Day 19 - MSMS Students and Staff Hunt for Banned Books! - MSMS Library & Learning Commons

This post originally appeared on the Marshall Simonds Middle School Blog

This week the MSMS Library & Learning Commons decided to celebrate Banned Books Week (September 26th-30th) by having students and staff throughout the building participate in a Banned Book Hunt on Wednesday & Thursday. Banned Books week celebrates freedom of speech  and aims to explore the harmful effects of national censorship.

Our Library Media Specialist, Mr. Carroll and our Technology Integration Specialist, Mrs. Floyd with the help of former MSMS Science Teacher, Mrs. Rafferty “censored” books in our school library’s collection which have been banned or challenged and scattered them throughout the building. Students who found these wrapped and “readstricted” books were instructed to return to the Library, where Mr. Carroll and Mrs. Floyd would explain why the book they found was banned and collect a prize.

Students and teachers across all grades and subject areas participated in this year’s Banned Book Hunt and we were thrilled to see such high enthusiasm for the event among our students!

Day 5 - MSMS Welcomes Students and Teachers Back for the 2016-2017 School Year - MSMS Blog

This post originally appeared on the MSMS Blog

This week, summer vacation officially ended for Burlington students as the new school year began. Our returning 7th & 8th graders have been getting accustomed to their new teams and teachers and incoming 6th graders have been adapting well to the changes from elementary school.

There have also been some changes to our teaching staff over the summer. 8C Science teacher Fred Hickman retired and 6A Social Studies teacher Brian Leslie moved out to Western Mass with his family. Taking their places on 8C & 6A are new teachers Ms. Byrne and Mrs. Eager. We’d like to welcome these new teachers as well as our new &returning students and hope to have another great year!

Day 142 - MSMS 7th Graders Attend IDEAS Conference - MSMS Blog

This post originally appeared on the MSMS Blog

MSMS 7th Graders get ready to attend the IDEAS conference

On Thursday, April 14, 10 MSMS 7th grade students, chaperoned by Ms. Eovine and Ms. Fay, traveled to the EDCO Collaborative facility in Bedford, MA for their annual IDEAS Middle School Leadership Conference.  Student who attended were Princess Sawyer-Rodriguez, Rachad Mesnaoui,  Marwan Kiswani, T.J. Brosnan, Badr Hakim, Matt Tengtrakool, Shashank Uthappa, Angie Minichiello, Winnie Sukyaya,  and Jensine Wagner.

EDCO sponsors the IDEAS program: Initiatives for Developing Equity and Achievement for Students.  The conference focused on how students can develop connections and alliances with each other as they focus on understanding and appreciating diversity and ways to promote respectful school communities.  

Our Marshall Simonds student representatives had the opportunity to work with students from 6 other middle schools, including Bedford, Lexington, and Needham.  Activities were designed to inspire discussion on issues relating to diversity, such as playing a scrabble game highlighting discrimination and equity, discussing how we identify ourselves, both privately and publicly, and competing at charades illustrating achievements of different racial and ethnic groups.  A highlight of the day was having time at lunch to share and learn about other middle schools.

Day 127 - MSMS 6th Graders Explore the World via Google Expeditions - MSMS Blog

This post first appeared on the Marshall Simonds Middle School Blog

Ms. Ellis narrates as her students explore desert habits using Google Cardboard headsets. 

This morning, two of our 6th Grade Social Studies classes paid a visit to Memorial Elementary School’s Learning Commons and participated in the Google Expeditions Pioneers Program. These Expeditions are virtual field trips made possible using  Google Cardboard, the virtual reality app and headset which allowed our students and teachers to explore locations throughout the world. Mrs. Sturtevant’s class chose to explore Landforms, while Ms. Ellis’ class explored various Desert Habitats.

Mrs. Sturtevant’s class explores Landforms throughout the world. 

Among the landforms explored by 6B were locations such as Mount Everest, Giant’s Causeway, Tolbachik Volcano, Great Barrier Reef, Chocolate Hills, and Antartica.

6C’s expedition focused on Desert Habitats, such as the Liwa Desert, Deir el-Bahari, Mojave National Preserve, the Sahara’s White Desert, Gobi Desert, and Chinggis Khaan Monument.

By the time their half-hour expeditions were over, our students wanted to see more of what Google Expeditions had to offer. We’d like to thank the Rachel Small, the school librarian over at Memorial for making us aware of this wonderful opportunity!

DAY 117 - MSMS Teachers Enact Keys to Comprehension Lessons - MSMS Blog

This post first appeared on the Marshall Simonds Middle School Blog

6B ELA teacher Mr. Conley demonstrates how Bloom’s Taxonomy is used to order different levels of thinking and learning.

Last week, teachers across all subjects and grade levels at Marshall Simonds enacted demonstrative lessons based on the Keys to Literacy program. The Keys to Literacy program places emphasis on “instructional routines and practical training methods to ensure that schools tangibly improve literacy levels while their students develop a lifelong capacity to learn”.

8B ELA teacher Mrs. Bergeron uses the “2 Column Quotes” strategy to help her students find strong supporting quotes for their writing assignments. 

Over the course of the school year, many of Marshall Simonds’ teachers have been trained in Keys to Literacy’s Key Comprehension Routine, which encourages teachers across all subject areas to incorporate literacy skills into their lessons. The particular skills and activities that the Key Comprehension Routine places emphasis on are: comprehension skills, main idea skills, text structure knowledge, top-down topic webs, two-column notes, summarizing, generating questions, and cooperative learning.

7C Social Studies Teacher Mrs. Evans uses sophists as an example to help her students better understand the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. 

The MSMS teachers who participated in this week’s Keys to Literacy demo were: Ms. D’Arcangelo, Mr. Leslie, Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Bergeron, Mrs. Nelson-Boyd, and Mr. Conley. Many of our ELA and Social Studies teachers already been trained and next year, teachers in Science, Foreign Language, and Math will receive training as well. With the help of our Keys to Literacy trainer, Shauna Cotte, our teachers have been working hard to improve student literacy skills.

Keys to Literacy trainer Shauna Cotte expands upon the Key Comprehension Routine during a demo lesson.