Language Arts - Manchester Public Schools

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Curriculum & Instruction Newsletter Spring 2012 Music “March is designated as ‘Music in Our Schools’ month nationally, but it is only a slice of the music department’s musical ‘pie’ program,” says coordinator Keith Berry. At this time of year, young Manchester musicians are preparing for a series of town wide music concerts, all to be held at Manchester High School beginning at 7:00 p.m. On April 17, students from our string orchestra program take the stage to demonstrate the progress and skill building that occurs from elementary through high school. This concert will feature string students from fifth to twelfth grade. The town wide band concert will be held on April 18 and the town wide chorus program takes place on April 19. An important component of this town wide experience is the dress rehearsal prior to the concert. This gives our budding musicians the opportunity to practice at Manchester High School with their musical peers prior to the actual event. By the time you read this story, the MHS Performing Arts Department will have finished another blockbuster Spring Musical production. This year’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” played to three nearly packed houses in mid-March. It involved a great number of students on stage, in the orchestra pit, and behind the scenes. MHS students are also getting very excited about sharing the MHS stage on May 2 with the Liverpool Legends, a professional Beatles tribute band, which has the #1 Beatles show in America! There will also be a guest appearance by Beatles legend George Harrison’s sister, Louise. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Tickets range from $25.00-$45.00 and can be purchased at either Highland Park Market or by visiting http://www.brownpapertickets.com. 8 Five MHS Students have been selected as “All- State Musicians” and will represent our community as members of the 2012 CT All-State Band, Orchestra, and Chorus. They are: Alyssa Peck, Laura Reyes, Katie Walsh, Jacob Wood, and Mike Zappala. Congratulations to those students! Equity The Equity Department is quite excited to welcome faculty members from Washington (Andrea Flynn, Christine Giaquinto), Verplanck (Elizabeth Medynski, Marra Whaley, Elise Capello, Melissa Kaika), Buckley (Sarah Edwards, Joanne Chomick, Susan Glotfelty), and Manchester High School (Therese Flicker, Nancy Roser, Erica Gonsalves, Josh Curzan, Erin Mclaughlin, Antonio Demelo) who will join the district’s team of culturally responsive teachers. As participants, the teachers will create culturally responsive environments and participate in professional development workshops facilitated by Rhonda Philbert, the Equity Facilitator. The purposes of these workshops are to create a safe environment that will foster conversations about race, culture and ethnicity, discuss culturally responsive teaching strategies, and to develop culturally responsive lessons and/or units. Currently, there are 36 culturally responsive educators in the district Since the fall, the Ms. Philbert has presented professional development workshops at Illing, Bennet, and Robertson Elementary, while continuing to work with grade level teams. Upcoming professional development workshops will occur at Waddell, Martin, and Nathan Hale Schools. These workshops entitled “Building Relationships with All Students” will highlight the work of Dr. Ken Hardy, while fostering a conversation about race and culture that will ultimately facilitate communication and relationship
Curriculum & Instruction Newsletter Spring 2012 building with all students. Dr. Ken Hardy’s VCR model can also be used as a pedagogical tool for educators. As the third quarter comes to an end, we would like to thank John Foley, Pat Christe-Brooks, Bob Albert, Nancy Parker, and D’vora Caspi for their continued support of the Race Relations program. The students appreciate your presentations and stories. Currently, the eighth grade social studies teachers and the Equity Facilitator continue to work on the extension of the Race Relations program to Illing Middle school. The program, called “Cultural Connections,” will be taught as a unit in the social studies curriculum to the eighth graders as a pilot unit of study in the spring of 2012 and in the seventh grade during school year 2012- 2013. The expansion of the Race Relations program to Illing Middle school requires professional development workshops, lesson plan development, and curriculum writing facilitated by the Ms. Philbert. Congratulations to Kasheema Jennings who will become a full time Race Relations educator at MHS for the school year 2012-2013. For additional information please contact Rhonda Philbert via e- mail b25rphil@manchesterct.gov or (860)647-3489. Program for English Language Learners (ELL) The ELL program, coordinated by Karen Lapuk, is excited to share the TransAct translation services with administrators, school nurses, and other school personnel. This is a clearinghouse of translations of typically used school forms in 21 languages. This will help schools communicate with our linguistically diverse families. We are also planning on training another group of educators in Best Practices for ELL students so that classroom teachers will be more prepared to work with our new students. Additionally, each school will be exploring new technology for practicing and improving English language skills. We are finishing up our annual LAS Links (language acquisition) testing and are looking forward to a spring filled with family events. In April, we will hold a forum for Spanish speaking parents, and our Multicultural Family Festival will be in May. World Language News Greetings from the World Language Department at MHS! As the students in our language classes are nearing the end of their journey in language learning and exploring the culture of the language they are studying for this school year, there are some accomplishments worth mentioning thus far. Throughout the year the students experienced the products, practices, and perspectives of their chosen area of study in a variety of ways. In addition, at the start of the second semester, the new multimedia language lab was opened. Teachers have been bringing their classes to the lab to experience language learning in a different format and all are enjoying the experience. Students in Mrs. Saunder’s Spanish 4 and 5 classes took part in a pen pal letter exchange with St. Paul's High School in Bristol. Numerous letters were exchanged on a variety of themes. The classes are still hoping to get together in late spring to speak Spanish and get to know each other in person! In Italian classes, students have been learning vocabulary and grammatical structures in the target language. In each chapter, students have been experiencing a taste of Italy as they have completed 9
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Language Arts - Manchester Public Schools

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