Another Meeting

Click this Grendel
Today our PLC had another meeting. Our members discussed ways that we could coordinate both our testing and our Senior Exit Projects.

And here I include a sample from our Final Test:

Senior Final 2008

From Beowulf :

Then, when Darkness had dropped, Grendel
Went up to Herot, wondering what the warriors
Would do in that hall when their drinking was done
He found them sprawled in sleep, suspecting
Nothing, their dreams undisturbed. The monster’s
Thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws:
He slipped through the door and there in the silence
Snatched up thirty men, smashed them
Unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies,
The blood dripping behind him, back
To his lair, delighted with his night’s slaughter.

1.When did Grendel approach Herot ?
a) At night b) At dawn c) At noon

2. Why were the warriors easy targets for the monster ?
a) They were weaklings. b) They had been drinking.
c) There were only a few of them.

3. How was the monster Grendel described ?
a) Clumsy b) Weak c) Quick

4. True or False : The men screamed in pain.
a) True b) False

5. True or False : The men had prepared a trap for Grendel.
a) True b) False

6. How do we know that Grendel was particularly evil ?
a)He was happy to have killed so many.
b)He had quick claws.
c) He waited until they slept.

Senior Final

Mr. Corwin and I chose selections we had studied in class, and then built comprehension questions referring to those selections. We tried to develop a realistic assessment that was usable for all of our students, even if they had entered class after our starting date. Consequently, we chose Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Macbeth, "Ozymandias" and a sonnet by Shakespeare. In addition, we used selections from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker,Dubliners by James Joyce and Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Each selection had five to ten questions following its printed text. We felt that this construction was more like the testing that our students would encounter in FCAT makeups and SAT testing.

We were pleased with the results. Most students scored in a middle range, with few high grades, but also few outright failures.

New Final Test

Click King Macbeth
At yesterday's PLC meeting, our group worked on developing a new Final Test for our regular Seniors.We have been working on adapting last year's Honors Test which we feel would be quite overwhelming for our regulars and ESE students.

We intend to coordinate our selections for our test using samples of literature studied in Mr. Corwin's and Mr. Hudson's classes. Next week we will all bring in at least two selections with comprehension questions. For instance, it was suggested that a typical sample might be Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech or a sonnet by Shakespeare. With these kinds of examples, the teachers can assess their students skills at understanding what they read.

An Epiphany

Our group has been attempting to establish greater uniformity within our Senior classes.

Mr. Corwin has created Think Aloud materials on Joyce's "The Sisters", including an Anticipation Guide and comprehension exercises on transparency. We can all use these.

Mr. Hudson will develop CRISS exercises that will hopefully improve comprehension of the Romantic Poets.

Ms. Alcantara will write a lesson plan involving seat-based student movement to better comprehension.

We also noted that we are truly communicating with our comments posted on our blog.

An Epiphany: We have come to the realization that we don't need to teach exactly the same texts in our Senior classes (although most of them are). As long as we are using similar techniques to aid our pupils' understanding, we will be serving them well.However, we also know that to be equitable, we must carefully select example texts for our Final Test that reflect the skills we've taught. In that way we can use the exact same Final. We assume that it is actually more effective to use example texts that our students have not seen before.

New Meeting

Click the grad for help
At our latest meeting, we discussed our efforts to promote our Senior Exit Projects which require our students to produce a multi-media report on a career of their choice. Once again, we have been working on aligning our separate efforts into uniform expectations for all of our classes.

We discussed some of the excellent,positive proposals created by our students.At the same time, we deplored the lack of response from a few students. A major portion of this project is a 1500-word MLA research paper on an issue related to their career. Successful completion of this project is prerequisite for graduation, as well as a preparation for further study. Our group also examined the propriety of such a mandatory requirement for all students.

Wednesday Meeting-Early Release

James Joyce
Our group of three met today to proceed with our study.

First, we brainstormed some ideas for our Physical Exercise Strategy. Patria located some more positive research and suggestions on the Web at Focus2learn. This site was essentially designed for students younger than ours, but it did present further successful research in this area. We would like to prepare a routine of manageable movement to stimulate reading responses in class - but nothing too wild. Tom suggested simple yoga stretches that could be done while seated. Jim suggested some adaptation of Tai C'hi. We thought that perhaps we could adapt some of the exercises shown at this site, Everyday Yoga.

We also shared our efforts to provide a more uniform course of study across our classes. We told of activities and works that had been received well by our students. Tom offered to provide some materials on Joyce's "The Dead" using Think Aloud. He also informed us that he will soon begin class work on Joyce's story "Araby". Finally, we discussed ways that we could make our Exit Projects more successful by requiring similar goals from our Seniors.

At the end of the school day, Mr. Bucich added an entry to our school's Wikispace that explained how to access this blog.Go to English IV.

Update: We've already received some spam comments from what is apparently a Portugese gambling site, so we'll start up Word Verification on our Comments. This means that to comment, one must type in a few nonsense letters as shown in order to post. Don't let that stop any comments - we'd love to get some more feedback.
Everyday Yoga

Best Practices Proposal

Test Tips (Click the kid)
Our group is Patria Alcantara, Tom Corwin, and Jim Hudson.

For our study, we will explore the effectiveness of three types of reading strategies.These are Think Aloud, Criss Strategies and Physical Exercise. Our group has done some research on the scientific basis for each type of activity as shown in previous posts on our blog, Best Practices. Since we are all using similar techniques, we assume that instruction given to our Seniors will be more fairly uniform.We will use a pretest-reading activity- post test model to assess improvements in comprehension.

We have begun our investigation by giving a pretest on Poe's "The Black Cat", then conducting a careful reading of the story in class-while stopping to employ Think Aloud methods. Next, we will follow with assessment items we have included in our Midterm Tests.We hope to see generalized improvements in our follow up testing on Think Aloud stories, more so than teaching done with other methods.

In the coming weeks, we will focus on appropriate Criss Strategies using such stories as "The Dead" by James Joyce. We will also devise an experiment with physical movement or mild exercise to see if that heightens interest and understanding.