Welcome to Friday Woodlawn! There are times when I am exceptionally proud of the students and this week is one of those times. There was so much happening here between our normal schoolwork, we had basketball games, a band concert, special lunch, and our outstanding musical! The students did a great job of performing, being audience members, and showing what outstanding leadership looks like. Check out the blog for this week!
Band Concert
Congratulations to our Woodlawn Band after their great performance on Wednesday Night. Mr. Craw had this group ready to go and they responded beautifully! Check out these photos.
Student Council Food Drive
Please see the flyer below and support our Student Council as they collect food supplies for those in need.
Band, Chorus & Orchestra
Last Saturday, several Woodlawn musicians participated in the ILMEA Junior Festival at Glenbrook South High School along with middle school students from other across parts of Cook, Lake, and McHenry Counties. These students submitted audition videos in October and were selected to participate in the festival.
Band students: Nathan Guo, Jaine Tsai
Chorus students: Maddie Jacobs, HaMin Kim, Anika Raja, Katie Zhou
Orchestra students: Eric Edgcomb, Aiden Hong, Angela Liu, Shriyaa Sriraman, Todd Zhang, Olivia Zheng
8th Grade World Languages Information
Dear Families -
In the month of November, 8th-grade students will participate in the AAPPL (The ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages) assessment to assess their communicative competency with the Spanish language. The purpose of this assessment is three-fold:
D96 will collect valuable data that will inform our instruction to continue to enhance our Spanish curriculum and instruction.
Stevenson High School will use this proficiency data to make initial recommendations for Spanish coursework when your student is in high school.
Students will have the opportunity to have experience with an assessment that can lead them to earn the Seal of Biliteracy on their High School diploma when they are in high school.
Tell me more about the assessment.
Your child’s Spanish Teacher will share the specific assessment schedule. The tasks included in this assessment are similar to tasks we use during our regular instruction and assessment cycle in Spanish classes. The students are asked to engage in interpretive listening and reading tasks. This includes listening to or reading authentic Spanish pieces and answering questions, in English, about those pieces based on the language the students already know or the context given. Additionally, the students will respond to writing prompts in Spanish utilizing learned language skills. The final piece of the assessment is an interpersonal speaking opportunity in which your child will perform for the classroom teacher and will be scored based on a rubric co-constructed with all Spanish teachers across the consortium (D96, D102, D103, and D125) for consistency of expectations.
When will the test be administered?
Speaking- (in class administration) November 8th, 10th, 14th, 16th, and 20th
Listening and Reading- November 29th from 1:06-2:30
Writing- November 30th from 1:06-2:30
What do students need?
Please make sure your student has headphones.
Please make sure your student has a charged iPad.
How will this information be used to make course recommendations?
Your student’s level of proficiency (interpretive listening and reading as well as writing) as indicated by this assessment combined with an analysis of their interpersonal speaking skills and teacher input will be used to make an initial course recommendation that is optimal for your student. You will receive this information in the mail in late January/early February before needing to select courses at Stevenson. You can find the specific course sequence in this course book. In general, recommendations will be made for the following courses based on this assessment:
Spanish 2
Spanish 2-3 Accelerated
Spanish 3-4 Accelerated
As this is a recommendation, your family will have the opportunity to provide input as you make the final selection for a course should your child choose to continue studying the Spanish language.
What is the Seal of Biliteracy?
The Seal of Biliteracy is intended to recognize students for multilingual skills and is indicated on a student’s high school diploma. Additionally, Illinois universities are obligated to offer college credit to students who have earned the Seal of Biliteracy through meeting the requirements.
For more information about this opportunity, use this link and click on the Seal of Biliteracy Tab.
What if my child would like to participate in a benchmark or placement assessment for a language other than Spanish?
Stevenson also provides individuals with experience in Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, or Latin could take a placement exam to decide if a higher level language course placement would be appropriate for their child. Please visit the Stevenson website for more information and to register for the exam via this link. The deadline to register is Friday, December 8th.
The purpose of the benchmark exam is two-fold:
As indicated by this assessment, your student's level of proficiency will be used to determine the appropriate level for course recommendation. This information will be mailed in mid-January before Stevenson's Course Selection evenings.
Course selection data collected in February is crucial to determining appropriate staffing, the number of sections, fiscal decisions, and building the master schedule for the following school year.
Finally, more information is available on this Benchmark FAQ document. For additional questions, please email [email protected].
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Finally, in my feeble attempt to stay current, I record shows and try to watch them promptly so that if they come up in conversation, I seem cool. This holds true for award shows, sporting events, and other pop culture items. Recently, I entered a pool for Dancing with the Stars. After the first episode, I was lukewarm about the show, but now I am all in. Barry Williams (Greg Brady) is my dancer and each week I find myself living and dying with his performance. Lately, it has been the latter. A couple of weeks ago, I recorded SNL and there was a host that I had never heard of. His name is Nate Bargatze. His monologue on SNL captured my attention and struck my funny bone. I have to believe it was his delivery and the clean, obvious topics that he talked about. There were a couple of skits that captured my attention and I have dug into his work as a comedian. So this weekend, if you are looking for a laugh, go to YouTube and check out the following from Nate Bargatze:
Nate Bargatze - SNL Monolouge
Nate Bargatze - How to Order Artisanal Coffee
Nate Bargatze - Washington’s Dreams
Nate Bargatze - My Wife is the Man of the House
I hope you get a laugh out of these.