PEEL Graphic Organizers

Excellence in Education: PEEL Graphic Organizers

In all classes students should analyze and support their analysis with facts and reasoning. The PEEL strategy is a graphic organizer that can be used by itself, as a pre-writing strategy (especially DBQs and other shorter, social studies essays), in preparation for a class discussion/Socratic Seminar,  and more. Simply, it’s a great way to get students started because it helps them determine a main idea and how to find supporting details.

What is PEEL?

PEEL stands for Point-Evidence-Explanation-Link

Point: provide an opening statement for your argument

Evidence: provide evidence (this can be direct quotes, facts, etc.)

Explanation: explain the evidence through purpose and context

Link: a statement that links back to the main point

Here’s a link to a PEEL Graphic Organizer.

Just a Thought: Rubric Design

Most rubrics are scored on a 1-4 scale with 2 of the scores being below mastery. Why should we accept less than the student’s best and failure to show proficiency?

Useful Links:

Positive Referrals: https://goo.gl/forms/HZtZoQqHoa2SWT0H3

Friday Activity Calendar (Mentorship/Portfolio/Club Day) : Club Day

Portfolio Assistance If you have a student who needs assistance setting up his/her portfolio, click here

Technology / Website Permission Request Form http://go.shr.lc/1HovEA6 Please use this form to request use of a website that requires student log-in if the site is not already on the approved list. DART approved list

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm Please be sure to have announcements cued and ready to go at 8:55 every morning.

Announcement Request: http://tinyurl.com/requestannouncement

Teacher Handbook

Calendar and Memo Items

Year-end calendar is here.

March 28: Middle School/Rising 9th Grader Visit; No Mustang Morning. Students will complete the School Safety Survey in extended 1st block.

Here’s the link to survey.

March 30: End 3rd Quarter

April 11: Grades due, 9am

April 13: In School Drama Performances

April 21: Pep Rally

April 22: Prom (Interested in chaperoning? Please email Ms. Stott)

Project-Based Learning: The What, Why, and How! -April 3

Virginia Association for the Gifted is excited to offer an introduction to Project-Based Learning: The What, Why, and How at the Lynchburg City Schools' Information Technology Center.  Participants will explore delivery models by engaging in the creative process of developing their own project step by step with collaborative support from instructors and peers. All participants will receive resources for building future units along with a collection of previously developed ideas. Deadline for registration is March 29 and the event is April 3.

For tonight’s #vachat, we’re joined by Denis Sheeran, author of  Instant Relevance, Using Today’s Experiences to Teach Tomorrow’s Lessons

I’d love to have you join us (I think he’ll be giving away a couple of books as prizes).

Birthdays

March 27: Leta Johnson

March 28: Hank Atkins

March 29: Jeannette Stott

March 31: Chris Columbano

April 2: Karen Ye

April 5: Gwen Reynolds

Worth Your Time

Schools in Rural Areas Shifting to a 4-Day School Week

The Emotional Weight of Being Graded, For Better or Worse

7 Findings That Illustrate Racial Disparities in Education

Jay McTighe: Beware of the Test Prep Trap

Cougar Communication: Graphic Organizer, 1-3-6 Protocol

Excellence in Education: Graphic Organizers

We’re all aware of the research that says students should create graphic representations to assimilate knowledge. Graphic organizers allow students to visually categorize information, their student friendly and creating them enables students to retain and remember the information. Additionally, when used as a study aid, they’re a lot easier to look at and understand than notes or text.

Over the past week, I’ve seen several graphic organizers used as

1.     a summarization activity in preparation for a quiz (Venn Diagram)

2.     part of a guided reading activity (a story strip)

3.     a means of providing structure to a class-wide conversation (viewpoints-reactions-reflections)

4.     a timeline of events

5.     a pre-writing strategy (RAFT-Role, Audience, Format, Topic)

In teaching academic coaching, I kept a binder of graphic organizers. Students were encouraged to find/create their own graphic organizers to represent information from their core classes. Through this process, I learned that it’s often best to allow students to create their own graphic organizers because this requires them to determine what graphic organizer best serves the class’s learning target. 

Ideas for the Classroom: 1-3-6 Protocol

The 1-3-6 protocol puts students in charge of their learning. Working both individually and in groups students develop ideas and opinions about an reading or topic. Most importantly, the students are responsible for their learning and are actively engaged.

1.     Students are given an article to read.  

2.     Students write their responses to the article. For example, you could ask students to write the 5 most important facts from the article.

3.     Students are placed in groups of 3 where they share their ideas. Each group classifies/group their ideas and write a list on newsprint, an overhead, etc.

4.     Merge 2 groups (6 people now) and have the students share their ideas.

5.     Again, groups of 6 write a list of their ideas and bring them together.

6.     Each group of 6 shares their list with the whole group.

Obviously, this is similar to think-pair-share, but by creating larger groups you can more easily manipulate the flexible groups to meet the diverse needs of your students. For example, in a think-pair-share setting, one student may do the majority of the hard work while the other is passively engaged.

Other points:

1.     It need not be an article. Students can be responding to an article, a topic, a video, etc.

2.     A simple graphic organizer can be created by you or by your students.

3.     To get to a higher level, it’s important that students classify their information in the group stages. Alternatively, students can evaluate/rank the ideas. In other words, take this beyond simply summarizing.

4.     In a class with tremendously, diverse students, you can assign and change roles. Some possible roles: summarizer, discussion leader, note-taker, presenter.

Administrative Notes

Please don’t forget that current employees that are covered by VRS may elect to opt-in to the hybrid plan, but this ends on April 30.

With the snow days, we’ve fallen behind in positive referrals. Please take a moment to nominate a student  http://goo.gl/cZIXm7