Feb 09 Newsletter

S O U T H W E S T

Missouri Assessment Program

February 2009 Volume 14 Issue 3

Upcoming Workshops End-of-Course Manuals and MAP Manuals workshops will be presented by the MAP Regional Instructional Facilitators. Please go to page 2 for links to register for the workshops. MAP Manuals Workshops: This training meeting is critically important for District and Building Test Coordinators who are responsible for administration of the MAP tests. It is recommended that every district send at least one person to one of the MAP Manuals meetings with a maximum of 3 people from each district. Register for a half-day session here. End-of Course Manuals Workshops: This training meeting is critically important for District and Building Test Coordinators who are responsible for administration of the EOC tests. It is recommended that every district send at least one person to one of the EOC Manuals meetings with a maximum of 3 people from each district. Register for a half-day session here. Scoring Workshop for an Algebra 1 End-of-Course Performance Event - AM & PM Sessions Participants will look at student work and score and EOC math performance event for practice. This will aid in the understanding for teachers on how to score their students work. Register for half-day session here. Rescheduled Scoring Workshop for a Biology End-of-Course Performance Event-AM Session Participants will work with scoring guides, anchor papers and actual student work to learn how to score a performance event for the Biology EOC. The released form on the DESE website (not the PE from this year’s EOC) will be used to lead teachers through the process. The goal of the workshop is to help classroom teachers align their scoring of the performance event with the state’s scoring and, in the process, discover methods for improving student achievement and instruction. Register for half-day session here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * New MAP Website Coming Soon We are in the process of transferring the MAP website to the Missouri State University’s WebPress system. This new system will allow users to view the website from either Internet Explorer or Firefox. The new system should be available in the next two weeks.

On the Inside Page 2 Page 3

Calendar Communication Arts

Page 4 Page 5

Mathematics Science

Calendar and Upcoming Events MAP Calendar February 02/28/09 02/28/09 March 03/06/09 03/06/09 03/11/09 03/11/09 03/12/09 03/12/09 03/18/09 03/18/09 03/19/09 03/19/09 03/30/09 April 04/15/09 04/24/09 04/27/09 May 05/15/09 05/22/09 June 06/16/09 July August 08/31/09

EOC Algebra Scoring workshop a.m. EOC Algebra Scoring workshop p.m. EOC Biology Scoring workshop a.m. - Rescheduled EOC Biology Scoring workshop p.m. - Rescheduled MAP Manuals Meeting - Springfield a.m. End-of-Course Manuals - Springfield p.m. MAP Manuals Meeting - Joplin a.m. End-of-Course Manuals - Joplin p.m. End-of-Course Manuals - Springfield a.m. MAP Manuals Meeting - Springfield p.m. End-of-Course Manuals - Springfield a.m. MAP Manuals Meeting - Springfield p.m. MAP Testing Window opens Phase I Spring EOC begins MAP Testing Window closes Phase II Spring 2009 Field Test Window opens Phase II Spring 2009 Field Test Window closes Phase I Spring EOC ends Phase I Summer EOC begins Phase I Summer EOC ends * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

EOC and MAP Testing Schedules

End-of Course and MAP Testing Schedules will soon be emailed to District Test Coordinators. The MAP Testing Schedule is the same form that was used in the past. New this year is the End-of Course Testing Schedule. This form is similar to the MAP Testing Schedule. Both forms need to be returned to the MAP office by the date given in the email. If you have questions about the forms, please call our office at 417-829-5075 or 800899-8146.

The Southwest MAP Newsletter is a publication of the Southwest Missouri Assessment Program. SW MAP is part of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, working in conjunction with the College of Education at Missouri State University. Newsletter compiled by Mary Lou Cochrane ([email protected]) Contributors: Danielle Sellenriek, Trish Goddard, and Linda Dudley 

Communication Arts Danielle Sellenriek, Regional Instructional Facilitator [email protected]

Teaching Thinking Skills Three types of questions boost thinking

After students finish reading an assignment, they are usually ready to answer basic questions about the facts in the text. If you ask them to do any thinking beyond those facts, many will have trouble. But students need to learn how to ask—and answer—many different types of questions. Here are three kinds of questions students need to ask and answer: 1. On-the-line questions. These are the fact-based questions. “Who was the first President?” “What is the capital of Iowa?” Answers to these questions are usually found in the text. 2. Between-the-lines questions. These questions require students to draw inferences from what they have read. There is enough information in the text for students to draw a logical conclusion. “What might that word mean in this context?” “Why do you think the main character changed her mind?” 3. Beyond-the-lines questions. These questions help students make connections between what they have read and other ideas. “What qualities make a person a great leader?” “What do you think would happen if we did the experiment this way?” Give students practice asking and answering these three levels of questions. When you ask questions, be sure you ask all three types. Source: Carol Koechlin and Sandi Zwaan, Q Tasks, ISBN: 1-55138197-4 (Pembroke Publishers, 1-800-997-9807, www.pembrokepublishers.com ). * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reading Comprehension RIDER method can boost comprehension

Linking the words on a page to a picture constructed in the mind is one way students can better understand what they read. One method is called the RIDER method. It may work especially well for visual learners. Teach students to: R Read. Have students read a chunk of material, such as a sentence or paragraph. I Imagine. Ask students to form a detailed picture or image in their minds based on what they read. Think of color, setting, vivid characters—anything to help link the image to the text. D Describe. How is this picture or image different from others they’ve made? This is another way to ask: What new information are your students finding in the text? E Evaluate. Ask students: How complete is the image? Should they add anything to it? (Students may need to read the passage again at this point.) R Repeat. Repeat the process for the next chunk of material. Source: John Beattie, et al., Making Inclusion Work: Effective Practices for All Teachers, ISBN: 1-4129-1469-8 (Corwin Press, 1-800-233-9936, www.corwinpress.com ). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Teaching Thinking Skills

Move literature students from LOTS to HOTS

Most students are comfortable identifying and feeding back essential facts about a text. But now it’s time to move them from LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) to HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills). How can you do this? • Expect students to identify literary devices and terms when discussing or writing about a Communication Arts continued on Page  

Mathematics Trish Goddard, Regional Instructional Facilitator [email protected] Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics Upcoming events 2008-2009: Feb. 19-21 Interface A Tan-Tar-A Feb. 22-24 Interface B Tan-Tar-A Feb. 27-March 1 T3 21st Annual International Conference, Seattle Apr. 22-25 NCTM 87th Annual Meeting, Washington D.C. Upcoming events 2009-2010: Dec. 4-5 MCTM Annual Conference Mar. 5-7 T3 22nd Annual International Conference, Atlanta MCTM local officers: President: Robin Jenkins, Central High School, 423 E. Central, Springfield, MO 65802, 417-523-9776, [email protected] SW Director: Adam Meador, Holland Elementary School, 2403 S. Holland Ave., Springfield, MO 65809, 417-838-6128, [email protected] *

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Education Changes Now that the election results are in, Congress and the new President will be developing their education agendas over the next year. President Obama, with help from his transition team, has selected a new Secretary of Education. There is also considerable speculation that the new administration will drastically change NCLB. What those changes might be is certainly not clear at this point, but there does seem to be fairly widespread support for implementing changes in NCLB (in a 2008 PDK_Gallup poll, more than 80% of the American public believes NCLB should be extensively altered). Congress will be considering a number of educational issues/pieces of legislation. The 110th Congress approved several legislative measures related to education. These measures included changes in the law governing the Head Start program and the Higher Education Act. Another significant piece of legislation is the American COMPETES Act. The legislation authorizes $43 billion in spending for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research and education programs. It also authorizes a new program that would provide grants enabling schools to have math specialists in the classroom. This could be particularly significant at the K-5 level. Reprinted from the February 2009 MCTM Bulletin. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Elementary Activities (for more activities, go to the Math section of the MAP website at www.map.missouristate.edu ) Mathematics of the Heart: K-2 Jumping with heart. Your heart is a muscle. Just like the other muscles in your body, your heart gets stronger when you exercise. See how long you can jump without stopping. You can either jump in place or use a jump rope. Do this every day for a week. Record your data. What do you notice about the length of time you are able to jump each day? What do you think would happen to the data if you did this for another week? Month? Pump it up. Our hearts work hard every day to pump our blood throughout our bodies. The average human body has about 6 quarts of blood. There are 2 pints in a quart. How many pints of blood are in an average adult? 2 adults? 5 adults? Math continued on Page  

Science Linda Dudley, Regional Instructional Facilitator [email protected] I hope everyone has thawed out after our recent experience with yet more ice. Give me snow over ice any time! One of the ways I spent my time was in catching up on some reading and checking out some resources that you may find helpful. Our DESE science consultant and the various Science Regional Instructional Facilitators across the state are collaborating to provide teachers in grades 5 and 8 with a sample MAP-type test to use as you prepare your students. Both of the samples are partially finished and will be posted to our website and to the DESE website as soon as possible. For those of you who are always looking for materials to use as you teach inquiry skills, you might want to take a look at Science Experiments By The Hundreds (Julia Cothron, Ronald Giese, Richard Rezba). This is not a new resource as it was copyrighted in 1996 by Kendall/ Hunt Publishing Company (ISBN 0-7872-1574-0). This is a student workbook that takes them from the basics of variables, constants and hypotheses all the way through researching, designing and presenting their own experiment. The material is designed for beginning researchers and would be best suited for middle school-age students or for high school students with little or no background in inquiry. There is a Teacher’s Guide to accompany the workbook (ISBN 0-7872-2110-4). For those students and teachers who have more experience, the same writing team has produced a resource entitled Science Experiments and Projects for Students. They have also produced a teacher’s resource called Students and Research: Practical Strategies for Science Classrooms and Competitions (2nd edition). If you are a high school teacher who has thought about implementing science notebooking in your classes, try reading the article “Integrating Interactive Notebooks” in the January 2009 issue of NSTA’s The Science Teacher. The article describes one type of science notebook and even gives sample formative and summative assessment strategies for the notebook. Many of the resources I have had experience with have focused on the use of notebooks in elementary and middle school classes. While the basics of science notebooks can be applied to all grade levels, I’ve heard many high school teachers express doubts and/or questions about using them in their classes. The authors (Cheryl Waldman and Kent Crippen) do a very good job of providing a simple three part scaffold that should be easy to implement and grade and should also be effective in helping students learn.

On the Web

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• Digital workshop (www.t2tweb.us/Digital/workshop_hots/index.html ) aims to increase student learning by integrating inquiry and higher-order thinking skills into instruction. The site has resources to help you incorporate inquiry and Bloom’s taxonomy into student assessment, find appropriate assessments for inquiry and HOTS (higher order thinking skills) and explain the differences between doing inquiry and understanding inquiry. • NASA Mars exploration resources (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom) is a set of curriculum modules for grades 4-12. • Videos from NATURE (www.pbs.org/wnet/nature ) makes more than 40 downloadable video segments from the PBS series available for classroom use (length ranges from 30 seconds to 5 minutes). • If you need videos that chronicle global efforts to solve ecological challenges, 18 downloadable video segments from the PBS series e2 may be accessed at Science continued on Page  

Missouri Insurance Education Foundation Scholarships

The Missouri Insurance Education Foundation, formed as a non-profit corporation in 1991, is supported by insurance companies which conduct business in Missouri. One of the goals of the Foundation is to award scholarships to deserving Missouri high school students who will be attending Missouri colleges or universities. In connection with these goals, the Board has approved four (4) $1,500 scholarships to be awarded to Missouri graduating high school seniors who will be full-time students in an accredited Missouri college or university and with an interest or intent of pursuing an insurance, risk management, or actuarial science course of study. Completed applications must be postmarked no later than March 31, 2009, so that the Scholarship Committee can complete the selection process by mid-April. Applications postmarked after this deadline will not be considered. Information about the scholarship can be found at http://www.mief.org/ . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Math Continued from Page  Check your pulse. Use your fingers (not your thumb) to gently find your pulse on your wrist. Place some clay over the spot. Stick a straw in the clay so that the straw sticks straight up. You should be able to see the straw move lightly with your pulse. Have a friend help you count how many times the straw moves in 1 minute. Compare your number with an adult’s. Does your heart beat faster or slower than the adult’s? By how much? An apple a day? To have a healthy heart, we should try to eat about 5 servings of fruit and vegetables each day. For 10 days, keep a record of the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat at every meal and for snacks. Show your information in a chart or graph. Did you eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day? If not, how many more fruits and vegetables do you need to eat? Did you eat more fruits or more vegetables? Compare your data to that of your classmates. Mathematics of the Heart: 3-4 Resting heart rate. The best time to measure your resting heart is right after you wake up, before you get out of bed. The average person’s heart beats about 70 times per minute when it is at rest. If your heartbeat stayed at this rate all day, how many times would your heat beat in 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 1 hour? How long would it take for your heart to beat 4970 times? Amazing heart. The average human heart beats more than 2 billion times in a lifetime. If your heart beats 70 times in 1 minute, how old will you be when you reach 2 billion heartbeats? Solve this with your class and talk about the different strategies you used for the large numbers? Challenge: Calculate how many times your heart will have beaten by your next birthday. That’s a lot of blood. The human body contains approximately 6 quarts (or 5.6 liters) of blood. As part of the circulatory system, the average heart pumps about 1900 gallons of blood through it each day! How many gallons is that in one week? One month? One year? Math Continued on Page 10 

Communication Arts Continued from Page  selection. Ask them why a device was effective in conveying the author’s message, mood or tone. • Ask students to compare and contrast a selection with another text that has similar components. You can provide the alternate selections or you can expect your students to find them. • Teach students to create a semantic map—a visual diagram that shows the relationships in a selection. They might draw a circle in the center of the page containing the theme of the text. From that they will draw lines to other circles to show relationships. Let students create and explain their maps. • Ask students to relate how they think ideas and values in a selection were influenced by the life and times of the author. • Have students discuss and defend their personal reactions to the theme of a text. Source: Maida Nechushtan and Judy Henn, “Thinking Through Literature: Learning HOTS and Enjoying Literature,” English Teachers Network, www.etni.org.il/etai/handouts/M_D_Thinking_Through_Literature_presentation_color.ppt . *

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Reading Comprehension Boost comprehension with a jigsaw activity

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Jigsaw is a strategy that engages students and boosts comprehension through a collaborative activity. Here’s how you can use it: 1. Select text (a chapter, an article, etc.) for a class discussion. 2. Divide the class into equal “home groups” (for example, five students each). 3. Assign a number to each student in a group (for example, from one to five). 4. Divide the text by the number of students in each group. 5. Have students read the sections of the text that correspond to their numbers. For example, student one reads section one (pages 75–77), student two reads section two (pages 78–80), etc. 6. Have all students with the same number meet in “expert groups” (“expert group one,” “expert group two,” etc.). 7. Have “experts” determine how to teach information in their text to their “home groups.” 8. Have “experts” return to their “home groups” and present their sections of the text. 9. Have “home groups” fill in a chart with the most important information from each section. Source: ”Jigsaw,” AdLit.org, www.adlit.org/strategies/22371 .

Teaching Reading

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You may not think you need to focus on teaching reading. After all, you teach seventh graders. You aren’t an English teacher—you teach math. But new research from ACT testing reveals that students who can’t read at grade level also can’t learn content. The ACT looked at students whose scores on the ACT Reading test indicated they were ready to do collegelevel reading. Of students who met the reading benchmark: • 94 percent also met the ACT English benchmark. • 63 percent also met the ACT Math benchmark. • 47 percent met the ACT Science benchmark. Communication Arts Continued from Page  

Communication Arts Continued from Page  However, of the students who did not meet the Reading benchmark, only: • 41 percent met the ACT English benchmark. • 16 percent met the ACT Math benchmark. • 5 percent met the ACT Science benchmark. In other words, students who don’t do well on reading tests can’t master other subjects. So you need to incorporate teaching students reading so they can understand how to read content in your subject. Source: ACT, “Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT Reveals About College Readiness in Reading,” http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/ reading_report.pdf . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Science Continued from Page  • •

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http://www.pbs.org/e2/about.html. Short Attention Span Science Theater (http://www.stanford.edu/group/microdocs/) offers 2-4 minute video segments on ecological sustainability. WhaleNet (http://whale.wheelock.edu/Welcome.html ) has both real-time and archived satellite tracking data for seals, whales, dolphins, and sea turtles. The data could be used to investigate migration, feeding patterns, natural histories, critical habitats and more. Journey North is a K-12 annual study of wildlife migration and seasonal change including monarch butterfly, hummingbird, and whooping crane migration; budding and blossoming of plants; and changing temperatures. The projects began on February 1st, but you can still join in at www.learner.org/jnorth. SchoolTube (www.schooltube.com) allows educators to share videos made by them and their students, lesson plans, classroom tips, etc. Single-concept lesson plans for chemistry are available from SMILE (Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement based at the Illinois Institute of Technology) at www.iit.edu/~smile/cheminde.html . The site also has links to biology and physics lessons. Calls of the Wild West (www.westernsoundscape.org) features more than 800 recordings of wildlife in western states (accompanied by a photograph and information on the organism). Your Environment, Your Choice – www.epa.gov/epaoswer/education/teens/act.htm strives to help high school students make environmentally sound choices. NSTA provides an electronic newsletter for elementary principals called Scientific Principals. To sign up and download back issues visit www.nsta.org/publications/archiveprincipals.aspx . The newsletters include suggestions for professional development, ways to increase parental involvement, examples of best practices, and links to topical websites reviewed by teachers (Webwatchers with expertise in a given field and grade level) and shows principals how to incorporate science into their curriculum and bring more science into their school. High school students may want to consider doing a water-related science project and entering it in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. The competition is open to high school students with projects aimed at increasing the quality of life through improving water quality, water resource management, or water and wastewater treatment. For

Science Continued on Page  

Science Continued from Page  more information visit www.SJWP.org. The entry deadline is April 15th, but some state deadlines vary. • Teams of 2-3 students in grades 6-8 may want to participate in the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. Each team identifies an environmental issue in their community, researches the issue using scientific investigation, and creates a “green” solution. Visit the website (www.wecanchange.com,) for more information and to experience its virtual labs, video clips, and other resources. Submissions will be accepted through March 15, 2009. *

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Science Teachers of Missouri (STOM) Do you have excellent, original lesson plans that satisfy national and/or state standards you would be willing to share with other teachers across the state? Have you read a professional book that you would like to review? If so, please contact Kristie Parfet, STOM Executive Secretary, 339 N Overlook St, Olathe KS 66061; (913) 956-9333 or at [email protected]. STOM offers a science honor society called Beta Chi Pi for students grades K-12. The sponsor must be a STOM member. For more information check the link on the website (www.stom. org) or contact Lou Mongler, Beta Chi Pi Director, 4252 Audrain Rd 347, Mexico, MO 65265; [email protected]. STOM also has an awards program to recognize excellent teachers of science. There are awards for teachers in the early years of their career and for those who have more experience. For more information, visit the STOM website. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2 more formative assessment strategies In the last newsletter, I shared two formative assessment strategies. I hope that you found ways to implement them in your class/classes. Here are two more strategies you may find useful.

Explanation Analysis

This strategy encourages self and peer assessment of a students’ ability to both construct and analyze a well-crafted scientific explanation. This is an important skill for students at all grade levels and is so vitally important in being able to communicate ones thinking. Teachers and students constructively critique scientific explanations for accuracy and inclusion of the key components that distinguish scientific explanations from other types of explanations (the claim, appropriate and sufficient evidence, and reasoning that links the evidence to the claim using a scientific principle).

First Word, Last Word

This strategy allows teachers to gauge what students know about a topic before and after instruction. At the beginning of the unit, students are given a term from the unit and construct an acrostic of words and/or phrases for each letter of the term. At the end of the unit, students revisit their acrostic and make changes, as necessary, to show their new understanding of the term (an example might be using the term force at the beginning and end of a unit on Newton’s Laws). 

Math Continued from Page  Compare your answers with another person’s. Did you use the same strategy to get your answers? Two halves make a whole. The heart shape used to symbolize love has only one line of symmetry. Examine other shapes in your classroom and school. Can you find shapes with 2, 3, 4, or even more lines of symmetry? What about other objects? Can you identify any animals or insects that have lines of symmetry? Share your findings with the class. Mathematics of the Heart: 5-6 Check my beat. When at rest, the normal adult heart b e a t s a b o u t 7 0 t i m e s a m i n u t e . Kn o w i n g t h a t information, how many times will the average heart beat in one day? One week? One month? One year? 40 y e a r s ? 6 5 y e a r s ? E x p l a i n h o w y o u s o l v e d t h e s e problems. Challenge: It takes approximately 1-2 m i n u t e s f o r a l l t h e b l o o d i n t h e h u m a n b o d y t o completely circulate. Can you estimate how many miles or kilometers your blood travels each day? Hint: If the human circulatory system (all arteries, veins, and capillaries) were laid end to end, the total length would be approximately 60,000 miles, or 100,000 kilometers. How fast does your heart beat? If you started counting your heartbeats at midnight on January 1, when would you count the millionth beat? How about the billionth? Explain your strategy. The heart of it. Listen to your heartbeat and count the number of beats for 10 seconds. Determine your resting heartbeat per minute. How does that compare to the average heartbeat of 70 beats per minute? Display the class data. Find the range, mode, and median of your class data. Do you think your information would be the same as that of another class? Healthy heart? Determine your resting pulse rate per minute. Create a 10-minute exercise routine (for example, marching, running, jumping jacks, and so on). For three days, begin by taking your resting pulse rate. Then complete your exercise routine and take your pulse rate after exercise. Record all data. Compare your pulse rates for all three days (resting and after exercising) and create a graph to represent your data. Reprinted from Teaching Children Mathematics, NCTM, Volume 12, No. 6.

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Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics Math Contests

Math in Arts contest hosted by: Mathematics Department, Missouri State University. Find out more about the contest by going to http://math.missouristate.edu/44540.htm The 2009 Finals will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2009

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Professional Development Opportunities: • Item Development • Content/Bias Reviews • Scoring • Regional Professional Development

REQUEST TO BE INCLUDED IN MAP AND/OR EOC RELATED WORK Fax this form to: Attention: MAP 417-829-5072

Date: ____________________________ First Name:______________________ Last Name: ______________________ Address: ___________________________________________ City: __________________________ State: ___ Home Phone: __________________

Zip: ____________

Work Phone: __________________

Home E-mail: ______________________________________________ Work E-mail: _______________________________________________ District: _______________________________ Building: __________________________________ Address: ___________________________________________ City: __________________________ State: ___

Zip: ____________

Current Position: ___________________________________________ Grade Level: ___________________ Subject Area: __________________ Please note any experiences you have had in training and/or working with the MAP program:

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