February 7, 2014

Grade level meeting at 12:30

*We anchored in on the scoring of 3 pieces of informational writing that Cathy brought. We discussed a few common concerns with with the rubric related to the 45 minute time limit, yet they are being assessed on "illustrations, multimedia,etc" and that is difficult to include in the time constraint 

*We all need to take pictures of IB representatives from our classroom and post them

*unit 5 math test-give test before, or right after the break

*updated budget requests

January 27, 2014

Meeting to discuss what to go over with Chris & Michelle next week for the math meeting:

*change the order of units-unit 5, place value should come first 

*10 minute math should be multiple step problems for multiplication & division

*we created review sheets (parallel tasks) to model the type of assessment coming for end of Unit C and therefore we question the validity of our results. We all agree that investigations does not prepare the students for this district assessment

*our results showed that close reading is an issue for them

*rich tasks in the n:drive weren't even enough to prepare them for the end of unit assessment

*what are other buildings doing to prepare them for the district assessment? Is it just investigations? How are they supplementing?

Mike-what topics can we recommend for the book room? 

*explorers, native Americans, high interest lower level texts, module texts 

Rachel-going away send off on?

February 3,2014

Meeting with Michelle & Chris regarding math feedback:

*students were not prepared for multiple step multiplication & division problems

*wrap up unit 5 of addition and subtraction before February break so that everyone could have fractions started after break

*Chris- students need more exposure of algebraic equations 

*Team- need many more parallel tasks to meet the expectations of questions & type of problem solving skills necessary to complete rigorous assessments

*Team- we have had to create our own Multi-step problems (not nearly enough) to supplement 10 min math

*Team- VE's demographic is much different than NW which has a direct impact on performance

*Team- investigations needs more opportunities to write about their problem solving steps

*need more homework-possible summer work?

*consider moving unit 5 (addition & subtraction) to either earlier in the year, or after the assessment. Between mult/division and fraction unit is not a good fit

*agree that investigations did not prepare students with how to use a protractor, so we supplemented with resources from engageny