@MelrosePS Professional Development
January 21, 2020
Send Kind Intentions
NEW Book Study: Academic Conversations
Description of Text:
Academic conversations are back-and-forth dialogues in which students focus on a topic and explore it by building, challenging, and negotiating relevant ideas. Unfortunately, academic conversations are rare in many classrooms. Talk is often dominated by the teacher and a few students, or it doesn't advance beyond short responses to the teacher's questions. Even certain teaching approaches and curriculum programs neglect to train students on how to maintain a focused, respectful, and thoughtful conversation.
To address these challenges, authors Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford have identified five core communication skills to help students hold productive academic conversations across content areas. These skills include elaborating and clarifying, supporting ideas with evidence, building on and/or challenging ideas, paraphrasing, and synthesizing. This book shows teachers how to weave the cultivation of academic conversation skills and conversations into current teaching approaches. More specifically, it describes how to use conversations to build the following:
Academic vocabulary and grammar
Critical thinking skills such as persuasion, interpretation, consideration of multiple perspectives, evaluation, and application
Literacy skills such as questioning, predicting, connecting to prior knowledge, and summarizing
Complex and abstract essential understandings in content areas such as adaptation, human nature, bias, conservation of mass, energy, gravity, irony, democracy, greed, and more
An academic classroom environment brimming with respect for others' ideas, equity of voice, engagement, and mutual support
Location: Online
PDPs: 15
Dates: February-March, 2020
Facilitators:
- Natalie Wright, ESL Teacher Hoover
- Angela Mioglionico, Teacher of the Deaf
- Amy Cesar, Speech and Language Pathologist
Starting Soon: Universal Design for Learning K-12 (Focus on Multiple Means of Representation)
Purpose: These online modules apply the concepts of Universal Design for Learning with a focus on incorporating the strategies that support multiple means of representation.
In order to build expert learners who are resourceful and knowledgeable, participants will focus on strategies that support developing classrooms and lessons that allow for multiple means for representation including providing options for language and symbols, perception, and comprehension.
Description: Using Google Classroom, this four module course will be completed over 8 weeks in order to accommodate the needs of teachers. The modules run asynchronously during the 8 week period, meaning teachers can access the course at their convenience as long as they complete all modules within the 8 week time frame. Participants will be asked to read on their own, watch videos, complete reflections, and respond to other participants’ posts. The final project requires teachers to plan and implement a lesson and provide two students work samples.
Modules and schedule for the course are as follows:
Module 1: UDL Representation Overview (February 10th-February 24th)
Module 2: Options for Perception (February 25th-March 2nd)
Module 3: Options for Language & Symbols (March 3rd-March 9th)
Module 4: Options for Comprehension (March 10th- March 16th)
Module 5: Final Product (March 17th- March 27th)
Time: February 10th-March 27th
Location: Online
PDPs: 15 PDPs for completion of all assignments on or before March 27th
Facilitator: Melanie Acevedo, Digital Literacy Teacher
Questions: macevedo@melroseschools.com
In order for the course to run, at least 15 participants are needed.
Starting Soon: Computational Thinking: Creating Problem Solvers
Mold the students of today into the problem solvers and critical thinkers of tomorrow. This course provides a snapshot of the Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science Frameworks Computational Thinking strand and its related standards. It will supply you with a variety of creative ways to weave these standards into your teaching. We will use elements of technology and social media throughout the workshop to integrate key computational thinking concepts into students’ daily lives.
In this online workshop, participants will deep dive into the Computational Thinking strand of the MA DLCS frameworks for grades 3-5.
Session 1: Abstraction & Algorithms
Session 2: Data
Session 3: Programming & Development
Session 4: Modeling & Simulation
Audience: Grades 3-5 Teachers
Facilitator: Melanie Acevedo, Digital Literacy Teacher
Dates: February 3rd-April 17th
PDPs: 5 PDPs
Location: Online
#MPSChat
Calendar of Observances
See the list of upcoming religious obligations and ethnic and cultural festivities that may affect students, colleagues and neighbors in your community.
- January 20th-The birthday of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is on January 15th but it is observed on the third Monday in January.
- January 20-24-NO NAME-CALLING WEEK Annual week of educational activities aimed at ending name-calling and bullying of all kinds.
- January 25-LUNAR NEW YEAR • Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist Also known as the Spring Festival, an important festival celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar.
- January 27-UN HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY Annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust coinciding with the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945.
See full 2020 Calendar of Observances.
Resources
Scenes from @MelrosePS
Readers
Huskies
@MelrosePS Horace Mann 5th Graders proudly sporting their class Tshirts at our recent Husky Pack Meeting! @HuskiesMann
Flexible Learning Environment
@WinthropMelrose new seating choices for flexible learning environments @msobriensclass5
Future Leaders in Kindergarten
Organized Scientists
Chemists
Standing Proud
Future Coders
Kindness Warriors
Horace Mann Ss wanted to let Australia know they are in our thoughts. We are sending lots of positive thoughts, love and smiles to our friends in Queensland! #servicelearning #compassionatekids #teamsecondgrade @MelrosePS