What are your biggest take aways from this week?

What are 1-2 things you want to implement/refine in your planning and/or instruction?

What should we consider when planning our March days together (content and/or structure)?

The importance of read-alouds with my classes. We are still working on having a clear way forward with a plan for reading assessments, so in the meantime we can use our own ways to assess kids reading abilities.

Doing more read-alouds with my students. Both in terms of mini-lessons on reading with a specific strategy for them to practice. Also doing more close reading to see what they are understanding from the texts that they are exposed to.

Implementing a clear Middle School reading assessment for all kids.

Using short read alouds more often, even when not directly connected to the unit's theme.

Finding more time for focused small class instruction, especially when st's have struggled with a new concept.

Perhaps Jenny could visit individual teachers during their regular classes and provide feedback.

My biggest takeaway is being more purposeful with ILGs, and how to rely less on the "back and forth" so that I can give students more time to work on their writing and feedback with each other. I was impressed with the qualith of the lesson I observed in Jen's class. Also, I'll be more purposeful with vocabulary introduction.

Read Aloud: Having students just listen and be engaged. It's a classic and simple technique, and helps to really develop their engagement and focus. Sentence Kernels: I like the framing of "because, but, so" and think it will be helpful as they develop their writing skills.

I think the planning/reflection time could be done all together, and that could give us a period to actively plan more independently. I valued meeting with both Y7 and Y8, but I think if I had active planning time, the last session could be used more purposefully too. I would love to do more of the teaching models too! That was a lot of fun and a great way to connect with the students I don't always see.

It seems like using the lens of the workshop model can make collaborative planning time quite a bit easier, due to more shared language and ideas about lesson structure, etc.

Want to work on 1) more conferencing / data gathering during free reading time, and 2) on thinking about more reading aloud

The fourth unit in ENG8 is in need of more "refreshing" than the other ones (due to coming at the end of the year, when planning time gets scarce), so maybe we could take some time thinking about that.

The importance of read-alouds with my classes. We are still working on having a clear way forward with a plan for reading assessments, so in the meantime we can use our own ways to assess kids reading abilities.

Doing more read-alouds with my students. Both in terms of mini-lessons on reading with a specific strategy for them to practice. Also doing more close reading to see what they are understanding from the texts that they are exposed to.

Implementing a clear Middle School reading assessment for all kids.