Happy Holidays from Us to You!
Freshman Academy Update December 2015
4 Point Grading System
Ken O'Connor authored a book by the title of A Repair Kit for Grading. In the next few installments, we will share some of the key concepts of this transformational text. Historical purposes for grades include: communication, fostering student self-assessment, sorting/selecting students for courses, motivation and/or punishment, and finally, teaching and/or program evaluation. One of the most significant issues related to grades are that they include student behaviors such as effort, participation, adherence to class rules, etc. which have nothing to do with what the student actually knows and is able to do with content knowledge. The "fix" to this is to report these behavioral variables separately from achievement to ensure that grades reflect student achievement as accurately as possible. For example, Sally may be on time, write her math problems neatly, raise her hand to answer questions in class, and be respectful to everyone- but, she may not know her multiplication tables or be able to add fractions. Using a grade-based system would include all of this information in a letter grade that may not show that there are academic deficits.
Philosophically, this is why Shaker Regional School District is shifting toward "habits of work" scores or H.O.W. Scores- these simply separate the students work habits from what he or she knows in a particular course.
Here is a clip to help from one of the experts!
CREW Happenings-
Our expeditionary learning has begun! In our individual Crew groups, we have been having lots of fun with trust and team building activities. We had 13 students join together in "back up" which requires them to link arms and use timing, leverage, and teamwork to raise themselves from the ground to standing. Very cool to see them include each other and play to one another's strengths, both physically and mentally. Our leaders are already stepping up and showing their skills! Last week, we "built the tallest tower" with limited materials such as toothpicks, twenty feet of tape, marshmallows, and fifty index cards. Mrs. Deuell's Crew dominated with a floor to ceiling tall tower!
This week, we will be creating landing pads for a raw egg to safely fall into- starting at ten feet and moving upward- so be sure to check in with your child to see how they did!
Here are some of the clips we've been looking at, too!
"The Personal Bank Account- Notecard Presentation"
About Us
As always, please do not hesitate to contact any of the Freshman Academy educators. We would be more than happy to hear from you!
Belmont High School Main Office: 603.267.6525
Rick Acquilano: racquilano@sau80.org Ext. 1301 Admin.
David McDonald: dmcdonald@sau80.org Ext. 1114 Math
Linda Otten: lotten@sau80.org Ext. 1112 Math
Megg Lynch: mlynch@sau80.org Ext. 1216 Social Studies
Scott Hess: shess@sau80.org Ext. 1214 English
Scott Clark: sclark@sau80.org Ext. 1109 Science
Email: racquilano@sau80.org
Website: highschool.shaker.k12.nh.us/
Location: 255 Seavey Road, Belmont, NH, United States
Phone: 603-267-6525
Educator's Corner~
Ms. Lynch: Students completed their "investigative reporting" article on a product of their choice to trace the path of many items that we use as consumers but might not stop to think about who on the other end is making it- we've learned a lot about Latin American people and how our habits might affect them. Our next unit called "H2O" will show "water footprints" and water usage from around the globe.
Mr. Hess: "Hess's class just finished revealing the mystery concerning the understanding of Shakespeare's verse: apostrophes and accent marks! Now the class is working on argument writing."
Mr. Clark: Mr. Clark and his frosh continue to "move along", working with interpreting speed and accelerations. Many graphs, much action happening.
Ms. Otten: In Algebra 1, classes have begun the Graphing and Writing Linear Equations Unit. This unit primarily covers chapters 3 and 4 from their books. The first summative from this unit is near with some students already completing while others are working their way to it. Remember homework club meets everyday 2:30 - 3:30. The next unit will be Functions followed by Systems of Equations and Inequalities.