Co-teaching+Social+Studies-+3rd+&+5th+grade

//Team Members/ School(s)//

Daria Hendrickson - 5th grade ESL __teacher__ Steven Date – 5th grade teacher Maureen O’Brien - 3rd grade ESL teacher //Brief description of Learning Circle plan://
 * Andersen United Community School: **

__Problem to be addressed__: With two teachers in the room, what can __students__ expect to experience in a typical social studies lesson? __Plan__: Attend the MN Council for the Social Studies conference in St. Cloud on March 5th. We will write a summary report of what we learned and present it at ESL PLC and at grade level team meetings. We will also brainstorm ideas of how to use what we learned in 2012-2013 during the co-taught ESL-mainstream social studies class in 3rd and 5th grade. Finally, we will prepare a plan with 4-5 strategies for teachers to use for improving student achievement in a co-taught classroom. //Plan to measure results://

The main effect resulting from our work during this PLC will be to provide high-quality focused instruction for English Learners in 3rd and 5th grade at Andersen. Subsequent effects include raised achievement for English Learners, which will be assessed through regular classroom assessments, informal WIDA assessment tools and the WIDA __ACCESS__. //Timeline://
 * March ||  April  ||  May  ||  June  ||
 * March 5th – Attend the conference in St. Cloud, MN

Connect with Anaceli Coyoc (District K-5 Social Studies TOSA) to find out if there are any resources in the district Social Studies department. || Meet with teachers from bilingual classrooms to discuss connecting what is taught in social studies class with what is taugt during Reader's workshop.

Prepare a written report of what we learned at the conference.

Brainstorm ideas of how to use what we learned next year in the co-taught ESL-mainstream social studies class. || Examine new MN Social Studies standards

Meet with teachers that teach Reader's workshop and look for necessary resources (books in English and Spanish) to use during social studies and reading lessons next year.

Order resources.

Prepare a plan with 4 or 5 strategies or tools for teachers to use for improving student achievement in a co-taught classroom. || Present findings at ESL PLC and grade level team meetings.

Upon request from the Multilingual department, present findings to a larger group. ||

Work & Progress:
__**3/5/2012**__ - Three teachers attended the MN Council for the Social Studies Conference in St. Cloud, MN (7:30am - 4pm). It was different than any other conference that we've been to before, because there were hardly any ESL teachers there! We learned a lot and got some new ideas of how we might teach social studies next year.

We also connected with Anaceli Coyoc, the district Social Studies TOSA. Per Anaceli, there is no social studies curriculum available, but there will be something developed by Focused Instruction groups for Kindergarten and 3rd grade for next year. Later, Anaceli sent Daria a __Money__ 101 DVD to help teach personal finance in 5th grade and some great materials for teaching about elections and the election process.

__**3/16/2012**__ - Steve and Daria used the DVD to co-teach personal __finance__ this year. The students really enjoyed watching the movie and learning about money and how to be smart shoppers. A study/question guide was developed by Daria (ESL teacher) to help ELLs build background and comprehend the information in the movie. We also had students discuss with a partner what they had seen in the movie before they wrote their answers.



__**4/3/2012**__ - Maureen and Daria wrote a summary of what they learned at the conference.




 * __4/5/2012__** - Daria met with teachers from the bilingual classrooms to braistrom ideas for connecting ESL and social studies to literacy. Identified goals: scope and sequence of language use, and skills; transfer of language skills and vocabulary from Spanish into English, and assessment.


 * __4/13/2012__**- Steve and Daria met with the 5th grade bilingual teacher to examine social studies standards and create a rough draft of the curriculum map for next year in order to connect what is taught in social studies/ESL class with what is taught during reader's workshop.

__**4/23/2012**__ - Teachers met to b rainstorm ideas of how to use what they learned in the co-taught ESL-mainstream social studies class next year.

__**4/26/2012**__- Teachers met to p repare a plan with strategies for co-teachers to use in the ESL-mainstream class.



RESOURCES: Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners

Purposeful Co-Teaching