Writing to Learn at the Hutchinson Staff Meeting

September 11, 2013

The inquiry notebooking team met with the Hutchinson staff Wednesday morning.

We began our meeting looking at how they have begun to build a foundation for their inquiry classroom.  We did this through a Schoology discussion.  Check out the conversation here.

We moved into thinking about how Writing to Learn can be used a foundation for using science and social studies notebooks effectively.  We looked at some resources from the CALI and support documents. You can find them under the Notebook resources in our Schoology group.

Next, grade-level teams and bands met together to answer some questions about Writing to Learn.  Here are the charts that were developed:

Kindergarten and First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth and Sixth Grades

Teachers determined next steps and made a plan on a sticky note.  Here is a collection of the words teachers used:

Thank you Hutchinson teachers for the thoughtful conversations.  

We look forward to our continued partnership!

Hutchinson: Who are we? Where are we starting?

Welcome to the beginning of our Inquiry Notebooking project.  Since teachers from Van Arsdale and Hutchinson will be working on this project and sharing ideas throughout the year, it makes sense that you should know each other and each other's work.

Hutchinson 6th grade Team
Corey Meurere-Lynn (Left: Reading, Writing, and Science)
Cori Bachman (Right: Reading, Math and Social Studies)

Corey and Cori both have 35 students, (WHEW!) and are starting off the year with Outdoor Lab in the near future (Sept. 3-6). As a team they bounce ideas off of each other and complement one another very well...kind of a Yin-Yang thing.  Corey Meurere-Lynn says he's conceptual, spontaneous and  creative.  In contrast, Cori Bachman is more concrete in her thinking and likes to bring organization and structure to their team and to their students. At this time, here's their daily schedule:
9:05 - 9:55        Art, Music, P.E.
9:10 - 10:40      Science/Social Studies
10:40 - 11:25    Science/Social Studies
10:45 - 11:05    Reading cont.
11:25 - 12:25    Reading
12:25 - 1:10      Recess/Lunch
1:10 - 2:10        Writing/Math
2:10 - 3:10        Writing/Math
3:10 - 3:25        Closure with focus on literacy

Focus for Inquiry Cycle One

Corey and Cori are going to focus their exploration on essential questions. This might include considering how essential questions frame the learning for students, how daily activities point back towards essential questions, or how they're utilized within the classroom.