Monday, November 22, 2010

Fall Forum

The Language Arts Forum met last week at Central School. Three big ideas came up in our discussion.
1. We are working to develop Anchor Charts for teaching narrative, expository, and persuasive writing. We will have grade level teachers provide input so that we have an articulated guide by grade level for each type.

2. We will tackle a book study on A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne. If you don't have access to a copy of the book, it is available for $20 - 25 new on the Barnes and Noble or Amazon websites. You can also buy used copies or the e-reader format for kindles for $12 - 15. Put it on your Christmas list! Check back in January for discussion starters on this blog.

3. We hope to establish a Logan County Lending Library for classroom sets of novels. Michelle Ryan, from LCHS, talked about having several sets of books which are more appropriate for 6th - 8th grade students. We will spend some time this spring and summer on the lending library project.

A final note: contact Michelle Ryan if you are interested in joining Illinois Association of Teachers of English. They are trying to increase their elementary and jr. high contacts. The first year's membership is free!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Think Spring!

Get ready for the spring edition of the Logan County Language Arts Forum! We will meet again during the week of April 12, 2010. Information regarding the meeting will be sent by e-mail to school principals.
Start thinking and posting your topics of choice for the April meeting.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Courier Article

Did you see Kelsey Dallas's article in The Courier? We made the media! I think this is support for the wonderful potential that can emerge from collaboration. Thanks again for being part of this journey. We are looking forward to meeting again in January!

Friday, October 23, 2009

You've been invited to this blog as a Language Arts teacher in Logan County. I thought this might be a fun way to keep in touch between our face-to-face meetings. In reviewing the evaluation forms, one idea mentioned is to provide time for folks to meet with other teachers from their grade level. We will include that for the next forum.
Do you have any further thoughts to share after a few days of reflection?
Has anyone tried any ideas from the forum?