December 14th

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher Character Students of the Week

All 6 of these students displayed positive character behaviors within our 8 focused traits:  

Be... responsible, respectful, kind, safe, honest, loyal, compassionate, courageous.  

Students:  (left to right)

• Bridi Allen (Hive)
• She has demonstrated "The Karcher Way" through her responsibility in assisting with projects and kindness with a speaker donation to the science department.
• Katie Rebollar (Applied Academics) 
• She has demonstrated kindness and a positive attitude everyday in class.  She also has been an active and helpful member in her group project in STEM class.  
• Tessa Teberg (Diamond)
• She is a student who represents "The Karcher Way" everyday.  She is kind and compassionate to her peers inside and outside the classroom.
• Cheyanne Hammiller (Onyx)
• She consistently displays "The Karcher Way" through her actions and attitude.  She goes above and beyond when it comes to being considerate and helpful.
• Morgan Hannen (Karcher Bucks)
• She does a great job advocating for herself and taking charge of her academic learning.  She comes to class highly focused and ready to learn.  She always has a positive mindset even when the material may be difficult.
• Katie Harris (Silver)
• She is always going above and beyond and shared information about her amazing, historic, Underground Railroad Station house.  

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Kudos

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• Jennifer Pelnar was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK!  Congrats Jennifer and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits. 
• Thank you to the following staff who have stepped up to the plate to assist with Friday's afternoon activities:
• 7th grade lunch duty- Ashley Parr, Grace Jorgensen, Barb Berezowitz, and Jacob Malewicki (lunch detention room)
• 8th grade lunch duty-  Kurt Rummler, Mike Jones, Sue Bekken, and Alyssa Riggs (lunch detention room)
• And for the basketball game... 
• Referees:  Hans Block and Matt Behringer
• Players: Mike Jones, Grace Jorgenson, Brad Ferstenou, Jack Schmidt, Kurt Rummler, Jake Malewicki, Faith Trow, Barb Berezowitz, Stacy Stoughton, Jayme Pruszka, Rod Stoughton, Donna Sturdevant, Steve Berezowitz, and bench warmer Stephanie Rummler.

• Thank you Marian Hancock for taking on the role of ESL testing administrator for all of our ACCESS tests! We really appreciate your assistance and willingness to help!
• Remember... any time you feel someone is really stepping up and taking on a leadership role you can ask Kim for an "Acting like a goose" card and write them a little thank you for their leadership. 

             

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Reminders

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• BLT Meeting Monday in the library @ 2:40.
• Literacy Lesson this week:  Vocabulary 
• Wednesdays PLC - Standards/Common Assessment Document.
• Special Education teachers, Wendy Zeman, and Molly Ebbers - reminder your PLC is at Dyer to discuss intervention criteria with Dyer staff.  I will be in attendance as well.  
• ESL Testing is continuing this week in the library with Marian Hancock - please check emails from Marian regarding which students to send.  
• KCB Lunch Rewards on Wednesday.  Encourage students to use their KCBs for items at lunch!!!
• Dress up days from the student counsel students for this week.  Teachers that dress up will benefit their advisory!!!  Students can wear hats if it relates to the theme of the day.  
• Monday - White and Blue
• Tuesday - Red and Green
• Wednesday - Dress up in anything holiday (present, tree, etc)
• Thursday - Ugly sweater
• Friday - Pajama Day (can wear slippers)

Looking ahead (after Christmas break)

• Applied Academic meeting in the library @ 2:40 on January 5th.
• PLCs on the 6th - Standards/Common Assessment Document
• MAP Testing begins on January 5th - see the google calendar for grade levels, etc.  Marian also sent out a MAP testing schedule via email.  
• January 11th week is Huddle Time in advisory - we are really approaching the end of first semester.  Please make sure contacts to parents are occurring with anyone you have concerns with.  
• Next FNL is January 15th.  Please email Mike Jones and Matt Behringer if you are able to help.  FNL is from 6:00 to 8:00pm.

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Pictures from the week

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Literacy Lesson:  Connections... look at the quality of all the lessons within EVERYONE'S classroom this week!  Kudos to everyone for working hard and embracing the need to focus on literacy as a school.

Choir Concert with Mr. Stoughton and the 7th and 8th grade Choir students.  What a GREAT performance!!!








Combined 7th and 8th grade students.

Combined 7th, 8th, and alumni students singing Silent Night.

The wrestling team dominated this past Monday night!  Great job to the coaches and student athletes.













Video:
How will you serve the world in 2015?

Article of the week:  Continuation from last weeks article...

                                                                             

Chapter 1. Learning, or Not Learning, in School

Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility, 2nd Edition

by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Focused Instruction

Focused instruction is an important part of the overall lesson design. This phase includes establishing a clear lesson purpose. We use the word purpose rather than goal, objective, or learning target because it's essential to ensure that students grasp the relevance of the lesson. The statement of a lesson's purpose can address goals related to content, language, and social aspects. Consider, for example, the teacher who clearly communicates the purpose of a lesson as follows:

Our content goal today is to multiply and estimate products of fractions and mixed numerals because these are used in cooking, construction, and medicine. Our language goal for today is to use precise mathematical terminology while discussing problems and answers with one another. Our social goal today is to improve our turn-taking skills by making sure that each member of the group has a chance to participate in the discussion.

As Dick, Carey, and Carey (2001) remind us, an "instructional goal is (1) a clear, general statement of learner outcomes, (2) related to an identified problem and needs assessment, and (3) achievable through instruction" (p. 25). These are important considerations when establishing lesson purpose. As we will discuss further in Chapter 2, it's not enough to simply state the lesson purpose. We must ensure that students have opportunities to engage with the purpose in a meaningful way and obtain feedback about their performance.

In addition to establishing purpose, the focused instruction phase of learning provides students with information about the ways in which a skilled reader, writer, or thinker processes the information under discussion. Typically, this is done through direct explanations, modeling, or think-alouds in which the teacher demonstrates the kind of thinking required to solve a problem, understand a set of directions, or interact with a text. For example, after reading aloud a passage about spiders to 3rd graders, a teacher might say:

Now I have even more questions. I just read that spiders don't have mouth parts, so I'm wondering how they eat. I can't really visualize that, and I will definitely have to look for more information to answer that question. I didn't know that spiders are found all over the world—that was interesting to find out. To me, the most interesting spider mentioned in this text is the one that lives underwater in silken domes. Now, that is something I need to know more about.

Focused instruction is typically done with the whole class and usually lasts 15 minutes or less—long enough to clearly establish purpose and ensure that students have a model from which to work. Note that focused instruction does not have to come at the beginning of the lesson, nor is there any reason to limit focused instruction to once per lesson. The gradual release of responsibility instructional framework is recursive, and a teacher might reassume responsibility several times during a lesson to reestablish its purpose and provide additional examples of expert thinking.

Calendar for December & January:

December 7th

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher Character Students of the Week

All 6 of these students displayed positive character behaviors within our 8 focused traits:  

Be... responsible, respectful, kind, safe, honest, loyal, compassionate, courageous.  

• Emily Rauch (Applied Academics)  
• She is always respectful, responsible, safe, and kind.  She is a natural leader and has all the qualities that Karcher students should strive for everyday.
• Dylan Optiz (Diamond)  
• He always gives his best effort and is kind to his peers.
• Max Rojo (Onyx)  
• He has a positive attitude, is always respectful, demonstrates kindness, takes his responsibilities seriously, and consistently puts forth the amount of effort needed to be a successful student.
• Sephrie Cuevas (Hive)  
• She always displays kindness by being extra helpful to teachers and classmates.  She seems to always know how to do the right thing!
• Daniel Needham (Silver)  
• He shows good character at all times and brings a positive attitude to every class!
• Bella Gatterer (Karcher Bucks) 
• She displayed courage within the classroom this week!

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Kudos

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• Dawn Salbrieter was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK!  Congrats Dawn and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits. 
• Kudos to Nicolas Buendia for a great band concert on Thursday night.  For your first Karcher Band Concert it was a great performance with a HUGE crowd!  
• And great job thinking on your feet for the last song as a student's music was missing so Nick took on the percussion role and asked a student to conduct!  Though it was not planned it worked!  Nice job!
• Thank you Barb and Steve Berezowitz for opening your home for the holiday get together.  Some very nice white elephant gifts were given... not sure about the gift Jack brought but hey... to each their own!

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Reminders

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• Parent/Teacher Conferences - Monday night from 4:00 to 6:00.
• Google Document for conferences...
• Scheduled conferences are from 4:00 - 5:20.  
• Reminder... if you do not have a scheduled appointment please begin calling families and document your calls on the google doc.  From 4:00-5:20 staff should be contacting families via phone calls.  Prior to calling look at the google document to see which families/students have already been contacted/called.
• Open Conferences from 5:20 - 6:00.  Parents/guardians are welcome to come to Karcher to meet with any staff without a scheduled conference.  
• During this time if you do not have parents in your room please email families and note your emails on the google document.  
• Phone calls and emails should be both positive calls and can be concerned calls.  Thank you for your communication to families!!!
• 7th-8th grade Choir Concert @ Karcher gym @ 7:00pm this Tuesday, December 8th.  We hope to see you there!
• Half Day Wednesday - Building Level In-Service (1:00 - 3:00)
• Teachers:  we will be starting in the library with the focus being:
• Literacy
• SLOs
• Curriculum Organization
• Special education aides:  training for all aides from 1:30 to 3:30.
• Please be to the high school by 1:25 in the cafeteria.
• You will be involved in two one-hour sessions and you will be informed as to where to go once you arrive on the 9th.
• 8th grade students will continue to NOT have compass opposite PE through December 8.  They will continue meeting with Jean Freund and Steve Berezowitz to work through career cruising.  
• BLT Meeting on Monday, December 14th.
• Modified Schedule for December 18th for the staff vs. students basketball game. 
• See Matt Behringer for details.
• Bell Schedule

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Pictures from the week

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Mr. Ferstenou giving a demonstration on mummification!

Ms. Waki's STEM class working on their 3D models of their homes they designed with their partners.

Students in Ms. Pruszka's class working within Garage Band to produce their own personal music.

Students in Ms. Weis's class researching Albert Einstein with the ability for student choice:  create a resume, write a newspaper article, write a book, or bibliography compare/contrast with another scientist.  All taking the lens as if the student WAS Albert Einstein.

Band Concert from Thursday night with Mr. Buendia.  Students in white are 8th grade students and orange are 7th grade.

Cute little guy dancing to the music!

8th Grade Band

Teaching... a meaningful profession...   

Video:  Every student needs a champion

Article of the week:

Chapter 1. Learning, or Not Learning, in School

Learning—the goal of schooling—is a complex process. But what is learning? Consider the following definitions and the implications each has for teaching:

• Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skill through study, experience, or teaching.
• Learning is experience that brings about a relatively permanent change in behavior.
• Learning is a change in neural function as a consequence of experience.
• Learning is the cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge.
• Learning is an increase in the amount of response rules and concepts in the memory of an intelligent system.

Which definition fits with your beliefs? Now ask yourself, how is it that youlearn? Think of something that you do well. Take a minute to analyze this skill or behavior. How did you develop your prowess? How did you move from novice to expert? You probably did not develop a high level of skill from simply being told how to complete a task. Instead, you likely had models, feedback, peer support, and lots of practice. Over time, you developed your expertise. You may have extended that expertise further by sharing it with others. The model that explains this type of learning process is called the gradual release of responsibility instructional framework.

The Gradual Release of Responsibility Instructional Framework

The gradual release of responsibility instructional framework purposefully shifts the cognitive load from teacher-as-model, to joint responsibility of teacher and learner, to independent practice and application by the learner (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). It stipulates that the teacher moves from assuming "all the responsibility for performing a task … to a situation in which the students assume all of the responsibility" (Duke & Pearson, 2002, p. 211). This gradual release may occur over a day, a week, a month, or a year. Graves and Fitzgerald (2003) note that "effective instruction often follows a progression in which teachers gradually do less of the work and students gradually assume increased responsibility for their learning. It is through this process of gradually assuming more and more responsibility for their learning that students become competent, independent learners" (p. 98).

The gradual release of responsibility framework, originally developed for reading instruction, reflects the intersection of several theories, including

• Piaget's (1952) work on cognitive structures and schemata
• Vygotsky's (1962, 1978) work on zones of proximal development
• Bandura's (1965) work on attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation
• Wood, Bruner, and Ross's (1976) work on scaffolded instruction

Taken together, these theories suggest that learning occurs through interactions with others; when these interactions are intentional, specific learning occurs.

Unfortunately, most current efforts to implement the gradual release of responsibility framework limit these interactions to adult and child exchanges: I do it; we do it together; you do it. But this three-phase model omits a truly vital component: students learning through collaboration with their peers—the you do it togetherphase. Although the effectiveness of peer learning has been demonstrated with English language learners (Zhang & Dougherty Stahl, 2011), students with disabilities (Grenier, Dyson, & Yeaton, 2005), and learners identified as gifted (Patrick, Bangel, & Jeon, 2005), it has typically been examined as a singular practice, isolated from the overall instructional design of the lesson. A more complete implementation model for the gradual release of responsibility recognizes the recursive nature of learning and has teachers cycle purposefully through purpose setting and guided instruction, collaborative learning, and independent experiences. In Figure 1.1, we map out these phases of learning, indicating the share of responsibility that students and teachers have in each.

Figure 1.1. A Structure for Instruction That Works

We are not suggesting that every lesson must always start with focused instruction (goal setting and modeling) before progressing to guided instruction, then to collaborative learning, and finally to independent tasks (Grant, Lapp, Fisher, Johnson, & Frey, 2012). Teachers often reorder the phases—for example, begin a lesson with an independent task, such as bellwork or a quick-write, or engage students in collaborative peer inquiry prior to providing teacher modeling. As we stress throughout this book, what is important and necessary for deep learning is that students experience all four phases of learning when encountering new content. We will explore these phases in greater detail in subsequent chapters, but let's proceed now with an overview of each.

Calendar for December: