DHRhoads

Grade 6 students have been engaged in a “Blue Ribbon” campaign aimed at reinforcing self-worth as well as recognizing and acknowledging other people. The effort was lead by Ms. Tere and the Grade 6 Team based on the video clip “Who I Am Makes A Difference” included here:

Teachers modeled “choosing a person who has made a difference in one’s life” in a grade level assembly and followed up the assembly by going back to individual classrooms and each homeroom teacher gave individual student a Blue Ribbon and publicly told the student what the student did to make a difference in the class/school.

The Blue Ribbons read, “I make a difference”!  What a great way to model recognizing individual differences and teaching students to say “thank you” to those who have made a difference in their lives.

Thank you parents and Values Committee. Overwhelmingly, the feedback has been positive regarding our move to Adriana Urdiain. The topics of each session seemed to provide the right mix of information, sensitivity, and advice to engage students and parents. More importantly, the sessions provided a great opportunity and “open door” for parents and children to talk about physical and emotional development.

ASFM has decided to pilot a new exam structure for Grade 6 students. Traditional “pencil and paper” final exams are being replaced by cross-curricular activities and a final product for the five core subjects (Spanish, English, Socials, Science, Math). While elements of short answer and multiple choice questions will be a part of the new exam structure, the new structure will attempt to reflect real-world application of what Grade 6 students have learned over the course of the first semester.

We began by asking ourselves if traditional paper and pencil exams were the best way for Grade 6 students to demonstrate their understanding. A Middle School Exam Task Force was assembled to consider the issue. What resulted from the Task Force (including gathering information from educators in US and International schools around the world) was a reccomendation to the Campus La Huasteca administration that for Grade 6 students, paper and pencil exams were not the best method of assessment. A more authentic method for students to demonstrate what they have learned over the semester was recommended. As a result, a “final project” exam, which requires students to demonstrate their understanding through answering the big questions for the semester (assimilating and sifting through all that we have studied and formulating it into a response) provides a more valid assessment of their learning.

What does this mean for students? Grade 6 students will come to school during exam week on the same schedule as Grade 7 and Grade 8 students (Mon. – Fri., Dec. 14-18, 8:15-10:45). Students will continue working on content that aligns to material covered during the new exam format. Students will need to study at home, as normal, following teacher direction and guidance for preparing to present their understanding of the material covered over the first sememster.

For your information, here is a brief overview of what will be covered in each subject area. Again, the format will be in an interdisciplanary, but some information will be asssessed in a “stand alone” format. For exmaple, the written portion of the math exam.

English
The English section of the final exam will have three parts. Reading comprehension, narrative writing and expository writing.
Reading: Students will be reading and analyzing a nonfiction piece of writing, answering comprehensions questions and writing in response to the reading.
Narrative Writing: The students will be creating a narrative of the life and times of a person who lived among the time of the fossils found from their social studies dig activity. The students will be demonstrating the understanding of how skilled they are in the writing process, and how strong they are in the 6+1 traits of writing and how well they can analyze another’s perspective.
Expository Writing: This section of the writing assessment will coincide with the social studies exam. The students will be writing detailed explanations and theories about their work done with the social studies dig, emphasizing the use of evidence as supporting details.

Español
Fundamentación – Como parte del curso de Español 6, se busca resaltar la importancia de los textos narrativos, en este caso de las leyendas como marco atractivo, de fantasía para explicar la realidad. Con esto se pretende que el alumno pueda contextualizar este tipo de relatos en una época y lugar determinado, como medio para fomentar la integración de los conocimientos y costumbres originarios de una cultura.
Este proyecto, como método alternativo de evaluación, fomenta la capacidad creadora del alumno, despierta su imaginación y su búsqueda de respuestas nuevas.
Objetivos – Que el alumno logre:
1. Comprender la estructura del género literario leyenda.
2. Relacionar la leyenda con las características de una cultura.
3. Elaborar creativamente producciones de leyenda.
4. Respetar sus producciones y las de sus compañeros.

Math
The science problem students choose to investigate must be one that involves quantitative data. Their teacher will help guide them to a question that will be appropriate for their project. This use of math in their science lab will be known as the “application portion” of the exam and will count as 30% of their final exam grade, the other 70% being their grade on the “written portion” of the math exam, given the first Monday of review week.
Mathematicians and scientists alike are responsible for organizing their work in a way that others can follow what they have done and build upon their work. Thus this portion of the assessment not only focuses on the student’s ability to make correct arithmetic calculations, but also to organize their data and calculations, and to create a graph(s) that accurately display their results.

Science
The students will be demonstrating the skills learned over the past semester to design and carry out a scientific experiment. The experiment will be a further investigation of one of the topics studied in class; the students will be working on it individually. The students will chose the topic, create the procedure, bring in the materials and carry out the experiment in class. The experiment will take us through the entire scientific method and will test a specific variable. Some work will be expected to be done at home, especially if it can’t be done in the classroom.

Socials:
The students will be participating in an archaeological dig simulation. From this experience, students will infer what it would be like to be an archaeologist. Students will use their findings to hypothesize about the civilization they have “discovered.” Students will write field notes interpreting their findings. They will use their background knowledge from the semester to support their hypothesis. Students will present this information in a medium of choice which may include dramatic arts, fine arts, music, writing, or multi-media.

For the past few years we have been trying to build on the success of our well-established Grade 8 learning trip. Fortunately, it looks like we will finally be able to see each of our three middle school grade levels take an extended learning field trip. Our Middle School Week Without Walls (WWW) will be during the second semester (parents have received exact dates and specific info.).

Congratulations to our Team Leaders, Ms. Belden, Mr. Rucki, Ms. Brey, and Ms. Bowley and all the teachers for their willingness to conduct the trips and for all the planning and execution needed to successfully offer such a wonderful experience for our middle school students.

In consultation with our Support Service team, the Grade 6 team decided that Grade 6 students will see “Odd Girl Out” instead of “Pay it Forward.”

We have been conducting an in-depth analysis of our Final Exam process in the Middle School. As a result, we will be initiating an alternate exam program for all Grade 6 students this semester. The exam week schedule in December will remain the same (Mon. – Fri. Dec. 14-18, 8:15 am – 10:45 am). However, Grade 6 students will not be taking “paper and pencil” tests in the Gym. Rather, all Grade 6 students will be engaged in an interdisciplinary hands-on exam experience in regular classrooms. Grade 6 students will still be tested on their understanding of the first semester material, however the “exams” will be in classrooms and will be through a more performance based and authentic assessment.

ASFM is committed to providing an educational program that develops students who demonstrate academic excellence as well as positive disposition qualities. In an ongoing effort to ensure a Safe and Caring school environment, I invite you to reflect on, and discuss, the following current initiatives with your child(ren).

Grade 6 students will be watching and discussing the move “Pay it Forward.” In addition, students have been discussing the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” and participating in a “homework/responsibility challenge.” In addition, the Counseling Department will be inviting students and parents to the school on the evening of December 1 (7:30pm) to participate in a “No Name Calling” activity and promote a Safe and Caring atmosphere in the ASFM community.

Grade 7 students will be entering into a “random acts of kindness” challenge. Students will have the opportunity to use an anonymous drop-box to report their peers for demonstrating kindness. Acts ranging from picking-up trash to being an assertive bystander will be recognized. Teachers will be selecting a “winner” from those nominated and the person chosen will be “Middle School Principal for the morning.” In addition, the Counseling Department will be inviting students and parents to the school on the evening of November 23 (7:30pm) to participate in a “Bullied to Death” activity and promote a Safe and Caring atmosphere in the ASFM community. Grade 7 students will also be reflecting on, and setting, Safe and Caring School goals with parents during Student-led-conferences.

Grade 8 students will be reflecting on, and setting, Safe and Caring School goals with parents during Student-led-conferences. Several events are taking place in Grade 8 during the next several weeks and over the remainder of the semester. For example, sessions on honesty and integrity in “tough times” will be discussed with students as ongoing attempt to engage our older middle school students in true reflection and planning to respond BEFORE finding themselves in a tough situation. Students will role-play scenarios and discuss a plan of response.

The essence of these grade level initiatives is to instill a sense of responsibility, commitment, and understanding in our students. We invite our community to support these initiatives and ask that all parents continue to emphasize the importance of good character and smart choices.

In addition to ensuring our students achieve academically, we engage our students in a variety of ongoing activities to support their social and emotional development. Please accept the information contained in this post as a “simple update” regarding some of our current initiatives.

Most articles I see lately deal with assessment or curriculum. I agree that having a curriculum that clearly identifies what students are expected to know and be able and to do at the completion of each course or grade level is essential. I also agree that assessments should be planned prior to instruction and assessment data should be analyzed by teaching teams and used to drive instruction. However, what happened to recognizing the importance instruction?

I believe a common lesson plan or schema model should be used throughout a school for instruction. The lesson model should create a common language for discussion of instruction and best practice of presenting information. The lesson schema will aid understanding of instruction for ESL students and the spectrum of mild to moderate special needs learners. Solid instruction includes: 1/objective 2/access prior knowledge 3/present new information 4/application 5/closure. Those five steps might have variations in terms of what each section is labeled in a district or school, but the basic lesson steps should hold form for cooperative learning to inquiry to direct instruction. The only variation would be in the amount of time allotted for each phase of the lesson.

Creating learning outcomes based on clear and compelling curriculum targets should be commonplace practice in highly functioning schools. However, just as needed is a shared lesson plan format for creating a common language and understanding of instructional strategies that will help students retain and apply information for long periods of time. Even when the curriculum is established and the assessment outcomes are determined in advance of instruction, engaging instruction based a clear lesson schema might be the single biggest ingredient to ensuring student achievement throughout the school.

Trust in schools has been shown to directly relate to student achievement. Reflecting on trust and its relation to organizational structure is an interesting exercise. Recall that human relation research for decades has investigated performance impact when structure is modified. Follow this line of thinking and we arrive at a crucial question: do we trust our staff and students enough to give them access to the Internet? The following graphic from Scott McLeod drives the question into our face.

I first watched the Starkville, MS School District’s “Believe” video on Kim Caise’s blog. The video captures the essence of my personal philosophy of education. Due to starting the job search process, I have been updating my philosophy of ed. Here’s my opening paragraph: I went into education because of teachers. Teachers taught me academic skills and helped develop my self-confidence. I was fortunate to have teachers that perceived me as capable and communicated that expectation to me. As an educational leader, I seek to “give back” by working to develop outstanding school experiences for all students, where teachers believe in their ability to reach even the most disadvantaged students. My core beliefs regarding schooling include a belief that schools should have great teachers, that schools should be safe communities where learning is of prime importance, and that decision making should be guided by the fundamental question of “is it good for kids?” I believe each individual child deserves the best opportunity to learn that the school can provide. Every child is capable of learning, and it is the responsibility of the school to help each child find success. I firmly believe in the power of schools to impact a child’s life. I am honored to be an educator, and I love working with school stakeholders to make the world a better place one child at a time.