Warrior Beat
#worldchangingwarriors
Word for the Warrior
Happy New Year Warriors!
As we begin the "new year" I decided to share something really simple and easy that has proven over and over to be a key to success for student success...CLARITY. John Hattie's research tells us that TEACHER CLARITY has an effect size of .75. For those of you have not taken stats in a while, an effect size (impact) of an intentional action of .5 is statistically significant. TEACHER CLARITY ranks above that at a whopping .75!
SO... GOOD NEWS....We just need to make sure we are TIGHT on what we want our students to know and ensure we have measures in place each class period to assess whether or not our students met the learning target. Also important, are we CLEAR in providing feedback to students so that THEY are clear on whether or not they met the learning target and if NOT, have we communicated exactly what they need to do to meet make progress toward it.
In education, we are guilty of making the simple complex instead of the other way around. This semester, let's focus on being clear and tight on what really matters!
1. What do we want students to know and be able to do?
Do WE know? Are WE clear? Are we making learning targets clear to STUDENTS? Are we communicating clearly to students at the beginning of AND END of each unit and the standards that will be assessed? Kids need to be clear and parents need to be clear. Don't assume all parents are disengaged. We receive positive reports from parents all the time when teachers are communicating well so that parents can help support us with their students at home.
2. How will we know students have learned?
Are we beginning with the end in mind? Are we creating assessments prior to teaching? If not, we are missing the mark. It is critical that collaborative teams are clear on learning expectations prior to instructing students so that the assessment and instruction are aligned. Additionally, have we embedded formative checks along the way to help us as teachers and to help students know how they are progressing towards mastery? Waiting to the end is too late. Teaching is the amount of support necessary for learning to occur. We need to be clear and honest about how many of our students are mastering material and how many are not so that we can adjust instruction as part of the learning process.
3. How will we respond when students have not learned?
How do we plan to support students who have not met proficiency? How do we plan to support students who are missing key skills? What is our approach to responding to data so that we can continue to support/reteach students so that we are not creating or leaving gaps in their progress?
4. How will we respond when students have learned?
How are we stretching students who need enrichment? Are we clear on the next steps to engage and extend learning for those who are proficient?
This semester, let's be simple and clear and keep the main thing the main thing! (Article below)
TEACHER CLARITY: A VISIBLE LEARNING APPROACH
One of the top influences on student achievement, as identified by John Hattie (Hattie Ranking: 195 Influences and Effect Sizes Related to Student Achievement) is called Teacher Clarity, with 0.75 effect size (2 years worth of growth). Teacher clarity is explained at Hattie’s Visible Learning site glossary:
“One of the main points of Hattie’s books about Visible Learning is the importance to clearly communicate the intentions of the lessons and the success criteria. Clear learning intentions describe the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values that the student needs to learn. Teachers need to know the goals and success criteria of their lessons, know how well all students in their class are progressing, and know where to go next.”
Moreover, Larry Ainsworth points out that “clarity is arguably the most important effect“, because it impacts many others:
“We have a clarity problem in our schools.. we are not really crystal clear about what we want our students to know and be able to do. Without clarity of learning goals that really provide a sharp focus for instruction, assessment design, then assessment results to inform next steps in instruction, we can’t possibly achieve all these wonderful effect sizes that Dr. Hattie is talking about. Because we are not really sure about where we are beginning from, we need a solid foundation stone from which to work… which is clear learning intentions and success criteria”– Larry Ainsworth, Introduction to Teacher Clarity: Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
Teachers go above and beyond to make themselves clear to students with many explanations, annotations, resources, etc. So why does Ainsworth say we have a “clarity problem in our schools”? Why an effect size called “Teacher Clarity”? Because any human being, in the path to learn and acquire skills, ends up “losing the memory of the steps necessary” for a novice to achieve the same knowledge level. This phenomenon has been described as “the curse of knowledge” (How to Break the Expert’s Curse). There is also a lot of literature on expert x novice skills, and the natural difficulty to make “tacit knowledge” explicit. This is why we hear so much about visible thinking and visible learning.
Therefore, teacher clarity involves a cognitive process for teachers, in which they unpack their expert knowledge and make it explicit to students. Expert knowledge, mentioned above as “the curse of knowledge”, is many times implicit and difficult to share with others. It involves tacit knowledge, which is knowing how to do something or how to go about learning something. Creating and documenting clear learning targets for students is part of teacher clarity. The process of unpacking tacit knowledge helps the teacher make learning targets clear for students and directly impact their learning.
If teachers see this process of making tacit knowledge visible to students as a fun part of sharing expertise, then it should be easier to go through the development and documentation of learning targets!
Week of the Warrior
Week of January 7th, 2018
MONDAY: January 7th
Boys Basketball Practice 3-5
Girls Basketball Game vs. Greeneville at Greeneville JV at 5 and Varsity at 6
Dance Team Practice 8-12
Any 6th, 7th, 8th grade girl or boy interested in participating in INDOOR SOCCER this year. Stop by room 239 -Coach Potts- to sign up. Please listen for announcements for an upcoming meeting.
TUESDAY: January 8th
Boys Basketball Game vs. Hampton at Sevier JV at 5 and Varsity at 7
Girls Basketball Game Varsity only vs. Hampton at Sevier at 6:00
Student Council meeting Tuesday 3:00-3:40 in Mrs. Wagner’s room. Athletes, and others dress out from 2:45-3:00, attend meeting until 3:15, and then join other activity.
Natural Helpers Meeting 3-4:30
Any 6th, 7th, 8th grade girl or boy interested in participating in INDOOR SOCCER this year. Stop by room 239 -Coach Potts- to sign up. Please listen for announcements for an upcoming meeting.
WEDNESDAY: January 9th
FCA in the Small Gym 7:15
Boys Basketball Practice 3-5
Girls Basketball Practice 3-5
Any 6th, 7th, 8th grade girl or boy interested in participating in INDOOR SOCCER this year. Stop by room 239 -Coach Potts- to sign up. Please listen for announcements for an upcoming meeting.
THURSDAY: January 10th
Boys Basketball Game vs. Vance at Sevier JV at 4:30 Varsity at 5:30
Girls Basketball Game vs. Vance at Vance JV at 5 and Varsity at 6
Any 6th, 7th, 8th grade girl or boy interested in participating in INDOOR SOCCER this year. Stop by room 239 -Coach Potts- to sign up. Please listen for announcements for an upcoming meeting.
FRIDAY: January 11th
Boys Basketball Practice 3-5
Girls Basketball Practice 3-5
Any 6th, 7th, 8th grade girl or boy interested in participating in INDOOR SOCCER this year. Stop by room 239 -Coach Potts- to sign up. Please listen for announcements for an upcoming meeting.
Save the Date
Boys Basketball January 12th vs. Sevierville Middle at Sevier JV. at 12 Varsity at 2:00
Girls Basketball January 12th vs. Sevierville Middle at Sevier JV. at 11 Varsity at 1
Monday January 14th Tribe Classic at DB
Feb 11th -Active Shooter Drill
JSMS JAM
JANUARY 7TH PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY
DRESS: CASUAL (JEANS ARE PERMITTED)
Science
Robinson Middle School
Marsha Buck’s Classroom
Monday, January 7th, 2019
8:00 am-3:30 pm
Professional Learning Goals:
The science teachers that attended the NSTA will share out on the resources and activities they came away from conference with on Science and STEM. We will also have a short introduction and exploration time on Everfi. Everfi is a platform that is provided free by the TDOE. The idea is to inspire students to tie their individual interests to high-demand STEM careers through online simulations they can relate to.
Overview:
8:00 - 10:30 NSTA Redelivery
Julie Lane, Eva Pearson, Annette True, and Paul Blair share out on NSTA
Conference
10:30 - 11:30 Everfi Middle School Curriculum
Endeavor - STEM Career Exploration
11:30 -12:45 Lunch on your own
12:45 - 3:30 Science Assessments
Meet in grade level teams to work on common assessments
Note: We will be at Robinson all day. The first half of the day will be in Marsha Buck’s classroom. After lunch, each grade level team may meet in a Robinson teacher’s classroom.
Language Arts
On January 7, we will meet in the Sevier Library from 8:00 am-3:30 pm. This is our agenda for the day: Agenda: 8:00-9:00 Explore the Principles of Learning 9:00-11:30 Participate in tasks from your upcoming units 11:30-12:45 Lunch 12:45-3:30 Writing Calibration and Scoring
Music and Art
Jan. 7, at Shoney's in the back dining area beginning at approximately 8:30.The time will be used for sharing successes, spring calendar review, updates from Tennessee's new State of the Arts initiative, inquiry toward answers to the annual NAMM award application, and a review of some current trends in art integration as seen in the January 2019 issue of Educational Leadership.
PE
Calling All Math Teachers
Middle school math teachers are scheduled to participate in a professional learning session facilitated by IFL on Monday, January 7. The session is scheduled at Robinson Middle School in Room 205B (Sunshine Light's classroom). The session will begin at 8:00 AM and will end at 3:30 PM. Please arrive in time to sign in prior to the session and be ready to start the session at 8:00. Lunch on your own is scheduled 11:30-12:45.
Please bring the following items to the session:
- IFL notebook
- TN Math Standards Document
- Bridge to practice activity (including student work samples, if collected, and the scripted questions and your reflection from the lesson)
For your reference, an additional copy of the bridge to practice activity is attached - your administer sent this to you in early November. Remember that the bridge to practice activity will be collected. Please make copies if you do not want to turn in your original work.
Please contact me if you should have any additional questions.
Have a great holiday!
Social Studies Teachers, Spanish, Technology
Others...
- Counseling, SLE Teachers, & Other Related Arts Staff not attending IFL or System-Training - JSMS Classrooms
Absences
SEL TIME THIS WEEK!
SEL this week ties in to an important student council activity for our students. It's important that all students complete the Tuesday and Friday tasks to help student council. Tuesday preps students to think about Friday to make it more valuable. Also, I cannot overemphasize the importance of consistency with the Second Step program because each lesson builds on the last. Most of us are up to date but a few haven't completed a lesson since November (one since October). These are important for all of our students to have exposure to and with. As always, please let us know how we can support you all with this! When we talk about what would help our students succeed the most, our responses are always weighted on the SEL side of the scale-responsibility, self-control, motivation. Our focus on SEL has made a huge positive impact this year and that is a direct result of all of your hard work on this is MANY MANY ways! It's amazing! Like I shared earlier, most of us are up to date with Second Step and if we aren't, there are likely reasonable reasons as to why not. This is a friendly reminder of the importance of this school-wide expectation and especially for this week! Thanks!
School-Wide Grading Expecations
*In an effort to balance and equalize the grading scale skewed by the "average" , the lowest grade to be inputted into PS is a 60. If a teacher chooses not to give a 60 for a missing assignment, an * can be given to indicate a missing assignment.
*Recommended Best Practices:
A grade should reflect student progress toward mastery
No grade entered lower than a 60 or an M for missing
A systematic process for retakes is encouraged (formative A/formative B)
Corrections/Points for learning
Revisions
Total Point Grading System
Weighted Grading System
*Recommended Practices to be Extinguished by the end of 2017:
0
100 Point Scale where all assignments are weighted the same
*Grading practices will be aligned to subjects specific best practices.
*Grading scales will focus on student learning and mastery, rather than behavior.
High School Planning Student Recommendations due in Powerschool-January 18
-Please remember to err on the side of giving a child a chance or opportunity to succeed in a pre-AP class versus not (I will run custom student reports and place it on the shared drive so that you can see based on TVAAS which students are projected to be in the top 25%
- DB requests that you also consider ACT Aspire data when making recommendations
- Please include any important notes in PS (such as- parent request for recommendation)
Duty and Supervision Action Team Report
- It is an expectation that you will be at your duty at the assigned day and time. This is happening for the vast majority of you, but we have noticed that this can be an issue from time to time. We will be watching this more closely and will send an email directly to the teacher who is not on duty. Please be aware that this will be documented toward your professionalism at the end of the year.
- When you are absent, we need you to make arrangements to have your duty covered. Subs should not be covering your duty. A suggestions was made to work it out in advance with a partner teacher to cover for each other and to notify with a quick text when you are out. Whatever you plan, you need to make sure you have the duty covered. This also applied to lunch and hall/bathroom duty. All locations are essential for supervision and we will be held liable if there is not coverage due to negligence and an incident happens in that area.
- Morning duty is 7:15-7:35. Please make morning plans so that you show up on time and plan to stay until 7:35 at your duty location. Afternoon duty is 2:45-3:05. On duty days, you will need to plan to have a quick exit out of your classroom to be at your duty location on time.
I have included links to our duty schedules below for your reference. They are also available in the JSMS shared drive. It is the work of all of us that contributes to making Sevier a great place to work and a safe place for our students to learn. Thank you all for all that you do!
CULTURE CLUB DUES ARE DUE!
Warrior Whoop!
JSMS Teachers of the Year
Baby Kilgore has arrived!
Ford James Kilgore was born yesterday at 10:09 am. Weighs 7.5 lbs and 20 inches long. Once Abbie is home I'll send out a meal train! :)