KARCHER STAFF BLOG
Karcher 2016-2017 School Calendar
Student's of the week for
January 23 - January 27
- Riley Brossard: (Diamond)
- Riley has been putting in a great deal of effort getting caught up from when he was absent. He has a positive attitude and is always willing to do the extra in school.
- Tyler Edwardson: (Onyx)
- Tyler is an extremely hard worker who always puts his best effort forward. He worked hard to get caught up from when he was out sick, and he consistently keeps a positive attitude along the way. Thanks Tyler, and keep up the great work!
- Leah Beardsley: (Hive)
- Leah is an honest and compassionate young lady who pursues excellence in her academic subjects while being kind and considerate of others. She also continues to show courage in many ways.
- Kaelyn Davis: (Applied Academics)
- Kaelyn is a great example of the Karcher Way because she always puts forth her best effort. She is a kind and conscientious student.
- Minna Brown: (Silver)
- Minna's enthusiasm and tireless effort to promote 5th hour's Civil War Timeline. She goes above and beyond in all classes to achieve her goals!
- Marissa Escobar: (Karcher Character Bucks)
- Marissa is a hard working student that is always engaged in classroom activities. She is a great example of a person that follows the Karcher Way inside and out of the classroom.
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Kudos
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- Kurt Rummler was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK! Congrats Kurt and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits.
- Kudos to Mackenzie Ferstenou, Ben Hendricks, Matt Nie, and Matt Behringer for setting up the Bullying Assembly on Friday afternoon. It was impressive to see the leadership from DRIVEN and from our students.
- A big shout out to Scherrer Construction as well for making and donating our Buddy Bench. The process started months ago when I was contacted and jumped on the opportunity right away. There was behind the scenes work from Becky Sagedal for her assistance with the images needed for the bench so a shout out to her for assisting us - if you see her thank her! And to Matt for lining up Gwen Busch and the leadership students for the presentation of the Buddy Bench, just wish I was there for all the festivities!
- Kudos to Mike Jones, Donna Sturdevant, Andrea Hancock, Stephanie Rummler, Kurt Rummler, Eric Sulik, Marilee Hoffman, Scott Hoffman, Erika Fons, Kaylyn Waki, Jayme Pruszka, Cynthia Orzula, and Matt Behringer for your time assisting with FNL! The bouncy house was a hit and over 130+ students had a great place to come to on a Friday night :)
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Reminders
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- Teachers: Character Assembly Reminder
- Make sure you are going on to the Google Document that Brad Ferstenou shared with you for signing up for your character award students, each staff member is picking two students and we want to eliminate repeats.
- The certificates will be given to you at PLC this week with the goal of having them turned back into the main office by Monday, February 6 so that we have time to laminate them.
- Tuesday, January 31 - 8th grade assembly during iTime.
- Eric Burling will be at Karcher at the start of advisory to go over how to go about scheduling for their freshmen year.
- Once you have taken attendance and gone over the announcements please bring your advisory to the auditorium.
- Students may be slightly late to 1st hour due to the presentation.
- Tuesday, January 31 - just an FYI... Matt and I will both be at a WOW (Working on the Work) Conference at CESA 2 all day on Tuesday. The focus of WOW is around collaboration within teams and the work of PLCs.
- Wednesday, February 1 - Content Area Literacy PLC. Please bring a literacy strategy or your questions about a strategy to PLC so that you can discuss and collaborate with your content area for the development of your literacy strategy you will be utilizing in the next two weeks.
- Thursday, February 2 - Skyward scheduling training. This is a reschedule due to our ice day we had a few weeks back.
- Friday, February 3 - Teachers, your mid-year SLO should be submitted on MLP at this time.
- The steps and directions are linked onto our Karcher Calendar on Feb 3. If you need more time please just let me know.
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Pictures from the week
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Bowling club pictures!
Friday Night Live! Over 130+ students attended!
Article of the week: When moving into semester two our applied academic teachers will be infusing argumentative writing. I know some academic teachers infuse argumentative writing as well outside of the ELA teachers. This is just perfect timing when leading into the semester of argumentative writing being infused outside of the ELA teachers.
Why Argue?
Language arts, science, social studies, mathematics—the craft of argumentation belongs in every discipline.
The last year in the United States has torn families and friendships asunder as our political process became a maelstrom of demonizing, inflammatory language, and distortion. There has never been a more important time to teach young people to suspend judgment, weigh evidence, consider multiple perspectives, and speak up with wisdom and grace on behalf of themselves and others. Now more than ever, developing students' argumentation skills is part of the work of teaching literacy.
Argumentation is not just a skill for language arts classrooms—it is also a pathway to success in virtually every academic discipline. When taught well, argumentation can give students reasons to read more closely (including analyzing the logic of math, science, and social studies arguments) and help them develop more confident academic discourse. When we give students practice in both oral and written argument, they learn to
- • State a clear claim—clarifying the specific position they are defending.
- • Support their claims with reasoning and evidence.
- • Correlate evidence to support different ideas.
- • Cite authoritative sources to bolster their argument.
- • Create questions to deepen their understanding and illuminate complexity.
- • Revise their ideas and evidence to make a logical and compelling sequence.
- • Lead their audience through their argument with a clear introduction and sophisticated transitional phrases.
- • Consider opponents' strongest points so they can acknowledge or refute counterarguments.
- • Acknowledge nuance and conditionality.
At the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP), we became intensely engaged in argumentation in the wake of the Common Core and as the Next Generation Science Standards were being created. We fostered think tanks, study groups, and conversations with teachers across the content areas. We worked in classrooms, designed an annual argumentation institute, and created new argument units of study in 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. We also brought in researchers such as Deanna Kuhn from Columbia, Jonathan Osborne from Stanford, and Paul Deane and colleagues from the Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning Initiative (CBAL) at Educational Testing Service.
It's a good time to share this knowledge with teachers in all content areas so they can engage students in powerful discussion and debate and convince them that the world we inhabit is nuanced, complicated, and fascinating. Here are some ways to help argument flourish across the curriculum in your school.
Consider Starting with Talk
To work on raising the level of students' argument writing, we might start by working on student talk. This insight came from Paul Deane as he participated in a think tank organized by TCRWP and CBAL. After all, Dr. Deane posited, a major purpose of argument writing instruction is to develop students' logic and reasoning skills (Deane & Song, 2015; Kuhn, Hemberger, & Khait, 2016). Oral discussion provides an accessible way to begin developing these skills (Ehrenworth & Minor, 2014; Hohne & Taranto, 2014). In fact, one of the fastest ways to raise the level of students' argument writing is to raise the level of their talk—their argument discourse.
One of the most effective strategies the think tank developed was quick, one-on-one flash debates. Students may debate literary topics, such as whether a character is weak or strong, whether a character's decision was good or bad, or whether the story's setting would be a good or bad place to live. Students can also take sides on nonfiction topics they are researching in content areas: Big game hunting in African preserves—should it be allowed or not? Christopher Columbus—hero or villain? Which is the better historical method to achieve change—armed revolution or passive resistance? These debates often follow the "Argument Talk Protocol" shown on page 37.
Flash debating is a powerful method for quickly raising the level of students' argumentation skills. As students participate in flash debates, the teacher can circulate through the classroom and coach them on skills like stating a clear claim, backing their claim with evidence, and responding to counterclaims.
Because flash debating requires students to rehearse their arguments by quickly expressing them out loud and testing them on other learners, it's a powerful method for developing argument writing. The skills of planning efficiently and assessing the strength of their arguments on the run will also stand students in good stead when they take high-stakes assessments like the ACT, the SAT, and advanced placement or international baccalaureate exams.
Develop a Strategic Curriculum
For your students to become highly skilled in argument, they'll need opportunities for repeated practice. So when teaching argumentation, it's important to ask yourself, When will students get another chance to practice this skill set? If the answer is "Not until next year," then students will always remain apprentices. Here's a better answer: "We'll begin our argument work this year in language arts; then we'll follow up with an argument unit in social studies, and after that, an argument unit in science, and perhaps one in math."
In this kind of strategic curriculum, teachers plan for multiple moments when they'll purposefully integrate the argumentation skill set into instruction across the disciplines. (Of course, elementary teachers can do the same kind of planning by designing a series of units that run across several of the disciplines they teach and perhaps culminate in an interdisciplinary project.)
For instance, suppose that a middle school decided that students would practice argument writing throughout the year in language arts, social studies, and science. The sequence could begin in October in language arts in a unit on literary essay writing. Students would first engage in flash debates, learning how to orally support ideas with textual evidence and to compose literary arguments with coherent structure. Then, the essay writing unit would move on to nonfiction argument skills as students researched the pros and cons of competitive sports in schools, composed arguments, and gave speeches or panel presentations for peers, parents, and school leaders on whether competitive sports programs are an overall force for good in schools. The goal in this unit of study would be three-fold: to advance students from opinion and preferences to evidence-based reasoning; to move students from hunting for quotes to comparing and synthesizing nonfiction sources; and to solidly ground students in logical structure.
In November, social studies teachers would revisit that work and add citation skills and critical reading skills as students researched and composed position papers. Students would learn to sift conflicting perspectives, compare sources, and cite and analyze references, drawing on the ideas of Joy Hakim (2007) and Howard Zinn (2009) to take positions on whether the American Revolution radically changed conditions for many people. Students would revisit the flash debate protocol to compose and defend preliminary positions, researching both sides of an argument and incorporating text evidence. They would also learn new skills of comparing and analyzing sources and incorporating counter arguments.
In December, science teachers would guide students in arguing which form of renewable energy citizens should adopt. Students would once again tackle the work of suspending judgment and researching with an open mind, finding out more about the advantages and disadvantages of wind, solar, and hydroelectric power. They would apply their flash debate protocols to rehearse and test their arguments, but they would also learn about how math and visual representations are used in argumentation, as well as arguing for an audience and considering the context and conditions under which their argument would be strongest. This kind of curriculum planning allows complex layering of the curriculum as the skill of argumentation is revisited in many different contexts. At the same time, it frees each secondary teacher to not teach certain aspects of argument writing, knowing that another teacher will be adding to students' skill sets in a later instructional unit. As experienced teachers know, deciding what not to teach in each unit is as important as deciding what to teach. Putting boundaries on units of instruction makes them more manageable, sharp, and clear for both students and teachers.
*** What is written above with the strategic planning is what is occurring within the applied academic classes. Each teacher is infusing argumentative writing a minimum of once per term, discussing with each other when they are doing it so that it is spread out for the students, providing that repeated exposure throughout the semester.
