How will I apply my new learning in the future to further my practice? What are my next steps?

1. 2014-152014-2015 9th Grade Geography Co-planning team Student Learning OutcomesProfessional Development Unit

2. During the course of this PDU, what three instructional strategies did I implement? What strategy worked best? Why? • During this year I implemented collaborative learning, graphic organizers and digital feedback to develop claims, evidence and academic vocabulary for writing to social studies content standards. When I instructed students in a social studies content standard, such as relates to globalization or use of tools, I would instruct students to use a graphic organizer when reading. This would help students take notes with academic vocabulary in mind. Also, student would collaborate after reading individually, to share and reinforce their learning. Finally, I had students write their paragraphs on Moodle, which allows for quick digital feedback from the teacher. Some students would write their paragraph and receive critical feedback from me within minutes, so they could revise their paragraph while they are still in class. This helped some students move up a level of achievement. Overall these strategies had a positive impact in student performance.

3. How did I apply the PDU strategies in my classroom/practice? (examples) Who did I collaborate with during the PDU? Discuss the ways you collaborated while implementing the PDU strategies. • I collaborated with Erich Smeaton, Andrea Tamburello, and Tim Mason We analyzed students use of evidence to support claims made about Globalization. We noticed that there was an increase in proficiency of students who achieved proficiency in showing evidence for claims in Globalization. (For example, Kevin saw an increase from 65% to 75%). By discussing our instructional strategies, we found that certain instructional strategies were successful in students achieving proficiency in this measure.

4. What did I learn to do differently as a result of the PDU and strategy implementation in my classroom or in my practice? • I this year, I learned to scaffold learning for students better, and also use certain techniques to help assess English Language learners mastery of skills. At first, I presented tasks to students, but did not know how to present language necessary, especially for English Language learners to perform fully. Then I developed the use of graphic organizers and the use of mentor texts, student exemplars and sentence frames on my lesson plan. These are aspects that I feel I have improved, but need to keep working on.

5. Why is this PDU action research process important to my students learning and to my growth as a professional? • When I analyze the growth of students’ performance, I can evaluate instructional strategies that do or do not work. Over this year, I found several instructional strategies that had a high positive impact on student performance. Without analyzing the data of student performance, I would not have this active research driven feedback to my instruction. Also, working with by co-planning team. I was able to have my questions answered from various points of view and expertise. For example, we developed a rubric for non-fiction writing, that aligns to state standards and we can each have confidence in. We very efficiently helped each other achieve the best possible program for students in Geography.

6. PDU Data AnalysisReflecting on the data you have collected, how did this experience impact instruction, progress monitoring, student performance, and your own practice? • The PDU allowed me to view my practice with fresh eyes and make necessary changes to impact student learning. Some of the techniques that we agreed were successful were 1. Exemplars of writing and genre studies help students know what a paragraph looks like, how to write and craft their writing. 2. Opportunities and instruction in process writing (planned writing, graphic organizers, peer review, revision and editing.) 3. Making relevant connections to the CLO, real world connections, and content mastery help students have evidence to show in their writing. The PDU experience made me teach with confidence.

7. How will I apply my new learning in the future to further my practice? What are my next steps? • The next steps I identify are to find a way to assess student achievement more precisely with pre and post assessment in writing. This year, as I was starting out, I was still planning with Colorado State Standards in mind, and out co-planning team chose standards for units as we planned them. Next year, I will have a year long plan in mind, and I can have students write samples of their understanding in the beginning of the year, pre-instruction. Then during the year, I will assess them on the standards, similar to how I did this year. This will give me a better understanding of how far students have grown. It is important to have a long term view in developing the instruction use of formative assessments

8. PDU Artifact #1 • O’Donnell Period 7 Geography SLO data chart - link here • https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wlpzut1H1iWD7PmllJ44Ts2ekGlz_JA_Gv1TzLYOVD4/edit#gid=0

9. PDU Artifact #2 • Lesson plan sample - link here • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lnl7luB_n-0mIxbur-s1Cgakyqqay3Elzf2fsDiPNsA/edit

10. PDU Artifact #3 • Paragraph Samples - link here • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fgd5BXmnnJvFJ3nC3pAiypn1dRsKKW6cyW80P0BI97o/edit#

11. Exit Ticket • I need support in differentiating instruction for English Language Learners to further my professional growth in future PDUs. • 1, This was a good year to gain practical experience in gathering data of student growth. • 2, The data analysis in co-planning teams helped me evaluate instruction practice and choose and develop the best practice. • I think that the powerpoint presentations should be transferred to cloud computing, for example on Google Presentations. Then they could be linked to a PDU website that teachers could freely access for the next year. This would archive improvements and best strategies in instruction in that that can help teachers access beyond the single PDU May meeting.