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 5th grade Team
Sue Whitney (Left: Science)
Jann Emrick (Right: Social Studies)

The Hutchinson 5th grade team departmentalizes for Science and Social Studies. Jann has explored notebooks in science and is wondering how notebooking will play out in Social Studies using inquiry. Sue is looking forward to incorporating essential questions as a foundation in planning. At this time, this is their schedule:

9:05 - 9:55        Soft Start/Word Work
9:10 - 10:00      Reading
10:00 - 10:45    Art, Music, P.E.
10:45 - 11:05    Reading cont.
11:05 - 12:05    Writing
12:05 - 12:50    Recess/Lunch
12:50 - 2:00      Math
2:00 - 2:45        Science/Social Studies
2:45 - 3:30        Science/Social Studies
3:30 - 3:35        Planners and Dismissal

Focus for Inquiry Cycle One

At the beginning of the year, Sue and Jann are taking a big picture approach to this learning. They are going to look at the relationship between 1) essential questions, 2) resources/lessons and 3) how that will play out within the notebook.