Agenda

1. Review Literacy Goal 2. Learn to use Wikispaces
 * Tuesday, October 27**

__Minutes of K-12 Literacy Meeting October 27, 2009__

Present: Gerda, Pat, Nancy, Stacy, Kristin, Ann M, Paula, Anne C, Kelly, Greg P, Sean H, John D, Linda B, Cheryl C, Elizabeth, Catherine

Review- shared Literacy goal. 1. Set up a wiki

//Minutes:// Linda, Kelly, Sheryl, Greg, Nancy, Pat, Sean, Glynnis, Sue, Katheryn, Ann M., Anne C., Paula, Ktistin, Maureen, Paula, John, Anne A-J So we need in its place a good, well structured face to face meeting - optimise our use of time. So pencil in K-12 meeting on school support services meeting day - timing will be finalized. Need to keep in mind for scheduling with math team is that SUM group meetings are numerous and dependent on the day of the 10 day cycle. 3. Spoken word is alive and well and at Niagara Cinemas. Is over enrolled. DSBN anthology hope to make it biannual - no elementary entries at this time. Collection of student work K-12, can be variety of text or art, performances, to showcase student work. Need to target key contact teachers, Sheryl will send us the electronic version of flyer so we can forward it to literacy leaders, keen contacts etc. Deadline for 1st class submission is March 4. Highlight it at the cirtical thinking sessions - teacher librarians. Some key messages - not an add on celebrate good work being done, and make sure people are aware of the variety of text options that could be submitted. 4. OSSLT April 8, please make sure you are all available - let Sheryl know she will be co-ordinate. Can their be more support for grad 3-6 - used to be more strict about who - seem to loosening of those restricitons. Issue of continuity particulary the younger the child, more need for familiarity. Support for math test in grade 9 - really no assistance available in way of scribes or readers. What can we do? Paula and Shirley have taken this on as a mission - raise awareness - will be going back to principal group and looking for ways to address this. Also a need to address the issue of math phobias, student attitudes, and openess of math instruction and results.
 * Tuesday, January 26**
 * 1) 4 Roles of the Literate Learner - exercise of only considering the top 2 roles - what would the readers understanding look like? How would that understanding change if you considered all 4 roles - looking at nouns and verb phrases. Need to determine how we will move forward with this. Keep an open mind as to the different ways we are literate. Comment about awareness regarding older students who struggle with decoding - can still think - need to find ways to deal with that, to develop and recognize the other 3 roles. With younger students finding the balance between all 4 roles - not just decoding. Need to develop awareness about the range and variety of text including graphic, visual - currently often find interpretation of text as variety of print text. This model allows for recognition of use of background knowledge in students first language. Need to be mindful of accessibility of text to students. This model would be useful with supporting teachers in reflecting on our own literacy skills - how do we use, build and understand our skills in all 4 roles as learners. Is their a role in using this for parent education? How best to do that?
 * 2) Using the WIki as a communication tool for this group - challenge is participation - often works best when cannot physically meet - managability becomes a time factor - need a purpose to check and post, does it make the most sense for our setting? -difficult to comment with concise outlines, easier face to face. Need a purpose to make it part of our routine, seems nice to know but not currently critical to day to day work and priorities. 2 benefits - multiple people can access at the same time; using technology that our students are using; but it doesn't really meet our purpose at this time, we will go back to meeting once a month. So what do we do with this? bring it back or destroy it?