September+2009+8th+Grade+MInutes

 English 8 Level Meeting  Minutes for 9/9/09   I.   Establish a regular monthly meeting time  ·  We anticipate meeting on a weekly or at least bi-weekly basis during 3rd period  ·  We will make a concerted effort to use our Wiki   I.   Establish 2-3 Guiding Questions for our work this year  ·  Difference b/t Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings  ·  These should be questions we hope to gain some closure on by year’s end. Some ideas we have for now: <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> To what degree do we want to align our teachings, both vertically and horizontally? (Peyten) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Thematic or skill based alignment? Some kind of alignment can give us more freedom. (Bart) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> How do we want to space out our writing assignments over the year so our skills are building on each other? (Lauren) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> How should Writing Workshop and English 8 overlap, if at all? <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> To what degree are we creating future English majors v. future citizens of the world? (Clark) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> How will we change our daily lessons to foster higher-order thinking, including the methods of exploration and judgment and critical analysis that we want them to have? (the whole lot of us) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> How do we get our students talking //with// each other in class, instead of a//t// each other? (Lauren) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> WHAT IS OUR CLEAR SPINE? These are the things that we're figuring out in our PLC. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Given the amount of time we have to be together this year, have we used this time as effectively as we should? What do we want out of our time together as a grade level? <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Clark wants less angst about what we do, both philosophically and in getting down to the nitty gritty. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Bart wants to talk about assessments. This helps him. <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; msoasciifontfamily: Calibri; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msohansifontfamily: Calibri; msolist: Ignore;"> III. <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Request for Poetry Info from Jack Morgan <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Which poems do we teach? <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Which terms do we teach? <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;"> · //<span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">How //<span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> do we teach them? <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Clark will e-mail to Lauren his take on this in a paragraph. Lauren will add her thoughts to it and then send on to Jack. Peyten pointed out that we’ll want to report back on this as we move forward with our poetry plans for this school year. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> A final thought: Finishing our goal-setting in the PLC will give more shape to our Guiding Questions for 8th grade. We’ll come back to these questions in our next meeting. <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> We tentatively agreed to meet next Wednesday, 9/16 at 3:30 if our work in the PLC next week does not allow for our time together. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Our Guiding Questions can be more pragmatic than philosophical