LA+-+7th+Grade+-+Meeting+Notes

June 2, 2011 1. Titles for summer reading list chosen. Barb will email the new list to each ELA teacher. 2. List will be posted on Team LA website and sent home with the students.

May 26, 2011 1. End of year LA plans for teams. 2. Finalize summer reading book list for students will distribute to classes. 3. Last meeting of the year will be June 2, 2011.

May 12, 2011 1. Share of projects ongoing on each team 2. Decided to send out a updated list of Summer Reading Ideas for students

April 28, 2011 1. Continue to discuss trends in the NECAP data 2. shared web sites and classroom lessons 3. new Booklist magazine shared... this issue was on Historical Fiction.


 * April 21, 2011 VACATION WEEK

April 7, 2011 1. Discussed trends in NECAP data. 2. Looked at the Released Items provided 3. No meeting next week- April 14th-due to the High School Guidance Program for 7th graders.

March 17, 2011 1. Cause/Effect activity discussed. Suggested to use (be) cause. 2. Quest activity discussion---letter writing, scrabble tournament, jigsaw puzzles 3. Silent reading next year????

March 10, 2011 1. Macmillan guides and Favorite Poem Project information was shared. 2. Teachers shared what is currently being studied 3. General book discussion.

March 3, 2011 1. Understanding C.C. start with Appendix A... Text complexity--task involved--levels of meaning 2. Steering Committee is looking at the C.C. 3. Discussed Read Across American plan for Friday 4. Discussed what is going on in each Language Arts classroom. 5. D.I. topic poetry--continue discussion and unit planning

February 3, 2011 1. Discussed dates for new Common Core implementation 2. DI topic of poetry will be focus of next meeting.

January 27, 2011 1. Mandy shared her observations on the trip to see D.I. in action. 2. Plan was made for Workshop Day D.I. PLC work time. Poetry was chosen to be the focus.

January 20, 2011 1. Discussion of writing and rubrics

January 13, 2011 1. Discussion of what is currently going on in each LA classroom. 2. Discussion on P. Lancia's topic of Common Core for Inservice day... 3. Watched youtube clips that Mr. Nelson sent out to staff. Discussion followed.

December 16, 2010 1. Discussion on tone and mood. Words were sorted--positive/neutral/negative 2. Use of Wordle and the limitations of the program 3. Common Core questions ...next year.

December 9, 2010 1. Budgets were turned in to PLC facilitator and then given to Mr. Nelson 2. Grammar discussion led us to look at Common Core Writing Standards- 3. We discussed asking Peter Lancia to join our meeting after the holiday break to provide insight on his views of the new standards.

November 30, 2010 1. Workshop template was discussed. 2. Budget info. was discussed and a due date to PLC Facilitator was set for Thursday. Marcia joined us--she will be returning to 7th grade next year. 3. Focus for trimester 2 4. Literature circles were discussed.

November 5, 2010 1. Sue and Mandy shared the many highlights of the Kathleen Odean conference. 2. Trish Brasslow joined the group to discuss the library wiki, Common Core Standards, and literacy meeting 3. No meeting next week-- school closed for holiday.

September 30, 2010 1. No word yet on the Kathleen Odean Conference...fingers crossed. 2. Began looking at the Common Core Reading and Writing Standards for 7th grade students. 3. Discussed vocabulary that needed to be reviewed before next week's NECAPs

September 23, 2010 1. Group discussed the need to build silent reading time into the Language Arts class. 2. NECAP tests. Discussed vocabulary and reading selections. 3. Looked at new Common Core standards that the state has adopted. We will begin to look at if our Essential Outcomes are lined up with the Common Core standards.

May 27, 2010 1. Team met and discussed last few books to add to the summer list. Will meet and finish compiling titles next week.

May 20, 2010 1. Summer reading list went out to PLC team for feedback. Some genres need more titles...goal for next meeting to have titles to place in booklist.

May 6, 2010 1. Team worked on Summer Reading List for students. 2. Team will work on finding titles to fit in each genre category.

April 8, 2010

1. Team worked independently to identify titles that we will add to student summer reading list.

April 1, 2010 1. Introduced booklist idea. Be thinking of titles & categories that we want to recommend to the students. 2. Poetry Units were discussed. Starting after April vacation. 3. Enoboard easiteach software training May 5th--early release day. 4. general discussion

March 18, 2010 1. Discussion of summer reading list for students--category brainstorm- Beach Reads--Chilling Campfire Stories--Road Trip Adventures...bring your ideas to our next meeting. 2. Media Center invites us to come teach in their beautiful space or plan a project that the M.C. can help with. 3. Marcia shared Punctuation Relay activity. She is going to send it (via email) for us to see. Thanks Marcia! 4. Karen is meeting with the eno board people this week and will mention our interest in having the trainer from easiteach software come to our school. I will keep you posted on when and where it will take place. 5. Next week we will not have a meeting...due to the early release...Our next meeting is 4/1/10.

March 4, 2010 1. Compare and Contrast Discussion 2. Grading discussion 3. Literature Circle Jobs and topics

February 25, 2010 1. Karen will be contacting the Easiteach trainer for Maine and asking her to come in to meet with interested teachers. 2. Discussed managing novel study in the classroom and how to use the different Literature Circle jobs. Marcia provided a list of jobs and descriptions. (Thanks, Marcia!) 3. Marcia will ask at Team Leaders meeting about the spring test schedule.

February 11, 2010 1. Teachers installed RM Easiteach software on laptops. 2. Karen Emery came in to explain how to navigate through the software. Thank you, Karen;) 3. Karen directed us to the school library wiki which as a page set up with tutorials on how to use the program. 4. PLC team decided to work through the tutorials to learn more completely how to use the software.

November 19, 2009 1. Context Clues Assessment--PLC team decided to give by December 17th. Will discuss at the meeting on that day. 2. Budget discussion. P.O.s will be picked up and in Sept. and spent early.

November 12, 2009 1. Context Clues--ideas shared. 2. Books ready to pick up at Borders. 3. Ideas of cleaning out before moving. What old grammar books & dictionaries to keep. 4. __Rules__ by Cynthia Lord (Gorham author) will be coming to the new Middle School to meet in a book discussion. About a girl dealing with a brother who is autistic. Twenty five students only to participate in discussion. All three grade levels to be involved. Will be in February--after vacation. Details to follow.

October 29, 2009 1. Book discussion and plan Borders Book buy. 2. Literature Circles discussion. 3. Grammar discussion---Working with eliminating run on sentences and short choppy.

October 15, 2009 1. Group discussion of the NECAP test-reading selections and quality of student written responses were discussed. 2. Essential Outcomes of focus for each team were discussed. 3. Team discussed a "fieldtrip" to Borders to use budget money to buy novels. Marcia Gartley volunteered to lead us through the purchase order process. Thank you Marcia!

September 24, 2009 1. PLC team went over released NECAP items from years 2007 and 2008. We looked for question structure and vocabulary used in directions. 2. Doc Heitz was contacted about the rules of NECAP--He stated that he has a one page doc. on the rules of NECAP. He will be providing it to the PLC Team. Look for a copy in your mailbox. If we have additional questions--let's ask at the meeting on Thursday (per Mr. Mazjanis' email). 3. Read aloud was discussed. 4. Due to a Dirigo parent meeting on October 1, 2009--next week there will be no meeting.

September 17, 2009 1. Discussed focus of beginning of the year--incorporating question in answer--writing skills on the computers--context clues 2. Lesson ideas were shared-__-Lorax__ --homophone quiz--context clues activity 3. Next time we are looking at the NECAP for terms/vocabulary the test uses in directions to stress with the students and for test set up 4. Look at homophone quiz--add to Common Assessments?

6/11/09 1. Last meeting of school year.

5/28/09 1. PLC members spent time reviewing book list websites. Three websites were chosen and sent to Cynthia Martin for her webpage. Sites were chosen with summer reading in mind. Book sites were:-Maine Student Book Award Annotated List-Kathleen O'Dean Teen Book List- and YALSA 2009 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers. 2. Discussion of what topic each teacher is currently studying with students.

5/21/09 1. Time was spent reading and discussing the Professional Learning Community Continuum document. Notes were taken on a packet and passed along to Mr. Mazjanis. Group felt that we are well on our way with Essential Outcomes and assessments. 2. Discussion began on a 7th grade summer reading list. We will continue next week working toward getting it ready to send home at the end of the school year.

5/14/09 Meeting postponed to next week due to High School Presentation

5/7/09 1. Confidence Game results for 7th grade-- 51% met outcome #3 Character Traits 77% met the outcome #16 Write a topic sentence to introduce a written piece 2. Data includes 1 ELL, 10 SPED, 8 Current Learning Lab Students 3. We recommend that Steve G. give the assessment to his LA class. 4. We will rework directions to match the essential outcomes stated on the rubric. Therefore--some students did not give examples as we expected them to.

4/30/09 1. Information on The Confidence Game was discussed. 2. Teachers are tallying up the students who meet and do not meet the standard for #3 and #16. 3. Spring goals for LA class.

4/13/09 Content Area Meeting Notes--The Confidence Game 1. If a student does not know a word in the reading, we will read individual words to the student. 2. Students can look words up in a dictionary. 3. Students will read 1st time for comprehension. The 2nd time the students will actively read looking for traits. 4. teachers will collect all pages at the end of day one and will return them to the students on day two. 5. Students who have no accommodations will be expected to handwrite their constructed response.

4/2/09 1. Work continued on The Confidence Game--(reviewing story and reworking of rubric) 2. General discussion of book project ideas.

3/26/09 1. April 9th Cynthia Martin will be joining us to explain her plan for the WSD website and what information she would like us to provide. 2. Work continues on the reworking of //The Confidence Game//. All classes will give the assessment by April 15th. 3. At the next meeting the focus will be writing the rubric. 4. Next round of book projects were discussed.

3/19/09 1. Shared dates for spring NWEA--May 1-May 26 2. Barb will email Cynthia and ask if she can attend our next meeting. 3. Confidence game (Essential Outcomes 3/14/16) prep continues--do we let kids read story alone or do we read it aloud to them? 4. Community Read Group book choice for 6/7 graders--Scat by Carl Hiaasen--Talk it up to LA classes

3/13/09 1. Community Read book __Billy Boy__ was discussed. Strong readers will be encouraged to read the book and join the discussion group & meet the author. 2. Email from Cynthia Martin on updating the WSD website was discussed. Members are compiling class read alouds and class novels used. Cynthia will be invited to attend a PLC meeting. 3. Next week we will look at what we need to do to prep students for the Confidence Game assessment. We will be focusing on Compare and Contrast. 4. Lexile numbers on books were discussed. Lexile numbers are ONLY based on word frequency and sentence length. (Something important to keep in mind when selecting books!)

2/26/09 1. Literature circles every day. Students are more focused on their story. 2. Poetry definition and examples passed out. 3. Constructed Response Essay questions--getting the students to elaborate on answers was discussed. 4. Students need to take the time to use their resources. 5. Discussed New England Assessment Program--possible replacement to MEA for 09-10 and viewed some released items from the past four years.

2/12/09 1. Data from the Fact and Opinion Assessment was analyzed. 2. We found that a vast majority of students scored a 75% or higher. 3. Students need to read all answer choices carefully before selecting their answer. 4. All PLC members agreed that we would look for another assessment for this topic. We felt that the questions were not as clear as we would have liked for the students. 5. As a grade level the students did better on the Fact and Opinion assessment then they did on the Context Clues assessment. 6. Context Clues assessment--students did better on the selections that had a fiction reading compared to nonfiction. 7. Students need to carefully read all answer choices before selecting an answer.

1/29/09 1. New date for Fact/Opinion assessment was set. We will look class data and combine information. 2. Literature circles were discussed. 3. Looked at 2nd trimester essential outcomes. 4. Bibliography discussion--how to site images found online.

1/15/09 1. Data from Context Clues was combined. Looked at each section to see how students did as a whole. 2. Plan was made for next assessment. 3. Book Project discussion.

1/8/09 1. Group discussion on Context Clues Assessment and how we were going to analyze the data. 2. Plan was made to organize the data at the 1/15/09 meeting

12/11/08 1. MEA released item constructed responses were shared. 2. Book Project Ideas were shared. 3. Book Orders/Bonus Points good way to add to classroom library. 4. Decided to meet in Sue Atwood's room next week to see examples of her past projects. 5. Discussed how to monitor student pacing through free choice novels.

12/04/08 Present-Barbara Lloyd, Sue Atwood, Miranda Fernald 1. MEA released items for 7th grade were discussed. Modeling of constructed responses are ongoing and students will have an opportunity to practice. 2. Discussed of value of Literature Circles. 3. Miranda shared Peer Edit with Perfection slide show.

11/20/08 Present-Barbara Lloyd, Sue Atwood,Miranda Fernald We spent time discussing what topic we each are going to start with next trimester. Language Arts budgets were reviewed. Literature Circles were discussed. We set a goal for next week to discuss MEA released items and how to begin to prepare the students for the type of questions they will encounter.

11/13/08 Present-Barbara Lloyd & Sue Atwood We spent time discussing the workshop attended on 11/5/08 and filling out workshop evaluation. Language Arts budgets were discussed. We ended the meeting by reviewing the essential outcomes for Trimester #1 and if they have been covered.

10/16/08 Present-Barbara Lloyd,Sue Atwood, Miranda Fernald We spent the time reviewing and discussing the Essential Outcomes that are to be covered during the first trimester. Ideas and story suggestions--to use with the students--were shared by all. All group members have received their confirmation for the conference November 5 th.

10/2/08 Present-Barbara Lloyd, Sue Atwood, Miranda Fernald We continued to look at common assessments and reworked forms. Still waiting for confirmation on workshop. Ideas were shared with the group.

9/25/08 Present-Barbara Lloyd, Sue Atwood, Miranda Fernald Conference Requests were filled out to attend November 5th conference--Best New Young Adult Books. Paperwork was submitted to Brian after school on 9/25/08. Sue shared a book project idea and shared her warm up activity with the group. Barb shared the Letters about Literature contest information. We began to look at the assessment on Context Clues and decided to make some changes to the test to best match the essential outcome that it is matched with. A new Outcome by Trimester spreadsheet was passed out to show the trimester changes that the group agreed upon.

9/18/08 Present-Barbara Lloyd, Sue Atwood, Miranda Fernald Conversation continued about trimester swaps with a few changes made. Essential Outcomes will be updated on site. Conference on November 5 (Best New Young Adult Books) was discussed. Barb will contact Brian about our PLC attending. We will get clarification from Marcia on #16 (Writing) Common Assessments will be gathered and discussed at next meeting.

9/16/08 Present--Barbara Lloyd, Sue Atwood, Miranda Fernald

We examined and discussed the outcomes by trimester spreadsheet. Sequence of the skills was discussed and a few trimester swaps were suggested. Changes will be made and we will continue to discuss outcomes. Miranda will be invited to join the WIKI. We will take a look at the Confidence Game questions & evaluate. Barb will email Marcia and ask about any written PLC information (notebook ??) that she could pass on to us.

3/20/08 Present: Frank Lynham Faith McCaughin Marcia Gartley

Working on Outcome #3 and #4: character traits and internal/external conflicts

We'll use the short story, "The Confidence Game," by Pat Carr for these outcomes. Today we revised this 7th grade district assessment to meet the requirements for the character and conflict essential outcomes. Frank Lynham provided us with a graphic organizer students will use as an answer sheet.

3/27/08

Present: Frank Lynham Faith McCaughin Marcia Gartley

Finished the redesign of the "Confidence Game" assessment. This assessment will cover both essential outcomes #3 on characterization and #4 internal and external conflicts.

4/3/08

Present: Frank Lynham Faith McCaughin Marcia Gartley

Essential Outcome, writing section, on capitalizing nouns, pronouns and adjectives: Decided on using the Formal Assessment booklet for Prentice Hall, 7th grade Bronze Level, ISBN 0-13-043562-7, p112, Part 10, #91-100.

Worked on essential outcome for commas. Will carry on next meeting.

4/10/08

Present: Frank Lynham Faith McCaughin Marcia Gartley

Completed #7 assessment using commas with subordinating clauses and compound sentences. We are using Extra Garmmar and Writing Exercises resource book, p106, exercises A, B, C, and p 104, exercises A and C. Need to type up this for posting to Wikispace.

Began working on persuasive #9.

4/14/08

Present: Frank Lynham Marcia Gartley

We completed the asssessment for #10 on phrases and clauses. We will be using p451, Ex. 39 from the Writing and Grammar book. We will add 5 more examples and will not require students to formulate sentences. #15 on fact and opinion, decided on Going to School in China from Mastering Social Studies Skillspp 30-31--read article and respond to 10 statements. We discussed #9 on persuasive argument and #11 on topic sentence. Having difficulty determining exactly how to assess this. Will continue after vacation.

5/22/08

5/29/08

Present: Frank Faith Marcia

Worked on teacher notes for two of our assessments. Began uploading assessments to wikispace assessment section.