Meadow Park News
November 19th, 2018
Principal's Corner
Hello Meadow Park Families,
Last Friday, our progress reports went live. You can access them online on ParentVue and check how your student is doing. If you see anything amiss, I encourage you to reach out to the teacher and find out what is going on. We frequently get questions on progress reports because they look a little different than our standard report cards. Part of this is that we don’t assign letter grades during progress reports. Those only happen at the semester, so please don’t be concerned that you are not seeing them. The other factor is that our school reports look a little different from others around the district.
As part of our IB Middle Years Programme, students are graded a bit differently from many of the other schools in the Beaverton School District. In each subject, students are assessed in four areas that are referred to, in IB language, as Criteria A, B, C, and D. Within each Criterion, our teachers utilize a rubric to assess student work. That rubric is on a scale of 1-8, and a general idea of what scores mean can be seen in the breakdown below.
- 1-2: I show some understanding of concepts but have not put together the “big picture”. I may not understand all the key concepts or have a partial understanding of them.
- 3-4: I demonstrate limited understanding of a concept. My work has many small errors, lacks detail, or is missing key portions of a concept.
- 5-6: I demonstrate accurate understanding of concepts. I may have a few minor inaccuracies but they do not affect the overall correctness of my proposed ideas.
- 7-8: I demonstrate an advanced and in-depth understanding of concepts. I make connections to the outside world where possible and explain how concepts are related. My work is accurate, complete, and specific examples are provided.
In every subject, each criterion has a similar theme. I pulled these from the MYP article we included in the newsletter at the end of September, but thought they may be timely to revisit now.
Criterion A: Knowing and Understanding- Do you know and understand the content?
Criterion B: Planning and organizing- Can you organize and make a plan for what you know?
Criterion C: Communicating - Can you communicate what you understand about content and concepts?
Criterion D: Evaluate, Reflect, Apply- Can you apply what you know to make/reflect on decisions?
On the current progress report, you may only see grades in 2 or 3 criteria. That is perfectly normal for this time of year! Throughout each semester, our staff will make sure to provide assessment opportunities in each area.
Should you have any questions on progress reports, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
I hope each of you is able to enjoy the upcoming five days away from school and that you are able to spend time and connect with the people you care about most.
Jared Freeman
Principal
For Your Calendars
- Every Wednesday - All Students Released at 2:20 pm
- Wednesday, November 21st through Friday, November 23rd - Holiday Break
- Thursday, November 29th - Band Concert at 7:00pm
- Have you taken our MYP Parent Survey?
AVID Strategy to Encourage Participation
One of the key tenets of AVID is to get students to engage in academic discourse. Allowing students to share ideas and wonderings are vital in promoting student inquiry, discovery, and content knowledge.
One of the many ways we get students sharing aloud is using "talking chips" or some kind of manipulative in order to encourage students to share.
Once a student has shared their thinking, they turn their chip over to indicate they have already spoken. This allows not only the students to have accountability, but the teacher can conduct a brief visual check to see who has/has not participated.
AVID engagement strategies such as philosophical chairs and Socratic Seminars are some of the best/typical times to utilize talking manipulative devices.
We are prepared for for inclement weather, are you?
Early Release Wednesdays
November Learning Highlights:
- Over the past month, many of our staff members have engaged in conversation and learning around powerful ways to provide timely and effective feedback to students. Through the use of a app and website called Go Formative, staff members are able to quickly assess whether or not goals and objectives have been reached and adjust their instruction accordingly.
- Counselors have spent time reviewing attendance data, brainstorming strategies to increase student attendance, and reaching out to families to create plans for success around attendance.
- PE teachers have been collaborating with teachers from other schools to discuss best practices for delivering our Health curriculum.
- School-wide, our staff has been reflecting on IB MYP unit plans in an effort to strengthen our inquiry based approach to conceptual learning.
We want to thank our community for your ongoing support of this time for staff. We appreciate having the time to learn together in an effort to improve instruction for our students.
Options Full Time Lottery & Admissions Timeline (2019-2020 School Year)
Visitas Informativas Open House en las escuelas de Opciones de Aprendizaje del Distrito Escolar de Beaverton para el año escolar 2019-2020
- Monday, October 15, 2018 - Lottery Opens
- Friday, December 7, 2018 - Lottery Applications Due @ 4:00pm
- Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - Lottery is Run, Notifications Sent
- Thursday, December 13, 2018 - 2nd Consideration Applications Available
- Thursday, January 10, 2019 - 2nd Consideration Applications Due to Schools
- Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - Deadline for Parents to Accept
- Friday, February 1, 2019 - Schools Submit Final List to Teaching & Learning
About Meadow Park Middle School
Email: jared_freeman@beaverton.k12.or.us
Website: https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/schools/meadow-park/
Location: 14100 Southwest Downing Street, Beaverton, OR, USA
Phone: (503)356-2640
Facebook: facebook.com/meadowparkmiddleschool
Twitter: @mpmseagles