WEEKLY BULLETIN FOR April 25, 2016
Monday, April 25
UPCOMING EVENTS
Walk-Throughs with Dr. Stuemky and Dr. Spencer
Department Meetings
8th Grade Science meet with Mrs. Bledsaw
May 2-27 Annual State testing window
Tuesday, April 26
Softball/Baseball at Woodlake at Sequoia
Wednesday, April 27
Softball/Baseball Woodlake at Sequoia
Thursday, April 28
Sequoia hosts Whitney League Track and Field
Championship at Granite Hills High School
Friday, April 29
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Dr. Stuemky and Dr. Spencer will be on campus
doing walk-throughs on Monday. Please just
continue with the excellent instruction you
provide. See e-mail from Friday for details.
2. Department meetings Monday, April 25th
beginning at 3:20. Please see your department
chair for details. Eighth grade science teachers,
please meet with Mrs. Bledsaw in Library to
receive DFAs, sign releases, and go over
testing.
3. Reminder: The Duty Schedule can be found in
the Universal drive (U:\) in the Schedules folder.
4. Sports Update: girls softball and boys baseball
will play at Sequoia against Woodlake on
Tuesday, April 26th and at Sequoia versus
SCCA on Wednesday, April 27th. The games
start at 3:30. Good look to our players and
coaches.
5. Sports Update: Whitney League Track and
Field Meet this Thursday, April 28th at 4:30 at
Rankin Stadium, Granite Hills High School.
Sequoia proudly hosts this event each year.
Come out and support our Hawks! Good luck to
our student athletes and coach.
Professional Development Minute by Kristi McCracken
Non-Fiction Reading Strategies
With the CA state standards renewed focus on nonfiction,
learning strategies are needed. A new book, Reading Nonfiction:
Notice and Note-Stance, Signposts, and Strategies by Beers and
Probst has a host of ideas that help teachers elicit more rigorous
reading behaviors from students.
Reading nonfiction is easier when using “Three Big
Questions.” What surprised the reader? What did the author think
the reader already knew? (In other words, what left the reader
confused?) What changed, challenged, or confirmed what was
already known by the reader?
Using those three questions while reading nonfiction
invites students to think more about what they’re reading.
Students who learn to question text as they read it are more
successful at comprehending. Beers said, "While it might be
faster, neater, and easier to eat for your toddler, it's not as
nutritious." We must avoid the tendency to spoon feed and yet
scaffold activities for success.
“Mile a Minute” is another structured, engaging review
activity for the end of class which is similar to Taboo or Pyramid.
The teacher picks approximately six key points but displays only
half at a time while students pick partner pairs. One partner is
facing the screen and the other partner is facing the back wall.
The one who can see the three review words describes
them so the one with their back to the screen can guess them.
Then the partners switch and three more words are revealed. The
one who can see the words can't use them, but should give
enough clues that the other can guess.
Nonfiction is playing a bigger role in the texts that
students are now being required to read. A couple of strategies
that can help students retain more content when reading
nonfiction include: Three Big Questions and Mile A Minute.