Outdoor School Forms, this past week

Outdoor School forms were due Fri., Sept. 27.  I will drive to the Outdoor School office to drop off forms after work on Mon., Sept.30.  If I don't have your child's forms with me, then you will need to take them to the office yourself.
This past week, we organized lab notebooks, creating a table of contents and taping loose papers into their places on Wed. Students also took a Notebook Quiz on Wed., to emphasize the need to keep the notebook up-to-date and organized.  In all classes except period 1, the homework for this weekend is Analysis Question 4 of ACTIVITY Testing Medicines: A Clinical Trial. 

Outdoor School letter sent home on Sept. 23, 2013

This is the text of the letter going home today about Outdoor School:

I sent home a packet of Outdoor School forms last week.  I apologize for omitting this letter.  At Outdoor School, students study environmental science outdoors in a camp setting in the Columbia Gorge area.  They live in cabins with other sixth graders and with high school student leaders, eat family style in the dining hall, and attend recreation activities and campfire.

Outdoor School is a required part of the sixth grade curriculum.  For many, many students, it becomes a highlight of their school career, as they make friends from all over the region.

There are two papers that need to be signed.  The four-part white health history form requires your signature in two places.  If you want your child to take medication at Outdoor School, there are one or two other signatures required.

The salmon-colored paper is printed on both sides.  It has a publicity release agreement.  If you do not want to allow your child’s photograph to be used, there is a place for you to check off, sign and date.   There are rules for behavior and rules for safety.  These require a parent/ guardian signature AND a student signature.  There is also a search and seizure policy.

Your child should bring a small handful of soil from a special place to school in a baggie between now and the day we leave for Outdoor School.  This soil will be combined with other students’ soil to plant a special tree at the site.  The tree represents the community of sixth graders who attended Outdoor School that week.

Please work with your child to pack the appropriate clothing and to leave the prohibited items at home.  Your child should dress in layers at Outdoor School – a T-shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, and a waterproof layer (raincoat, mountain parka) is an example.  Pack plenty of socks and include a warm hat.  If your child doesn’t own some of the items, please try to borrow them or buy used.  I have some pairs of boots I can loan out.  As this past weekend’s weather has shown us, it will likely rain while we are at Outdoor School, and students will be outdoors, rain or shine.

Please follow these directions for medications, including self-administered inhalers:

DO NOT PACK medications in the luggage.  Put all medications in a ziplock plastic bag labeled with the child’s name, Hosford, and the name of the teacher who is going with the class to Outdoor School.  You will give this bag to the teacher, who will log it in.  She will give the meds. directly to the nurse upon arriving at Outdoor School.

The schedule of classes attending Outdoor School and the bus information for them follows.  PLEASE KEEP THIS UNTIL YOUR CHILD RETURNS FROM OUTDOOR SCHOOL:

Per 2, going with Mrs. Baber to Arrah Wanna

Per 7, going with Ms. Pinegar to Howard

Arrive at the Hosford bus zone at 2:20 pm on Sunday, Oct. 27, to begin loading buses.  Buses leave at 3:00 pm. Please ask your child to go to the bathroom before coming to school.  The building will not be open on Sunday afternoon.

Students return on the buses at 7:30 pm on Tues., Oct. 29.  Parents/ Guardians should be waiting for their childrens’ buses to arrive then.

Per 1, going with Ms. Pinegar to Howard

Per 3, going with Ms. Morse to Arrah Wanna

Per 5, going with Mrs. Baber to Sandy River

Arrive at the Hosford bus zone at 8:45 am on Wednesday, Oct. 30, to begin loading buses.  Buses leave at 9:30 am.  Students do not attend classes that day.

Students return on the buses at 1:30 pm on Fri., Nov. 1.  Parents/ Guardians should be waiting for their children’s buses to arrive then. Children will go HOME, not to afternoon classes, on Nov. 1.

PPS’s finance department is sending out letters about payment for Outdoor School.  Please send the payment to the address provided in the letter.

Thank you for your attention to these directions.  I will send a notice out about a week before we leave for Outdoor School.  For many sixth graders, this will be the school experience they count as most memorable when they are high school seniors. Please contact me with questions/ concerns. (cpinegar@pps.net OR leave a message at 503 916-5640).

FOSSIL TIME CARDS & GEOLOGIC TIME CARDS, ACTIVITY 92

fossil time cards A-CFOSSIL TIME CARDS A-C
fossil time cards D-FFOSSIL TIME CARDS D-F
geologic time cards G-LGEOLOGIC TIME CARDS G-L

SCIENCE TEAM'S STANDARDS-BASED GRADING SYSTEM

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCIENCE TEAM’S STANDARDS-BASED GRADING SYSTEM

 

 There have been two major changes in Science at Hosford this year, changes that can be a lot for parents to take in, especially those among you who are sending their first sixth grader to us.  We have a new adoption (textbook and curriculum materials) in PPS and the Science team has changed the grading system to a standards-based proficiency system.  The new grading system aligns well with the new adoption, and also with PPS and Common Core standards for Science.

  

Since the new grading system is used in all three grades for Science, understanding it now will also help parents as their children progress through 7^th and 8^th grades.  The scores that are displayed in EdBox are grades, using the standards-based system; they have meaning.  As an example, if a student earns a “PR” or “progressing” for an assignment, that child demonstrates a good understanding of the material covered by the standard that the assignment covers.  The child is working at 6^th grade level and has the necessary 6^th grade background to succeed in high school Biology.  A “PR” score is up to and including 100% proficiency.

Also, I’d like to put in a word on behalf of students who may not be earning PR on a regular basis at this time.  The high school graduation requirements for science and math are the same—three credits or three years. However, very few students in PPS have a daily science time in their classes in elementary school. Students study math daily from the time they are in kindergarten.  Unlike math, if a child earns a PR on a 6^th grade science assignment, s/he is doing so with little background knowledge from school.

  --> All of us know what it is like to begin learning a new skill.  Understanding science, especially science in the inquiry format as it is now taught in PPS middle schools, is a challenge, especially at the beginning of the year.  I ask you to think back to the last time you had to learn a new skill with little to no background to help you.  Then I think you can appreciate what middle school science students are coping with.  More proficiency will come as the school year goes on, though there will be new content every few weeks.  The skills of thinking and working like a scientist can be applied to all content, though, so science should get easier for your child as the year progresses.

  

As always, please feel free to email me at cpinegar@pps.net with your questions and concerns.

Science Team uses standards-based scoring

Hello 6th grade science families:
This is just a short reminder that your child's grade in science will be standards-based, rather than the + check - system of Portland Public elementary schools or the traditional A-F system that many middle school and high school teachers use.

This means you will see different scores ("grades") for science.  They cannot be equated to letter grades.  They are based on how well your child is progressing toward proficiency in meeting the standards for the course.  A "PR" or "Proficient" is proficient UP TO AND INCLUDING 100% proficiency.

Here is a link to Mr. Bacon's October 11 letter about the standards-based system.  The letter was sent to all Hosford families: http://bit.ly/ZGtcLj

Grading/ scoring; Parent/ Teacher conferences; finish ecology; begin "Body Works"

Parent-teacher conferences are for ALL families, and I encourage parents to bring their children.  I understand that some parents don't want to and respect that choice.  Our new science curriculum is rigorous and the expectations for earning a "3" are high - it's built into the curriculum.  It's also important to remember that most of us aren't proficient at new skills until we've practiced a while.  The types of skills required to master this curriculum, or to become proficient, are new for all of our students, so I encourage parents to be patient with their children while the students learn how to "think like a scientist."  

Also, for those not familiar with the Hosford grading system - your child earns an academic grade and an effort grade in each class.  Effort grades are:  CN consistently demonstrates effort; OF often demonstrates effort; SM sometimes demonstrates effort; and SL seldom demonstrates effort.  Students who earn no SM or SL marks, only one OF mark and all of the rest CN are on the Principal's List for the grading period/ quarter.  Students who earn a combination of CN and OF are on Honor Roll.  This is to reinforce our staff belief that academic success is tied at least in part to effort.

Since my last post, we've been exploring the effect of reduced resources or increased competition on the population of a species.  Yesterday and today we are playing a game called, "Oh Deer!" to illustrate the connections between resources and population size.  Then we're making data tables and graphing the data.  Afterward, there are analysis questions to answer.  This is Activity 84.

The next unit we'll study is called "Body Works", about the human body.  

Scoring guide, Miracle Fish; Outdoor School wrap up

As promised to several of you last week, here is scoring information for the Analysis of The Miracle Fish, Activity 72.  To earn a "3"/ PR (proficient up to 100%), a student's work must include:
1.  a decision (a position of yes or no re "the Nile Perch should have been introduced.")
2.  at least two pieces of evidence in support of the decision.
3. a description of one trade-off of the decision.
I'm sorry I didn't publish this over the weekend.  I was out of town and had internet access problems.

Last week students finished their online research for Activity 73, Introduced Species.  Students are to keep their notes, which are on a special form designed for the Activity.  I hope to use this information in a future lesson.  On Thursday, we did a wrap-up activity to connect information learned during the four Outdoor School field studies of plants, water, soil and animals.  You may ask your child to show you her/ his web, linking the key vocabulary s/he wrote for each field study.