KARCHER STAFF BLOG
Karcher 2017-2018 School Calendar
Students of the week!!!!!!!
(Running slide show)
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KarcherMiddleSchool/
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Kudos
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- Kudos to our boys basketball teams and coaches on a great season!!! Our coaches were: Kurt Rummler, Eric Sulik, Mike Jones, and Ryan Hoffman!
- Kudos to our wrestling team as they went undefeated on the year and won the conference tournament this weekend!!! Congrats to Coach Mike Wallace (BASD Building Engineer), Coach Jason Kawzinski and Coach Luke Iverson (past Karcher and BHS graduate) and to the team for a GREAT season!
- Thank you Katherine Botsford, Kelly Fulton, Patti Tenhagen, Grace Jorgenson, and Andrea Hancock for helping with coverage so that our applied academic teachers can vertically work with the HS for PLCs this past week and this week! Really appreciate it!
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This week's article...
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Book: How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading by Susan M. Brookhart
Chapter 9. Rubrics and Formative Assessment: Sharing Learning Targets with Students
Learning targets describe what the student is going to learn, in language that the student can understand and aim for during today's lesson (Moss & Brookhart, 2012). Learning targets include criteria that students can use to judge how close they are to the target, and that is why rubrics (or parts of rubrics, depending on the focus of the lesson) are good vehicles for sharing learning targets with students.
The idea that students will learn better if they know what they are supposed to learn is so important! Most teacher preparation programs emphasize instructional objectives, which are a great planning tool for teachers. However, instructional objectives are written in teacher language ("The student will be able to … "). Not only are the students referred to in third person, but the statements about what they will be able to do are in terms of evidence for teachers. In contrast, learning targets must imply the evidence that students should be looking for. Sometimes, for simple targets, instructional objectives can be turned into learning targets by simply making them first-person ("I will know I have learned this when I can … "). More often, however, the language of the evidentiary part of the learning target—what students will look for—also needs to be written and demonstrated in terms students will understand. After all, if most of your students understand what your instructional objective means, you probably don't need to teach the lesson.
The most powerful way to share with students a vision of what they are supposed to be learning is to make sure your instructional activities and formative assessments (and, later, your summative assessments) are performances of understanding. A performance of understanding embodies the learning target in what you ask students to actually do. To use a simple, concrete example, if you want students to be able to use their new science content vocabulary to explain meiosis, design an activity in which students have to use the terms in explanations. That would be a performance of understanding. A word-search activity would not be a performance of understanding for that learning target because what the students would actually be doing is recognizing the words.
Performances of understanding show students, by what they ask of them, what it is they are supposed to be learning. Performances of understanding develop that learning through the students' experience doing the work. Finally, performances of understanding give evidence of students' learning by providing work that is available for inspection by both teacher and student. Not every performance of understanding uses rubrics. For those that do, however, rubrics support all three functions (showing, developing, and giving evidence of learning).
The most powerful way to share with students a vision of what they are supposed to be learning is to make sure your instructional activities and formative assessments (and, later, your summative assessments) are performances of understanding. A performance of understanding embodies the learning target in what you ask students to actually do. To use a simple, concrete example, if you want students to be able to use their new science content vocabulary to explain meiosis, design an activity in which students have to use the terms in explanations. That would be a performance of understanding. A word-search activity would not be a performance of understanding for that learning target because what the students would actually be doing is recognizing the words.
Performances of understanding show students, by what they ask of them, what it is they are supposed to be learning. Performances of understanding develop that learning through the students' experience doing the work. Finally, performances of understanding give evidence of students' learning by providing work that is available for inspection by both teacher and student. Not every performance of understanding uses rubrics. For those that do, however, rubrics support all three functions (showing, developing, and giving evidence of learning).
How to use rubrics to share learning targets and criteria for success
Use rubrics to share learning targets and criteria for success with students when the learning target requires thinking, writing, analyzing, demonstrating complex skills, or constructing complex products. These are the kinds of learning targets for which checklists or other simple devices cannot fully represent the learning outcomes you intend students to reach. This section presents several strategies for using rubrics to develop in students' minds a conception of what it is they are supposed to learn and the criteria by which they will know to what degree they have learned it. Use one or more of these strategies, or design your own.
Use rubrics to share learning targets and criteria for success with students when the learning target requires thinking, writing, analyzing, demonstrating complex skills, or constructing complex products. These are the kinds of learning targets for which checklists or other simple devices cannot fully represent the learning outcomes you intend students to reach. This section presents several strategies for using rubrics to develop in students' minds a conception of what it is they are supposed to learn and the criteria by which they will know to what degree they have learned it. Use one or more of these strategies, or design your own.
Ask students to pose clarifying questions about the rubrics
If rubrics are well constructed, and if students understand the performance criteria and quality levels encoded into them, then the Proficient level of the rubrics describes what learning looks like. An obvious but often overlooked strategy for finding out how students think about anything, including rubrics, is to ask them what is puzzling (Chappuis & Stiggins, 2002; Moss & Brookhart, 2009). Here is an organized way to do that:
- Give students copies of the rubrics. Ask them, in pairs, to discuss what the rubrics mean, proceeding one criterion at a time.
- As they talk, have them write down questions. These should be questions the pairs are not able to resolve themselves.
- Try to resolve the questions with peers. Put two or three pairs together for groups of four or six. Again, students write down any questions they still can't resolve.
- Collect the final list of questions and discuss them as a whole group. Sometimes these questions will illuminate unfamiliar terms or concepts, or unfamiliar attributes of work. Sometimes the questions will illuminate a lack of clarity in the rubrics and result in editing the rubrics.
If rubrics are well constructed, and if students understand the performance criteria and quality levels encoded into them, then the Proficient level of the rubrics describes what learning looks like. An obvious but often overlooked strategy for finding out how students think about anything, including rubrics, is to ask them what is puzzling (Chappuis & Stiggins, 2002; Moss & Brookhart, 2009). Here is an organized way to do that:
- Give students copies of the rubrics. Ask them, in pairs, to discuss what the rubrics mean, proceeding one criterion at a time.
- As they talk, have them write down questions. These should be questions the pairs are not able to resolve themselves.
- Try to resolve the questions with peers. Put two or three pairs together for groups of four or six. Again, students write down any questions they still can't resolve.
- Collect the final list of questions and discuss them as a whole group. Sometimes these questions will illuminate unfamiliar terms or concepts, or unfamiliar attributes of work. Sometimes the questions will illuminate a lack of clarity in the rubrics and result in editing the rubrics.
Ask students to state the rubrics in their own words
The classic comprehension activity is to put something in your own words. Reading teachers have beginning readers retell stories. Teachers at all grade levels give students directions and, to check for understanding, say, "What are you going to do?" Friends and relatives, when finding you cannot tell them what they said, become justifiably annoyed and snap, "Weren't you listening?" Asking students to state the rubrics in their own words is more than just finding "student-friendly language." It is a comprehension activity. Having students state rubrics in their own words will help them understand the rubrics and will give you evidence of their understanding.
*** Please discuss in team time.
*** Please discuss in team time.
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Information/Reminders...
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As we work through our Winter MAP assessments I wanted to share our School Improvement Goals with everyone. Below you can see our Spring goals for MAP. The numbers in the ( ) indicate the score students need to hit to be in the 65th percentile or higher. The 65th percentile is the percentile that correlates to college and career readiness. There is no ( ) for Language Arts because NWEA does not have correlation data for Language Arts to college readiness. What this means is that students scoring in the 65th percentile or higher are likely to score at least a 22 on their ACT as a junior. An ACT score of a 22 is considered college and career ready. Our goal is to get as many students at or above the 65th percentile as we can!
- Math teachers... it is your week to have students send an email home to their parents/guardians!
- Math MAP testing will be taking place this week in our math classrooms. Please continue to limit the number of students in the halls and noise levels in order to assist with proper testing environments.
- Monday, January 14 - BLT Meeting from 2:40 - 3:30 in the conference room.
- Tuesday, January 16 - 7th grade math teachers... you will be getting the course selection sheets in alpha order in order to make math selections for our current 7th grade students for their 8th grade year.
- Please keep them in alpha order and return them to the main office by January 19, Friday.
- Wednesday, January 17 - Essential Skills PLC.
- Our applied academic teachers will be traveling to the HS and working with the elective area teachers in the library for this PLC. I will be traveling to the HS as well for this PLC.
- All other PLC groups can work in their classrooms and Ryan will be in the building to assist.
- Monday, January 22 - Staff Meeting in the library. We will use this time for teams to touch base for the next TWO iTime rotations.
- Rotation #4 and #5.
- Tuesday, January 23 - End of term 2!!!
- The grading window will open on January 15 and close on January 25 @ 3:00pm.
- January 22 and 23 will be our Character Assemblies!
- Teachers... please make sure you pick your two students and note your choices on the Google Document so that we do not have repeat students for the assembly.
- The awards will be placed in your mailbox sometime this week. Please attach your written information to the back of the awards for each student.
- Family Feud Sign-up.
- Questions see Brad Ferstenou or Stephanie Rummler.
- January 24 - Full Day Inservice from 8:00 - 4:00.
- There have been some minor adjustments to the inservice on January 24. The time at the high school may increase slightly from the below schedule but a minimal increase. Here is the schedule:
- Everyone:
- 7:30 - 8:00 (BHS Auditorium) will be a voluntary meeting with Michael Bruner, WEA rep, to share information on the Vitality Program. Anyone interested can attend.
- 8:00 - 9:00 (BHS Auditorium)
- Longevity Awards and Top Ten Social Media Tips.
- 9:00 - 11:30 (Karcher) Work time.
- 11:30 - 12:30 - Lunch on your own.
- 12:30 - 1:15 - Building Level values exercise with all staff. (Karcher library)
- Teachers:
- 1:15 - 4:00 - Work time.
- Aides:
- 1:30 - 3:00 - Professional development in the Karcher library with all aides grades 7-12.
- 3:00 - 4:00 - Work time.
- Next FNL will be on February 2 from 6:00 - 7:30!
- Please email Mike Jones and Donna Sturdevant if you are able to volunteer to help!
Pictures from this past week!
Our Wrestling team finished their undefeated season this weekend with a final win at the conference tournament as Conference Champions! What a great season for our wrestling program!!!
Boys basketball finished their season this weekend. The 7th grade Burlington Black took first place at the tournament! Great season for all students and coaches!
Students in 8th grade choir composing their own musical pieces!
7th grade science students in Ms. Berezowitz and Ms. Hancock's rooms making observations about how hydra consume food and move!
