WARNING _ LONG POST

Levy district held our all day inquiry brief development meeting recently at Cedar Keys High School with a yummy waterside restaurant lunch and a fantastic session of inquirers working together in a positive way, gaining insight into their passions. We began by reviewing briefs from our texts and previous submissions using a document camera , lcd projector and giant screen. Then we dissected a brief using our protocol (fly-on-the-wall). We broke into three smaller groups and followed the same format to develop everyone's paper. I am fortunate to have several national board teachers and reading coaches (teachers familiar with inquiry) in our group this year. They played a key role by facilitating at the three tables allowing me the opportunity to share in all three discussions. Although invited, our district administration could not be present (saved me buying their lunch). We are holding small group meetings in our three main towns for the duration and setting up our own blog for sharing information and resources. I will post more on this later. Below, you will find our wonderings.

Jack Hughes - Chiefland Middle School Facilitator/Inquirer

What are the effects on our school's culture when a first-time school-wide, formal action research project, instituted to address school improvement needs, and the Florida Continuous Improvement Model are implemented? (continued from last year)

Robert Turnipseed - C M S

What are the effects on our students' learning gains (as measured by Thinklink assessment tool, then FCAT) when a first-time school-wide, formal action research project, instituted to address school improvement needs, and the Florida Continuous Improvement Model are implemented?

Cynthia Rankin - C M S

Will implementing literature circle as a learning strategy help my struggling 6-8^th gradereaders develop a love of reading?

Chris Faircloth - Chiefland Elem School

What effects will student-friendly rubrics from the book, 6 + 1 Traits of Writing, (Ruth Culham), have on my fifth grade students' writing ability?

Fidah Williams - Chiefland High School

In the area of writing, how much growth can be demonstrated by a group of 10th grade Intensive Reading students participating in the Leadership Through Reading Choice -Tutoring Program?

Cindy Roach - CKS/CMS/CES Mentor/Inquirer

I wonder if allowing teachers the flexibility of selecting books used for professional development will increase the likelihood that the information gained from the text will be reflected in their classroom practices?

Linda Campbell - Cedar Keys School

My wondering involves three of my kindergarten students who are having difficulty progressing in writing.

Will "free choice" during writing workshop or explicit instruction benefit these three emergent writers most?

Rebecca Fries - YankeeTown School

& Melba Lovely - Y T S

What changes will we see in our students' growth in reading as we incorporate the arts into our fourth grade reading curriculum?

Jennifer Martin - Joyce Bullock Elem School

How does daily written communication with parents via a behavior plan impact student behavior for students with significant behavior problems in a Kindergarten through first grade behavior unit?

Dian Dudek - JBES

& Patricia Coleman - JBES

How does explicit training in independent reading affect k-2 student stamina for lengthy assessments?

Susan Bastak - JBES Mentor/Inquirer (Unpaid - National Board mentoring)

What effectiveness will I find and be able to suggest in programs being implemented to help children transition from day care to school? (Same for any parenting programs that seem to work for disruptive students.) (Extension of previous inquiry)

Caryl Carlisle - Bronson Elem School

What changes do I see in my reading elementary remediation students' oral reading fluency as I implement explicit phonics instruction?

Michael Homan - BES

What effects do mentoring "struggling" students in 1st through 5th grade have on academics, behavior, and motivation in the classroom setting?

Ana Armbrister - Williston Elem School

How does the use of Repeated Readings affect the fluency and language acquisition of 3-5 grade English Language Learners?

Carmen Ward - Williston Middle School

What changes will I observe in my sixth grade ESE students' time-on-task behaviors and class work completion as I institute daily team building activities?

Rebecca Hilty - Williston High School Mentor/Inquirer

What changes will take place in the area of academic success as we introduce a daily planner into the requirements for my high school students with learning disabilities?

Hi Fabulous Facilitators –

LONG ANNOUNCEMENT WITH LOTS OF INFORMATION – I’VE DIVIDED INTO A QUESTION AND ANSWER FORMAT TO MAKE IT EASIER TO FOLLOW –

QUESTION ONE: Nancy, you haven’t posted anything to our on-line community for a while . . . Where have you been?

It is hard for me to believe that it’s almost Thanksgiving! I’ve been immersed in writing the second edition of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research! Thanks to all of you for your help with this endeavor – the manuscript is now done and has been submitted to Corwin Press. What’s new for the second edition? We’ve added sections on the relationship between inquiry and differentiated instruction, data driven decision making, progress monitoring, and response to intervention. We’ve updated teachers’ definitions of inquiry (thanks to your blogging!). We’ve added five new ways to collect data in chapter four including digital photos, video, Critical Friend Group feedback, standardized test scores/assessment measures, and of course, what else, but BLOGGING! We’ve added a few new models for writing up inquiry work, more examples of teacher inquiry from middle school and high school contexts, as well as a whole new chapter on assessing the quality of your inquiry. The second edition should be out sometime around September of next year – I’ll keep you all posted, and thanks again for your insights, feedback, and help in crafting the second edition of this book! You are all AWESOME!

QUESTION TWO: How’s Showcase planning going?

In-between writing, I have been working hard behind the scenes on the Showcase as well. I had an outstanding meeting with Sabrina last Thursday, and we’ve got some great ideas for this year – including incentives to get teachers from your districts to attend as audience. I’m working on developing a plan now for audience members to receive up to 10 professional development points for attending on April 19th. Sabrina is also investigating donations of gift cards from local businesses that might be a bonus incentive on top of the points! . . . There is much to share about the Showcase and all the great ideas we have for this year. I hope to be able to share this with you in person!

QUESTION THREE: When will we meet again?

In talking with Sabrina, she agreed that it would be nice to plan another face-to-face meeting as we have much to discuss and share with one another. Rather than plan this meeting for Feb/March where it was in our schedule as a tentative meeting time and potentially interfere with FCAT, we thought a better time to get us all together would be January. NEFEC will pay for your substitute teachers. On our agenda would be the following: (1) Showcase Updates (There’s a ton of information to share and discuss about new ideas for the Showcase), (2) Time to Share and Reflect on How Everything Is Going with Local Meetings, (3) Our On-Line Learning Community – Continuing the discussion on if it is OK to add someone, and (4) Preparing Your Inquirers in March for the Showcase Program Abstract and Inquiry Write-Ups. Please respond to this announcement and let me know if you would like to hold a face-to-face meeting in January, and what dates in January are absolutely impossible for you to attend should we agree to have one.

QUESTION FOUR: Can you remind us of where we should be in our local inquiry work?

According to our calendar, by Thanksgiving, you should have held your first two local meetings: developing your wondering and designing your inquiry. Your inquirers should have read chapter 1 – 4 in their book, and you should have read chapters 1 – 4 in your coaching book (I hope you are finding the coaching book useful). Each of your inquirers, as well as you, should have a wondering developed and a plan for your inquiry, and be on your way to collecting data. Finally, when you get the opportunity (no rush), you should email a list of your inquirers (including yourself) and their topics to Katie, who will begin a search for literature that may relate to your topics and send them on to you. Katie’s email address is: k_tricarico@hotmail.com

QUESTION FIVE: It’s been a while since you’ve prompted us to post to our on-line learning community – would you provide a prompt for a posting?

I’d love to!! Given that we are winding down on the first leg of this inquiry journey, and as we head into the holiday season everyone gets so busy, I’d like everyone to post a response to the following prompt and respond to at least one member of our community’s old or new postings by the Thanksgiving holiday (that’s one week from today). If everyone posts a simple message and responds to someone before we enter the holiday season, we will revitalize our community and reaffirm our commitment to inquiry before all the holiday season craze is upon us. Here’s your prompt:

One aspect of my first local meeting (Developing Your Wondering) or my second local meeting (Designing Your Inquiry) that went well was . . .

One question about teacher inquiry or about coaching teacher inquiry that emerged for me or for members of my group as a result of our first two meetings is . . .

Place your post in your own blogging space, rather than respond to this announcement. I know I haven’t been receiving email communications when someone has posted, and I’m checking with Chris on this. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes and visit each person’s blog space to look for new entries that you may wish to respond to.

I think that’s about all for the questions/answers! Happy Almost Turkey Time!

Nanc

As I was trying to catch up on all of my reading assignments for this and my other ventures, I noticed that the facilitator task for this time was to email Katie with a list of our inquirers and topics. Should we post this for Katie, or will Nancy (or someone) send us her email?

Teacher inquiry is not a single entity; but a process. If teachers will apply the steps of the process it will open the door for them to a higher level of teaching. In the past, teachers reflected in hindsight about their lessons and generally cataloged them as successful or unsuccessful. By applying the steps of teahcer inquiry, we can define, analyze, and summarize lessons we have taught. The process allows teachers to "see" the individual steps contributing to each lesson how these steps affect the varying learning styles in their classes. Teacher inquiry is an investigative learning process.

Very simply put, inquiry is a way for me to continue growing as a teacher. Before I became involved in inquiry I'd gotten to the point where I'd go to an inservice and shut off my brain. Most of the teachers I know have been at the same place. If you have been around at all you know that most inservices are the same cheese--just repackaged. Inquiry lets me choose my own growth and gives me tools to validate or jettison my ideas.

Hope it helps.

Hi Wonderful Facilitators -

I'm a little late on posting this blog, but I have done a lot of reflecting on the "Kickoff." I had 3 teachers join me at the kickoff, but I have a total of 7 who will be a part of inquiry this year. I've shifted from the involvement of middle & high school teachers last year to middle & elementary this year. I would have liked to have some teachers for the high school level, but for one reason or another, they did not respond. The kickoff was very exciting. It never fails, I always return with new things I want to try. In Mickie's presentation, I got the idea of teachers sharing examples of tests and reflecting on the complexity of the questions through a “Gallery Walk.” I think this would be a great way to support teachers in developing those "higher order" questions that are so important. I want to try this with the pretests my teachers are developing for the new 9 weeks. I’m planning to have them post the tests in the conference room on the day of team meetings and write comments/suggestions to one other directly on the tests. I think this will give them positive feedback & ways to improve their questions writing skills. I also loved her idea of a “Tic, Tac, Toe” board at the end of a unit. The students chose 3 activities in a row to complete as a culminating activity for a unit. This is a great idea for “Differentiated Instruction.”I also had the privilege of being in Debbi's presentation on Fluency. Even though I have heard it several times, her enthusiasm makes everyone excited about inquiry. Her "passion" for reading shines through her presentation. Thanks Debbi!My group will be meeting for the first time on November 6. I plan to include refreshments like I did last year & meet for 1-1 1/2 hours. It seems that a couple of the inquiries will focus around science since we are involved in a large science grant that focuses on “hands on" curriculum in our district. I'm excited about the discoveries that will be made through those inquiries. Teachers in general seem to be under a lot more stress this year. I hope I can make “Inquiry” come across to them as not just something else to do, but as the rewarding experience that we have all experienced in the past. The kickoff helps with that, but because I had several teachers who did not attend, I want to make sure I portray that important message. I even thought about having one of the teachers who presented last year share his inquiry at a district meeting. I thought that would make it personal and give him a chance to share his presentation one more time. Sorry- this was long. I guess I was making up for my missing posts. I’m looking forward to “inquiry” this year. I’m always a little nervous getting started, but once we get moving, I know it will be fine.

Putnam has finally assembled a fairly good size of teacher's with wonderings: Julie Glisson, Debra Foreman, Leah Curtis, Carolyn McClain, Maeghan Morris, and myself. I think we have a great group and am excited about the beginning thoughts of their wonderings.

Fairly long entry alert: but feedback from anyone who has the time would be greatly appreciated.Suggestions/words of wisdom/expressions of encouragement and good cheer?I know we all need to get pushed from the nest sooner or later, and suspect that all the little birdies are somewhat loathe to leave the nest-service food and the congenial warmth at the same time they are developing curiosity about trying this flying thing. Although we're hardly fledglings in any other way, that's kind of where Anna Falcouner and I are this year in our role of trying to go out much more on our own with teacher inquiry professional learning communities in our district. Our county curriculum people worked with Sabrina to launch a semi-independent county-wide plan: facilitators in each school (several in a couple of schools), with each facilitator having the potential to work with up to 5 teachers, launching our own kickoff night, and our own showcase in the spring. To that end, Anna and I worked very hard last summer to plan a two-day workshop to lead the potential facilitators through Dr. Dana's book, to allow for questions and discussion, to practice a protocol, and to send them off to recruit in their schools. It has worked much better in some schools than others, but it looks at this time as if we might have up to 50 presenters early in May. We just had a three-hour follow-up meeting with the facilitators this last Wednesday during which time we gave them some of the idea-stimulating and product-honing activities from the manuscript of Nancy's new book. If anyone has the time, I'd be happy to send a list of the sections she graciously allowed us to excerpt. The meeting went pretty well: the new facilitators were glad to get the definitions and activities, and recognized their potential usefulness. It's an exceptionally bright group of people that we are lucky enough to be working with. They had numerous questions, but some of the participants were relieved to realize that all of us are really in learning mode together, and that right answers were not what we were about. While everyone who completes a project will get some money to spend for his/her classroom, and each person who presents will be paid our normal stipend ($100) for the showcase day, the participants cannot really be motivated by money, because it's just not that much to go into the personal pocket. We would appreciate:ideas for reducing jittersactivities from the manuscript that worked well with your inquirersany practical suggestions you can addthe abovementioned words of wisdomWe want to make inquiry a very normal and useful option for professional development in our system. Success this year can mean big long term pay-offs for the kids. What we're terrified of is the possibility that, if we aren't successful, the reputation of inquiry in our district will be clouded and its potential lost. We are birdies with butterflies in our stomachs, flapping our wings like crazy. Thanks so much--from both Anna and me.

If I had to choose one word to describe my feelings about participating in inquiry this year the word would be "sustaining" because this practice is sustaining my enthusiasm for teaching.In a year when so many redundant demands are placed on us inquiry is like an escape to remind me what I love about the classroom.It is refreshing and so valuable because it is all my own.

This is my first time blogging and I know it will be a great experience. I'm excited about learning and developing a deeper understanding of Teacher Inquiry and supporting the work of the facilitators and teachers. I hope I can keep up with all you experts!

Well, we have all been commenting on the new "Inquiry Year" and mine has been a little frustrating, but I'm getting over it. Our message board is blocked at my school, so when I'm home I've really forgotten about it. Chris was concerned about me and possible problems (thanks for checking on me, Chris). I'm trying to get this site released.

But on a brighter note, today I met with a teacher that I'm hopeful will join the process this year. She really got excited after only a few minutes of conversation, I can't imagine how she'll feel after our meeting on Oct. 16. My recruitment continues and I'll keep you posted.

Gayle

One word or phrase I would use to describe how I feel about participating in our on-line learning community is nervous-excitement! I chose this phrase because there are so many wonderful opportunities this on-line learning community will bring to us - a place to share, reflect, help each other, and grow! I'm nervous because I like seeing everyone face to face, and will miss seeing you more often. Can our participation in our on-line learning community be as wonderful as our face-to-face participation in our learning community? Can it be better? Time will tell . . .