Hawk Herald
News and Notes for Teachers- October 15
Dear Staff
THe focus continues to be student talk and language scaffolds.We have many of our students that depend on interactions and scaffolds to be successful. I have included data from our tardies and our Ds and Fs. As a staff we need to think of all the ways we support our students that are struggling. We don't want to lose them. Students that learn in other ways or are emerging English learners can learn and it is our job to support them.
Jose and I are doing walkthroughs for our district data. The content of the walkthrough tool is shown below. The focus is a district picture and doesn't target individual teachers. Just keep up the great strategies you have been using.
Have a great week.
Mary
You can also find the newsletter on the staff site: https://sites.google.com/s/1SjSeFfxxwSRXBST5kSiFveh4FE9oJGzf/p/1THdxl0yds0eMmtRgZztwYmX4TxQq4Otl/edit
Tardy data
10/4- 7 tardies over 2 periods
10/5- 10 tardies over 3 periods
10/11-10 tardies over 3 periods
Conferences times
Wednesday evening-11/7 5:00-8:30 and
Thursday evening-11/8 5:00-8:30
Dinner will be provided on Wednesday.
Academic Seminar: PLCs Wed.
Data for the mid-quarter
- 7th grade: Math 41; LA 31 ;Sci 16; Social St 45
- 8th grade: Math 19; LA 40; Sci 43; Social St 72
ELL & SPED Data
- 7th grade: Math 31; LA 21; Sci 10; Social St 31
- 8th grade: Math 15; LA 28; Sci 32; Social St 50
Demographics
16% SPED
16% EL active
13% EL monitored
52% Hispanic, 32% White;
29% DL
48% Free and reduced lunch
Meetings and Events
Monday-15-installation of computers starts
Check the advisory calendar for daily lessons
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=barrazaj@hsd.k12.or.us
- Climate and culture meeting 3:00-4:00 (those available)
Tuesday-16
- Team Meetings-https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1339OnmkMEfKlkmdlzSxwFnSKXFNYBKzXieRsw_xzYUs/edit#gid=1301180161
Wednesday-17
- PLCs
- Attendance meeting 10:10
Thursday-18 Picture Re-takes
- Oregon Shake-out 10:18 (see advisory calendar)
- Team Meetings
- Coaches meeting 12:45
Friday-19 -Jose is out of the building
- Leadership meeting 7:30
- LA adoption meeting at SMMS(library closed)Parking may be tight
Classroom Walkthrough Tool
Purpose:
HSD Focus: Teach to standard, posted objective, students know what and why they are learning
Is the lesson based on grade-level standards? http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/results/?id=54
- No
- Yes
*Purpose of the Lesson
Clearly stated in the form of an objective, essential question or learning target
- No evidence
- Yes but student task does not align to the objective
- Yes (on wall or on INBs)
- Yes including a language objective
*Students know the purpose of the lesson
- No, students only describe the activity
- Yes, students know the what of the lesson
- Yes, students know the why of the lesson
- Yes, students know the why, what and how the lesson connects to life
Engagement:
HSD Focus: Intellectual work- DOK, Student Talk and Language Scaffolds, interactive notebooks and note-taking/cornell Notes
Depth of Knowledge: What is the highest level and quality of the intellectual work in which students are engaged?
- Students are not involved in a task
- DOK 1 - Students show and tell
- DOK 2 - Students locate, find, or identify information in order to answer a question (the question focuses on a skill or concept such as what is the main idea, what is the cause and effect or compare and contrast, etc...)
- DOK 3 - Students uses logical reasoning to prove why their answer, conclusion, hypothesis is correct (open ended response with many possible correct answers) with evidence.
- DOK 4: Students are responding in depth, extended their thinking, creating ways to solve or develop something in a new way. The task requires sorting, gathering, evaluating, analyzing and synthesizing information from several sources (e.g.,Performance Task).
*Out of minutes observed, what percentage of time included authentic student discourse?:
- No Discourse
- 1% - 10%
- 11% - 25%
- 26% - 49%
- 50% -75%
- 75% - 100%
*Are there language scaffolds accessible to students?
- No evidence
- Yes, but students don't access them
- Yes, and students access them
- Yes, and scaffolds are differentiated
Are students using a note-taking tool?
- No evidence
- Two & Three column notes
- Cornell notes
- Other student directed/created notes
Are language scaffolds accessible to students?
- No evidence
- Yes, but students don't access them.
- Yes, and scaffolds are differentiated.
HSD Focused: Formative assessment used daily
Is the teacher using any form of formative assessment in order to gather information about student learning?
- Yes
- No
*What percentage of students are involved in providing feedback of their learning to the teacher?
- None
- 1% - 25%
- 25% - 50%
- 51% - 75%
- 76% - 100%
What formative assessment strategies did you observe the teacher using?
- None
- Sticks of opportunity
- Physical Response (e.g., fist to 5, thumbs up or down, stand up)
- Teacher circulating room and providing feedback
- Teacher writing anecdotal notes
- Students turn in an exit ticket/response
- use of digital tool
- other
How are the key components of a healthy PLC evidenced in the classroom as well as PLC meetings? Is there evidence that:
- no evidence of PLC participation
- PLC meets to plan but doens't use data
- Data is used for strategic grouping/reteach
- Consistency of the use of assessment strategies and tools throughout team.
- Students receive the remediation, intervention and/or acceleration they need instructionally.
HSD Focus: Classroom Environment and Culture
Classroom physical arrangement, resources, and scaffolding are applicable to the content and accessible to all students( EL,TAG,SPED,504 and/or underserved students)
- strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 strongly agree
Instruction time is maximized in the service of learning through efficient transitions, management routines, and positive classroom discipline.
- strongly disagree1 2 3 4 5 strongly agree
Student engagement is maximized as evidenced by..
- Collaborative structures(pair share, numbered heads together, socratic seminar etc)
- Culturally relevant Instruction (windows & mirrors, AVID Culturally Relevant Classrooms etc.)
- Inclusive Practices ( strategic groupings, language supports, accommodations, trauma informed practices etc.)
- Risk Taking (Growth Mindset, Mistakes are learning opportunities, respect for differences etc,)
- no evidence
Re-engineering Learning with Curiosity in Mind
In his new book Out of Curiosity, Bryan Goodwin (McREL) says that children’s inborn curiosity will be nurtured or extinguished, depending on the learning experiences they have. “We cannot make students become curious,” says Goodwin; “rather, we must lead them to it by creating environments and opportunities for curiosity to flourish.” He lists the classroom conditions than encourage and support this critically important life skill:
- Manageable knowledge gaps – Incomplete sequences, unfinished sentences, cliffhangers, riddles, and puzzles naturally spark curiosity.
- Guessing and receiving feedback – Being corrected on an inaccurate guess is especially helpful (assuming a low-stakes environment in which mistakes are okay).
- Incongruities – Encountering something that runs counter to our expectations (for example, that winds blowing from mountaintops into valleys can sometimes be warm) naturally sparks curiosity.
- Controversy – Researchers have found that getting students involved in a pro-and-con debate on an intriguing topic produces engagement, motivation, and curiosity.
- Someone knows something we don’t – This might be called the “I have a secret” dynamic, which often leads to questions and exploration.
- Different-lens questions – Students are asked to look at a subject from a different perspective – for example, considering a science question from an ethical standpoint.
- Mash-up questions – Students consider two seemingly unrelated ideas or apply what they’ve just learned in a completely novel context.
Goodwin goes on to present seven “curiosity principles” for schools to consider:
• Embrace not knowing. “Curiosity involves an element of risk taking,” he says. “We must delve into an area we know little about or where we feel incompetent. And we’re more likely to do that when we feel safe to admit we don’t know something. Thus, we need to help our kids see that it’s OK to profess ignorance, yet a shame to profess indifference.”
• Ask fewer, deeper questions. Peppering students with questions is quite common in classrooms, but many of them are at a low level of cognition and ask students to do little more than recall what’s been covered. A smaller number of questions focused on higher-level thinking will spark more thought and curiosity. Goodwin suggests applying this principle to the time-honored question when a child gets home from school: What did you learn in school today? Some alternatives: What surprised you today? When did you feel joyful today? What are you wondering about now?
• Replace undirected with directed questions. Posing questions to the whole class often results in a few eager beavers raising their hands and 80 percent of students sitting passively while the familiar back-and-forth plays out. Better to cold-call specific students or use “numbered heads together:” the teacher poses a question, groups of four students consider a response, the teacher then calls on individuals by their number in a group.
• Use questions to provoke thought versus seeking correct answers. Many students avoid answering teachers’ questions for fear of making a mistake and being embarrassed; quizzing students on what they’re supposed to have learned can trigger these emotions. Better to pose open-ended questions and create a climate in which students feel safe making mistakes and develop courage, confidence, and curiosity.
• Use wait time. When teachers pause for three or four seconds after posing a question, the length and quality of responses increases and students are more likely to ask questions of their own.
• Let students follow their curiosity. What one person finds interesting, another may not, so students need latitude to explore and find the areas that pique their curiosity and passion. “[C]uriosity is more likely to flourish,” says Goodwin, “when kids are free to pursue their own interests alongside supportive adults who offer well-timed nudges to guide their explorations and keep their curiosity alive.”
• Go play outdoors. Recent research suggests that the best “medicine” for bored, incurious, video-game-obsessed kids is a dose of sunshine, fresh air, and unstructured play.
Resources
An online site for students to publish their science research – In this article in American Educator, Olivia Ho-Shing describes the Journal of Emerging Investigators, a nonprofit online science publication to which middle and high-school students can submit original research, receive feedback from expert scientists, and have their work published. It’s at https://www.emerginginvestigators.org.
South Meadows Middle School
Email: mendezm@hsd.k12.or.us
Website: http://schools.hsd.k12.or.us/southmeadows
Location: 4690 Southeast Davis Road, Hillsboro, OR, United States
Phone: 503-844-1220
Facebook: facebook.com/SouthMeadowsMiddleSchool