What Palmer is Reading
About these links and documents
Goal number four for School District 11 is: "Communicate and engage frequently with our customers." We will put links, documents, and references to articles that are informing our thinking of educational practices here at Palmer.
Staff Development January 5th & February 19th
During our January 5th staff development Dr. Tamara R. Heflebower,
Vice President of Research & Development,
Marzano Research Laboratory spoke to us on grading and grading practices. Here is a PDF version of her PowerPoint from January. She also provided a worksheet for notes. The PDF version of her PowerPoint is here
General Staff Readings
This article by Peter Elbow discusses ways in which we can improve our Writing Across the Curriculum, a building-wide initiative. http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/writing.htm
This article deals with some issues around poor handwriting and the need for allowing some students to use keyboards for all their work. Silverman Handwriting Article
This article on podcasting from the Chronicle of Higher Education is pertinent to some of the assignments our students are doing. The general tenor of the article is that the results can be good, with the correct preparation for the students.
Attending to Specialized Reading Instruction for Adolescents with Mild Disabilities: Teachers need to be aware of cautions about and conditions for providing adolescents with mild disabilities the specialized reading instruction stipulated on their individualized education programs including not overlooking reading needs by an overreliance on accommodations.
IB
Two resources are informing the work that we’re doing in the IB programme as we formulate a formal assessment policy (as now required by the IB & part of our program evaluation process):
Ahead of the Curve: The Power of Assessment to Transform Teaching and Learning, edited by Douglas Reeves. Solution Tree, 2007.
The Teacher as Assessment Leader, edited by Thomas Guskey. Solution Tree, 2009.
Two other sources that focused our discussions last year in the R&R group as well as the Summer Academy…
Educating for Global Citizenship: A practical guide for schools, by Boyd Roberts. International Baccalaureate, 2009.
The Global Achievement Gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need – and what we can do about it, by Tony Wagner. Basic Books, 2008.
MYP lab school has been studying Plagiarism: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It, by Barry Gilmore. Heinemann, 2008
Project Based Learning Focus Group
A group of teachers are studying Project Based Learning and implementing several pilot projects.
Project Based Learning Handbook, 2nd Edition. A Guide to Standards-Focused Project Base Learning for Middle and High School Teachers, by the Buck Institute, 2009.
Palmer Science
Three science teachers have been working with BSCS on a study of www.understandingscience.org which is doing some work in presenting science not as a series of linear steps (Purpose, Hypothesis, Procedure, etc), but as more of a flowchart with each discovery having its own unique pattern. The new flow chart is found at http://undsci.berkeley.edu/lessons/pdfs/complex_flow_handout.pdf
NurtureShock, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
"The central premise of this book is that many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing children are
in fact backfiring – because key twists in the science have been overlooked. NurtureShock has been featured on Good Morning America, Nightline, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and in Newsweek." (Taken from the website)
