with high school group. List of books we need to purchase for next year; Acquaintance with Darkness Girl in Blue Lyddie Copper Sun Captain's Dog Killer Angels Wolf by the Ears High Heat Ender's Game

May 13, 2010 Frank was at a PET, so Sue and Cheryl discussed plans for next year. Sue had a great idea for covering the teaching of writing by sharing a book at PLCs. We also once again went over expectations. Looked at a website that had tests for word usage problems.

May 5 & 6, 2010 The first day Sue was at a workshop. Frank and Cheryl spent more time on short stories during the early release time given to PLC. Thursday everyone was back, and we discussed the final exam. Cheryl talked briefly about the writing of her final report for the community read project grant from Maine Humanities Council.

April 29, 2010 Present: Sue, Frank, & Cheryl We went over a short story unit and looked over materials for it. Talked about success &/or problems with different stories. Talked about how testing will impact the end of the year and what we can still cover. Stressed idea of enforcing learning of terms for grammar and literary analysis. What is being read for the end of the year for independent reading books? General discussion of difficulty of helping students retain material taught throughout the year. Good meeting!

April 15, 2010 Present: Sue, Frank, Cheryl Sue had concerns about the point of view assessment. We explored this and altered the test slightly. Frankie fixed it for us on Wiki. We reviewed the list of outcomes for eighth grade LA students and and pinpointed the few that we hadn't covered enough. We shared a simple plot analysis sheet. Discussed a poetry collection of eighth graders' work. Discussed more civil war titles.

April 8, 2010 Present: Sue, Frank, Cheryl Discussion of Civil War books. Irony assessment discussed. Problems with teaching grammatical issues, such as clauses, phrases, and conjunctions. How are we approaching point of view? Sources being used?

April 1, 2010 Present: Frank and Cheryl(Sue out w/ death in family) Previewed a new version of Diary of Anne Frank put out in '09 by BBC. Quite a contrast to our traditional play in the anthologies. Will show it just before vacation. Also spent some time talking about writing again.

March 18, 2010 Present: Sue, Frank, Cheryl

Spent time making a list of books that tie in well with eighth grade history topics that we want to be sure to order(or replenish) with the next budget allotment. Also, books that work well for reading groups, especially some of the ones that challenge our more able readers. Reviewed the assessment on irony. Sue shared her success with a Holocaust-related poetry unit. Frank talked about writing in association with expectations for next year's honor's English classes. Shared thoughts about ESL students who read wonderfully but struggle with writing.

March 11, 2010 Present: Sue, Frank, Cheryl

Vacation, Frank's surgery and then a scheduling meeting have kept us from our PLCs. Today we spent time talking about developing key concepts concerning the Holocaust and drawing analogies to other things in students' lives that will bring this whole unit to life. Do our students' relate and actually have empathy for something like this!?!? Good books and movies that tie into this. Also reviewed common assessments.

February 11, 2010 Present: Sue, Frank, Cheryl

Good discussion of reading circles vs. independent reading. Do we know which method is actually more effective? What will we pursue for literature after vacation? Sue shared a great video about Anne Frank with us. Looked up and purchased on Amazon.com the play script of Master Harold and the Boys. Frank shared his success with the free Ayn Rand book Anthem.

February 4, 2010 Present: Cheryl & Sue Frankie is benched with a kidney stone

Sue and I spent time discussing prepping students for a meaningful read of Diary of Anne Frank. Divvied up posters from Holocaust Foundation in D.C. and compared notes on supplemental activities. We also agonized over what to do the the few remaining "reluctant" readers that we have in classes.

January 28, 2010 Present: The usual 3 suspects!

We wrote a new letter of explanation about the Portland Stage play and planned how we would familiarize student's with apartheid and that time period in South Africa before going to Master Harold and the Boys. Also spoke of introducing Anne Frank and materials we can share.

January 21, 2010 Present: Cheryl Frank Sue

We talked briefly about where to fit all our paperbacks at the new building and which ones to store and then went to work doing it.

January 7, 2010 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Cheryl Gillespie

First formal meeting since the hubbub of the "move." Discussed what we are doing to get by with most of our stuff across town in the new building. Talked about the difficulty readers are experiencing with the community read book Claudette Colvin. Also, the change in venue to the high school library for the discussion group on 1/28. Will distribute the eighth grade read Ender's Game as soon as Cheryl has a chance to pick them up at the book store. Lunchtime discussion tentatively set for late February. What books are good for period of time of exploration: Captain's Dog, Sream to River, etc.

November 19, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Sue Atwood Intern, Kath Trish Brasslow

Trish shared with us her great news about an author's visit in the end of February. Discussed ways of picking small audience. Really targeting 6th/7th graders.

November 12, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Sue Atwood Intern, Kath

We all decided to read __Christmas Carol__ after Thanksgiving. Still thinking of fun things to do to tie activity together such as serve mini-servings of plum pudding at lunch after play, etc. Discussion of ways to teach inferencing. What stories are people using? What activities are closely related, such as theme and summation, etc. Good talk of how do you teach revision in writing. Do you use outlines or check lists? Do you actually have students underline in their essays proof of doing requirements? How hard do we force revision!?!?!?

October 29, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Sue Atwood

Did decide on Enders Game for eighth grade read. Will find out what kind of discount we can get. Once again titles thrown around for large community read. Talk about concerns regarding inappropriate laptop use by students.

October 22, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Sue Atwood Intern, Kath

We were disappointed to discover that Moodle is very cumbersome to use. Did experiment with it some. We compared notes about Infinite Campus use and concerns. Have decided on an assessment to give soon-ability to make inferences in reading.

October 15, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Sue Atwood Intern, Kath

We divvied up the theater deposit for trip to see Christmas Carol and decided to wait to pay it until we receive bus approval, etc. Talked about what we could do to make the trip special after the play. Still working on ideas. Logged onto Moodle to check out what Karen Emery had set up for us as far as literary blogging. Discovered we still need to have Sue signed on. Also had some troubles transferring an image of books to site to label discussion sites. A 1pm fire drill unfortunately cut some of our time together.

October 1, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Sue Atwood Intern, Kath

Discussed what we discovered as problems &/or differences in NECAP vs. MEAs as we have reviewed with students. What will our students find easy or difficult, etc. Sue ordered Ayn Rand free books. Frank and Cheryl already have. Looked at Ender's Game for possible 8th grade community-funded read. Shared links to good websites with reviews of grammar and mechanics. Talked about how this venue appeals to 8th graders. Frank figured out how to place these links on Wiki next to related outcomes. Explained community read to intern which was a good review for all of us, reminding us of what had been accomplished.

September 24, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Sue Atwood Intern, Kath

Discussed preparation for NECAPS. What we have done as far as orienting the students to the test. We all have given practice reading portion. Sue is going over the writing parts that ask about grammar and mechanics. Frank and I will do that before the testing. Titles of books for class and community reads were passed around. Cheryl would love to have a good community read title that meshes with social studies. We all shared what essentail outcomes we are currently addressing. FInally, we talked about going to Christmas Carol.

June 11, 2009 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Discussed final. We will be doing mostly the same things with some differences. Went over the story and and poetry being used for the final.

June 4, 2009 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Reviewed material for finals. Reading: identify point of view, protagonist, antagonist, conflict, climax, irony, resolution, inference and theme. Grammar: verb tenses, 8 parts of speech, irregular verbs, misused phrases. Phrases: gerunds, participles, prepositional, appositive and infinitive. Punctuation: commas--subordinate, independent clauses and compound sentences. Poetry: metaphor, symbolism, theme, personification, onamatopeia, alliteration, hyperbole.

May 28, 2009 Present: Marcia Gartley Chery Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Reviewed NWEA's scores. Found similarities in scoring among the three teams.

May 21, 2009 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Community read Scat meeting. Not a real good turnout--some feedback that at least 60 or more read the book, but many did not go to the meeting because of other committments or uncomfortable with going into an 8th grade room. Resolve: a professional day for Cheryl to accomplish some of the work that needs to be done for community read. Would like to have meeting during lunch next year like the 8th grade. Kids were excited about the book in general. Needs to add a 6th and 7th grade teacher to help. Discussed NWEA reading scores. It was noted that the difficulty level has increased. Will discuss scores next week. Will also email Jan B. to let her know that it appears that NWEA has tightened up the difficulty for the upper level readers.

May 7, 2009 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Discussed this evening's community read. We need to be at Cheryl's at 6:00 to help set up. It looks like we will have a large turnout. We had fifty books that were distributed and were swopped around. Worked on Essential outcome #18--made corrections.

April 30, 2009 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham

We reviewed essential outcome #18 and uploaded it to wjhspics. Found practice exercises of #18 in the Standardized Test Preparation Booklet on pp 43-44. Will work on writing #14 on homonyms. Internet sites http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html and www.esc.edu/htmlpages/writerold/pandg/exg8c.shtml. Will work on writing #14 essential outcome next week.

April 16, 2009 Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham

Discussed 8th grade group read on Timeline scheduled for Friday, April 17th. Students will be having a Portland Pie lunch and discuss book. Will divide the group into smaller groups. Expecting about 20 students. Talked about having an adult summer read. Need to contact Ben Morgan regarding possible visit to May 7th Billy Boy. We completed the assessment for verb agreement #18.

April 13, 2009 Present: (Content Area Mtg.) Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie

Discussed inference assessment for essential outcome #1 given in November. This can be found in common assessments on Wikispace language arts common assessments titled Inference1.doc. Based on a pass/fail: 8B: 89% passed (70 students total on team) ll% failed (It was noted that Cheryl has SPED students in a co-taught class and language lab students.) 8A: 96% passed (49 students) 4% failed (This includes 8th grade GT language arts students.) 8L: 93% passed (30 students) 7% failed (Note that several students are in language lab.)

Students failed to pick up the foreshadowing demanded to answer correctly question #2 for Jack London's "Up the Slide". There were no other specific patterns of errors noted.) We also discussed how student maturity impacts their ability to infer. We even questioned whether this was a reading test or a test of intellectual development since some students are more concrete than abstract in thought processes. We agreed that this is a skill that should be reinforced throughout the year whenever possible.

April 9, 2009 Present: Frank Lynham Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley Elizabeth King

Chery was elated with the article in the American Journal describing our upcoming Community Read. Cheryl is working on short stories, irony, and five phrases. Would like to do clauses and comma placement. Frank is working on Anne Frank--symbolism and foreshadowing. Elizabeth is working on foreshadowing and theme. Marcia is working on phrases as well and working on persuasive essay in conjunction with Steve Pomelow's ecology project. We need to make sure that we keep accurate records of the data from our assessments that we give. Discussed Essential Outcome #18 on verb tenses. Decided to use an up-to-date topic, develop a paragraph with two verb choices inside parentheses for students to choose correct verb tense. Looked at p 423 on blogging.

April 2, 2009 Present: Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley Chery Gillespie

Timeline: Marcia has one student joining that reading group which will meet April 17th from 11:40-12:30. Billy Boy: Students should finish up this book prior to April vacation in order for other students to read it. Author talk will be on May 7th at 6:30. Scat will meet May 17th directly after school. Poetry Corner: only find old version. Keep digging. Will work on outcomes 17, 18 and 20 beginning next week. Di

March 26, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley

Talked about Timeline reading group. My team is reading Billy Boy and do not seem interested in joining--too much at one time. Frank has 11 reading it. Cheryl's team has 7. Discussion on April 17th. Next week, back on assessment task--poetry. Bring last year's work. May 7th--author's talk. Marcia is going to try to get Ben to come in his uniform.

March 19, 2009 Present: Elizabeth King Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley

Conferred on Jim O'Leary's request that we submit a curriculum focus for students recommended for summer school. Discussed community read books Billy Boy, and also the ordered book Timeline that Cheryl would like to have a combined reading group during a lunch/ssr time period on April 17th.

March 12, 2009 Present: Elizabeth King Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley

Last week's meeting was cancelled due to MEA's. Discussed the Community Read with Billy Boy by Jean Mary Flahive--20 students from 8L have chosen to read it. We're also ordering Timeline by Michael Crichton, Scat by Carl Hiaasen and Hotel on Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for specific age level group reads. Cheryl is using her grant money and will be earning 20% discount for books. Also talked about teaching irony using Alanis Morrissette's song Ironic as a model. Talked about the booklist request for Cynthia. We don't have core books for certain grades at the Junior High. We do small group reads through lit circles and ongoing independent reading. The reason for not having class sets is combined issue of differentiation and money, such as The Year of the Hangman, Wolf by the Ears, Cast Two Shadows, etc. There was discussion about the viability and success in other schools of book closets.

February 26, 2009 Present: Chery Gillespie Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley Talked about high school recommendations. Communicated with Cari Sbardella regarding requirements for English classes. There have been changes made. Getting away from tracking, students who want to "work their tail off" and has a passion for reading and writing are welcome to honors. A student who reads above grade level and enjoys reading traditional literature and writing about literature should take English 1. The Reading/Writing Workshop is a focus on more contemporary reading and writing. Talked about making Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop Online required for those students recommended for honors.

February 12, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Cheryl and Frank, in the absence of their PLC leader, decided to go over MEA review strategies. Frank shared some lessons he had done with students covering the R.A.R.E. acronym for answering constructed response questions. We tried desperately to think of ways to get students to understand the importance of fleshing their answers out with reasons and examples. After a challenging search through a less than organized desk, Cheryl luckily found three of the discs of '07 released MEA test items shared by Brian M. last year. We looked over those on laptop and decided on a couple practice reading tests that we will use next week with students. We also talked about what MEA has demanded in the past as for as interpretation of poetry. We will welcome Marcia back next week!

January 22, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley Frank brought the materials from essential outcomes for #9 on irony and #1 on inferencing. He has scanned them into wikispace and made format corrections. Cheryl found in her vast repertoire of materials to versions of the poetry assessment for E.O. #10 on theme. Marcia to check which one is the final version. Found good examples in lit book--pp 928 summarizing, pp652-653 paraphrasing. Diagnostic test on paraphrasing in Unit 4. After looking through materials, we questions whether or not we should combine paraphrasing and summarizing.

January 15, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley Elizabeth King Assessment for Essential Outcome #4 is complete. Need to scan and upload testing information for essential outcomes #9, #1, and #10. Can't find diversity notebook for assessment #9--Cheryl found. Frank to find and scan in work done for E.O. #1 and #9. Marcia to find poetry work for our theme assessment. Decided to work on Essential Outcome #2--summarizing and paraphrasing.

January 8, 2009 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley Whined about our health. Wrote the Teacher's page to accompany Essential Outcome #4 on point-of-view Discussed 2nd person point of view which is not to be found in our textbook. Uploaded this information to Wikispace.

December 18, 2008 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Elizabeth King Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley Reviewed the final copy of our essential outcome formative assessment on point of view. Frank uploaded it to Wikispace. Changed the #4 essential outcome to reflect the addition of 2nd person (stream of consciousness). Talked about the scheduling for the new school--particularly the amount of time for language arts.

December 11, 2008 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Elizabeth King Marcia Gartley Frank Lynham Explored use of Noteshare for our English classes. Reviewed excerpts for point of view formative assessment. We will assess 1st person, 2nd person, third person (limited and omniscient). Add 2nd person to essential outcome. Next week we will work on directions, set up, and teacher directions.

December 4, 2008 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King Marcia Gartley

Discussed grant that Cheryl has worked on with us for community read. Also, finalized the field trip for A Christmas Carol.

November 20, 2008 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Group reviewed their work from last week. Looked over books for more samples of point of view. Worked on deciding which excerpts to use with our assessment.

November 13, 2008 Present: Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Attempted to meet with Brian regarding field trip concerns--scheduled an after school meeting. Can take kids who bring in permission slips. Review page i731 on points of view in our Writing and Grammar book. Found three stories, "Up the Slide" p 174--"Algernon" p 310--and "Charles" p 345for point of view. "Medicine Bag" p 390 is a first person example.

November 6, 2008 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Had a conversation about the play--how are we going to pay for this with such poor fundraising. Final decision to be made on Nov. 17th. Budget: conversation about how to best spend money. Elizabeth asked about ways to get an LCD. Suggested she borrow it from the team she works with. She's also going to request it through the budget process. We all plan to order books. Are we finished with inferencing? Next week

October 30, 2008 Mock election. Frank and Marcia hosting and meeting cancelled.

October 23, 2008 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Elizabeth King

Frank is at MEA workshop. Cheryl and I worked on a

October 16, 2008: Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Brought our inference assessments that students have completed to

October 10, 2008 Present: Val Bennett Frank Lynham Martha Parker Marcia Gartley

Showed Martha and Val how to access wikis. Chose Essential Outcome #4 to unwrap. Ended up rewriting standard as follows: Define and distinquish the following points of view: 1st person, 3rd person, 3rd person limited and 3rd person omniscient. Figured out we can't do graphics on wiki!! See common assessment POVadg. Essential Questions: What is 1st person, 3rd person, 3rd person omniscient, 3rd person limited? What is the point of view of the narrator in each of the sample readings?

October 2, 2008 Frank Lynham Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley Decided to change the test for inferencing, Essential Outcome #1. We are using the standardized test prep for writing: Standardized Test Prep workbook, p59

Present: Frank Lynham Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley
 * September 15, 2008**

Meetings will be held regularly in Cheryl Gillespie's room. No meeting this Thursday; NWEA conflict.

Reviewed trimester one expectations. Talked about doing something different for inferences--present test is "hokey"--going to find some better examples. Like the standardized test practice tests on pp 59-60 in Standardized Test Preparation Workbook. Discussed a variety of stories to use in teaching inferencing. Rain, Rain Go Away, To Serve Man, Retrieve Reformation, Charles, Raymond's Run, Worthless, Housecleaning, The Wound.

Found grammar books and resources for new teacher, Frank Lynham.

Next week we will look over new teacher resources, work on inference assessment.

We met in Sue's room today as Doug Moody dropped off the honors summer reading books. We will distribute them next week. There is no writing assignment this summer. Students need to show that they have read and understood the tesop texts, //Fahrenheit 451// and //Speak//.
 * June 6**

After reviewing the results of the irony and dialogue assessments, we felt they were accessible to the students and accurately assessed the outcomes. We will leave it up to next year's group to continue our work and choose the next assessment s to create.
 * May 29**

Ijn a brief discussion of silent reading, it was felt that a school-wide silent rtading time would be most beneficial. However, given our tight schedule, we may not be able to accommodate that in this school. perhaps with a different school building, SSR can be built into a new schedule.

Most assessments have been given, but we will review the results of irony and dialogue next week.
 * May 22**

We discussed the progress we made this year in creating a framework that makes sense to all of us. We appreciated the time to talk not only about the outcomes and assessments but also what we were doing in our classes, often sharing lessons. Today Cheryl gave us a short story "Worthless" she used to help her students with theme. We plan to give this as a warmup before the poetry assessment that we will use as a "final." Anne has provided valuable information about differentiating for the higher functioning students.

In our last two meetings we will make some recommendations as to the assessments that should be created next. The hopes is that what we have done this year will stay in tack. Anne, Thorston, and I will be other places.

Continued discussing NWEA scores**.**
 * May 15**

Looked at the rough scores of the NWEA test. As this was just a quick overview of then scores from this week, no analysis was completed.
 * May 8**

Looked at the results of the irony test. Cheryl and Thorston will give theirs soon. So far, it looks like an accurate assessment of irony. Students seem to undertsand the concept.
 * May 1**


 * April 14, 2008**

Reviewed irony assessment. Be aware that on the practice test and one side of the assessment, some of the scenerios have two possible ironic outcomes.

Reviewed dialogue assessment. Changed one word to make it more clear that dialogue follows. Sue will give Cheryl and Thorston updated assessment. Decided to read the story to the students to unsure they understand the story. We will give the assessment then determine what level of competence students should show in order to meet the outcome. We will discuss the results the week of May 12.

Update the list of themes and directions for the poetry assessment. Sue will complete the scoring guide.


 * April 10, 2008**

Sue passed out copies of the dialog assessment. We decided to all take the test before next week to assure we would be consistent in our correction of student work. At the meeting we will look at our edits.

Add to the dialog outcome - endmarks.

After looking at a variety of poems from all of us, we chose the following for our poetry assessment: "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden "I,Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughs "Birdfoot's Grandpa" by Joseph Bruchac "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost "Christopher Sunshine" by William Cohen

Sue will prepare the assessment in its final form.

A reminder wqs given to do the irony assessment before next week's meeting.


 * April 3, 2008**

We discussed dialog test. Sue will format a new assessment using the story. We will give the test the week of May 12...discuss at meeting on the 15th.

Everyone has a copy of the irony assessment. We will have the results by April 17.

We took a look at Poetry Corner, a former assessment, and determined that we would find some additional poems where the theme is not named in the title. We want to replace "Success" and "Identity." All of us will be looking for possible poems to bring to the next meeting. Check for Gary Soto, MEA poems, Poems for Middle School. These need to be accessible to the average eighth grader.

6-8 level Meeting
 * 3/28/08**

Present: Sue Atwood, facilitator Thorsten Zimmerman Sandra Abbott Daria McNamara Marcia Gartley, recorder Anne Varney Cheryl Gillespie Dana Barrows Frank Lynham

6th grade: Working on spelling assessment and MEA preparation. Worked on literary terms and genre, paragraphing, context clues, and summarizing. Talked about freerice.com.

7th grade: We are working on development of our assesssments and have completed the assessment for two of our essential outcomes which we will be giving later this year. We have given an assessment earlier this year.

8th grade: We have completed one assessment on argumentative essays. We created an assessment on irony. We are going to work on theme next week. We will have given at least three assessments before the end of the year. Want to give one on dialogue and homophones before the end of the year.

Discussed common problems.

Cell Phone prompt...to meet the standard, a student must score 4,5,or 6 on the content section of the MEA writing rubric.
 * March 27, 2007**

Irony...finalized. Eliminated "verbal irony" from the list leaving situational and dramatic irony. Use Diversity worksheet 109 as a review before assessment Diversity 55 and 56. We will give this assessment so that we can look at results at the April 17 meeting.

Poetry Corner...bring this assessment to next meeting to review and tweek.

Dialog...Sue will look for an assessment she has in her files.


 * March 20, 2007**

We reviewed the rubric for the persuasive assessment and looked at some of Thorston's essays. A discussion followed as to what meeting the standard was, a 3 or a 4. We should review this next time. We also discussed the fact we should not be rating this for mechanics. We will revisit this again next week. October 23, 2008 Present: Marcia Gartley Cheryl Gillespie Elizabeth King

Frank is at MEA workshop. Cheryl and I worked on a

October 16, 2008: Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley Frank Lynham Elizabeth King

Brought our inference assessments that students have completed to

October 10, 2008 Present: Val Bennett Frank Lynham Martha Parker Marcia Gartley

Showed Martha and Val how to access wikis. Chose Essential Outcome #4 to unwrap. Ended up rewriting standard as follows: Define and distinquish the following points of view: 1st person, 3rd person, 3rd person limited and 3rd person omniscient. Figured out we can't do graphics on wiki!! See common assessment POVadg. Essential Questions: What is 1st person, 3rd person, 3rd person omniscient, 3rd person limited? What is the point of view of the narrator in each of the sample readings?

October 2, 2008 Frank Lynham Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley Decided to change the test for inferencing, Essential Outcome #1. We are using the standardized test prep for writing: Standardized Test Prep workbook, p59

Present: Frank Lynham Cheryl Gillespie Marcia Gartley
 * September 15, 2008**

Meetings will be held regularly in Cheryl Gillespie's room. No meeting this Thursday; NWEA conflict.

Reviewed trimester one expectations. Talked about doing something different for inferences--present test is "hokey"--going to find some better examples. Like the standardized test practice tests on pp 59-60 in Standardized Test Preparation Workbook. Discussed a variety of stories to use in teaching inferencing. Rain, Rain Go Away, To Serve Man, Retrieve Reformation, Charles, Raymond's Run, Worthless, Housecleaning, The Wound.

Found grammar books and resources for new teacher, Frank Lynham.

Next week we will look over new teacher resources, work on inference assessment.

We met in Sue's room today as Doug Moody dropped off the honors summer reading books. We will distribute them next week. There is no writing assignment this summer. Students need to show that they have read and understood the tesop texts, //Fahrenheit 451// and //Speak//.
 * June 6**

After reviewing the results of the irony and dialogue assessments, we felt they were accessible to the students and accurately assessed the outcomes. We will leave it up to next year's group to continue our work and choose the next assessment s to create.
 * May 29**

Ijn a brief discussion of silent reading, it was felt that a school-wide silent rtading time would be most beneficial. However, given our tight schedule, we may not be able to accommodate that in this school. perhaps with a different school building, SSR can be built into a new schedule.

Most assessments have been given, but we will review the results of irony and dialogue next week.
 * May 22**

We discussed the progress we made this year in creating a framework that makes sense to all of us. We appreciated the time to talk not only about the outcomes and assessments but also what we were doing in our classes, often sharing lessons. Today Cheryl gave us a short story "Worthless" she used to help her students with theme. We plan to give this as a warmup before the poetry assessment that we will use as a "final." Anne has provided valuable information about differentiating for the higher functioning students.

In our last two meetings we will make some recommendations as to the assessments that should be created next. The hopes is that what we have done this year will stay in tack. Anne, Thorston, and I will be other places.

Continued discussing NWEA scores**.**
 * May 15**

Looked at the rough scores of the NWEA test. As this was just a quick overview of then scores from this week, no analysis was completed.
 * May 8**

Looked at the results of the irony test. Cheryl and Thorston will give theirs soon. So far, it looks like an accurate assessment of irony. Students seem to undertsand the concept.
 * May 1**


 * April 14, 2008**

Reviewed irony assessment. Be aware that on the practice test and one side of the assessment, some of the scenerios have two possible ironic outcomes.

Reviewed dialogue assessment. Changed one word to make it more clear that dialogue follows. Sue will give Cheryl and Thorston updated assessment. Decided to read the story to the students to unsure they understand the story. We will give the assessment then determine what level of competence students should show in order to meet the outcome. We will discuss the results the week of May 12.

Update the list of themes and directions for the poetry assessment. Sue will complete the scoring guide.


 * April 10, 2008**

Sue passed out copies of the dialog assessment. We decided to all take the test before next week to assure we would be consistent in our correction of student work. At the meeting we will look at our edits.

Add to the dialog outcome - endmarks.

After looking at a variety of poems from all of us, we chose the following for our poetry assessment: "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden "I,Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughs "Birdfoot's Grandpa" by Joseph Bruchac "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost "Christopher Sunshine" by William Cohen

Sue will prepare the assessment in its final form.

A reminder wqs given to do the irony assessment before next week's meeting.


 * April 3, 2008**

We discussed dialog test. Sue will format a new assessment using the story. We will give the test the week of May 12...discuss at meeting on the 15th.

Everyone has a copy of the irony assessment. We will have the results by April 17.

We took a look at Poetry Corner, a former assessment, and determined that we would find some additional poems where the theme is not named in the title. We want to replace "Success" and "Identity." All of us will be looking for possible poems to bring to the next meeting. Check for Gary Soto, MEA poems, Poems for Middle School. These need to be accessible to the average eighth grader.

6-8 level Meeting
 * 3/28/08**

Present: Sue Atwood, facilitator Thorsten Zimmerman Sandra Abbott Daria McNamara Marcia Gartley, recorder Anne Varney Cheryl Gillespie Dana Barrows Frank Lynham

6th grade: Working on spelling assessment and MEA preparation. Worked on literary terms and genre, paragraphing, context clues, and summarizing. Talked about freerice.com.

7th grade: We are working on development of our assesssments and have completed the assessment for two of our essential outcomes which we will be giving later this year. We have given an assessment earlier this year.

8th grade: We have completed one assessment on argumentative essays. We created an assessment on irony. We are going to work on theme next week. We will have given at least three assessments before the end of the year. Want to give one on dialogue and homophones before the end of the year.

Discussed common problems.

Cell Phone prompt...to meet the standard, a student must score 4,5,or 6 on the content section of the MEA writing rubric.
 * March 27, 2007**

Irony...finalized. Eliminated "verbal irony" from the list leaving situational and dramatic irony. Use Diversity worksheet 109 as a review before assessment Diversity 55 and 56. We will give this assessment so that we can look at results at the April 17 meeting.

Poetry Corner...bring this assessment to next meeting to review and tweek.

Dialog...Sue will look for an assessment she has in her files.


 * March 20, 2007**

We reviewed the rubric for the persuasive assessment and looked at some of Thorston's essays. A discussion followed as to what meeting the standard was, a 3 or a 4. We should review this next time. We also discussed the fact we should not be rating this for mechanics. We will revisit this again next week.