“CONJUNTOS” ~ TPA Learning Team

1. Lori Bird • Kari Keller • Clark Johnson • Bridget Weigt December 1, 2011 Community of Learners Agenda Questions/Focus: First Meeting: September 29, 2011 •Meet & Greet •Share Expectations •Celebrated successful arrival at destination! •Utilized “What Every…TPA” document to generate discussion – focusing on Academic Language •We want to learn the intricacies of academic language, make connections to our own specific areas of “expertise” and find ways to incorporate it into our classes, learning communities, and workshops. Second Meeting: November 29, 2011 •Meet & Greet – Focus on Next Steps… •Kari: Update on Academic Language with Clinical Experience Student in her classroom… •Clark: Shared use in his methods classroom – highlighted that it got both the students and Clark thinking about Academic Language… •Lori: Using co-teaching techniques with TPA concepts in assessments and sharing these conversations with Australian visitors… •Bridget: Teacher Candidates asking for specific feedback on their use of academic language during observations. More intentional use of the concepts. • We also worked on the celebration poster TPA Action Plan Summary As our learning team convened, the goal for each member was to increase our knowledge of the components and applications of the TPA. At the beginning we were not comfortable with our level of understanding. As we engaged in new conversations and shared resources, we were able to find our own personal applications of new learning that were meaningful to us. We did it “conjuntos!” Activities /Actions: Meetings were held at the Dunn Bros Coffee on Madison Avenue. We struggled to find days that all members were able to meet and felt that it was important to have everyone attend. DOODLE was utilized three different times in an attempt to set up meetings….to no avail. We finally were able to find a date – but were disappointed that we weren’t able to meet the four meeting expectation. New Learning/ Acquired Skills Team member 1: I learned how to combine the use of coaching techniques with TPA concepts, i.e. coaching teacher candidates in their use of formative and summative assessment. Team member 2: I learned ways to increase my students’ attention to academic language and to apply it with their students in historical investigation. Team member 3: I learned that even though we all come from varied backgrounds our similar interest in the TPA was such a wonderful way to come together to expand our knowledge and experience. Team member 4: These discussions pushed me to examine my textbook with my clinical experience student to identify the academic language and assist her in presenting her lessons…in addition to my own. Applications/Next Steps Team member 1: I will continue to focus on academic language in my methods classes, incorporating it into all major assignments. Team member 2: I will focus more on establishing early in the teacher candidates student teaching experience, the expectation that they become more familiar with the academic language in the unit they plan on teaching for their TPA. “CONJUNTOS” ~ TPA Learning Team