Week of September 28th - October 2nd
It's a Magnificent Monday Team Central!!
Welcome Back!!
- Ms. Hall for receiving a literacy grant which allowed the English Department to receive free novels!!!
- Ms. Gibson for celebrating her students and giving "Student of the Week" certificates!!!
- Ms. Fingal for receiving a note from a parent thanking her (Ms. Fingal) for showing professionalism and kindness during the parent's visit to Central!!
- Ms. Clark and Dr. Berry for working with a parent volunteer to begin a partnership with the University of Md. Agriculture Team. They will be working together to fix up our CHS Greenhouse.
- Mrs. Lorditch for spearheading CHS's Breast Cancer Awareness T-Shirt sales!!!
- Ms. Walker for spearheading our Parent University Night and Ms. Booker, Ms. Hogans, Ms. Kaplun, and Ms. Warner for volunteering to lead presentations.
5 Ways to Incorporate Literacy in the Classroom
A CHS Blog Series
This Week....
Teach Vocabulary
- SELECT SPECIFIC WORDS - When planning your lesson, pre-select words that are critical to students' understanding of the content.
- RANK WORDS - When considering which words need the most instructional attention,
let's turn to Isabel Beck's practical way of categorizing vocabulary
words into three tiers:
Tier One: Basic words that rarely require instructional focus (door, house, book).
Tier Two: Words that appear with high frequency, across a variety of domains, and are crucial when using mature, academic language (coincidence, reluctant, analysis).
Tier Three: Frequency of these words is quite low and often limited to specific fields of study (isotope, Reconstruction, Buddhism).
Beck suggests that students will benefit the most academically by focusing instruction on the tier two words (since these appear with much higher frequency than tier three words, and are used across domains). Go ahead and select some content-specific words (tier three) but only those directly related to the chapter, article, short story, or whatever you are about to read. - TEACH WORDS - If you haven't heard of him, I'd like to introduce Robert Marzano.
This guy is pretty amazing, having spent countless hours observing
students and teachers. An education researcher and teacher, he stresses that in all content areas, direct vocabulary instruction is essential and suggests six steps:
Step one: The teacher explains a new word, going beyond reciting its definition (tap into prior knowledge of students, use imagery).
Step two: Students restate or explain the new word in their own words (verbally and/or in writing).
Step three: Ask students to create a non-linguistic representation of the word (a picture, or symbolic representation).
Step four: Students engage in activities to deepen their knowledge of the new word (compare words, classify terms, write their own analogies and metaphors).
Step five: Students discuss the new word (pair-share, elbow partners).
Step six: Students periodically play games to review new vocabulary (Pyramid, Jeopardy, Telephone).
*Alber, Rebecca. Doing it Differently: Tips for Teaching Vocabulary. January 16, 2014. Edutopia. September 28, 2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/blog/vocabulary-instruction-teaching-tips-rebecca-alber>
Continuing with our checking for understanding feature...
EXIT TICKETS- An exit ticket is perhaps one or two questions or problems for students to answer quickly at the end of class.
- Not only are exit tickets a great way to assess what students learned, but they are also a good tool for teachers to see how well they taught the material.
- An important aspect of exit tickets is that you need to make sure that they are short and simple, and also usually focused on the main points of the lesson, not small details.
- Make sure that you have the exit ticket questions ready before class begins, so that you don't waste time at the end of class trying to come up with questions. Either write them on the board or pass out a slip of paper so that the students can visually see the questions.
- Allow students to get used to the routine of completing exit tickets upon the dismissal of each class period.
*Thompson, Jordan. Exit Ticket. Teach Like a Champion. September 28, 2015. <Teachlikeachampionjordan.weebly.com/exit-ticket.html>
- Please sign up for the October 2, 2015 County-Wide Professional Development (for your content area). Information can be found on the Staff Portal.
- Please view Student Services Videos and complete assessments by October 9, 2015.
- All SLO's are due in Teachscape by October 19, 2015. (REVISED DATE) See your Department Chair for more information.
- Please use the Google Doc LVL 1 Form to document minor student behaviors, and students with attendance concerns. Send the LVL 1 form to all appropriate staff members. Remember, three LVL 1 referrals, that show interventions attempted, must be submitted prior to submitting a Google Doc Discipline Referral. See Major Pabalan for more information.
- Please make sure you are lesson planning each day, and using the school-wide lesson plan template. Lesson plans should be in a binder, and in an area that is accessible for visitors.
MONDAY, 9/28 "A DAY"- Value Teachers @ 11:00am in Staff Lounge
- Smart Board Training - Periods 2-5 (Location TBA)
- Department Meetings @ 2:45pm
- Volleyball vs. Potomac @ Central - 7:00pm
TUESDAY, 9/29 "B Day"- Foundations of Technology Collaborative Planning (PD 1B)
- World Languages Collaborative Planning (PD 1B - RM 201A)
- World Languages Collaborative Planning (PD 5B - RM 204)
- Literacy Team Meeting @ 2:45pm Rm. 100
- Boys Soccer @ Highpoint - 3:00pm
- Girls Soccer vs. Highpoint @ Central - 5:00pm
WEDNESDAY, 9/30 "A" DAY- IEP Meetings (All day)
- Family and Consumer Sciences Collaborative Planning (PD 1A - RM 221)
Math Collaborative Planning (PD 2A - RM 212)- English Collaborative Planning (PD 3A - RM 100)
- Social Studies Collaborative Planning (U.S. His - RM 312; LSN Gov - RM 105; World History - RM 118)
- French Immersion Collaborative Planning (PD 4A - LIB 1)
- Science Collaborative Planning (PD 5A - RM 219)
- Admin/ABIS/Security/PGC Meeting - 2:45pm - 3:15pm (Location TBA)
- Admin Meeting 3:30pm (Upstairs
Conference Room ) - Parent University Night - All Grades @ 6:00pm
- THURSDAY, 10/1 "B" DAY
Girls Soccer @Eleanor Roosevelt @3:00pm Boys Soccer vs. Eleanor Roosevelt @ Central @ 3:30pm
- Volleyball @ Forestville @6:30pm
FRIDAY, 10/2 "B" DAY- NO SCHOOL FOR SCHOLARS
- PGCPS TEACHING AND LEARNING CONFERENCE
SATURDAY, 10/3- (JV) Football @ Douglass 9:00am
- (V) Football vs. Douglass @ Central @3:00pm
THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK!!HAVE AN AMAZING, GREAT BY CHOICE, WEEK!!!