The 1st Quarter Reading Reflection was our first step in to these reflections. There are 21 questions in this reflection, and it should take at least 20 minutes to complete.
Please take your time.
Please represent yourself well.
Please be thoughtful and honest as you reflect upon your reading through this quarter.
The act of reflection can be immensely insightful in helping us get to know ourselves better, as individuals and readers. Let's learn from our experiences.
2nd Quarter Reading Reflection
Monday, December 16, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
OTC field trip reflection
If you went on the field trip to OTC (Ozarks Technical Community College) on Thursday, December 5, please click on the link below and complete the survey.
OTC Tour Reflections
Thank you!
OTC Tour Reflections
Thank you!
end of second quarter extra credit opportunity
The Performance Series tests will be the last "big" assessments that will go in to the grade book before the quarter ends. I like to finish the quarter with an opportunity for the students to earn some extra credit, so here it is.
When taking the Reading Performance Series test: if a student scored on or below grade level on the beginning of the year test, and is able to improve their Lexile score by 100 points, then they will earn extra credit; if a student score above grade level on the beginning of the year test, and is able to improve their Lexile score by 50 points, then they will earn extra credit.
When taking the Language Arts Performance Series test: compared to the beginning of the year Scaled Score, if a student scores 50 points higher on this middle of the year test, then they will earn extra credit.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
second quarter quickly drawing to a close
This won't be exciting--mostly just reminders.
The second quarter is quickly drawing to a close, and every single day will prove important for student learning and success. I recommend using the Assignments page to stay up to date on what is going on in class. We're all trying out a team assignments document to share exactly what graded assignments were completed each school day in the four core classes. Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciative.
This week, December 2-6, features work on a collaborative rocket unit centered on the question: what do good problem solvers do? In English, we'll be reflecting upon the history of rockets, the movie October Sky, and the process the students go through to build their own water rockets in order to answer this question. On December 5th we'll be taking a field trip to Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) to view the programs of study available there. It will be a fun and informative day. If students do not turn in their permission forms, they will be staying at school and working on alternative assignments. Other than the previously mentioned focus for learning, we'll be working through a few minilessons (capitalization of seasons, directional terms, family relationships; punctuating different titles; comma and semicolon use) to prepare for the Language Arts Performance Series Test.
The week of December 9-13 features Performance Series Testing. This will be our middle-of-year round of testing, to measure improvement from the beginning-of-year tests, and to pinpoint what areas we still need to continue to improve upon. Students MUST complete this testing before December 19, so if a student is absent, they'll probably be pulled from other classes or have to come in early to complete the testing. We believe it is best for students to complete the testing with their English classes, so absences during this time should be avoided. This week is mostly consumed with assessment, but through the assessment we can still learn quite a bit. We will think about and discuss test taking practices; we will reflect upon previous learning and place it within the context of this situation; we will receive our new scores and look to focus our learning for the end-of-year test that we will take in May.
The final week, December 16-19, features work on a Letter to Author that students will have the opportunity to send off to a writing competition. I hope that students take the opportunity to enter their work in the competition; it's a great opportunity to send student work well beyond our walls in order to see how our writing compares. The learning that takes place this week is a culmination of work that has been completed through the quarter. Students will look back on their reading experiences this quarter in order to reflect upon their reading habits and discover further what type of a reader they are and are becoming. Helping students to learn about themselves is an important aspect of the reading that we do throughout the year, and that won't happen without a reflective process. The letter students will write to an author is another opportunity for reflection, but the focus this time being a text, rather than themselves. Following the format is important, and working through the process of reflecting and writing and revising and sharing and revising and writing provides so many individual opportunities for learning about the little things of being a reader and a writer and a learner. I really enjoy getting to work with students through these weeks, because it's more of a workshop during this time than any other point in the quarter. I wish we could do it more.
With all this in mind, the nitty-gritty element is that there will be five more graded assignments:
Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.
The second quarter is quickly drawing to a close, and every single day will prove important for student learning and success. I recommend using the Assignments page to stay up to date on what is going on in class. We're all trying out a team assignments document to share exactly what graded assignments were completed each school day in the four core classes. Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciative.
This week, December 2-6, features work on a collaborative rocket unit centered on the question: what do good problem solvers do? In English, we'll be reflecting upon the history of rockets, the movie October Sky, and the process the students go through to build their own water rockets in order to answer this question. On December 5th we'll be taking a field trip to Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) to view the programs of study available there. It will be a fun and informative day. If students do not turn in their permission forms, they will be staying at school and working on alternative assignments. Other than the previously mentioned focus for learning, we'll be working through a few minilessons (capitalization of seasons, directional terms, family relationships; punctuating different titles; comma and semicolon use) to prepare for the Language Arts Performance Series Test.
The week of December 9-13 features Performance Series Testing. This will be our middle-of-year round of testing, to measure improvement from the beginning-of-year tests, and to pinpoint what areas we still need to continue to improve upon. Students MUST complete this testing before December 19, so if a student is absent, they'll probably be pulled from other classes or have to come in early to complete the testing. We believe it is best for students to complete the testing with their English classes, so absences during this time should be avoided. This week is mostly consumed with assessment, but through the assessment we can still learn quite a bit. We will think about and discuss test taking practices; we will reflect upon previous learning and place it within the context of this situation; we will receive our new scores and look to focus our learning for the end-of-year test that we will take in May.
The final week, December 16-19, features work on a Letter to Author that students will have the opportunity to send off to a writing competition. I hope that students take the opportunity to enter their work in the competition; it's a great opportunity to send student work well beyond our walls in order to see how our writing compares. The learning that takes place this week is a culmination of work that has been completed through the quarter. Students will look back on their reading experiences this quarter in order to reflect upon their reading habits and discover further what type of a reader they are and are becoming. Helping students to learn about themselves is an important aspect of the reading that we do throughout the year, and that won't happen without a reflective process. The letter students will write to an author is another opportunity for reflection, but the focus this time being a text, rather than themselves. Following the format is important, and working through the process of reflecting and writing and revising and sharing and revising and writing provides so many individual opportunities for learning about the little things of being a reader and a writer and a learner. I really enjoy getting to work with students through these weeks, because it's more of a workshop during this time than any other point in the quarter. I wish we could do it more.
With all this in mind, the nitty-gritty element is that there will be five more graded assignments:
- --December 3--MLA citation of book/author choice for Letter to Author (10 points)
- --December 10--Performance Series Testing Reading score (15 points)
- --December 12--Performance Series Testing Language Arts score (15 points)
- --December 17--Second Quarter Reading Record (60 points)
- --December 19--Letter to Author (50 points)
Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.
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