May 11, 2012

I have a ton of information here for the blog this week. 

PLEASE CLICK ON THE PTO NEWSLETTER LINK ON THE TOP OF THIS PAGE!!!

2012-13 Registration

Have you registered your student for the 2012-2013 school year? Students–even those currently enrolled and returning–must be registered annually. In just one week it will cost families $20 more per student to register, so don't delay! If you missed the registration email(s) that include(s) the electronic link you will need to register your student(s), please call the public information coordinator at 847.459.4260, ext. 7722, as soon as possible.

Standards Based Report Card Information 

With the new system, how will parents know how their child's learning compares to other students' achievement?

As I've described, a standards-based report card is one that depicts student learning by specific curriculum targets. By reporting in this manner, parents and students will have a clearer understanding of what the learner is able to do in terms of proficiency by target. The goal is to measure and report on each child's growth and mastery of targets, considering learning from a personal progress perspective rather than a comparison to other students.

What is the difference between a "meets" (3.0 target) and "extends" target (4.0)?

As stated in past blogs, the expectation is that most students will "meet" the instructional targets within each content area. With that said, some students may be able to stretch their thinking to more deeply understand the learning target. This is exactly what we mean by "extends"! Please see below for a 6th grade Social Studies example:

3.0 (Meets) Target

Identify how the Five Themes of Geography influence the characteristics of a civilization.

4.0 (Extends) Target

Differentiate between two civilizations and how all 5 Themes of Geography influence their characteristics.

We are developing differentiated targets in all content areas, across grade levels, so that we can clearly identify what we expect students to know/be able to do at levels 1.0 (well below), 2.0 (below target), 3.0 (meets target), and 4.0 (extends target). Student proficiency will be reported on this 4.0 scale for each learning target taught within the trimester. This will launch next year in a limited field test, with implementation system-wide taking place during the 2013-14 school year.

Team Information

6-1

Social Studies - For the remainder of the school year we will focus on learning all about Ancient Greece and everything that they have contributed to mankind.  We will also be taking our final benchmark of the year on Friday, June 1st.  For our end of the year project, we will be conducting our own Greek Olympics.  We will ask the kids to form their own city-states and come up with a name to represent them.  Next, we will have a field day and have them compete in various competitions.  Have a great summer!

Reading/LA: We just finished up our persuasive writing unit and are moving on to expository writing.  In addition, we are finishing up our novel units and focusing on the targets of theme, indirect and direct characterization, and conflict.  In honors reading we will also be studying character motivation and oral traditions.  Finally, as an end of the year project, the students will be applying their knowledge of theme and other literary elements to create short stories of their own.  The students will pick a universal literary theme and write a story that brings that theme to life.  To do this, the students must carefully consider the characters, conflict, climax, and resolution of their story.  They always turn out wonderful, and it’s a great way for the students to apply all that they’ve learned this year!

Science: The students are transitioning into our final unit, Biology. The students will be learning about the different types of cells and the functions of their organelles. The week of May 14, the students will be learning the parts of the microscope and using the equipment to view cells and other mystery slides. The biology unit culminates with genetics/heredity and a cell project.  

Math-

AT level just completed division and will be starting measurement. We will end the year with patterns and variables.

Advanced- We are in the middle of the percent unit and will finish the year with traditional long division.

Honors- We are in the middle of applying fractions to basic pre-algebra skills and graphing. We will continue to synthesize the material with word problems.

6-2

Reading/LA:  Now that students are finished with persuasive writing, students are now moving on to an expository writing unit.  Each class is also finishing up their novel units which have focused on theme, characterization, and conflict.  At the end of May students will be creating their own short stories and publishing them in a hard-cover book. Students will be applying their understanding of plot, conflict, theme, character, and literary devices in their short stories, which will bring students full circle from what they started learning in the very beginning of the school year.  This creative writing project is always a favorite for students; what a great way for students to celebrate their love of reading and writing at the end of the year!

Math:  

At Level:  We are learning LONG DIVISION (I know you are all excited.)  From there we will be moving on to measurement, then finishing up the year Patterns and Variables.

Advanced:  We are smack dab in the middle of the Percent Unit.  We will be finishing up the year with decimal multiplication and Division (yes...finally long division.)  I time we will be doing some activities with the Metric System.

Pre - Algebra:  We will be finishing up the year with equations and Linear Functions...they will definitely need graph paper.

6-2

SCIENCE : Students are excited about using the microscopes for the first time and are enjoying looking at a piece of their hair ( what a surprise) as well as many other specimens! They will also be learning about animal and plant cells and their organelles.

Finally, they will study a few concepts in genetics!

Social Studies - After completing some incredible ancient Egypt tomb projects and our India/China pamphlet project, we turn our attention to the ancient civilization that has had the most impact on our western civilization. As we study Greece, the birthplace of democracy, we learn about how almost everything we do had roots in Ancient Greece. For our end of the year project, we will be conducting our own Greek Olympics.  We will ask the kids to form their own city-states and come up with a name to represent them.  Next, we will have a field day and have them compete in various competitions. Our target date for the final benchmark will be Friday, June 1st.

7-1

Spanish - In Spanish we are beginning or last unit which will cover weather and clothing vocabulary.  Students will also learn to speak in the present progressive tense (-ing) and begin to use direct object pronouns.  We will also continue to learn about the island of Puerto Rico.

Miss Keehnast - In at-level R/LA, students are studying the different forms of drama, and they will participate in a variety of presentations. In honors R/LA students are finishing their drama unit and beginning literature circles. Both levels are also finishing their persuasive benchmark pieces. We are continuing the study of the parts of speech until the end of the year.

Luther - In at level R/LA, students are studying the different forms of drama.  They will have the opportunity to perform these dramas for the class and determine how their presentations compare to a professional one.

Math--In at-level math we will continue our study of percents, including real-life applications like computing interest and sales tax.  Students in accelerated math will be completing a unit which includes identifying, graphing, writing, and interpreting linear functions.  Honors math students will finish their study of factoring trinomials and solving polynomial equations and then move on to studying the graphs of these functions.  It has been a great year, and I’d like to thank all of the students for their enthusiasm and hard work!

Social Studies--For the remainder of the school year, we will be learning about the CIvil War by assuming the identity of a soldier in that conflict.  Activities include daily roll call, Destiny Dice (where your soldier will “experience” the high and low points of being in the army), contests (a Gettysburg Address contest, for example), and playing Civil War baseball.  Students will write journals describing their experiences in some of the major battles of the war and how these experiences impacted them, their families, and their hometowns.  The unit will culminate with student presentations of projects that show their deep understanding of a particular aspect of the war.  This unit is a great way to end a great year, and we’d like to thank all of the students for their interest and effort!

Mrs. Shanks- Students will be finishing up their persuasive essays and then focusing on drama. Students will get to experience various forms of drama and will have the opportunity to compare the different styles. The students have worked hard this year and hopefully will continue to do so for the remaining weeks!

7/2 - 8/2

Mrs. Hain’s 8th graders in English/LA have finished reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  We have started our in class reenactments.  Ask your students about their reenactments.  Students are also working on an individual Shakespeare project due on May 29.  Please ask your child to share this assignment with you and to get started if they have not.

Mrs. Hain’s 7th graders in English/LA are finishing up their persuasive unit with a research based persuasive essay.  We will comparing our baseline results to our benchmark results to track growth.  We have also began our drama unit with the play “Dragonwings” and will soon start “Monsters are Due on Maple Street”.  We will continue or grammatical journey with prepositions and prepositional phrases.  

Señora Nicksarlian - 7th and 8th Grade Spanish

Seventh grade students are learning about the weather and clothing. This chapter is about the rainforest  in Puerto Rico.  El Yunque is a small rainforest  with beautiful pools, waterfalls, and small animals. Animals indigenous to this rainforest are the coquí (a tiny brown frog that sings), the puerto rican parrot, and many other small animals, the biggest of which is the boa. Students are also learning tener expressions and the present progressive. They will also be singing the weather song.

Eighth grade students are in the last chapter of the Spain unit and they’ve been cooking!! They had to make their favorite tapa recipe at home for extra credit and then film it or take pictures of the cooking process. This was an extra credit activity and the two most popular recipes were tortilla española (Spanish potato and onion omelette) and churros. Churros is a very popular breakfast item in Spain, served with very thick hot chocolate. Congratulations to all the cocineros (cooks)!! They did a phenomenal job!!  Students are also learning the preterite with irregular verbs and singing the preterite “cucaracha” song. Next week they will be creating a scrapbook  with their favorite Woodlawn memories in Spanish.

Ms. Maggiore - 7th and 8th grade Math, Pre-algebra, and Algebra 1

This is my last blog for the school year and I want to thank all of the parents, students, administrators, faculty members, support staff, and anyone that I missed for a wonderful final year here at Woodlawn.  I could not ask for a better group of people to work with or for than District 96.  Who knew when I started 34 years ago that I would still be here to tell great stories, and reminisce about the times we have all shared in the district.  I will miss all of you, you are my family too, we spend numerous hours together, and I would not trade it for anything.  I do intend to substitute next school year, so I will be around.   How could I possibly stay away from my home away from home!

I would like to wish everyone a happy, restful, and fun-filled summer vacation.  

7th Grade At Level Math - We are presently working on a unit on percents.  It includes finding percent of a number, finding the missing number, taxes, discounts,  simple interest, sale prices, original prices, percent of change, mark-ups, and commissions.  When we conclude we will be working a bit more on geometry formulas, such as volume and surface area of prisms, pyramids, and cylinders.

7th Grade Pre-algebra - We are working on rate of change, graphing linear equations using a table, finding the x and y intercepts of graphs, slope, and finding the equation of a line.  We will also be graphing linear equations in slope-intercept form and learn how to change an equation from slope intercept form into standard form.  

7th Grade Honors Algebra - We are presently working on polynomials.  We are learning how to add, subtract, multiply, and factor polynomials.  The students will classify polynomials, and find the roots or zeros of a polynomial.  We will then continue on with Quadratic Functions and graphing non-factorable polynomials using the quadratic formula, graph quadratic equations, and find the x-intercepts, y-intercepts, axis of symmetry, and the vertex of the quadratic function with and without a calculator.The students will learn the quadratic formula to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel”.

8th Grade Accelerated Algebra -  We are working on Quadratic Functions and Equations.  The students are learning how to graph the equations using a table of values,  finding the x-intercepts by factoring or with the quadratic equation, find the vertex of the parabola,  and the axis of symmetry both with and without a calculator.  The students will learn the quadratic formula which will be sung to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel”.

Ms. Russell - 7th Grade Reading and Language Arts (Honors)

We are wrapping up our year with the completion of our research-based persuasive essays that will be due next week.  The drama unit is also coming to a conclusion with live, in-class performances of The Diary of Anne Frank.  Students will soon begin a final group reading unit with their participation in Literature Circles (novels provided); many wonderful books will be explored and enjoyed and it is my hope that student will deeply appreciate the experience!

Ms. Russell - 8th Grade Reading and Language Arts (At-Level)

Each student will soon be submitting his/her second literary analysis essay; it will be counted as part of the final writing and grammar grade for quarter four and I look forwarding to reading all compositions!  Our drama unit is drawing to a close with live, in-class performances of The Diary of Anne Frank.  We will begin literature circles next week and that will be our final reading unit before graduation!

Mrs. Miller - 7th Grade Social Studies

We are currently invested in an extensive unit on the American Civil War.  Each student has received a war identity, and during this unit students will role-play Americans on both sides of the conflict.  They are learning to function successfully in cooperative groups (“battle “contingents”) though daily roll call, common soldier interviews and class activities.  Students have also begin researching their Civil War Archive Project topics and should be moving into the presentation development stage very soon.  Presentations will begin on May 29th - what an exciting way to end the school year!  Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can get outside and play a little Civil War baseball before summer break!

Mrs. Miller - 8th Grade Social Studies

During the course of this school year, our students have been watching a fascinating ABC News/History Channel series called The Century:  America’s Time.  Each segment we’ve watched highlighted a particular decade of the 20th Century.  To culminate our school year, students will be assigned topics of the late 1990s and modern world and will create their own “Century” segment through use of iMovie.  We hope it will remind students of the importance of history and will inspire them to be active citizens and  leaders in the modern world.

Mr. Frank’s 7th Grade Science

Astronomy is our final destination in 7th grade.  Weather permitting, we will find sunspots using a filtered telescope and discuss recent activity on the Sun’s surface.  We explore our solar system, how we measure distance in space, and the role gravity plays in keeping everything in order.  Other topics include the summer and winter solstices, fall and spring equinox, and moon phases and eclipses.  Thanks to our wonderful PTO, all classes will view a presentation of the formation of the universe in a mobile planetarium.

Mr. Frank’s 8th Grade Science

There are 3 remaining science activities to wrap up the middle school science experience.  The first involves experiments using balloons to demonstrate how air resistance and mass can influence motion.  These experiments will give us one last bit of practice identifying independent and dependent variables and setting up controlled experiments.  Next we compare balanced and unbalanced forces using a lunar lander simulation and a web based exploration of force vectors.  The final project takes a look at momentum, collisions, and Newton’s laws.  Students will create vehicles to protect an egg from cracking as it collides head-on with fellow classmates vehicles.  Should be messy!

TEAM 8-1

English/ LA:

At Level - We are finishing up the drama unit, The Diary of Anne Frank and are now beginning Literature Circles. This will continue till the end of the school year.

Honors- All classes are working on their Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream projects.

Social Studies - Mrs. Shannon

During the course of this school year, our students have been watching a fascinating ABC News/History Channel series called The Century:  America’s Time.  Each segment we’ve watched highlighted a particular decade of the 20th Century.  To culminate our school year, students will be assigned topics of the late 1990s and modern world and will create their own “Century” segment through use of iMovie.  We hope it will remind students of the importance of history and will inspire them to be active citizens and  leaders in the modern world.

Spanish

We are finishing our preterite unit with a “my memories of Middle School” project.  We will also have a final exam May 23.  We will end the school year with a mini-unit based on the movie “Stand and Deliver”.

Math    We are studying graphing linear equations, quadratic equations and sequences and series.

Encore

Art

6th grade has finished the clay animals and while they are drying out to be fired we will be starting our value painting project.

7th grade is “glue deep” into constructing the wooden animal sculptures and some have even started painting them. We have some outstanding specimens that even include movement!

8th grade has finished clay masks and we have been doing painting exercises in order to be ready to start our abstract acrylic paintings on canvas.

SAVE THE DATE!  

CONSORTIUM ART SHOW IS COMING UP!
MONDAY, MAY 21  from 7-9 p.m. at Stevenson High School

Over 200 students from Woodlawn have had their work chosen and invitations should arrive by early next week to let you know if your student will have work on exhibit. We have amazing projects this year, as our halls and displays have shown us!

Communications

6th graders have just finished a unit on non-verbal communication, and this week started preparing for their first formal speech. They are learning how to brainstorm ideas, how to organize their ideas in a formal topic outline, will prepare note cards, and will learn the do’s and don’ts of giving a formal speech.

7th graders just finished their first speech, an “object speech”, and just started a persuasive, partner speech today.

8th graders are starting to prepare for their last formal speech. They will reflect on their years in Dist. 96 and discuss all the ways they have changed, major lessons they’ve learned, and talk about some of their favorite memories.

FACS

6th/7th/8th

As the school year comes to an end our students have been quite busy finishing up their sewing projects, which are all turning out wonderful. All grades will end the year with a cooking unit. We will discuss basic sanitary requirements when cooking, and the nutritional value of what we eat. Students will be preparing such things as fruit smoothies, pizza muffins, pancakes, french toast, parmesan twists, and more.

Music

I want to congratulate all the participants in our spring musical, “Cinderella” for an outstanding production!  It was a joy to participate in this endeavor and I want to thank everyone for their cooperation, dedication and talent.  In our general music classes, the seventh and eighth grade will be beginning their guitar unit this week.  They will not only learn to read chords and tablature, but also compose with those skills.  Sixth graders have begun writing their cereal commercial and will be filming their projects as well.  As you begin to think about summer and have any questions about music lesson or children’s theater, please feel free to contact me.  It has been an honor and pleasure to teach in District 96 for the last 20 years.   I will miss all of students and our terrific staff and plan to substitute often.  Have a great summer!!!

Orchestra

I would like extend a big thank you to our Woodlawn Orchestra members Albert Cao, Jessica Eggers, and Eileen Hoang for participating in the Stevenson High School Consortium Orchestra on Monday, May 7th. Albert, Jessica and Eileen played a big part in the overall performance Monday. Thank you!

All Woodlawn Orchestra students are gearing up for our final concert of the year on Wednesday, May 16th. The concert will include 4th and fifth grade students from Country Meadows and Kildeer in addition to the Woodlawn 6th grade, 7th/8th grade, and chamber orchestras. The concert will begin at 7 pm. Please come and show your support!

The 7th/ 8th grade orchestra will be presenting their annual elementary school tour on  the morning of Wednesday, May 23. This talented group of 7th and 8th grade students will demonstrate their instruments and talk about what it means to be a part of the Woodlawn Orchestra for all 3rd, 4th &5th graders at Country Meadows and Kildeer.

Band

Our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade band students are making final preparations for our Spring Band Concert on Thursday, May 17.  We will continue with lessons and rehearsals after the concert.  6th and 7th graders will have a short amount of time to prepare for the final performance of the year at the 8th grade graduation ceremony.  Finally, 6th and 7th grade students will have an opportunity now and over the summer to practice for the IMEA Honor Band and Honor Jazz Band festivals.  I’ll also have available fall audition music for the Woodlawn Jazz Band to practice over the summer.  Please keep checking (or subscribe to) the band website announcements to stay current on all things band!

Learning Center:

            The Learning Center would like to thank the Woodlawn PTO for the wonderful Spring Scholoastic Book Fair that they hosted this past week. Our students were so excited with the selection of books and the great enthusiasm that the volunteers brought to the event. We are also thankful for the many books that were donated to the Learning Center as a result of the sale. We can’t wait for the next book fair in the fall.

            We are beginning our end of the year closing process in the Learning Center. All books are due on May 18th and all fines are due by May 21st. If a student has lost a book, we ask that they wait until all lockers have been cleaned out in case another student finds the book. It is amazing what turns up at the end of the year. If there are outstanding fines or missing materials, students will not receive their yearbooks, so please be sure to encourage your child to return everything to the Learning Center.

            We will also be adding a subscription to the EBSCO research database to the services the LC offers next year. This is a database that hosts scholarly articles on nearly every topic that is organized by Lexile score. With the implementation of the new Common Core curriculum, this will be a very valuable tool for teachers and students.

            There are so many wonderful additions to the Learning Center and we are really looking forward to next school year. Have a wonderful summer!

Physical Education:   We have begun the track and field unit and are preparing for the school track meet.  Students are practicing some track and field events that will be offered when all three P.E. classes face off to be the top class of 2012!  This cooperative and competitive unit ends with many celebrations in which students have to qualify for.  All fitness days, fitness laps and track events need to be completed in order to participate in the reward days.  Who will win during each class period this year? Team Berry in blue?  Team Blair in bright white? or Mr. Donofrio in dark black?  We will soon find out!