Meadow Park News
January 11th, 2019
Principal's Corner
Hello Meadow Park Families,
It has been an extremely positive and smooth start to the 2019 year. See below for our Happy New Year message that will be shared with students through Advisory lessons this week. We are looking forward to ending the semester strong - lots of important learning and lots of fun!
Make it a great week!
Jared Freeman
Principal
For Your Calendars
- Every Wednesday - All Students Released at 2:20 pm
- Have you taken our MYP Parent Survey?
- Wednesday, January 16th - PTO Meeting in the MP Library @ 7:00pm
- Monday, January 21st - No School - Holiday
- Tuesday, Jan. 22nd & Thursday, Jan. 24th - 8th Grade World Language Proficiency Assessment - STAMPS Assessment (see article below)
- Thursday, January 24th - Choir Concert @ 7:00pm - RESCHEDULED
- Friday, January 25th - Semester One Celebration - Special Assembly Schedule
- Monday, January 28th - No School - Grading Day
STAMPS World Language Assessment - 8th Graders Only
A World Language proficiency assessment will be offered on January 22 & 24, 2019 for all 8th graders within our Dual Language program and those who are not in the Dual Language (DL) program and are proficient in a language other than English such as Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin (Simplified and Traditional), Russian, and Spanish.
We are providing this opportunity to honor and recognize their bilingualism and biliteracy! All DL students will take the assessment and don’t need to register. If your child is not in our DL Program and you would like them to take the test, please register using this form no later than
Wednesday, January 16th before 4 pm, so we can order the appropriate test. The test is free!
7th Grade Humanities MYP Unit Highlight
Statement of Inquiry: Learning about connections between cultures allows us to see commonalities and interconnections across societies.
Social Studies Content: The purpose of this unit was to familiarize students with medieval civilizations (1100-1400) across the globe (Native Tribes North America and Latin/Central/South America, West African Kingdoms, Feudal Europe, Feudal Japan, Dynastic China, India, and the Islamic Empire). Through sharing research driven by individual interests, students were then asked to note similarities, differences, and patterns between medieval civilizations.
Transferable Skills: Organized note-taking on independent subject, reading non-fiction texts, inquiry-based research (follow your interests, develop questions to narrow your focus), evaluating credible sources, collaborating with others to present information, speech writing, public speaking, and informational essay writing.
Arc of the Unit: Students practiced organized note taking on short videos offering background information on medieval civilizations. They practiced non-fiction reading strategies, using a range of library books on multiple medieval civilizations. Then they chose one civilization to focus on. We looped non-fiction reading skills by starting everyone off with a text book, as they have been researched and reviewed. They took notes on aspects of the civilization they were interested in. We introduced the concept of GRAPES (geography, religion, achievements, political structure, economy, and social life) as a way to categorize information about civilizations. They chunked related information in their notes and labeled them with GRAPES. Then we introduced online library resources, and students continued following their interests and taking notes. Students looked over their notes and noticed which GRAPES topic they had the most information on--that topic would be their “expert topic.” They wrote a mini-essay telling the story of their research and explaining what they found out about their expert topic. They then found other people who had been researching the same civilization and coached them in sharing expertise and developing a plan for how to combine research into a presentation. They wrote scripts and created slides for their expert topic and collaborated to work on remaining topics. Groups presented to small audiences of 2-5 classmates, who rotated through presentations taking notes on the similarities and differences between the civilization they researched and the one being presented to them. These notes were then turned into a final paragraph of their essay, explaining the connections and patterns they noticed across one or more civilizations. Essays were read aloud to writing groups, who offered positive and constructive feedback, students revised in class, and submitted.
Teacher Collaboration
Level 1 Questioning
Level 2 Questioning
Level 3 Questioning
Food Donations NEEDED - Let's fill up our MP Food Pantry!
Our counseling team runs our food pantry. Counselors routinely take students and families through the food pantry whenever they are in need. We could use your support to help replenish this much needed resource! We are getting ready to kick off a food fundraiser, and we can use YOUR help!
Our most requested items have been placed on a BINGO card. When students bring in items off the BINGO card, they will get that item marked off on their card, and when they have gotten a BINGO, they can earn prizes at the PARK store. There will also be a big prize for filling out the whole card!
We hope this will be a fun way to help replenish our food pantry and come together as a community to help support one another! Here is an example of what the BINGO cards will look like. We are hoping to get this going next week, and have all food collected by the 24th of January!
We are so appreciative of our generous community, and all you do to help support our students and families!
About Meadow Park Middle School
Email: jared_freeman@beaverton.k12.or.us
Website: https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/schools/meadow-park/
Location: 14100 Southwest Downing Street, Beaverton, OR, USA
Phone: (503)356-2640
Facebook: facebook.com/meadowparkmiddleschool
Twitter: @mpmseagles