Science PLT Meeting Minutes November 12, 2013

What can we do differently in our classroom instructional practices to increase our understanding of the Common
Core Practice Standards in order to improve teacher implementation of inquiry based instruction?
Team Members:
Kristine Stafford (2
nd
) Stacey Davis (4
th
) *Attended
Tara Dubose (1
st
) Margie Robinson (1
st
)
Meagan Lucky (3
rd
) Laura Dawes (Media Specialist)
Meagan Davis (K) Jennifer Pryor (5
th
)
Mrs. Antley (SPED)
Part I: Administrative Duties
Team building, 7 norms of collaboration, and the 3 Big Ideas of a Professional Learning
Team.
Part II: Instructional Scaffolds/Using Productive Talk Moves
Team observes and discusses the TERC video (Talk Moves) Share, Expand,
Clarify
o Time to Think
o Say More
o So, are you saying? (Give students a chance to agree or disagree.)
o
Team members review Talk Science Primer (Article). Teachers charted the big
ideas within the article and shared their findings with the group (Pgs. 6-10)
o Establishing a culture of productive talk.
A culture of talk is more likely to take hold when teachers develop a
common set of discussion norms across classrooms, and limit the list
to just three to five important ground rules.
o How can teachers support productive Talk?
Talk Formats: Participation structures that aid in and guide student
talk.
Talk Moves: Strategic teacher moves designed to open up the
conversation and support student participation, explanation, and
reasoning.
o Teacher Guided Whole Group Instruction
The whole class focuses on making sense around a shared problem or
task. They can be highly productive academically. Teachers support
students as they explicate their ideas, make their thinking public and
accessible to the group, use evidence, coordinate claims and evidence,
and build on and critique one anothers ideas.
Science PLT Meeting Minutes November 12, 2013
What can we do differently in our classroom instructional practices to increase our understanding of the Common
Core Practice Standards in order to improve teacher implementation of inquiry based instruction?
o Small Group Work
Students work in groups of three or four, or even partnerships of
two, sharing materials and ideas, and coming up with shared solutions.
When norms are in place for listening, participating equitably, and
collaborating in small groups, this format allows for more air time for
students to voice their ideas.
o Partner Talk
This is the most underused of the three effective talk formats but
one that can be deployed to very good effect.
It can be planned or spontaneous.
It is beneficial to shy students and ELL students because they are
able to listen and to voice their thoughts in English before sharing
out to the group.
There are four goals for productive discussion:
Goal 1: Help individual students share, expand, and clarify
their own thoughts.
Goal 2: Help students listen carefully to one another.
Goal 3: Help students deepen their reasoning.
Goal 4: Help students engage with others reasoning.
Part III: Evidence/Data
Each team member shared their classroom evidence (videos depicting the
talk move restating).
o Each video was watched.
o After watching the video team members discuss what went well and
what could go better.
o Team members discuss and document the talk moves observed.
o Team members discuss and document the practice standards that
each video addressed.
o See documented evidence
Before next PLT meeting:
Gather evidence focusing on the talk move Apply Reasoning.
Science Professional Learning Team
Agenda
November 12, 2013
Part I: Administrative Duties:
Distribute agenda, complete sign-in sheets (PLCIA)
Celebrations.
Explore Norms- Seven Norms of Collaboration
What can we do differently in our classroom instructional practices to increase out=r
understanding of the Common Core Practice Standards in order to improve teacher implementation
of inquiry-based instruction?
Review 3 Big Ideas of a Professional Learning Team
Part II: Instructional Scaffolds/ Productive Talk Moves:
Talk Science from TERC: Share, Expand, and Clarify
o Video: Time to Think/ Say more../ So, are you saying..?
Talk Science Primer pages 6-10: Establishing a Culture of Productive Talk
Chart big ideas and share
Discuss implications for our PLT based on article.
Part III: Evidence/Data:
View and discuss PLT evidence
o Talk Move focus: Restating
o PLT members will focus on habits of mind, what made this happen, and
conjectures from video presentations using the focused talk move.
o Team members will use the article: Classroom Talk as a guideline for
reviewing and discussing PLT member video evidence.
Discuss Talk Move for next meeting
o Discuss action research
o Review action research parameters for PLT
o PLT will decide on a talk move focus based on the research.
o PLT members use the chosen Talk Move in their science instruction.
o PLT members create a classroom video to bring to the next PLT meeting
for evidence discussion with team members.
o PLT members will focus on what went right, what went wrong, and the
specific chosen Talk Move worked or didnt work in their science
instruction.