Social+Studies+Skills

=**Social Studies Skills**= =**Professional Learning Communities**= =**2011-2012**= ==

Students will demonstrate improved proficiency in higher order thinking as measured in assessment of targeted learning activities.
 * 1. **** SMART Goal ** ( ** S ** pecific, ** M ** easurable, ** A ** ttainable, ** R ** ealistic, and ** T ** imely):

Sixth grade students of all levels are capable of intellectually challenging Social Studies learning with teacher assistance of scaffolding, literary strategies and modeling.
 * 2. **** Rationale: **

1. demonstrates competency in reading/comprehension 2. demonstrates competency, but needs additional time 3. does not yet demonstrate competency || Group by ability and reteach strategies. Provide more challenging materials to students demonstrating competency.(ancient Sparta education system, primary documents) || Both || Mar/Apr || Improvement in speed of reading and comprehension.
 * 3. **** Action Plan **
 * **Activity** || **Person Responsible** || **Timeline** || **Outcome** ||
 * Participate in Social Studies Professional Study Group led by SS Supervisor discussing article on relevant issues in Middle School education and choose topic for PLC. || Both || 11/16 || Read and discussed article "Teaching Intellectually Challenging Social Studies in the Middle School: Problems and Possibilities. Identified relevant issues for PLC. ||
 * Identify specific skills to target to develop higher level thinking. || Both || Nov. /Dec. 2011 || Identified skills students will need to successfully accomplish the tasks needed to complete an introductory level DBQ. ||
 * Baseline assessment of above skills in target groups. || Both || Dec./early Jan. || Developed assessments to measure levels of student competency for DBQ skills. Incorporated baseline assessments into curriculum for Ancient Civilizations, testing skills identified above. ||
 * Analyze results and identify prioritize skills to target. || Both || January || Analyzed assessments and established timetable for targeted skill development. ||
 * Plan lessons to build reading comprehension skills. || Both || Jan/Feb. || Develop lessons to build skills in comprehension and analysis of short, nonfiction reading passages. ||
 * Skills practice in reading and summarizing short articles on Qin ShiHuangdi, analyzing pictures for meaning, and creating questions based on levels of Blooms Taxonomy. Summarized in short essay format with oral presentation. || Both || Feb. || Identified areas of deficiency. Created remediation lessons to address identified needs - reading/comprehension, higher level picture analysis and logical organization of essays. ||
 * Taught lessons on building comprehension skills for short nonfiction reading passages by having them read and summarize current event articles on ancient Egypt. || Both || Mar || Results indicate students fall into following categories:
 * Introduced students to actual DBQ. Modeled / highly scaffolded DBQ process. Students wrote DBQ essay from graphic organizer. || Both || Mar || to be graded and analyzed ||
 * Tested student ability to independently write essay for test based on DBQ activity (Akhenaton DBQ) || Both || Mar || to be graded and evaluated ||
 * Provide additional practice in identifying key facts in non-fiction articles to be used in effective summary. (Greek philosophers)

Lower ability readers need additional scaffolding and vocabulary cues. Ability to inference meaning in more difficult passages is challenge to mid and low ability readers. || Analyze results. || Both || Apr./May ||  ||
 * Introductory level DBQ skills assessment.


 * 4. **** Group Member Names: **

Geri Anglum, Margaret Trum


 * 5. ** ** Which Middle School goal does this impact? **

GOAL #2