domingo, 5 de junio de 2016

June 6

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Student's of the week for 
May 31 - June 3
  • Grace Clasen: (Onyx) 
    • Grace is a fantastic young lady. She always has a smile on her face, displays and extremely positive attitude, and puts forth her best effort no matter what.
  • Trinity Zelechowski: (Karcher Bucks) 
    • Trinity is a fantastic young lady who always has a smile on her face and puts forth her best effort.
  • Brianna Williams: (Diamond) 
    • Brianna demonstrates the Karcher Way every day at school through here respectful and positive interactions with her classmates and teachers.She went above and beyond this week by returning a lost ipod, so it could be returned to it's proper owners.
  • Taylor Driscoll: (Applied Academic) 
    • Taylor has been such a wonderful, positive member of choir and exploring music this year. This week, like most weeks, she has been a real leader to those around her as we have been learning the music for our upcoming concert. Thanks for signing strong Taylor!
  • Mollie Fox: (Hive) 
    • Mollie exemplifies the Karcher Way  EVERY day with her kindness, respect, and loyalty to friends. She has had an excellent year in so many ways!
  • Meghan Harris: (Silver) 
    • Meghan is a vibrant addition to every class. She loves to learn, debate, and create.


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Kudos
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  • Hans Block was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK!  Congrats Hans and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits. 
  • A HUGE shout out to Jacob Malewicki and Stephanie Rummler for organizing our Karcher Character Assemblies.  They have been a great addition to Karcher this year!  
  • Congrats to EVERYONE as we met EVERY Karcher SIP goal for this year for our MAP growth!!!!!!!!!  Every single area the students met and exceeded our spring goal in math, reading, and language arts!  This only happened because of each and every one of you!!!!!!!!!  Here is the data:

Double click on the screen shot to see it in a larger view...










If you double click on the screen shots below you should be able to see them in a larger view...





  • Lastly for this week... Matt and I want to personally thank all of you for such a great year!  We truly could not have asked for a better staff to work with during our first year in our new roles.  Thank you for all the open and honest conversations and we look forward to many, many more next year!
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Reminders
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  • Final Choir Pops Concert will be in the Karcher gym tomorrow, Monday night!  Come support our students and Rod.
  • Day in the Middle - June 7, Tuesday, from approximately 8:45-10:20.
    • See the shared Google Document Steve Berezowitz sent on June 3.    
  • Field Day - June 8 - here is the schedule for the day.  
    • See Jack Schmidt, Patti Tenhagen, or Alyssa Riggs for details.  
    • Please remember to fill out the Google Document noting the number of students planning on taking hot lunch on June 8 as our kitchen staff need to know how many to plan for - thank you!
  • Just an FYI... our IT guys will be in the building to box up and start the process of removing our stand alone computer labs.  They will be working on removing/boxing up the U-Lab, 21st Century lab, and the library.  Moving into next school year the only stand alone computer labs we will have will be in the U-lab and Kaylyn Waki's room.  Otherwise we will have chrome books for the students and an iPad cart for Jayme Pruszka.  
  • Last day of school is June 9th - students dismissed @ noon.
    • Bell schedule for June 9th.
    • Matt will be sharing a visual video to assist all involved in 8th grade recognition with knowing what our plan is for the actual ceremony in terms of seating, walking to the stage, announcing students, exiting the gym, etc.  
  • Staff checkout information:
    • Packing boxes are available in the old office area, room 130.  Starting July 5th the entire 2nd floor is being stripped so everything will need to be packed up and labeled in all of the rooms on the 2nd floor.  Everything will be moved into the hallways in order to strip the rooms properly.  
    • Any questions... see Harvey.
    • Teachers:  
      • There is a sign up sheet in the main office for your checkout times.  You can pick:
        • June 9 @ 1:00 (Matt or Jill)
        • June 9 @ 2:00 (Matt)
        • June 13 between 8:00 - 2:00 (Jill)
        • June 14 between 8:00 - 2:00 (Jill)
        • We will then make our rounds during those times and come to each person's room on the list.  Please make sure everything that needs to be checked is completed prior to us coming.  
      • Here is the checkout sheet you will all need.  Copies of this form are in the main office.  Keep this sheet with you until the final checkout time.  You will then give your sheet to Matt or myself.
      • SLOs need to be printed, scored by the teacher (if in your non-evaluation year) and turned in along with your checkout information.  Certified staff on your evaluation year need to have a conversation and scoring done by administration. 
    • Special Education Aides:
Information for next school year: 

  • Here are the teacher schedules for next school year along with room assignments:  
  • Here is the link to the Google Calendar for the 2016-2017 school year.  
    • I will continue to update next year's calendar as information comes out.  
  • Please note the Karcher Staff Cookout will be held on August 27th starting at 4:00 at our new home in Burlington :) Details are noted on the first page of the 2016-2017 Google Calendar.  
  • Special Education Aides:  Kim will be getting your return to work notices to you at the beginning of the week.  Please see Kim or myself with any questions.  
  • District information was sent out regarding the Interactiv Conference and the decision was made that it will NOT be a requirement for all teachers to attend in the next three years.  Please see the email from Peter Smet dated June 2 for more details.  
  • The board would like to hear from the teaching staff and support staff in regard to your thoughts around building usage and plans for the future.  The board will be holding four meetings of this nature.  One for administration, one for teaching staff/support staff, and two for community members.  The board wants a wide range of thoughts prior to moving forward with simplifying the options for our buildings and schools in the future.  Please know this meeting for staff will be held most likely in July 11 from 6:30-8:00pm in the Karcher Library.  This is a tentative date right now but I am fairly certain this will be the date where you will be asked to attend.  This will be VERY VERY important for you to weigh in on your thoughts about grade configuration, building usage, etc.  Please put this date on your calendar and I will email you if the date/time changes.  
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Pictures from the week
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Ms. Waki and some of her STEM students showcasing their rocket launchers.  Was cool to see a student even brought in their own persona drone and filmed a launch.  
  
Ms. Fons, Ms. Schmidt, Ms. Taylor, and Ms. Hisey took students fishing last week... they had a GREAT time!  













Mr. Buendia's and his students last band concert of the year!  The orange shirts are composed of the 7th grade students, black shirt are jazz band, and the white shirts are the 8th grade students.  




The Karcher Character Assemblies... AWESOME entertainment for the students and then such a nice recognition of so many of our students demonstrating "The Karcher Way" throughout their time this year at Karcher.





8th grade students recognized for the spring semester!




7th grade students recognized for the spring semester!







Article of the week:  Here is the second half of last weeks article... relating to literacy integration and pushing ourselves to move across Bloom's Taxonomy to high-order thinking.

Literacy Strategies for Grades 4–12

by Karen Tankersley

Chapter 5. Higher-Order Thinking

Doing Well on High-Stakes Tests

As a result of state mandates and the No Child Left Behind act, teachers everywhere are concerned about helping their students do well on state and national assessments. If we want students to succeed, we must understand one important fact: Students can only do well on these tests when they are accustomed to providing on a regular basis the types of responses that the tests demand. Ask them to identify the most important ideas in a chapter, to prepare summaries, and to think deeply about how the information can be synthesized, analyzed, evaluated, and interpreted.
We cannot and should not try to “prep” students for specific tests. Instead, we must teach them how to think. One technique that all teachers can use is the “Talk Through” strategy developed by Simpson (1995), in which students are asked to individually share their thinking about a text. For example, you might say to students, “Talk through the key ideas of the passage” or “Talk through the passage's examples and details to help us find the key ideas.” To take the discussion to higher levels, ask students to talk through their personal connections and experiences with the key ideas, or to talk through their reactions to the key ideas presented. Engaging students in this manner will force them to go beyond the simple-knowledge level of thinking.
Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, and Kucan (1997) suggest a strategy called “Questioning the Author.” In many high-stakes tests, understanding the writer's craft is a requirement for students to do well. “Questioning the Author” involves asking students what they think the author is trying to say. Ask students questions such as “Did the author explain this clearly?” and “Does this make sense given what the author told us before?”
On state writing tests, students will often be expected to write an expository or persuasive passage, or to analyze a narrative passage. To help your students do well on these tests, demonstrate how to understand what the instructions require by thinking aloud. Consistently assist students in analyzing instructions thoroughly before they begin to write. Most states provide examples of the kinds of reading and writing tasks students will face. Be sure to get copies of these samples and study them carefully so you know what will be expected of the students.
On many standardized tests, students are expected to analyze a narrative text by examining the writer's style and the way the story and the characters are developed, interpreting various aspects of the text, and identifying the story's themes. Students will need to be able to see relationships and patterns and draw conclusions about the characters' motives and behaviors. They must demonstrate that they have a thorough grasp of the meaning of the text. At the elementary level, students should be able to identify the theme of a story, any morals that might be suggested, and elements of character, setting, plot, problem, and resolution. Older students should be able to discuss the theme as well as any symbolism in the story, and to offer their analysis, evaluation, and opinions of the text. An excellent source for good writing-prompt ideas and examples of well-organized narrative, persuasive, and expository texts can be found at the Northwest Regional Lab's Six Traits Web site (http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/department.asp?d=1).
To perform well on essay questions regarding expository text, students should use a consistent tone and focus their thoughts. Organization is assessed according to the strength of the introduction, the thesis and supporting details, and the conclusion. Show students good examples of texts that conform to these criteria. Students should also understand how to vary sentence types and patterns, use descriptive vocabulary to express their ideas, and have a clear sense of audience as they write. Content-area teachers can assist their language arts peers by frequently having students write and explore expository passages in their discipline.
Students may also be asked to write persuasive essays on state or national tests. To do well on these essays, students must understand how to support a position with evidence and factual details, anticipate alternative viewpoints, and provide thoughtful arguments to counter those viewpoints. Again, texts should include strong introductory and concluding statements.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress Standards

You have probably heard of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test, but do you really know what it is and how it is used? The test is a national reading exam authorized by Congress and administered by the U.S. Department of Education to randomly selected segments of 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students in the United States (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003). Its purpose is to provide a snapshot of educational progress levels across the nation in various subject areas. The test examines three contexts for reading: reading for literary purposes, information, and to perform a task. Because many state tests ask similar types of questions as those used in the NAEP, examining the test's format is particularly helpful to teachers.
Examining the NAEP specifications helps us understand what our students are expected to know and be able to do. You can find a summary of these expectations in Appendix C. As you read through them, consider how you can address these performance indicators daily in your classroom.

Teaching Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Teachers are good at writing and asking literal questions (e.g., “Name the parts of a flower”), but we tend to do this far too often. Students must be taught to find the information they need, judge its worth, and think at higher levels. There is simply too much information in the world for us to waste students' time with regurgitations of basic facts. As Bellanca (1997) states:
Educators need to realize that there are many more ways to teach than by rote alone. There is teaching for understanding, decision making, problem solving, and connecting a part to a whole, detail to concept, and concept to concept. There also is inference, prediction, analysis for bias, and learning for transfer. Each of these processes requires some form of critical thinking. All are processes that students can develop and refine. Opportunities for students to develop critical thinking processes are not found in classrooms dominated by the regurgitation of short answers. They are found in classrooms where active learning is an essential component. (pp. xxi–xxii).
The old instructional paradigm asked students to read from the textbook and discuss the information to see if they learned the content. We then would test them on the material, lament over how many did poorly, move on to the next topic, and repeat the cycle. When we begin applying what we know about reading and learning, the effective content classroom will look quite different from this model. In the new paradigm, we will
  • Design prereading activities to activate background knowledge, establish purpose, and formulate questions that can drive inquiry.
  • Allow students to use active reading methods that include peer discussion, as well as to try out their thoughts and seek clarifications from one another as they are reading.
  • Model our own thought processes for students and ask that they make their own thinking visible as well.
  • Design activities that require students to process information at the highest levels of thought.
  • Examine our state curriculum standards to cull out the essential topics so that we can extend learning with greater depth, rather than try to teach curriculum that is a mile wide.

Strategies for Extending Thinking

Below are strategies for content teaching that extend learning to the higher levels of thinking. You can find additional strategies about this in my previous book, The Threads of Reading: Strategies for Literacy Development (Tankersley 2003).

Directed Reading and Thinking Activity

The directed reading and thinking activity (DR-TA) developed by Stauffer (1969) is still very helpful for processing text of all types at high levels. In the DR-TA, teachers walk students through setting purpose, making predictions, asking questions, and clarifying points in the text. The approach can be used in all content areas, from science to language arts to math.
The DR-TA begins with the students examining the title of the story or section to be read. From this information, they make predictions and set expectations regarding what the text is about. Next, either the teacher reads the material out loud or students read sections, stopping at designated points. Logical stopping points include subheadings, ends of chapters, or high points of a story. At each stopping point, teachers ask openended questions designed to elicit predictions or opinions about the text. The more they read, the more focused the students' predictions and opinions should become. Your role is to help maintain this focus by asking students to describe how elements in the text are connected and to provide evidence for any assertions, acting all the while as a nonjudgmental facilitator rather than a participant. The DR-TA structure forces students to justify their thoughts and link their opinions back to the text. As teachers, we can learn a lot about our students by listening to their ideas, values, background knowledge, and reasoning.

Letters from the Heart

Ask students to write a letter about some facet of a book. The letter can be addressed to the author, a historical figure, or a character in the book, and can be written either from the student's perspective or from that of another character. One of the four higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy—application, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation—should be evident in the letter.

Position Paper

Provide students with several articles on a specific topic that present two sides of an issue. Students should read the articles and take notes on points made by both sides. With a partner, they should then pick a side and write a position paper defending their position with factual evidence. Students can also participate in trials or debates on controversial issues. For a more advanced version of this activity, have students pretend they are senators and cast ballots either for or against a particular position. Tallying the votes also helps students practice math skills during the lesson.

Drawing Inferences

Bring in comic strips or political cartoons that require students to infer what the cartoonist meant. Ask students to work with a partner or small group to identify what inferences they need to make to interpret the point of the cartoon, and what connections they need to draw to do so.

“Dear Author” Letters

Ask students to write “Dear Author” letters based on their thoughts about a particular book or piece of writing. Many Web sites offer valuable information and research on a variety of authors.

“Wish You Were Here” Postcards

After reading, ask students to pretend that they are characters in the book and write “Wish You Were Here” postcards to their friends. This strategy is particularly useful during lessons on historical events.

Comparison-Contrast Questions

Ask students to develop comparison-contrast questions and write them in their graphic organizers. Examples: “How is a glove like your hand?” “How is a dog like a cat, and how are they different?” and “What would happen if circles were squares?”

Script Writing

Select a scene from a story and ask students to develop a script from it for Reader's Theater. Have students rehearse the script and present the performance for an audience.

R.A.F.T.

This strategy, developed by Santa (1988), helps students write with a focused purpose. Students can use any format they want—diary, letter, editorial, and so on—to answer the following questions from the perspective of a character they've read about:
  • R is for writer. Who are you?
  • A is for audience. Who will read your work?
  • F is for format. What type of writing will you do?
  • T is for topic. What will you be writing about?
A student could write as Cinderella, for example, thanking her fairy godmother for allowing her to go to the ball, or as George Washington, writing to his wife about the Revolutionary War.

Quickwrite

This is a good strategy for assessing student knowledge and comprehension on a topic. Ask students to take out a sheet of paper and write for 5–10 minutes, describing what they know about the topic and what they are still confused about or hoping to learn.

Seen the Movie?

Find a novel or historical text that has been made into a movie. Have students watch the movie and read the text, then compare and contrast the two versions. If you are using a historical text, see if the students can find inaccuracies or anachronisms in the film version.

Key Question Charts

Provide students with a controversial question, such as “Should companies be allowed to drill for oil in Alaska Artic National Wildlife Refuge?” Give students “pro” and “con” articles to read about the topic, and have them create a chart that lists the pro argument on one side and the con argument on the other. Ask the students to form an opinion of their own after carefully evaluating the data, and to provide a thorough analysis of their reasoning.

Diaries

Ask students to create a diary of a prominent or historical character related to the event or topic being studied—Thomas Jefferson, say, or a soldier in Vietnam. If more contemporary subjects are used, ask students to interview original sources with firsthand knowledge about the topic, and to compile their memories into a single diary that reflects how people thought and felt at the time of the event. Another form of this activity is to ask students to describe “a day in the life” of someone during the time period being studied, or to write a letter from that same perspective.

Rewriting Stories

Ask students to think of a story that they all know, such as “Little Red Riding Hood” or “Goldilocks,” and to list the places, characters, and events that the story features. After rereading the tale, have the students update the list and see what elements they forgot. For a more advanced version of this activity, ask students to read three or four different versions of the same fairy tale and list the ways in which they differ.

Read-Paraphrase

Having students rewrite in their own words what they've read helps them develop deeper levels of comprehension. Ask students to stop reading at regular intervals to do this. Begin by modeling what you want them to do, and then allow them to paraphrase text with partners or in small groups of three or four. Give students no more than three sections to read in a textbook, and ask them to write a summary of the key ideas in 20 words or fewer. As students become comfortable with the process, ask them to make observations or ask questions about the material. Have each group share its summaries as a lead-in to more in-depth study of the topic.

Pro-Con-Interesting Fact

Provide students with a controversial statement or question. Have them work in small groups to make a chart containing three columns labeled “Pro,” “Con,” and “Interesting Facts.” Ask students to research the topic and categorize the information they find under the three categories, form an opinion about the question, and then discuss their findings with the class.

Idea Web

Help students remember what they have learned by creating a wall graphic to represent their knowledge. On wall-sized mural paper, draw a circle in the center and write the name of the topic being studied. You might also write a question in the circle (e.g., “What do you think about the environment?” or “What is communism?”). Place chalk or markers in a basket in front of the mural. Tell students to approach the writing area in an orderly fashion and silently add to the mural by connecting a bubble with their own comments in it to the main bubble. Students may add as many links as they want, and may link to other people's comments as well as to the main bubble. You may participate as well, adding your own thoughts or ideas to the unfolding web. Allow plenty of wait time before deciding that the web is complete; students need time to read the comments and think about what has been added.
In another version of this strategy, pass a piece of paper around the room and have each student write something meaningful about the topic being studied. Have students sign their entries to ensure “seriousness” on their part.

Oxymorons

Have students collect oxymorons—terms that contain inherent contradictions, such as “true lies”—and add them to a classroom mural.

Book Symbols

Ask students to bring in five items that represent the book they have read and present them to the class, describing what they represent and why.

Modeling Children's Books

Many wonderful children's books can be used for patterning a new book. For example, you might ask students to read a book and create their own versions, employing the same patterns as the original. The books can then be presented to younger schoolmates as a holiday gift. This is a great activity for students serving as classroom reading buddies.

Conclusion

Learning to synthesize, evaluate, and process information in new ways is the key to preparing students for the world outside of school. We can no longer leave literacy development to language arts teachers. All teachers must learn to model their thinking processes and “make the invisible visible” to students. With the tightening of the higher-order thinking thread, the literacy weave will be complete.


Calendar for June:

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