domingo, 15 de septiembre de 2019

2019-2020 Karcher Calendar

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KarcherMiddleSchool/

BASD Staff Blog: https://basdstaffnews.blogspot.com/

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Kudos

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Thank you to Eric Sulik and Jon Nelson for all of your behind the scenes work for our advisory lessons over the course of the first two weeks of school and for a great final Field Day for students! We really lucked out with the weather!!! Thank you also to Molly Ebbers for being the "grill master" for all of our staff and students! You better watch out because now we will be asking all the time :)))
Thank you to Ramon Alvarez and Bobbi Smith for taking on extra hours this week when we were short handed! Your flexibility and willingness is appreciated!
Thank you to Jon Nelson, Kurt Rummler, Mike Jones, and Stacy Stoughton for helping work the BHS football game this past Friday night! It is great to see the Karcher support there!

Article for the week:

On Formative Assessment

Edited by Marge Scherer

Table of Contents

Feed Up, Back, Forward

by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Teacher response is only one part of an effective feedback system. We must also set clear learning goals and let data influence instruction.

Like the sailors in Samuel Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" who see "water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink," teachers often feel awash in a resource that is of little help. Teachers have more assessment data about individual students at their fingertips than we could have imagined a decade ago. Unlike saltwater to a thirsty mariner, the data are of course highly usable resources for teachers. Yet many feel unable to "drink" the data around them because they don't have a system for processing it.

We recently saw a teacher collect literacy assessment data on her iPhone and then upload the scores instantly into the school's computer. It was impressive. When we asked how she planned to use this information, however, the teacher replied, "It's just a benchmark test I'm required to give; I don't really use the data." Therein lies the problem: A resource that could significantly enhance teaching and learning is left unused.

The solution is twofold. First, educators have to understand the three components of any powerful feedback system. Second, we have to align the multiple measures we use to create a coherent system of data collection, analysis, and instruction that responds to data in a way that lifts student achievement.

What Makes a Strong Feedback System?

Feedback is a powerful way to affect student achievement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Research consistently ranks feedback as among the strongest interventions at teachers' disposal (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). But feedback is a complex construct with at least three distinct components, which we call feed up, feed back, and feed forward. To fully implement a feedback system, teachers must use all three.

Feed Up: Clarify the Goal

The first component of an effective feedback system involves establishing a clear purpose. When students understand the ultimate goal, they are more likely to focus on the learning tasks at hand. Establishing a purpose is also crucial to a feedback system because when teachers have a clear overall purpose, they can align their various assessments. For example, when it's clear that the purpose of a unit is to compare insects and arthropods, students know what to expect and the teacher can plan readings, collaborative projects, investigations, and assessments to ensure that students focus on content related to this goal.

Feed Back: Respond to Student Work

The individual responses teachers give students about their work are the second component of a good feedback system, and the one that is most commonly recognized. These responses should directly relate to the learning goal. The best feedback provides students with information about their progress—or lack of it—toward that goal and suggests actions they can take to come closer to the expected standard (Brookhart, 2008). Ideally, teachers give feedback as students complete discrete tasks that are part of a larger project so that students can use teachers' suggestions to better master content and improve their performance on the larger project.

For example, in a unit on writing high-quality introductions, a teacher gave students multiple opportunities to introduce topics using such techniques as beginning with a question or startling statistic, leading off with an anecdote, and so on. The teacher provided students feedback on each introduction they wrote so students could revise that introduction and use the suggestions to improve their next attempt. Rather than simply noting mechanical errors, the teacher acknowledged areas of success and highlighted things students might focus on sharpening.

Feed Forward: Modify Instruction

This formative aspect of a feedback system is often left out. In an effective feedback system, teachers use assessment data to plan future instruction; hence the term feed forward. As teachers look at student work, whether from a checking-for-understanding task or a common formative assessment, they use what they learn to modify their teaching. This demands greater flexibility in lesson planning because it means that teachers can't simply implement a set series of lessons.

For example, student groups in one 3rd grade class we observed each completed a collaborative poster in response to a word problem. Students had to answer the questions in each problem using words, numbers, and pictures. A typical problem read, "Six students are sitting at each table in the lunchroom. There are 23 tables. How many students are in the lunchroom?" Nearly every group got the wrong answer to its problem. Given this information, the teacher knew she needed to provide more modeling to the entire class on how to solve word problems.

Another teacher noted that six of his students regularly capitalized random words in sentences. Mauricio, for example, incorrectly capitalized fun, very, and challenge. Considering that the other students were not making this error, the teacher knew that a whole-class intervention was unnecessary. Instead, he provided additional instruction for the six students who consistently capitalized at random.

This article will continue next week...

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Information/Reminders

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New building information/district facility needs:

High School gymnastics is in need of a different locker room.

The old locker room where they used to be cannot be used moving forward. Eric Plitzuweit, Dan Bocock, and myself walked some spaces to determine what would work best and came up with the "storage" locker room across from the concession stand in the vestibule area. Currently it is being used for PE storage, school storage, random storage of different items...
So... in order for the space to work for the high school gymnastics team everything in that space needs to be housed else where!

Our PE department will be moving their items out of main space and will still have access to the caged area.
If there are items in there for clubs or youth sports that you might be aware of please inform groups that all items need to be stored in a different location.

All items need to be moved by October 15! If you have any questions let me know!

Press Box:

Eric Plitzuweit will be working on removing all items from the press box as Scherrer will be demoing the press box sooner rather than later. If you have any items in the press box for a team or club please relocate it asap!

Shed by the tennis courts:

All contents inside the shed need to be removed as the shed also needs to go for the new building to come onboard.
The track and field mats that are used will be housed at the high school until track season starts. We will then determine a location to store them at that time.
Eric Plitzuweit and Dan Bocock will be organizing the removal of all other items in the shed. If there are items you believe belong in a certain location please let me know.

This week:

Monday, September 16 -

Leadership Students Field Trip to Camp MacLean.

Questions please see Brad Ferstenou or Stephanie Rummler

Start of iReady testing within our ELA classrooms. ELA teachers can use any three days during the week to test so please be mindful of your classroom noise levels and hallways noise during testing weeks.
BLT Meeting in the large conference room from 2:40 - 3:30.

Please share any questions/concerns with a BLT member and we will discuss at BLT.

Tuesday, September 17

Start of first iTime rotation
Student locations has been added to the first page of the Karcher Calendar (middle column)
8th grade Washington DC meeting in the library @ 7:00pm

Thursday, September 19

Start of Bowling Club!

Friday, September 20

Boys Choir Field Trip

Looking ahead:

Monday, September 23

Start of iReady math testing week.
District Essential Skills Committee Meeting @ 3:45-5:15 in our Karcher library.

Tuesday, September 24 - Special Education Department Meeting in the small conference room from 2:40-3:15. Please let Alyssa Riggs know if there are any agenda items you would like to discuss.
Wednesday, September 25

PLC focus: Essential Skills and/or Strategy and Skill groups.

Friday, September 27

Danish Invasion in our 8th grade advisories!!!
7th grade BASD School Forest Field Trip.

Any questions... ask Barb Berezowitz or Andrea Hancock

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Pictures from the week

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Students working through stations with Patti Tenhagen!

Morning announcements - "News Crew"

Field Day!!!

domingo, 8 de septiembre de 2019

2019-2020 Karcher Calendar

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KarcherMiddleSchool/

BASD Staff Blog: https://basdstaffnews.blogspot.com/

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Kudos

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Thank you to our advisory team, Eric Sulik, Jon Nelson, and Sue Bekken for making tweaks and adjustments to our advisory plans so that week one ran smoothly!
Thank you to Donna Sturdevant and Stacy Stoughton for being Ann and my arms during the day one assembly... though the thought of the idea was there it was SOOOOO hot and we apologize for having to be so close to us for a significant amount of time! We thank you for your willingness to probably be uncomfortable and doing it anyway!
Thank you to Bobbi Smith and Ramon Alvarez for taking on more hours this week when we were short some support - your flexibility and willingness is appreciated!

Article for the week:

September 2019 | Volume 77 | Number 1
What New Teachers Need Pages 30-35

Issue Table of Contents | Read Article Abstract

Focusing on the Essentials

Mike Schmoker

We're on the brink of a "Golden Age" in education. To get there, teachers must master these three indispensable competencies

Earlier this year, Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, wrote that if schools zeroed in on high-leverage classroom practices, we could be on the cusp of a "golden age" of education (2019). He's right. But for this to happen, we must first acknowledge "the awful inertia of decades": our long drift into inferior instructional practices that now dominate the school day (Fullan, 2010). Then we must address its root cause: our equally unfocused preservice and professional training. If our schools are to enter an "era of unprecedented effectiveness" (Marzano, 2003), then teacher development must (1) end its addiction to novelty and embrace evidence-based priority, and (2) make practical, demonstrated mastery of best practices its urgent and explicit goal.

The opportunity for immense, immediate progress becomes clear when we take an unblinking look at what goes on in average classrooms. Brace yourself.

Ripe for Improvement

When I tour schools and classrooms with on-site administrators, we never lament the possible absence of instructional technology, personalized-learning strategies, or other popular (but largely unproven) "innovations." We do lament the omnipresence of worksheets; the startling disparities in the content taught by teachers teaching the same course in the same school building; the ubiquitous "cut, color, and paste" activities that masquerade as literacy instruction in the primary grades (Ford & Opitz, 2002); and the widespread inattentiveness among the students, abetted by the tradition of calling on only those who raise their hands—while the rest sit, passive and bored. We note the paucity of authentic reading and writing activities, even in courses where they should predominate. And we bemoan the near absence of the most critical elements of effective teaching, such as quick, frequent "checks for understanding," which can double or triple the success rate on daily lessons.

The ubiquity of these poor practices is made evident by decades of classroom observation research (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Good & Brophy, 1997). They amount to "hundreds of hours of wasted class time" every year, in the great majority of schools (Kane & Steiner, 2019). For researchED's Eric Kalenze (2014), these findings constitute an educational system that is "upside down"—in which the most potent, proven practices are the least implemented, even as ineffective, time-wasting practices are astonishingly common.

But take heart: These stark assessments also point to a system that is ripe for improvement—because even reasonably effective (but radically reoriented) teacher training could turn things right side up, and the impact on student learning would be both swift and decisive.

Let's begin by looking at the most vital competencies every teacher should acquire if we want this to happen. I would emphasize that none of them are particularly exotic or difficult to implement.

1. Clear, Coherent Curriculum

To end our addiction to worksheets and unproductive practices, every teacher should learn to develop a coherent, content-rich curriculum with their colleagues—a clear, easy-to-follow schedule of "what to teach and when" (Darling-Hammond, 2010, p. 295). So start with curriculum; all else issues from this.

And don't be duped by those who claim that curriculum can only be provided by some prominently endorsed (but unproven) commercial program (Schmoker, 2019). The most notable successes occur in schools and districts whose teachers build their own admittedly imperfect curriculum: That's how schools like Mather Elementary in Massachusetts, Adlai Stevenson High School in Illinois, and Brockton High School in Massachusetts realized immediate—and enduring—gains.1 Good home-grown curriculum respects teacher time and expertise, as well as state and local contexts, and it doesn't succumb to the exigencies of market forces.

A "mountain of evidence" attests to the fact that a reasonably coherent curriculum, liberally infused with reading, discussion, and writing assignments, is the single-largest factor affecting student learning (Marzano, 2003; Sahm, 2017). Just as important, it eliminates the most egregious, time-wasting activities that now occupy so much of the school day.

Once such a curriculum is in place, teachers can concentrate on the most impactful practices for delivering it effectively.

2. Sound Instruction

Every teacher should have in-depth training in the following instructional elements. They should learn how to:

▪ Write clear, student-friendly learning targets, which clarify how the target will be assessed. By themselves, these ensure appreciably higher rates of success on daily lessons (Hattie, 2009).
▪ Employ simple procedures (such as proximity) for ensuring that every student is attentive during instruction—with their eyes are on the teacher, ready to learn (Lemov, 2015).
▪ Develop a compelling introduction for each lesson: a one- or two-minute preview or "pitch" to help students see the relevance of the day's lesson.
▪ Deliver explicit, step-by-step instruction—in multiple, briskly paced cycles. For each step, teachers must learn to:
- Introduce or model new knowledge or procedures in small, "bite-sized" chunks.
- Follow with an opportunity for students to practice a procedure or process new information.
- Quickly circulate while students practice—to determine if the class needs additional clarification or
- modeling—before moving on to the next step.

All this being said, of course there are times when we would modify—or even suspend—these procedures for certain independent work and projects. As Hattie (2014) makes clear, students should be allowed to work with less explicit guidance once they have acquired the knowledge and skills prerequisite to the completion of a given task.

But training in these essential elements of instruction can have an outsized impact. For years, the Flowing Wells Unified School District in my then-hometown of Tucson, Arizona, eschewed every regnant pedagogical fad in order to deeply train and retrain every teacher in these instructional elements. As a result, they had some of the greatest gains in the state for over a decade—and almost no teacher turnover (Schmoker, 2018). Harry Wong, the renowned expert on teacher effectiveness, once told me that Flowing Wells was the best school district he'd ever come across.

If such skill were brought to bear in more schools—just on literacy instruction alone—the results would be breathtaking.

3. Authentic Literacy (Reading, Discussion, and Writing)

For E.D. Hirsch, literacy is integral to curriculum and "the most important single goal of schooling" (2010, p. 31). To truly deepen literacy development across grade levels, teachers should provide instruction in the following key areas of literacy (though few are):

Phonics Instruction: There has never been more agreement that every K–1 teacher (at least) must be taught to provide systematic phonics instruction (Pimentel, 2018). Moreover, a larger proportion of this instruction should be taught to entire classes, all at the same time. Our current overreliance on teaching to small, ability-based groups is not only less effective, but it can "exacerbate achievement gaps" (Sparks, 2018). It has also greatly reduced the instructional time students receive during the all-important K–2 literacy block (Ford & Opitz, 2002).

Quantity of Reading and Writing: No educator should ever be allowed to forget that literacy requires that students read (and are read to) "a great deal more [emphasis added] than students read today" (Gewertz, 2010); that they must consume "a huge volume and range of texts," including grade-appropriate texts (Pondiscio & Mahnken, 2014); or that struggling readers must "read voraciously" to catch up with their peers (Gallagher, 2009, p. 43).

Students should read and/or be read to for a minimum of 60 minutes daily, across the curriculum, at every grade level. And they should write for at least 40 minutes (Allington, 2011; Shanahan, personal communication). In such amounts, reading and writing would have a game-changing impact on all learning.

Reading to Learn: Every teacher should know how to:

▪ Scaffold to introduce every text with a brief review of the difficult vocabulary students will encounter, along with some amount of background knowledge. This simple step increases students' ability to comprehend text by multiple grade levels (Schmoker, 2018).
▪ Craft a higher-order "guiding" question for the text (whether a book chapter, textbook section, poem, or article) to provide purpose—and promote concentration and comprehension.
▪ Model and instruct students in how to underline, annotate, and take notes as they read (the frequency of which depends on the text; for example, novels typically demand less annotation than poetry or short nonfiction) (Gallagher, 2009). Notetaking itself ranks near the top of the most effective teaching strategies (Marzano, 2003).

Discussion: Virtually all text-based learning should be punctuated with—and then culminate in—focused talk, sometimes in pairs and at other times in extended full-class discussions or debates. All teachers should be able to instruct students in how to speak clearly, audibly, logically, and with civility. When I do demonstration lessons, it is often apparent to me that students aren't learning these essential communication skills, which rank at the top of what employers want (Gewertz, 2018).

Writing—and Writing Instruction: English classes are the primary province of writing instruction. But every teacher should know how to (1) incorporate appropriate amounts of writing into their subject area, and (2) teach students to write a claim, cite evidence to support that claim, and then satisfactorily explain how their evidence supports the claim. These simple skills, implemented regularly, have had a dramatic impact on both test scores and authentic writing ability in multiple schools (Schmoker, 2018).

These three essential elements—curriculum, sound instruction, and authentic literacy—and their subsidiary practices are the primary, fundamental drivers of schooling and its improvement. And yet they are rarely implemented (Schmoker, 2018).

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Information/Reminders

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Mandatory Trainings for all staff to complete:

Send completion to Kim Moss for:

Send completion to Jill Sheeley for:

Bloodbourne Pathogens Training

Remember to share your summer fun as we will be posting these slides on the walls in the staff lounge! It is always fun to see what everyone was up to!

Sub Plans:

All special education aides please make sure you give a copy of your sub plans to Lisa Iniguez by September 13!

This week:

Monday, September 9:

Staff Meeting from 2:40 - 3:00 in our library.

Our focus will be:

Field Day information
iTime
Huddle Time
Infusion of literacy across all classrooms.

District MTSS Committee Meeting from 3:45-5:15 in the Karcher library.
BASD Annual Board Meeting in the BHS auditorium @ 7:00pm

Tuesday, September 10 - Picture Day

Special Education Department Meeting 2:40-3:15
BHS Open House from 5:30-7:15

Wednesday, September 11 - First PLC in the library.

Will roll out our PLC plan!

Friday, September 13 - Field Day!!!

Looking ahead:

Monday, September 16 -

Leadership Students Field Trip to Camp MacLean.

Questions please see Brad Ferstenou or Stephanie Rummler

Start of iReady testing within our ELA classrooms. ELA teachers can use any three days during the week to test so please be mindful of your classroom noise levels and hallways noise during testing weeks.
BLT Meeting in the large conference room from 2:40 - 3:30.