Meeting+summaries

Meeting summaries:
add most recent ones at the top.
 * Date:** April 5, 2010
 * Attendance:** Chris Baity, Ruth Cloud, Anne Ziegenhorn, Robert Ehrlinger, Sarah Glasser, Beth Faubion, Brandee Mau, Renee Fritzen, Brian Knox
 * Place:** South Campus, Room 118
 * Time:** 3:45 pm

Agenda - Our original agenda was to bring in a list of formative assessment ideas for the upcoming Eating Out unit. However, Chris Baity, who was scheduled to chair the meeting, asked to change the agenda to accommodate some of the members who were having concerns about the PLCs. Brief surveys were sent to all the members so they could air their views anonymously. After everyone arrived, we went over a few of the concerns from the surveys. These were only discussed briefly. Next, Anne expressed her view about the summative assessments over the various units. She felt that there was no reason to touch on all areas (Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational) for all the units. She felt that this was too time consuming and that the assessments were getting tedious for teachers and students. She suggested we just do one type of assessment for each unit. Also, she was concerned about the speaking assessments for level I students, stating that beginning language students are able to read and understand a second language but are not yet able to verbalize in the first 6 months. She would like us to look at revising the DSPA's and the summative assessments. Ruth stated that since the Jr. High and Wright teachers are volunteering to be part of the High School PLC, they felt that they did not have to always attend the meetings, but would still like to be sent the minutes and information from the meetings. Brian Knox explained that the various schools have their PLC programs set up differently than we do at the High School, so the teachers may be part of several PLC teams. She also brought up the fact that school time was given to some groups to attend PLCs but that we have to meet after school. Brandee responded by saying that we are receiving Action Lab credit by attending these meetings on our own time. The subject of upper level language classes was also brought up. Since our PLC team was concentrating on Level I curriculum, some of the upper level teachers felt a little left out when they attended. Renee stated that not teaching common units could affect the upper levels in that the affected students would not have background in that topic. Beth added that PLCs were created to bring unity to the program so that students who move between schools or teachers will be able to make a smooth transition and teachers will not have to back up to reteach a lot of material. (I will add more later)

March 22nd: in attendance - Mai Urbina, Renee Fritzen, Beth Faubion, Sarah Glasser, Robert Ehrlinger, Brandee Mau, Chris Baity, Ruth Cloud (?) WEN room, 3:45-5:00 Agenda - We brought in copies of Hobbies assessments to look at and discuss. We broke into language specific groups. there were unexpected technology problems (i.e. tapes but no camcorders, electronic files saved incorrectly) which prevented our review of those particular assessments. Teachers in attendance verbally confirmed an 80% pass of proficient or better on unit assessments. Recommendations for change included: reduce number of 'things' necessary for the Interpersonal to 2 per student we tabled discussion of the presentational changes given time constraints and the need to finish the next unit. For next time: Formative assessments on the Eating out Unit