Social Studies PLC

On February 11, 2016, ESU 11 hosted a Professional Learning Community meeting for 7^th-12th grade social studies teachers.  PLCs are an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively to achieve better results for the students they serve.  During this session, the teachers set group norms, analyzed the Nebraska Social Studies standards, held professional conversations to identify essential learnings, and researched and shared resources and lessons that could be used to help students master these essential learnings.  Kate also showed teachers the new text dependent analysis question that will be incorporated into the new state test.  Teachers then held professional discussions as to how to design lessons that would capitalize on these skills.  Jody introduced teachers to Mastery Connect, a cloud-based software platform that allows teachers to track student mastery of standards.  The next PLC will be held in the spring.  Between now and the next meeting, teachers will create or locate lessons and resources that are effective in teaching the learning targets, and that address the new text dependent analysis items on the NeSA Reading test, and pin those to the Mastery Connect site so all PLC members can access these lessons.