No Teacher is an Island

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No Teacher is an Island

• Charlene Hosokawa
• Moanalua High School
• April 18 2008

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Overview

• SMC language arts teacher
• Personal narrative describing a series of events
  that led to a change in direction.
• Help from many sources in my search.

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Convergence
In general, convergence is a coming together of
two or more distinct entities or phenomena.
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Professional Development at Moanalua High School
in 2007-2008

• Standards Based Grading
• Development of Common Assessments
• Critical Friends Group Trial Run

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Standards Based Grading

• Grade book Antique. Switch to Excel.
• Anathema What? Not grade and record every
  assignment? No way!
• Number of columns decrease
• Formative Assessment has more weight.
• Making assessment work in students favor.

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Common Assessment

• Joined 10th grade group.
• Meetings with the language arts department during
  professional time.
• Opportunity to meet with peers and to find out
  what they were doing in their classrooms.
• Encouragement from one teacher.

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Critical Friends

• New direction for SY 2007-2008
• Meet in groups to discuss one teachers efforts.
• January 22, 2008 Dr. Julia Watson-Barnett
  mentions Ruby Payne.
• February 19, 2008 My turn to share receive
  feedback.

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Chronology of Events

• Summer 2007 Visit to Pier 38 with Newspapers in
  Education group
• Met with LA on common assessments for 10th grade.
• 2nd quarter read Old Man and the Sea.
• Read Ruby Paynes book, Framework for
  Understanding Poverty.

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Chronology of Events

• Found New York Times articles on fishing.
• Info about rights in Xerox room
• Tried new project.
• Presented project in critical friends group.

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Framework for Understanding Poverty

• Culture
• Students have difficulty fitting into school
  culture.
• Accept them.
• Code switching
• Actively teach different register.
• Abstract thinking
• Poetry unit on using abstractions.

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Mid-3rd Quarter Culminating Activity

• Paradise Island
• Courtesy of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery
  Management Council

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Coincidence Integration

• 2 New York Times articles on fishing in Senegal.
• Authentic problems
• Social Studies
• Map skills
• Globalization of fishing
• Flags of Convenience

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The Activity
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The Activity
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From the Big to the Little Picture
Fishing 1. Title Page 2. Map a)
Color countries we discussed b) Write 50
words about 5 of the countries 3.
Acknowledgement of Notification 4. Poem
commented on 5 of the lines. How does
poem represent little picture? 5.
Writing - Choose one group from the chart.
a. Explain what kinds of rights the group
members have. (Refer to list in
your journal.) b. Create three laws to
protect the rights of group. What
level of government? c.
Enforcement - How and who pay for enforcement?
Who enforce? d. Flags of
convenience Sell or not? Explain in gt60
words. e. Economics - How laws affect
the cost of living? Cost lead to
recession, foreclosures, etc.? Explain in gt75
words. 6. Bind your project neatly with
this rubric on top.
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the Convergence

• Mid-quarter unit
• First time use imaginary scenario
• Higher order thinking skills.
• Abstract poems

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3. Input from Critical Friends

• Change prove to Mrs. Hosokawa to prove to
  myself.
• Divide the rubric into regurgitation of knowledge
  vs. go outside the box.
• 4. Encouragement from language arts colleague

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Summary

• Contrived Scenario
• Yes, the imaginary scenario helped students to
  develop higher order thinking skills.
• Ramifications of actions (cause/effect).
• 2. A colleagues observation in the Critical
  Friends group aided my understanding of where I
  wanted to take students.
• Encouragement in Common Assessment Group.
• Reference books.

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Its a BIG, challenging profession, but thanks to
colleagues, workshops, even family members and
countless cause/effect chains, I am able to keep
learning.Thank You All