BCIT MEDFORD NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 2016
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
The new year is upon us and we are already preparing to begin the second semester at Medford. Students and teachers are preparing for final exams and anticipating the their new courses which will begin on February 4th.
As we enter the dark and cold winter months, please remember to check the BCIT Medford web page for information related to school closures. The district also utilizes a global call system to keep everyone informed of delays and closures.
Upcoming Events in February:
Performing Arts Winter Showcase Feb. 4 & 5
ASVAB Testing Feb. 18
Back to School Afternoon Feb. 18
Performing Arts Dinner Theater Feb. 19
Discovery Night Feb. 23
Dancing with the Staff Feb. 26
It will be June before we know it, so be sure to visit to school calendar for important dates and events. As always, feel free to contact our staff for any questions that you may have regarding your child’s education.
Mike Parker
Principal
December Medford Students of the Month
Grade 11 - Nicolas Pilawski
Grade 10 - Destiny Chambers
Grade 9 - Haylie Troster
BCIT Medford Semester 1 Final Exam Schedule
Emergency Closing/Delayed Opening Procedures:
In the event of a campus emergency or inclement weather, staff members will be contacted via email, phone message, and text message. In addition, we will post a Special Alert Message on our website.
Staff Members, Help us Contact You.
Have you moved? Have you changed your phone number or email address? Please make sure to update your information with BCIT Personnel.
Students will be contacted using information stored in Genesis, our electronic student database. Parents should be reminded to ensure their contact information is up-to-date. Any changes should be reported to the main office of the student's school.
Academy of the Performing Arts, BCIT Medford, presented their first Winter Vocal and Instrumental Concert
The concert was the culmination of student learning during their first semester. In class, students further developed their musicianship skills including identifying and performing chord progressions and inner harmonies, improvising, and arranging. Their knowledge and skills aided them in arranging songs on their own. Students also began developing their improvisational skills; a new experience for most students. Throughout the semester, students also worked on ensemble skills like blend, balance, and collaboration to create an exceptional performance.
As an encore, vocal and instrumental music students collaborated by arranging and performing a version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight with a tribute to the original swing style and a nod to the present with a Hip-Hop section. The BCIT Vocal Ensemble is under the direction of Mr. Michael Nikolidakis, and the BCIT Instrumental Ensemble is under the direction of Mrs. Pamela L. Turowski.
Save the Date!
BCIT Academy for the Performing Arts presents
their 2016 Spring Musical:
Dates: April 22, 23, 29 & 30, 7 p.m.
BCIT Medford Performing Arts Center
Your Guide to Finding and Using PARCC Test Questions
Thursday, January 7, 2016
By Callie Riley
This guide is designed to help you easily navigate the test questions and related materials, including sample student responses to open-ended test questions, such as writing tasks, that received high scores and lower scores. The student responses also include annotations that give parents, teachers and students specific guidance on how student work is scored.
How can I find released PARCC test questions and tasks?
You can access the released test questions and tasks, including answer keys, standards alignment, and sample student responses in the PARCC Partnership Resource Center. Click on the “Assessments” tab and then “PARCC Released items.”
To create an account in the Partnership Resource Center, click on the symbol in the upper right-hand corner of the page, and then select “Create Account.” This will allow you to flag helpful resources throughout the PRC. The released items are organized by grade level, so feel free to explore!
There are some terms I’m not very familiar with – can you explain them?
- Scoring Rubrics – The scoring rubrics for mathematics and English language arts/literacy show what test scorers look for when analyzing each student’s written responses.
- Scoring Rules – These documents describe the different types of scoring rules for mathematics and English language arts/literacy machine-scored questions.
- ELA and Mathematics Sample Student Responses – The sample student responses to mathematics problem sets and English language arts/literacy open-ended questions are in each of these documents. Each sample set correlates to an item set.
- EOY vs. PBA – In 2014-15, the PARCC test was administered in two parts – a performance-based assessment (PBA) – made up of longer writing exercises in English language arts and multi-step problems in mathematics – and an end-of-year (EOY) assessment, made up of shorter answer questions in both subjects. (In 2015-16 and beyond, the test is in one part, with all types of test questions.)
- Alignment Documents – Students don't all take the same "form" of the test - there are four to eight forms per test. These charts show which forms of the test include each released test item.
- Item Sets and Keys – These are the actual questions from PARCC mathematics and English language arts/literacy assessments administered in 2014-15. For mathematics, the keys contain the answers for each item set. Be sure to find the right key for the item set. For example, “Grade 03 Math – PBA – Item Set,” corresponds to the key titled “Grade 03 Math – PBA – Key.”
- Literary Analysis Task – These tasks require students to read two literary texts (reading passages). Students are then asked to answer questions for each text, followed by some questions that include both texts. The students complete the task by writing an analytic essay. The answer keys for the questions are found in this document, and the corresponding "Sample Student Responses” document provides examples of both high-scoring and low-scoring essay responses.
- M/L Informational Text Set – The medium/long (M/L) informational text set asks students to read and answer questions about an informational text. The answer key is included in the same document.
- Narrative Writing Task – These tasks require students to read one literary text, answer questions, and then write a narrative response connected to the reading passage. There is a "Sample Student Responses" document that correlates to each writing task at each grade level and provides examples of high-scoring and low-scoring essay responses.
- Research Simulation Task – These tasks require students to read and analyze several articles or view videos about a specific topic, and then analyze them by answering a set of questions. There is a "Sample Student Responses" document that correlates to the writing task at each grade level and provides examples of both high-scoring and low scoring essay responses.
- S/M Literary Text Set – The short/medium (S/M) literary text set asks students to read a literary passage and answer multiple-choice questions. The answer key for each set is included in the document.
Why are the released items valuable?
Real questions and tasks from the test can help teachers, and other educators improve day-to-day instruction in the classroom, and give parents a better understanding of the kind of work their child should be prepared to do. The goal of the PARCC tests is to allow students ample opportunities to show their mastery and knowledge of the standards.
Can I see some examples of items included in the Partnership Resource Center?
Below are two examples of test items your student might have seen on the PARCC test last year, and explanations of what those tasks are asking them to do.
Example #1: Grade 4 Literary Analysis Task
This task requires a student to work through multiple questions and consistently approach the reading passages from different angles — first examining word meaning and asking students to draw evidence from both texts to best describe the characters. As with all PARCC tasks, an individual question may require students to show their mastery of multiple standards at once.
Part A and Part B both address standards RL 4.1.2, L 4.4.1, and RL 4.4.1. Standard RL 4.1 asks students to refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly, and when drawing inferences from the text; L 4.4 focuses on having students determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases they might not know, based on their reading of the content.
Example #2: Grade 5 Mathematics Task
Some of the items on the PARCC assessments are longer performance-based items (as in the English language arts/literacy example above) and other items are shorter, like the mathematics problem below, which contains two parts. In Part A, students show they understand how fractions that look different may have the same value by selecting the correct “circle” in each column of the table. In Part B, students must show they understand the meaning of the problem, and demonstrate their ability to add fractions with different denominators (the bottom half of the fraction). Students can receive 0, 1, or 2 points for this question, as each part is worth 1 point.
For more information, please visit: Your Guide to Finding and Using PARCC Test Questions
Understanding Your Child's Test Results
The PARCC test was designed to provide clear information on your child’s progress toward meeting grade level expectations and mastering important skills like critical thinking. The score report gives you a snapshot of how your child is progressing and shows where he or she excels or needs more support. This information, along with grades, teacher feedback and scores on other tests, will help give a more complete picture of how well your child is performing academically.
SCORE REPORT GUIDE: STEP ONE
Overall Score
Your student’s overall score (out of a possible 850) and performance level (1-5) gives a quick glimpse of whether he or she is on-track with grade-level expectations. Level 1 indicates the greatest need for improvement and Level 5 indicates the strongest performance.
For more information on how to understand PARCC Scores, please visit: http://understandthescore.org/
October 2015 PSAT scores were released online to students on January 7, 2016, the Guidance Department should begin receiving hard copies of scores within the next two weeks to distribute to students. Students should be able to access their scores online at www.collegeboard.org.
We will be administering the ASVAB again on February 18, 2016 to give our students an additional opportunity to fulfill their graduation requirement. Please encourage your son or daughter to take advantage of the online practice tests in preparation for the test.
https://uniontestprep.com/asvab/practice-test
https://uniontestprep.com/asvab/practice-test
The Accuplacer is being administered on February 11, 2016. Please see Linda McCardell if you are interested in registering for the test, you must be registered at RCBC as well, but this does not commit you to attending the school. Please encourage your son or daughter to take advantage of the online practice tests in preparation for the test.
https://accuplacer.collegeboard.org/students/prepare-for-accuplacer
https://accuplacerpractice.collegeboard.org/login
http://www.studyguidezone.com/accuplacertest.htm
Applying to BCIT is now a snap with InfoSnap!
Dr. Erin Conti
Coordinator of Admissions & Recruiting
Save the Date!
Our Winter Sports Season is in full swing with our Boys and Girls Bowling Teams currently participating in matches and getting ready for the New Jersey Sectionals. In addition, our Boys and Girls Basketball Teams are participating in several games and showcases in the next few weeks. Also, our Cheerleading Team is perfecting their routines and cheers, which will be on display during the basketball games this season. Please come out and support all of our Winter Athletic Teams. Bowling Matches are at Medford Lanes and our basketball games are played on campus in the gymnasium. You can access all of our sports schedules by going to the BCIT Medford Website Site Shortcuts Medford Campus Sports Calendar select the appropriate schedules click view or just follow the link http://www.burlingtoncountyscholasticleague.org/g5-bin/client.cgi?G5genie=342&school_id=3
Are you interested in playing baseball or softball?? The spring season is right around the corner and opening day for spring sports is March 4th. The school doctor will be at school on 1/26/16, 2/16/16 and 3/1/16 for physicals. You must have a physical that is approved by our school doctor to participate in a sport. If you need a physical please make an appointment with the school nurse. All physical paperwork can be found on the Athletic Director’s website. http://www.bcit.cc/Page/6495
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @MedfordTechAD for news and information regarding athletics!!!!!!
February is CTE Month and the shops will be highlighting particular aspects the career major throughout the month. We will celebrate a shop each day during the morning announcements and each shop will select an activity of their choosing which will demonstrate something unique to that career major.
BCIT 2016 Summer Camp!
BCIT 2016 Summer Camp Registration opens February 1, 2016!
We are offering 24 Summer Camps this summer on our BCIT Westampton and Medford campuses! Ms. Monique Jenkins is our Summer Camp Coordinator. Please email Ms. Jenkins at mjenkins@bcit.cc with any camp questions.
Camp dates for Summer 2016:
July 11-15
July 18-22
July 25-29
Visit our website at www.bcit.cc to download the BCIT 2016 Summer Camp Brochure and Registration Form. Please note: no cash payments will be accepted this year. Please mail your camp registration form(s) along with a check or money order to:
BCIT 2016 Summer Camp
Attn. Ms. Nereida Mack
695 Woodlane Road
Westampton, NJ 08060
BCIT Adult Education Career Exploration
Designer Bag Bingo: Save the Date! March 3, 2016
BCIT Foundation will host Designer Bag Bingo on Thursday, March 3, 2016 at the Westampton campus. Its fourth sell-out event in October was one of the best yet! Game and door prizes came from Coach and Michael Kors, with a few VISA gift cards mixed in for fun. In addition to 16 games that offered full-size purse prizes, the 50-50 game left the winner with nearly $1,200 in her pocket!
Reserve your seats now! Details are online, or contact (609) 267-4226, ext. 8335 or foundation@bcit.cc.
See you there!
Renee Janowicz
Director, BCIT Foundation