G-A-M-E Plan In Progress

Recap of my goals:
1. To increase my collaboration time with a colleague outside of my PLC. 2. To engage in collaborative conversations with students (both seniors and fifth graders) and other teachers to facilitate increase proficiency in my students' writing skills. As a side note, I will strive to ensure that the comments I leave for students are constructive in nature. I will avoid statements such as "Nice job" or "Good Work". My feedback should be specific (Goemaat, 2015).

I have met with my colleague already this week to discuss our students' progress. We have had some great conversation and she shared that her students are really loving helping out my fifth graders! I have yet to begin my collaborative conversations with the students but I plan on beginning that in the next few days. I am just fearful that if I begin commenting on the student's work before their seniors do, the seniors might get too relaxed in their responsibilities. So, I'm trying to figure that part out.

As far as resources, I have not heard anything on my post in the ProTeacher Community. I am fearful that I may have done something incorrectly when I submitted it, so I may have to check on that. I am still trying to track down the book I had mentioned. I am curious to know if anyone knows of any good blogs out there about collaborative partnerships between grade levels? I would also like to find some more information about giving good, quality feedback to students. If anyone has any resources they'd like to share, please let me know!!

So far, I think my plan is going well and I am really excited to continue. I don't foresee myself having to make any changes, but there maybe some that arise at a later date. 

References

Goemaat, A. (2015, September 9). Mrs. G's G-A-M-E Plan. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://frivolousreflect.blogspot.com

Baby Steps in the G-A-M-E...

To recap, the goals I have identified for my G-A-M-E plan are as follows:

1. To increase my collaboration time with a colleague outside of my PLC. 2. To engage in collaborative conversations with students (both seniors and fifth graders) and other teachers to facilitate increase proficiency in my students' writing skills. As a side note, I will strive to ensure that the comments I leave for students are constructive in nature. I will avoid statements such as "Nice job" or "Good Work". My feedback should be specific (Goemaat, 2015).

I have begun the process of engaging in collaboration time with the Senior English teacher. We have met one time and have set up a time to meet on a bi-weekly basis. We will also correspond through email when necessary.

The students have only begun their collaborative partnerships with the senior writers this week, so not much has been done by myself. I am waiting for the students to begin conversations before I get involved. 

I have become a member of the ProTeacher Community and plan to post a discussion forum regarding collaborative partnerships between high school and elementary students to gather feedback from other educators who have "gone before me". I am eager to read about what others have done and possibly avoid pitfalls that others have struggled with. 

Another resource that I plan on obtaining is the book 100 Trait-specific Comments: A Quick Guide for Giving Constructive Feedback on Student Writing by Ruth Culhum. I hope to use this book as a resources for honing in my skills for giving useful, specific feedback to my students in regards to their writing. 

References

Goemaat, A. (2015, September 9). Mrs. G's G-A-M-E Plan. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://frivolousreflect.blogspot.com

Mrs. G's G-A-M-E Plan

Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer have created a tremendous acronym to help guide self-directed learning (2009). The GAME plan is such a great way to break down the steps needed to ensure that learning is taking place. It has really caused me to stop and think about what I am doing and why I'm doing it. I am excited to get this plan started and see where it takes my own learning as well as the learning of my students!

The two ISTE Standards that I would like to focus on for my GAME Plan are Standard 1d, Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments, and Standard 3b, Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation (ISTE, 2008). 
Both of these standards, I hope to strengthen through a project I have started with the high school English teacher. We have set up a collaborative partnership between my fifth graders and her senior writing students. 

Goals

1. To increase my collaboration time with a colleague outside of my PLC. 2. To engage in collaborative conversations with students (both seniors and fifth graders) and other teachers to facilitate increase proficiency in my students' writing skills. As a side note, I will strive to ensure that the comments I leave for students are constructive in nature. I will avoid statements such as "Nice job" or "Good Work". My feedback should be specific.

Actions

In order to achieve these goals, I have set up collaborative time with the senior English teacher to meet on a weekly basis to discuss the projects that are going on between our students. We have set up expectations that our students will respond to each other concerning the weekly project on at least two separate occasions. Because I have 19 students to review, I will respond to each partnership at least once throughout the week.

Monitor

I will keep a weekly log of my collaborative time with the senior English teacher to keep record of what has been discussed and to also keep expectations clear. This will be done on a google doc that will be shared between the both of us so we both have total access. I will also set up a feedback schedule to keep myself on track with collaborating with partnerships. I will make it a point to review 5 partnerships collaborations per day, with one day per week being left open if there was a group that needed to be checked in on again. 

Evaluate & Extend

I will evaluate my progress by reviewing my logs and feedback schedules to determine if I have been consistently working toward the goal. I will also seek out other professionals who have used collaborative partnerships with students, and glean from their experiences. I hope that by researching collaborative partnerships throughout this process, I will be able to bring some ideas to the table that could enrich the experiences for myself, my collaborative partner, and the students.  

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-   based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.


ISTE Standards - Teachers. (2008). Retrieved September 9, 2015, from https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf