Secondary English Weekly #11
Issue Eleven / November 5-9, 2018
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ENGLISH TEACHER VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR CCS/I KNOW I CAN COLLEGE APPLICATION WORKSHOP
GET YOUR STUDENTS INVOLVED IN CONTESTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Getting students involved in speaking and writing contests is a great way for them to use ELA skills outside of the classroom. Please talk up these great opportunities and get our students registered/entered to compete!
1. HIGH SCHOOL DEBATE-SECOND ANNUAL HIGH SCHOOL WINTER DEBATE TOURNAMENT
The second annual high school debate tournament is happening Friday, December 7th from 8:30am-1pm in the Ruff Learning Center (631 Pleasant Ridge, Bexley) at Capital University. (Team check-in is at 8am.) REGISTER YOUR TEAMS HERE BY NOVEMBER 16TH!!
-It only takes two students to make a team. You probably have some students in your building who competed in debate in middle school. Find them and form your teams. Debate teams are made of two students. Those students prepare to debate both the affirmative and negative sides of the policy debate resolution. On the day of the debate, each two-person team will be told which side (affirmative or negative) they will be debating during each of the three rounds.
-Each school can bring up to five teams (10 students). They will compete using the following resolution. Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce its restrictions on legal immigration to the United States.
**Be sure to register your school NOW even if you don’t yet know the names of students on your teams. That can be added later. The deadline for having all your names added is November 16th.
DEBATE FOLDER WITH REGISTRATION AND RESOURCES: https://tinyurl.com/debatehs2018
2. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. YOUTH ORATORICAL CONTEST-REGISTER BY NOV.26TH
"It's Our Time. A Movement Toward Justice."
Students from schools all over Central Ohio in Grades K-12 are invited to showcase their oratorical skills! This year’s contest is on Saturday, December 8th at the King Arts Complex (867 Mt Vernon Ave. Columbus, OH 43203). Students in Grades 6-8 should prepare to speak for 4 minutes and high school students should plan five-minute speeches. Here is a list of suggested topics, however, the students can choose their own topics:
- Share the meaning and relevance of The City of Columbus 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Youth Oratorical Contest theme: “It’s Our Time. A Movement Toward Justice.”
- In Dr. King’s famous quotation, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” what was MLK’s interpretation of justice and how does that align with your own belief?
- In Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail," he defends the strategy of nonviolent and justice for all. Dr. King’s Letter provides a moral reason for his being in Birmingham, saying that “he came to Birmingham to battle injustice.” Because he believes that “all communities and states” are interrelated, he feels compelled to work for justice anywhere that injustice is being practiced.
- Relate one’s own commitment to Dr. King’s philosophy of justice.
- The 21st century depends upon me … (Expound on what this means to you.)
- What did Dr. King’s life mean to you (the contestant)?
- Research major events in Dr. King’s life and writings about his life.
The Registration Informational Packet is available HERE. You can download this POSTER to help publicize the event. The Deadline to Register is Monday, November 26th by 5:00 p.m.
NOTE: A STUDENT MAY BE ABLE TO LENGTHEN THEIR MLK BREAKFAST SPEAKER SPEECH INTO AN ENTRY FOR THIS CONTEST!!
3. MLK BREAKFAST SPEAKER: A CCS STUDENT-ONLY CONTEST-ENTRIES BEING ACCEPTED NOW!!
CCS will select one student speaker to represent the district at the 2019 Martin Luther King Breakfast, held on January 21st at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Exhibition Hall C. The student chosen will get into the breakfast free and receive two complimentary tickets for his/her parent or guardians. The competition to become that speaker is open to all students in Grades 6-12. The CCS Superintendent will introduce our student speaker.
HERE is a flyer to use to increase participation.
Theme of Speech: The Purpose of Education-intelligence plus character
Length of Speech: 3 minutes max.
Deadline for Entry: Monday, December 10th
How to Enter: Have your teacher send or share a recording of you reciting your speech to the ELA 6-12 Curriculum Office or have your teacher contact the ELA Curriculum Office to come out and videotape you giving your speech. Teachers can email speeches as attachments or make a requests to have students recorded to cphillips3865@columbus.k12.oh.us, or text/share videos to 740-228-1509. Please Include the student's name, school, grade, contact information, and the teacher’s email & phone number.
4. MADLAB THEATRE YOUNG WRITERS PROGRAM 2019-DEADLINE IS THIS FRIDAY!!!
MadLab, a professional theatre in downtown Columbus, would like to tell you a little bit about their Young Writers Program in the hopes that you will get your students involved. Now entering their 8th year, they have worked with over 65 local high school students and produced almost 70 of their short plays. This 6-minute introductory video can tell you more about the program that began in 2011 as a way to help high school students grow as artists and playwrights, gain professional theatrical experience, and develop critical thinking and editing skills that will help them in the future. Each year, they select up to 10 short plays by local students to be produced in a festival. Over the course of 6 months students will:
Participate in writing workshops
See staged readings of their scripts by MadLab actors
Work with local and national playwright mentors to revise and improve their scripts
Experience a full-scale production of their scripts at MadLab
The Young Writers program is offered at no cost to the students. They are striving to reach new communities and populations with this program, and are willing to provide transportation, translation services, and anything else students who are selected might require. More information, photos, and videos from previous years can be found on our website and youtube page. DOWNLOAD THIS FLYER TO SHARE WITH YOUR STUDENTS! DEADLINE IN NOVEMBER 9!!
5. O2 CONFERENCE
Prior to Jan. 1, 2019 young people in grades 6-12 should develop an idea for this years theme: It’s time for Columbus to CONNECT and then THRIVE and submit their application. Ideas from each age group will be selected to present at the conference on Saturday, February 23rd. Teams typically fall into these two age groups but any combination of grades is welcome.
- Middle School (6-8th Grade)
- High School (9-12th Grade)
6. BUCKEYE CHILDREN’S AND TEEN BOOK AWARD—LAST WEEK TO VOTE!!
The Buckeye Children’s and Teen Book Award program is designed to encourage students in Ohio to read literature critically, to promote teacher and librarian involvement in young adult literature programs, and to commend authors of such literature. The Buckeyes are one of the only state reader's choice awards in which students get to nominate the titles as well as vote on the final winners. The only adults who may submit nominations or votes are teachers and librarians who are representing a group of students from their school or library. This allows the Buckeyes to be truly a student-chosen award in all aspects.
Nominating occurs year-round, on the Buckeye Awards website, and voting for this year closes Nov. 10. The winners will be announced on December 1, so have your students go to www.bcbookaward.info to nominate, choose novels to read, vote, and see past winners!
TWO MORE STUDENTS NOMINATED BY ENGLISH TEACHERS WILL BE HONOREES AT THE 2018 FRANKLIN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ARTISTS AND SCHOLARS RECOGNITION PROGRAM
- Amanda Sophia Riley, Grade 12, Eastmoor Academy
- Fernando Jose-Chairez, Grade 12, Northland High School
- Savion Payne, Grade 12, Linden-McKinley STEM Academy
- Adaline Kerr, Grade 12, Columbus Alternative High School
-If you nominated a selected student, you were sent information from Ross Shirley on November 1st about the breakfast and recognition ceremony to pass along to your students.
TEACHER CLARITY
-With an effect size of .74, which is well above average, teacher clarity is low-hanging fruit when it comes to students’ learning. We can choose to increase clarity tomorrow and reap the benefits. Teacher clarity just requires that you know what students need to learn, communicate learning intentions and success criteria to students, and deliver lessons in a coherent way so students will learn more. Attend this webinar for expert insight on how to get started. By the end of this webinar, you will be able to:
- Define teacher clarity and describe its impact on student learning,
- Distinguish between learning intentions and success criteria, and
- Increase teacher clarity in your classroom or school.
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN ACCESS ONE-PAGE "I CAN" CHECKLISTS ON THE ENGLISH 6-12 WEBPAGE?
-To further student ownership of learning, consider grouping questions on your formative and summative assessments by standard, then allow students to use the "I Can" checklists when they review how they did on the assessment. For example, if the student got the first five questions correct and they were all aligned to the same standard, the student would know that they are mastering that standard and may check it off. However, if the student did poorly on the first five questions, they could use the "I Can" page to see what learning they are lacking and make a plan for mastery.
NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH
1. Middle School and High School Workbooks for NaNoWriMo can be found on the English 6-12 Webpage at the "ELA Strand Resources" Quick Link. Once on the Strand Resources page, you will find them in the Writing Resources list.
2. You can sign up to "officially" be part of NaNoWriMo at https://nanowrimo.org.
3. Thurber House is sponsoring a NaNoWriMo Write-In on Saturday, November 10th from 2-4pm at the Thurber Center, 91 Jefferson Ave. Join other writers in an afternoon of writing with snacks, coffee, WiFi, plentiful electric outlets, and moral support to aid you in your 50,000 word journey. Just bring your preferred writing materials and your amazing ideas!
LESSONS ARE AVAILABLE EACH WEEK TO HELP PREPARE STUDENTS FOR AIR SUCCESS USING THE READ METHOD
THIS WEEK'S LESSON:
- November 8, 2018 (Finding Evidence 2)
-If you have missed any of the lessons released thus far from September and October, they are available below and on the ELA 6-12 Webpage, at the "Thursday Standardized Test Prep" Quick Link. These lessons are based upon the CCS 2018 AIR Data Report and its recommended actions simplified in the READ Method for AIR Preparation.
- September 20, 2018 (Complex Text/Text Annotation)
- September 27, 2018 (Complex Text/Word Pyramid & Question Quads)
- October 4, 2018 (Analyzing Questions)
- October 11, 2018 (Analyzing Answers)
- October 18, 2018 (Writing Guide Acronym)
- October 25, 2018 (Passage and Prompt Analysis)
- November 1, 2018 (Finding Evidence)
NEW BOOK ON WRITING FROM JIM BURKE
The Six Academic Writing Assignments states that writing assignments are road maps—or they should be. They guide the writer on a journey. They lay out a process, envision a destination. They are designed. These maps are crucially important for engaging students with academic writing, which is often unfamiliar territory. Drawing on his extensive review of academic writing assignments across the country, Jim Burke identifies six major categories of writing assignments that help students become better writers, readers, and thinkers:
- Writing to learn
- Short answer
- Writing on demand
- Process paper (which goes through multiple drafts)
- Research paper/report
- Alternate forms (multimedia presentations, etc.).
For each assignment type, he invites you into his own practice. He shows how he composes the assignment, how he creates gateway activities to help prepare students, how he troubleshoots common problems, how he gives response, how he clarifies the criteria on which students will be judged. He also shows how these assignments are related—how the earlier assignments build to later, more complex ones.
NEW BOOK ON GRAMMAR FROM SARAH TANTILLO
TEACHER CONTESTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
APPLICATION TO BECOME A MENTOR TEACHER TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING SECOND SEMESTER.
If you have been a CCS Teacher/Licensed Support Person for at least three years and want to mentor a university student next semester (student teacher, observation student, OSU FEEP student, field placements, etc.), complete this online application: http://www.columbus.k12.oh.us/studentrequest.
NOTE: If you have already completed the application for this school year, you do not need to do it again. Your username and password are your Lotus Notes username and password (same as the ones you use for iLEAD/SLOs). If you do not remember them, please contact that HELP Desk at 8425. CCS Teachers and Licensed Support Personnel mentoring university students now have a wide range of opportunities to earn CEUs. CEU credits for mentoring university students range from .5 CEUs to 3.0 CEUs depending on the type and length of placement. Here is a link to the Cooperating Teacher & LSP Approved Credit Bearing Activities: https://goo.gl/4MPBJ7.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Karmen McCaslin at
1-380-997-7514 or kmccasli@columbus.k12.oh.us.
TEACHER SOLIDARITY TOUR: TEACHROCK.ORG PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMES TO THE NEWPORT ON NOVEMBER 14TH!
You love music. Your students love music. This TeachRock workshop will provide you with techniques and content that will help you confidently use music to engage your students--even if you've never touched an instrument. Even better, it'll be fun. The Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul Teacher Solidarity Tour Professional Development experience includes a one-hour workshop, curriculum materials, a t-shirt, and a concert.
IT'S SIMPLE AND FREE! YOU CAN EVEN BRING A GUEST!
- RSVP FOR THE COLUMBUS SHOW/WORKSHOP HERE. November 14th, 6pm @ The Newport Music Hall
- VISIT TEACHROCK.ORG TO ACCESS OTHER SHOWS, DOWNLOAD RESOURCES, AND LEARN MORE.
FREE CORWIN WEBINAR SERIES
Corwin's free Monday Afternoon Webinar Series has begun. This season you can look forward to live Webinars with John Hattie, Jessica and John Hannigan, and Ken O'Connor—to name just a few. It doesn’t get much better! Download the print schedule here. Register here.
-The next ELA-related Webinar is Teacher Clarity: Making Learning Visible for Students presented by Douglas Fisher and John Almarode on Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - 6:30pm
This free webinar was highlighted above in the "Teacher Clarity" section.
FREE FALL TEACHINGBOOKS WEBINARS TO EXPLORE
-TeachingBooks has an Essential Elements Webinar Series happening this fall that includes four Webinars to introduce you to TeachingBooks and leverage your usage of TeachingBooks. Click HERE to see descriptions and to register for any of the fall webinars.
-The next Webinar is Spread the Word: Sharing & Collaborating using TeachingBooks on Tuesday, November 6th at 3pm. This free Webinar will help you get the most out of your TeachingBooks.net license by sharing this dynamic suite of resources with everyone in your reading community including families, colleagues and readers. Discover tools to promote access and create a plan to use these resources throughout your community.
PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS WEBINARS
Here are some low-cost upcoming Webinars, some taught by CCS teachers.
-Google Classroom for Beginners
Date: Tuesday, November 13th (3:00 – 5:00 p.m. EST) ➢ This relaxed and fun webinar, facilitated by Columbus teacher Alan D'Aurora, will have you up and running with a Google Classroom in just two hours. To register for this webinar, you must complete and submit the registration form (https://jefffantine.typeform.com/to/YpcCiJ) and submit payment (PayPal.Me/JFantine). Upon registration and payment, you will receive a link to participate in the webinar that will be conducted through Adobe Connect. Cost: $45.00
-Standards-In-Practice: Teaching with the College and Career Readiness Standards
Date: Wednesday, November 28th (3:00 – 5:00 p.m. EST) ➢ Standards-In-Practice (SIP) is a teacher-focused professional development solution that supports the understanding and implementation of the College and Career Readiness Standards in adult education programs. To register for this webinar, you must complete and submit the registration form (https://jefffantine.typeform.com/to/OcRbJh) and submit payment (PayPal.Me/JFantine). Upon registration and payment, you will receive a link to participate in the webinar that will be conducted through Adobe Connect. Cost: $45.00
THURBER PRIZE
The Thurber Prize will be awarded during a red carpet event on December 5, 2018 from 6-8:30pm at The Columbus Athenaeum. The three finalists (Jenny Allen-Would Everybody Please Stop?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas, John Hodgman-Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches, and Patricia Lockwood-Priestdaddy) will read from their nominated books, emceed by the hilarious John Kenney, 2014 Thurber Prize winner. At the close of the event, one author will be presented with the 2018 Thurber Prize for American Humor.
Click Here for Thurber Prize Tickets.
BULKBOOKSTORE $500 MONTHLY GIVEAWAY
BulkBookstore's Educators Monthly Giveaway of $500 in free books shows appreciation for teachers, librarians, and schools around the country. Click HERE to enter.
NCTE CONFERENCE 2018 (NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH)
Registration for the 2018 NCTE Annual Convention in Houston, TX on November 15-18, 2018 includes access to all General Sessions, concurrent sessions, Special Interest Group meetings, the Now Screening film festival, NCTE Central, and the Exhibit Hall. Check out featured speakers and sessions or register HERE. Register by November 5 for the best rates. After November 5, registrations will still be accepted here as well as onsite at the George R. Brown Convention Center at the higher price.
ASCD EMPOWER19 CONFERENCE-MARCH 16-18, 2019
Join ASCD in CHICAGO to explore new perspectives in education. Educators from around the world will embark on this transformational journey at ASCD Empower19: the Conference for Every Educator. Get the pieces you need and SYNTHESIZE the learning in your classrooms, districts, and communities. Come equipped to learn, share knowledge, and gain tools to lead students into the future. General Session speakers/presentations are Remarks by Ashton Kutcher, Teaching Through Adversity: Facing Challenges and Making a Difference/Ron Clark, and Presidential Leadership Lessons: A Conversation with Doris Kearns Goodwin. Register by February 1 and save $100 off the regular rate.
USE THIS LIST TO GUIDE WHAT YOU DO IN THE CLASSROOM
1-Make close reading of text central to lesson.
2-Structure majority of instruction so all students read grade-level complex texts.
3-Emphasize informational texts from early grades through graduation.
4-Provide scaffolding that does not preempt or replace text.
5-Ask text-dependent questions.
6-Provide extensive research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
7-Offer regular opportunities for students to share ideas, evidence, and research.
8-Offer systematic instruction in vocabulary.
9-Provide explicit instruction in grammar and conventions.
10-Cultivate students’ independence
We have finished the first quarter! Reflect this week on which of these ten principles you have not used routinely in your classes. Think about how you may be able to incorporate them more going forward. How can infusing these practices more often help your students master standards?
Carla Mae Phillips
Email: cphillips3865@columbus.k12.oh.us
Website: https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12
Phone: (614) 365-8386
Tim Wangler
Email: twangler8446@columbus.k12.oh.us
Website: https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12
Phone: (614) 365-8386