I have moved the blog to a new location.
Please go to http://pudongesprincipal.saschinaonline.org/ for the elementary school blog!
Please go to http://pudongmsprincipal.saschinaonline.org/ for the middle school blog!
Thank you!!
Andy
I have moved the blog to a new location.
Please go to http://pudongesprincipal.saschinaonline.org/ for the elementary school blog!
Please go to http://pudongmsprincipal.saschinaonline.org/ for the middle school blog!
Thank you!!
Andy
Posted on March 23, 2007 at 03:14 AM | Permalink
Parents:
ERB testing is coming up in April and we are sending out information in advance as we feel it is important for parents to be informed about our student assessment methods and our program assessment methods. ERB tests do both for us in that we use the results to inform our instruction with individual students and we use the results to evaluate our writing programs at SAS.
What is the ERB Test?
-
It is a tool that evaluates your child’s writing
skills.
-Evaluates skills in six different areas:
1. Overall
Development: how well the writer
communicates with the reader, shows awareness of the audience and purpose for
writing, and writes in the appropriate mode of discourse.
2. Organization: the writer’s ability to choose a focus,
develop a logical plan of organization, and maintain coherence throughout the
paper.
3. Support: the use of appropriate reasons, details, and
examples to enhance the effect and/or support the generalizations and
conclusion of the piece.
4. Sentence Fluency:
Completeness, correctness, and variety or sophistication of sentences.
5. Word Choice: correct usage, specific vocabulary, freshness
and vividness of language.
6. Mechanics: the correct and effective use of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing.
Schedule
-
Students take the assessment over two consecutive
days for about an hour each day.
-
Students: Think about the prompt, Write, Revise, And
produce a final response to the prompt
-
Final drafts are sent to
-
We hope to have the results back by mid-May.
Mode of Discourse
-
Descriptive Writing:
Descriptive writing portrays people, places, things, moments and theories with
enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being
written about.
Writing Prompts (these are samples from previous years)
How are the papers
scored?
The papers will be scored on:
Ideas/Content, Organization, Support, Voice, Sentence Structure, Word Choice,
Conventions/Mechanics.
Ideas/Content
As you begin your
paper you generate ideas. Your ideas and content are the reasons for
writing a paper. Every paper should convey a message and be easy to
follow. Some thoughts to get you going:
What is my message and is it focused and
clear?
Did I include important details relevant to
my topic?
Did the reader learn something new?
Is my paper interesting and easy to
understand?
Organization
Organizing your
ideas helps a reader move through your paper in a meaningful way. Here are some
things to keep in mind as you write your paper:
Does my beginning hook my reader?
Is my paper easy to follow? Did I choose the
best way to organize my story?
Do my ideas link to a main message?
Do I have a strong conclusion that wraps up
the story?
Voice
Your voice is what
gives your writing personality, flavor and style.
Questions to think
about as you write your paper:
Can you tell I am enthusiastic about my
topic?
Does this writing sound like me?
How do I want my readers to feel?
Will my story hold readers' attention? Will
they want to hear more?
Sentence Fluency
Fluent writing has
rhythm. Sentences vary in length and structure. It is easy and
pleasurable to read aloud. It is important to think about:
Is my story easy to read?
Do my sentences begin in different ways?
Did I use some long and some short sentences?
Does my paper sound smooth as I read it
aloud?
Word Choice
The specific words
that you choose create images, capture a reader's attention and make your story
memorable.
Look at your paper
and decide:
Have I used some strong verbs or colorful
phrases that grab my reader?
Have I chosen the most precise word?
Have I used any unique words?
Did I repeat common words too many times?
Conventions/Mechanics
You've finished
your first draft. Now it is time to start editing for conventions.
These include spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization and
paragraphing. Proper use of conventions make your story easy for others
to read.
To begin editing
ask yourself:
Did I leave spaces between words and sentences?
Did I use a title?
Did I use correct punctuation?
Did I use capital letters in the right
places?
Have I proofread for correct spelling and
grammar?
Have I indented any new paragraphs?
Getting Started
The Writing
Process
Writing is a process that
involves at least four distinct steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, and
editing. It is known as a recursive process. While you are revising, you might
have to return to the prewriting step to develop and expand your ideas.
Prewriting
Technorati Tags: ERB Testing, Writing assessment, SAS, Shanghai American School Pudong, Puudong Elementary
powered by performancing firefox
Posted on March 07, 2007 at 02:47 AM | Permalink
powered by performancing firefox
Posted on March 05, 2007 at 10:46 PM | Permalink
Middle School
Principal Appointment Announced!
(taken
from ParentTalk)
Currently the high school assistant principal at
“Through the interview and reference process, Maloney emerged as well prepared
for her leadership positions and well-versed in transformational leadership qualities.
“She is clearly committed to collaborative planning, to the essential components of interdisciplinary
teaming in middle level education, and to a well-rounded extra- curricular
program. She
is fully committed to the components of exemplary middle school programming”. Before
moving to
Maloney holds a Masters degree in educational
administration from
5th Grade Blog!
You might want to head over to our 5th grade blogs.
Check out Mrs. Power’s blog and read some of the 5th grade blogs she has listed
under her Blogroll. Tomorrow another class of 5th graders will upload their first
podcasts to their blogs: Some poems they’ve remixed..so be looking for those as
well.
Guest Author Week
Ahead!
This next week at Pudong the classrooms and
our auditorium are going to be well used! In the elementary Kathryn Lasky, Minfong Ho and Eric
Kimmel will both be visiting our students, with opportunities for our kids to
learn and interact with established, professional and successful children’s
authors. My experience with programs
like this are always positive as the students are motivated to write and to
read more as they personalize the reading/writing process.
I want to offer special thanks to Peggy
Knudson and Colleen Williams, our intrepid and amazing library/media
specialists. Both ladies in
collaboration with their colleagues on the Puxi campus have made these
classroom visits possible. Not only is
this an example of the opportunities that our one school, two campuses program
brings (2 authors at each divisional level), but also the creativity and
curricular diversity that each of our library media specialists at SAS brings
to the table. Congratulations in advance
to all of the educational specialists involved!
As always you can contact the librarian, Peggy.Knudson@saschina.org, tel: 6221-1445 ext 3650 for further information.
Three Authors to Visit SAS Pudong March 8 & 9
Preparations are under way for visits from American
authors Eric Kimmel, Kathryn Lasky, and Minfong Ho.
Eric
Kimmel trained to be an elementary
school teacher, but became a storyteller instead. He credits his Ukrainian
grandmother for instilling in him a love for story telling. His more than 50
books in print are primarily based on folk tales from around the world.
Including
Kathryn Lasky is the author of the current best selling series, Guardians of Ga’Hoole. She has also written several books for the Dear America and Royal Diaries series. In 1984 Ms. Lasky received the Newbery Honor award for Sugaring Time. Christopher Knight, Ms. Lasky’s husband, is a photographer for several of her nonficiton books. Christopher will join her presentations at SAS. You can learn more about Kathryn Lasky at http://www.kathrynlasky.com. Ms. Lasky will give a presentation to grade 6 and will visit grades PreK – 5.
Minfong Ho is an award-winning Chinese American writer. Her works frequently deal with the lives of people living in poverty in Southeast Asian countries. The 6th grade Language Arts classes read The Clay Marble, which is about a 12 year-old girl in a refugee camp in war-torn Cambodia. Minfong Ho will present to the entire middle school and will then work with all MS students in smaller groups.
Don’t
forget our Podcasts!
I did something a little
different for the elementary podcast and we are getting some great press on the
web! Wow!! Check it out here!
As usual, the middle school kids put together a great podcast! Check it out here!
On the Pudong Campus
...
March 5, Korean Liaison Coffee Morning will start
12 noon on Monday at Puxiang, 1600 Century Ave.
March 8, PTSA Meeting is scheduled from
8:30 to 10
am in the Lecture Hall L101.
March 8-9, Visiting Authors will be on the Pudong
March 9, Korean Parents’ Workshop will be held
Mandarin
City clubhouse 2F from
1 to
4 pm.
March 9, European Coffee Talk is set for
10 am at
Cordula Krusemann’s house, Tomson Villas S35 (near the big
playground). RSVP needed: Tel. 5833-2922, mobile: 1381-
7811-822 for email:
kruesmann_gilch@hotmail.com
March 17, Shamrockin’ Vegas Style, a PTSA
6:30 pm to
12:30 am in the
Vizcaya Club.
April 6-7, Annie Junior, this
Pudong Middle School
Musical will be performed at
5 pm on Friday afternoon
and Saturday 6 pm. Tickets will be on sale soon. Watch
for information in the upcoming issues of ParentTalk.
Posted on March 04, 2007 at 08:05 AM | Permalink
Tags: ParentTalk, Pudong, Pudong Middle School Principal, Pudong Nerve Central, Shanghai American School
“We”- that’s the royal “We”- do weekly podcasts at my school. I started doing them this year from our podcast central sound room (my office) moved to a larger space, as the crowd around the microphone was uncomfortable in my small office, we invited a couple of kids to participate, and poof…. All of a sudden all the adults were relegated to the back of the stage as the kids started creating our weekly podcasts with quality content.
This last Thursday, my creative and focused technology coordinator, Jeff Utecht, came to me and said that he did not have time to get to classrooms to assist the 5th grade kids in the organizational aspects of the podcasts this week. He then handed me his iPod and a voice recorder and to me to just record the podcast and just pass it off to him in the afternoon when we met for a meeting at a location in downtown Shanghai.
COMMON SENSE would tell you that I would organize my thoughts, write a few notes, and get my calendar out to “talk to my audience” about my views on the school operations, our calendar of events and a few tips or tricks about working with the school. All good, but just a retread of ideas we have done before. Instead, I got this crazy idea that I would just stroll around and talk to teachers and students as I did my usual “lap” around the school. The podcast turned out to be a very lengthy 13+ minutes and Jeff cut out a fair amount of stuff (sorry to the teachers and students who ended up on the cutting room floor), but the result was a light hearted, fun and I think repeatable audio trip around the school. Thanks to Jeff, who took the time to paste together the sound files with some fun background music, and thanks to the teachers and students who participated in – impromptu- this podcast! It was a crazy idea that just seemed to work.
Our podcast page is a pretty popular place these days. According to our clustr map we have had over 4100 hits on this page this year! Ok, probably 20 or more are just me, as I check it frequently, make sure all things are working ok, and the kids are using the page appropriately (with Mr. U’s guidance), but even if we subtract 3000 hits we are doing pretty darn well! A few things a that Jeff has done to make the page a fun place to visit beyond our podcasts are a free download of the week from music artists sharing their work on the web. Frequently we get note back from them thank us for sharing their songs. Our recent principal coffee has been podcast and we will do it again later this next month. Hopefully I can get our PTSA to start using this medium to share their information out to our community as well. All in all, it is easy, it is fun and I think it has help change the shape of what we are doing in our classrooms as well.
It seems that more than just our school community is listening in as well. David Warlick wrote about us on his blog "2 cents worth" yesterday! Some of you from Pudong may remember David from his recent evening presentation!
He wrote:
I think that we need to find new ways of assessing the success of our education endeavors, methods that are more relevant to a changing market place, changing customers, and a rapidly changing information landscape. I found a perfect example this morning when I ran across a podcast program from the Pudong Campus of the Shanghai American School. One of their tech people, Mr. Torris simply walked into grade 5 classrooms and started interviewing teachers and kids about what they were learning.
What’s different here is that rather than relying on numbers that describe learners as products, the community is almost literally invited into the classrooms to learn what and how their children are learning and what they are doing with it. This is what I would like to have known about my children’s schools. I’d like to have been part of it — not just an outside inspector.
Thanks David for the nod and the compliment of calling me a "tech person". What a compliment!!
Posted on March 03, 2007 at 08:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Tags: David Warlick, Jeff Utecht, Podcast, Pudong, Pudong Nerve Central, Shanghai American School
Upcoming events on Pudong Campus
Technorati Tags: Shanghai American School, Elementary and Middle School Pudong Express, Interactive Map of Shanghai, Upcoming Events for Pudong, redefining literacy
Posted on February 28, 2007 at 03:48 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Xi Nian Kuai Le! Happy New Year, Everyone!
Let's celebrate the Lantern
Festival with a ladies' lunch.
Friday, March 2, 2007
12:00
Noon
at the
The Radisson Hotel Pudong
1199 Ying Chun Lu (near
Century Park)
Phone: 5130-0000
www.radisson.com/shanghaicn_pudong
Cost: 128rmb for
buffet lunch, including 2 drinks
If you plan to attend, please email
Shelly: aschkenase@hotmail.com
Hope you can join us!!
Your Pudong PTSA Board & Chinese Liaisons
Mery, Pinky, Shelly,
Christin, Kimberly, InYoung, Debbie, Helen & Evelyn
Li Bing and Chan Hong
Jin
powered by performancing firefox
Posted on February 27, 2007 at 08:54 PM | Permalink
Shamrockin'...Vegas Style, SAS Pudong's auction and casino night, is coming up on Saturday, March 17th. Invitations went home with the youngest child on Friday, February 9th. If you did not receive an invitation, please contact Kimberly Dinh immediately. She can be reached at 5030-6432 or Kimberly_dinh@hotmail.com.
You don't want to miss this exciting evening which will include a silent auction, live auction, raffles, casino games, free-flow cocktails, cuisine with an Irish flair and dancing. All proceeds will benefit: Habitat for Humanity, Roots and Shoots, Project Integration, Li Ming Migrant School and SAS Pudong PTSA events.
Capacity is limited so please book early. Reservation forms can be found in the ES/MS/HS offices. Deadline for reservations is Friday, March 9th. The pot of gold awaits...This could be everyone's lucky night!
powered by performancing firefox
Posted on February 26, 2007 at 02:49 AM | Permalink
Eric Kimmel Websites
Eric Kimmel’s
Homepage – includes teaching guides to Anansi
the Spider Party, Anansi Goes Fishing, Anansi and the Talking Melon, Anansi
& the Moss-Covered Rock, Anansi & the Magic Stick, The Frog Princess, A
Horn for Louis, The Castle of the Cats, Don Quixote and the Windmills, Cactus
Soup Three Samurai Cats, Robin Hook: Pirate Hunter, The Runaway Tortilla, The
Erie Canal Pirates.
http://www.ericakimmel.com/
Meet the Authors and
Illustrators – Eric Kimmel
http://www.childrenslit.com/f_kimmel.html
Posted on February 25, 2007 at 04:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Kathryn Lasky Websites
"I was born on the prairie," begins Kathryn
Lasky's autobiography, "but not in a little house. It was a big house
where I grew up, with a three car garage, a sprinkling system and a driveway
great for roller skating." Visitors to the Newbery Honor author's site will
also find short descriptions of her fiction and non-fiction for children and
young adults, picture books for younger readers, and fiction for adults and an
FAQ ("What do you like most about being a writer?" "First of
all, I get to live in the world of my own imagination all the time.")
Topic: Authors; Children's literature, American; Lasky,
Kathryn
URL: http://www.kathrynlasky.com/
When did you know you wanted to be a writer and what
inspired you? How do you get ideas for stories? How long does it take you to
complete a book? Did you have any role models as a child and who were they? Do
you have any advice for kids who want to write or illustrate? Do you have any
pets or a favorite animal? What are your hobbies? Author Kathryn Lasky, who has
penned more than seventy works of fiction and non-fiction for both adults and
children, answers these questions in this KidsBookshelf Spotlight.
Topic: Authors; Children's literature, American; Lasky,
Kathryn
URL: http://www.kidsbookshelf.com/spotlightkl.asp
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site features author
Kathryn Lasky in this entry--an abbreviated tour through Lasky's body of work,
which comprises more than seventy fiction and non-fiction titles for young
readers, young adults, and adults. The books discussed include Marven of the
Great North Woods, Night Journey, Pond Year, Beyond the Divide, Lunch Bunnies,
She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head, Beyond the Burning Time, and others.
This site features a photograph of Lasky and images of several of her books.
Topic: Authors; Children's literature, American; Lasky,
Kathryn
URL: http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/klasky.html
Kathryn Lasky's Biography
Kathryn Lasky first considered becoming a writer when she
was only ten years old, according to this Scholastic biography. Following her
observations about the "sheepback sky," Lasky's mother "turned
around and said, 'Kathryn, you should be a writer.' When my mom said that, I
thought, 'Wow, maybe I will be.'" Lasky's first book was I Have Four Names
for My Grandfather; it featured photographs by her husband, Christopher Knight.
Since then she has written more than seventy non-fiction and fiction books for
children and adults, including the Newbery Honor Book, Sugaring Time.
Topic: Authors; Children's literature, American; Lasky,
Kathryn
In 2005, the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS) and Subaru announced the SB&F Prizes for Excellence in Science
Books. Kathryn Lasky, the Newbery Honor author of more than seventy works of
non-fiction and fiction for both children and adults, was among the nominees.
Lasky writes across the genres, including mysteries, historical fiction,
science, and biography. SB&F featured two titles in its nomination, The Man
Who Made Time Travel and The Most Beautiful Roof in the World, as well as a
short biography and selected bibliography.
Topic: Authors; Children's literature; Lasky, Kathryn
URL: http://www.sbfonline.com/SubaruAward/lasky.htm
Walker Books features short articles about children's
authors and illustrators. The entry for Kathryn Lasky includes an image of the
author and information arranged under three headings: "As a child,"
"As an adult," and "As an artist." Born in Indianapolis ,
Indiana
Topic: Authors; Children's literature; Lasky, Kathryn
URL: http://www.walkerbooks.co.uk/Kathryn-Lasky
Meet the Author: Kathryn Lasky
The author of more than seventy books of fiction and
non-fiction for children, young adults, and adults, Kathryn Lasky was actually
labeled a "reluctant reader" when she was a student. In the short
biography at this site, Lasky explains, "The truth was that I didn't
really like the kind of books they had you reading at school." In her own
writing, she seeks to "reinvent the world," and in doing so, creates
such works as Sugaring Time (a Newbery Honor Book), Puppeteer, Pageant, The
Bone Wars, and Dinosaur Dig. This entry features a photograph of Lasky.
Topic: Authors; Children's literature, American; Lasky,
Kathryn
URL: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/mtai/lasky.html
Between the Lines: Interview with Kathryn Lasky
This site features an interview with author Kathryn Lasky
about her children's book Before I Was Your Mother. Born in 1944, in Indianapolis ,
Indiana
Topic: Authors; Children's literature; Lasky, Kathryn
URL:
http://www.harcourtbooks.com/authorinterviews/bookinterview_lasky.asp
Posted on February 25, 2007 at 04:03 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
SAS Mathletes Take Top Honors in Shanghai
By SAS Puxi and Pudong students, Hank Claassen,
Amanda DeCardy and Melanie Ryan – SAS middle school math teachers
On the 10th
of February, both SAS Puxi and Pudong students embarked on a mysterious
mathematical journey to Concordia International School Shanghai U.S. Shanghai
Students participated in
a Sprint Round, a Target Round, a Team Round, and the finale consited of a
Countdown Round for the top ten scorers in the competition. According to Pudong student Patrick Lee,
“Watching the final 10 countdown showed me how fast and how accurately people
could work by reading the questions and calculating at the same time.”
SAS Puxi and Pudong
earned six of the ten top spots for individual scores. Nelson Zhang (PD) earned 1st,
Jacob Jeong (PD) earned 2nd, Min Seo Choi (PX) earned 4th,
Winston Chen (PD) earned 5th, Kevin Xu (PX) earned 6th,
K.T. Lim (PX) earned 7th, and Jimmy Park (PX) earned 8th. SAS – Pudong Team A won 1st place
for the Overall Team Challenge and SAS – Puxi Team B won 2nd place
for the Overall Team Challenge. Had
their not been a prescribed rule for only allowing one team per school to be
represented in the top three, the Puxi Team A would’ve taken home 3rd
place.
Puxi’s Min Seo Choi
summed up the competition by saying, “I can’t believe that I finished this
competition. Every round I competed in
were all challenging and totally different. I was nervous for the whole time, but it eventually made me happy when
we earned our top spots!” The competion
was a success for all students who participated and the
coaches would like to thank all of our mathletes for representing Shanghai
American School’s reputation for an enthusiasm of learning.
Note: For more information about MATHCOUNTS®, visit
www.mathcounts.org.
powered by performancing firefox
Posted on February 12, 2007 at 01:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)