Our Essential Questions

9th Grade
What is good science?
How do we use models to explain our world?

10th Grade
What is life?
How are cells organized in a way that will allow for complex life?
Why does the apple not fall far from the tree?

11th Grade
What is good science?
How does matter behave good or bad?

PLC Agenda 12.10.13

•    SMART Goal Review for IA2
• o   How are we getting students excited for next Friday?
• Amy- posting IA2 on the "What's coming up slide" on her last powerpoint.  Amy named each of her class periods.  
• Warren/Katie - have logo posted and are also promoting HPR as a means of encouraging students to get excited about HPR.
• Geri - has sign posted.
• What can we do as a PLC to get kids excited which further allows for our SMART goals to become a reality?
• Revisit the super hero slide and other reteach week slides that will encourage students.  Make sure to add Geri's superhero pic.
• Make an IA feature that honors students within individual science classes.
• Have an IA countdown
• 
  
• ·         Community Offerings For Next Year Review
• Done!!!!  Sent to Jessica and Julia.
• ·         Major Assessment Feature
• o   Katie Chapman shares her latest creation following the new criteria for major assessments as decided by the PLC.
• ·         Common Lab Report Status Check
• EEssential Questions by grade level.

Next PLC

• Major assessment format review
• 15-20 multiple choice
• 1-2 extended responses
• Essential Questions
• For each grade or for the entire PLC used by all teachers?
• Extended response on test that asks students to answer the essential question.

Working PLC Agenda 11.12.13

1. Celebrate.
1. Today is Katie's birthday WOO HOO!
2. Warren's fantasy football team is unstoppable!
3. Amy finally got her car cleaned out and is working on the NEED thing.  National Energy Education Development.  December 5th meeting.  
4. Geri - boys are done with soccer!  Breakthrough with a student.  
5. Robin - Making strides at both schools.  
6. Heather - more and more professionals joining the global PLC.
2. Major Assessment Tuning Protocol round 2.
1. What changes have we made based on tuning protocol #1?
1. Geri - IKTB quiz format, Katie/Warren have not made a new major set yet, Amy- no changes.
2. Current State of Major Assessment Formats:
1. Amy:  Aligns with IA format; but not in columns.  20 multiple choice.
2. Warren:  40-50 multiple choice, one question per minute, involve graphs/tables when possible; no open responses or short answers.
3. Katie:  30 multiple choice, 8 short answer which require students to look at diagrams/graphs, and three at the end where show how elements bond together.
4. Geri:  all multiple choice; may need graphs or images:  25 multiple choice questions and 4 short answers.
3. Major Assessment Recommendations:
1. 4-5 "at bats" (quizzes or other formatives prior to major assessment).
2. Evenly distribute multiple choice questions between standards.
3. 15-20 multiple choice questions (90 minutes on real EOC-45 questions total)
1. Flexibility allowed:  make 15 content questions or 5 ACT Skills questions.
4. 1 Extended Response (90 minutes on real EOC-3 questions total)
2. Common Lab Report Progress
3. Terry Rhodes on February 14th at BOE us with OKH, NCHS, and Boston School Science Teachers.
1. What questions do you have for her?  
1. Shift from 4.1 to NGSS is already on the agenda for this session.
4. Community Offerings Reflection
5. Gratitude

STEM Learning Opportunity

Science LEADERs, 

Please take a look at the resources below shared by Mrs. Dietrich from the district. These are her notes - please send me brief feedback by December 1st concerning: 
1. What value do you see in the product?
2. What's the likelihood that you would utilize it?
3. What are the implications on the larger science team vision?

 Defined STEM Learning

* whole group content delivery developed with the Understanding by Design

* real world connection focused

* based on common core

* also has the NGSS

* authentic assessment

* each performance task has 5-7 projects, each designed for a specific purpose

* literacy components abound

* activities, performance tasks, performance events with rubrics, exemplars

* Teachers can share within the building as a means to form an interdisciplinary connection between content areas classes

* you can search by standards (the latest adoption date is listed)

Not going to tell you the cost yet.

  

link: www.definedstem.com

user name: nelsonky

password: nelsonky

Science PLC Agenda 10.28.13

• Celebrate
• Re-teach Week Team Reflection
• Glows- students enjoyed looking at what they missed and why, giving them the opportunity to go back and determine what the question was asking, students liked the Science PLC All-stars and thought it was fun, s
• Grows-students didn't read all the way and didn't know what the question was asking, rallying the students to finish strong on the final test (Science), what can we do to get students to try on the longer questions?  To actually read the question.  What about students who just don't try.
• Next Generation Science Standards - Where are you?
• Amy - Has them printed, has looked at them all:), has been trying to combine them with the 4.1.  Need support with breaking them down and analyzing them.  Where does she stop with 4.1 this year?
• Katie - Hasn't even looked at it.
• Warren - Looking at it for the first time.
• Geri - Has looked at it and feels that it is skill based but then she learned it is also content.
• Robin - Controversy over climate and evolution standards.  Governor said that we are doing it.  Collaboratives are just now getting together across the state.  It is 3 pronged:  content, skill, and cross-cutting concepts that cut across curriculums (social studies, english, and other core areas).  Next year is implementation for instruction and the following year will be assessment.  Next year tested grades (7th and 4th) will be assessed with the old assessment but using the NGSS standards.  
• KCASS (NGSS) - Kentucky Core Academic Standards for Science
• Stage 1 - Common Lab Report Initiative
• Everyone will comment, provide insight, attempt to establish criteria, etc. by the next PLC meeting.
• Major Assessment Tuning Protocol
• Amy:  Unit Assessment for Experimental Design.  WOO HOO!
• Gratitude Circle
• Action steps:  Set new SMART goals for IA 2 and post on blog, take a look at the Lab Report and make some comments and suggestions, post slides, and Robin will bring the Common Assessment Protocol and Template for us to adapt in order to draft a Science PLC Assessment Vision.

Your To Do List- In a Nutshell

1. Finish your self assessment - In your PGES folder called "Instructional Walkthrough Focus Area" by your pre observation meeting. 
2. Upload your major assessments to this folder by your coaching meeting.
3. Finish your IA Post Analysis-  ASAP so you know what were your bombed questions and the celebrate questions!!! 
4. Make sure your living IA Post Analysis is linked to our blog--should be there already. 
5. Finish your re-teach week game plan--You are teaching on Monday!!!!

Easy Enough?

Science PLC Attacks Student Skill Deficiencies! 10.15.13

 

Formative Observations Coming Soon:

LEADER Self-Assessment and Evaluations

In the coming weeks your instructional coach will schedule your first formative evaluation. Generally speaking, you will usually have plenty of notice before the official formative. With that said, all of the coaching conversations and observations are embedded into the formative evaluation process.  Nearly everyone has a PLP and PGP that is living in their Google PGES folder, additionally you will be asked to self-assess on the “LEADER Self-Assessment” document by highlighting indicators and taking notes on the document. This document should be placed in your PGES folder before the formative observation. For those of you that want to get a head start on that process please go to the TNHS PGES page at http://tnhspges.blogspot.com/ and click on the evaluation process that meets your level of experience within the district. 

On Your Own:  IA Analysis Data Review Meetings  

Your living IA Analysis template should be prepared with the quarter 1 IA data and action plan in advance of your next coaching meeting. Please place it in your Assessment Folder for the given course. Your next coaching meeting will focus on the IA analysis data review questions and the steps you are taking in re-teach week.

Data review coaching questions start with:

1.       What major takeaways do you have from the data?

2.       Where do you see the impact of instruction in the results?

3.       How do you want to address the gaps that you see in quarter 2?

As a Team:    PLC Team IA Analysis Review

PLCs this week will revisit the action steps that your team derived during PD on Friday and share how you will review the IA data with students during the week of October 21-25 . I am asking that you each post your IA analysis to your team blog and spend time reviewing and commenting on the analysis documents and re-teach week strategies.  Click here for The Re-Teach Rollout Plan.

Thinking Like A Scientist

By December . . .

We need to come up with 4-5 ways with which students will be expected to "think like a scientist".  Using content-specific language, reading graphs, and identifying "why things are the way they are".

. . . to be continued.

Celebrate Success!!

Celebrating Science GLOWS :) 
1. We accomplished TWO of our IA Goals for Q1
2. Happy and Enthusiastic
3. Work well in a collaborative environment
4. Willingness to grow and step outside of our safety Zone
5. To be vulnerable 

PD October 4, 2013

Strategies of attack: Science Unity
Domain Specific terminology: 

• Chemistry Content
• Freshman: Electrons in energy level
• atoms
• Sophomore: Valance electrons- the outer octet (8 is great) 
• electronegativity
• ionic/ covalent bonds
• Scientific Method
• Freshman: Control variable, control group, experimental group.
• Sophomores: alternative and null hypothesis
• Junior: null hypothesis, alternate hypothesis and then reflect back on based on experimentation. 
• Evidence Based Claims (EBCs)
• Taking the data and making a Claim that can be supported using evidence. (rubric's linked)
• Common Analogies and Acronyms 

Common Lab Reports (9-12, Non-AP)

• Purpose (summary of what your doing)
• Materials- listed
• Methods- paragraph style (procedure)
• Data/ Results- include all data tables and graphs collected with a description of this data.
• Discussion= Conclusion- This is where they can make a CLAIM and support it using the data in their data section. Drawing a conclusion (CLAIM) and supporting it (Evidence Based Claim).

Agenda September 17, 2013

1. Celebrate!!
2. Review Our Norms

3. Vernier Workshops

• What is this; who would like to participate?
• Katie- going in November
• Sam- October
• -Force Probe Check :) 

5. Major Assessment Tuning Protocol

• Alignment check
• Major Assessment Category 
• Katie- matching, T/F, ER, fill in the blank- little bit of everything. (Unit Test)
• --In standardized test- how are they tested? What would be applicable? Is it critical thinking?
• Amy- Unit test- multiple choice
• Mastery Quiz- EBC
• Sam- multiple choice, ER, EBC
• --What is the different between Mastery Quiz and Mastery Assessments?
• Same Mastery Assessment even between schools, same test, same questions.
• Warren- Unit test-multiple choice, lab reports.
• Sign up for a PLC 
• October 1- Sam
• Amy
• Katie
• Warren

6. Celebrate our Students!!
   **Keep up the Achievement Museum
   ***Display their Work in the Classroom

Agenda 9.4.2013

Today's PLC will be held in Ms. Warrell's office starting at 3:20

1. Celebrate Success - Data, Data, Data!
2. Review of Norms
3. How should we frame and implement Essential Questions?

• Review our EQs
• How can we help our students to see the bigger picture?

4. Incorporating PLAN and ACT skills in our weekly lessons

• Incorporating the skills into lessons.
• What can we do? How have we already done this?

5. Until Next time...

8.20.13 Agenda

Agenda: 
1. Celebrate first Science PLC!
2. Norm Setting 
3. Review of PLC Data Team Vision and Semester 1 Outcomes
4. Hedgehog
5. SMART Goals