Team Dublin Weekly Update

This past week, students took the Middle-of-Year Reading Inventory assessment. I have posted the student scores on ASPEN. The end-of-year goal for a 6th grader is 925. This is another data point that you can use to compare with the ReadingPlus assessment that was taken earlier this month.

This week, students will work on writing introduction paragraphs with thesis statements to analyze a set of texts.

MOY I ready diagnostic test will be Feb 6/7/8 please be sure students are preparing themselves and completing their ireadys each week. Students should have AT LEAST 20 lessons completed but the more the better!! Enjoy the long weekend everyone! :)”

Students spent time last week investigating journeys to school to understand physical geography as a barrier to education. They did a FANTASTIC job on their group presentations.

This week, we will continue with case studies about the four barriers we defined in class: physical geography, poverty & labor, gender inequality, and conflict.

Welcome to the 3rd quarter, scientists! You did a great job wrapping up the 2nd quarter - we explored how to make topographic maps, practiced writing scientific procedures, evaluated directions for making a PBJ, and started a Gizmo that simulates different causes of weathering.

Looking ahead, we begin the week with our MOY (Middle of Year) MAP (don't ask- something about Science) testing. This test requires computers and measures what students have learned since the last time they took the test in September. Once the MAP test is complete, we will use Skittles for our Weathering Lab and then prepare for a deep dive into rock types!

Roots:

We are starting roots up again for the third quarter! The upcoming roots are -

angle - corner, point of view (think triangle, quadrangle)

mega - large, million (think megabyte, megasaurus)

deci - 1/10 or 0.1 (think decimal, decimate)

semi - half (think semicircle, semiconductor)

dodeca - 12 (think dodecagon, dodecahedron)

The Roots Quiz will be on Friday, 02 February.

Please remind your students that returning computers to the cart is expected and now has a consequence if not returned and charged.

Just for fun ideas: Have a family bet on who sees the first cherry blossom or who finds frog spawn or who sees a male and female robin within an hour! Challenge another family to collect more pounds of recyclables in two weeks than you do - then collect more than they do! Find Orion in the night sky and track it until out of view. Measure your family's water consumption for ONE week and then cut it back by 25% for two weeks in a row. Start a compost bin of some sort. Grow some wheat grass and then eat it. Start a new plant from a potato eye. Ask your student about Science class points.

On Friday, students set goals for the growth they want to show on the WIDA ACCESS test, the annual test of English language proficiency. They also identified strategies they can use to prepare for the test. The best strategy they can use is to work diligently on their System 44 lessons. Students have class time to work on System 44, but they should also work on it at home.

Welcome to Term 3, Deal families! It was exciting to graduate 3 of our MLL students from Beginner to Intermediate classes last week. Although it’s sad to see a student go, it is still very exciting to know that they are making strong progress in their English acquisition and I’m happy to see how they flourish in their new courses. In ELA, we are still working hard towards familiarizing ourselves with the tasks that students will be asked to complete on the ACCESS tests in mid-to-late February. This week, students will return to working on their strategies for speaking and writing.

In World Geography for MLL Beginners, students will finalize their digital infographic posters and submit them as an assessment grade for term 3. Students are highly encouraged to get online and work on these during weekend and evening hours because there is always a lot to be done to increase the visual organization of the images, data charts, text, titles, boxes, colors, text, and decorations of their infographic. It is very detailed and painstaking design work.

For students in Beginning Literacy for MLLs, they will start new reading books this week and we will revisit our reading and oral fluency in English for term 3. Students are highly encouraged to spend homework time on System 44 so they can meet their required number of minutes each week. They can also benefit from weekend and evening time spent reading books, online texts, magazines, or anything else that requires silent and sustained reading for at least 20 minutes a day.

Join the Deal Battle of the Books Team!

Come to the interest meeting on Monday, January 29th at 3:30pm in the Deal library if you are interested in participating with this year's Battle of the Books competition in May! Teams compete with other middle schools in DC by reading 8 books selected by the DC Library Association and answer questions to win awards! The team will meet once a week after school to prepare for the competition. See more information at the link below or reach out to Mr. Reichlen if you are interested and cannot attend the interest meeting.

https://forms.office.com/r/CY3pKFEjAa

All Deal students are expected to be in class and ready to learn promptly at 8:45 AM daily. To help build strong, healthy habits and ensure that students do not miss instructional time, the 6th grade team is assigning tardy hall to students who arrive to school after 9 AM or who have established a pattern of late arrivals that are resulting in lost learning time. Students who are assigned tardy hall will stay afterschool with Ms. Watson, 6th grade dean, until 4:15 PM.

Ms. Wesselhoft, team lead - naeemah.wesselhoft@k12.dc.gov

Mr. Kirschenbaum - adam.kirschenbaum@k12.dc.gov

Mr. O'Malley - michael.o'malley@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Osman - catherine.osman2@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Patsalos - constance.patsalos@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Garcia - maria.garcia@k12.dc.gov

Mr. Memminger, 6th grade counselor - jacob.memminger@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Barr, 6th grade social worker - ellen.barr@k12.dc.gov

Attendance: For any attendance related concerns, including absence notes, please be sure to contact Ms. Stephens our attendance counselor at dealattendance@k12.dc.gov.

ASPEN Help: For any ASPEN related issues, including help resetting a password or accessing your account, please email Ms. Lerum at dealaspenhelp@k12.dc.gov