PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 8, 2019
READ,
continued from Page A1
DRIVE A LITTLE – SAVE A BUNCH!
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE • SALEM
MORE INFO AT NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM
Valentine’s Romantic
Dinner Movie
Saturday,
FEB 9,
at 11:00 am
MOVIE: The
Grinch [ PG ]
Sensory
Sensitive
Show ONLY $4
Special showing for kids and adults with
Autism or other sensory sensitivities.
WED & THU, FEB 13-14
—–———— 6:00 PM ——————
Enjoy a full service dinner by candle light, while
watching a romantic movie. Admission is $27.50
PER PERSON includes movie, 4 course dinner
and drinks. Reservations available at web site.
UFC234 - Sat, Feb 9
Whittaker vs. Gastelum
MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT
9 FIGHTS IN ALL ON THE HUGE SCREEN
Live Fights at 5:00 (21 & Over) - Tickets $13
Reserved Seating Available Now Online.
Today in History
Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied
possession after a prolonged campaign. The American victory
paved the way for other Allied wins in the Solomon Islands.
— February 8, 1943
Food 4 Thought
“To continue to work, to continue to love what you do, is
certainly a contributing element to one’s longevity and health.”
— John Williams, fi lm composer (Jaws, Star Wars),
born Feb. 8, 1932
The Month Ahead
Continuing to February 9
Pentacle Theatre presents Lisa Loomer’s Distracted, a
comedic take on the distractions of modern life. Visit
pentacletheatre.org for showtimes and tickets.
Local chapter of Rise With Us presents The Vagina
Monologues by Eve Ensler at Keizer Homegrown Theatre
at Keizer Cultural Center, 980 Chemawa Rd. N.E.
Proceeds benefi t Safety Compass of Silverton. Tickets
are $20 each—visit vdaysalem.brownpapertickets.com.
Performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Friday, February 8
The Historic Elsinore Theatre presents the Robert
Cray Band at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $38 to $58.
elsinoretheatre.com.
Monday, February 11
Keizer City Council work session, Keizer Civic Center, 930
Chemawa Road N.E., 5:45 p.m.
Tuesday, February 12
Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700
State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Keizer Parks Advisory Board meeting, Keizer Civic Center,
930 Chemawa Road N.E., 6 p.m.
Keizer Revitalization Plan open house, 6 to 8 p.m., Keizer
Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road N.E. Find out what the
future of River Road and Cherry Avenue could hold and
offer feedback on proposed options.
Keizer Planning Commission meeting, Keizer Civic Center,
930 Chemawa Road N.E., 6 p.m.
Thursday, February 14
The Verona Studio at the Reed Opera House in downtown
Salem presents Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation.
Nine performances only through March 2. Tickets are $20.
Visit mirror.brownpapertickets.com.
Keizer Traffi c Safety, Bikeways and Pedestrian Committee
meeting, Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road N.E., 6
p.m.
Friday, February 15-Sunday, February 17
Keizer Homegrown Theatre presents a staged reading of
Yasmina Reza’s Art, an adult play about money and values.
Performances are at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m.
matinee. Tickets are $10, free with Oregon Trail card.
Tuesday, February 19
Keizer City Council meets at 7 p.m. (one day late due to
President’s Day holiday on Monday). Visit keizer.org to
see agenda and meeting packet.
writing — which is worth an
elective credit, but doesn’t get
recognized as a year of English.
Stefani was slated to have
two literacy tutorial classes
with around 21 kids in each
room. However, she received
nearly 100 course requests
from middle school English
teachers in the Keizer area
— there were a total of 562
freshmen enrolled at McNary
at the start of the school year.
“I wasn’t sure if the middle
schools weren’t clear about
what the requirements were
of if that many kids needed
remedial help,” Stefani said.
However, when Stefani
fi nally did receive the SRI
scores she requested, it con-
fi rmed that there were many
students at the school that
were in need of extra atten-
tion.
The SRI is broken up into
four categories (advanced,
profi cient, basic and below
basic). The goal for students is
to reach the profi ciency point
— basic and below basic are
considered under grade level.
According to Stefani, 28
percent of McNary freshmen
tested at the basic level while
17 percent tested at a below
basic level — a small number
of special education students
and students that speak En-
glish as a second language are
included in the 17 percent.
“Our decision in putting
the very low readers in (liter-
looking
back in
the KT
5 YEARS AGO
Iris Fest coming
back downtown:
Move due to growth
in Keizer Station
The annual festival, which will
be held in Keizer for a 27th time
this May 15 to 18, is returning to
its downtown roots this spring.
10 YEARS AGO
Local businesses
cited for selling
alcohol to minors
Ten Keizer businesses were cited
for selling alcohol to minors in
a Feb. 7 sting organized by local
authorities.
15 YEARS AGO
What’s new for
River Road?
Ideas and artistic skills melded
Saturday as more than 100
Keizer citizens put pen to paper
to help create the 20 year vision
for River Road.
20 YEARS AGO
Tractor thief drives
away in the night
Someone drove away with a
tractor belonging to a Keizer
couple on Saturday night.
Saturday, February 23
LGBTQ+ Youth Film Festival, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Free. In the
Keizer Homegrown Theatre space inside the Keizer Cultural
Center. Find all the event details on Facebook.
Cheers to 25 years! Holy Family Academy celebrates
its anniversary with a Benefi t Auction at 5 p.m. at the
Mt. Angel Festhalle, 500 Wilco Hwy NE, Mt Angel. The
evening includes silent and oral auctions, a handcrafted
dinner, lucky number and raffl e. This is a fun, casual-
dressy event for everyone 14 and older.
Add your event by e-mailing news@keizertimes.com.
sudoku
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE
THIS WEEK’S
MOVIE TIMES
A Star is Born (R)
Fri 6:15, 8:20, 8:50;
Sat 4:00, 6:30, 9:00;
Sun 3:00, 6:00, 8:30
a recent phenomenon among
students.
“I don’t think this is new,”
Stefani said. “I think this ex-
plains what I have been seeing
and hearing from our teachers
for a while.”
Jespersen also acknowl-
edged that there isn’t a quick
fi x for this issue.
“We don’t have a silver
bullet for addressing this,” Jes-
persen said.
Jespersen looks at a place
like the Career and Technical
Education Center (CTEC) as
inspiration for achieving that
goal and has applied some
of their aspects to McNary
classrooms — with the most
recent example being the ge-
ometry and construction class.
And if it were up to Jes-
persen, McNary would be-
come a place very similar to
CTEC.
“CTEC does a really good
job. Their whole curriculum
is based on context. There
is no reason that a compre-
hensive high school like ours
could not use those same
concepts here,” Jespersen said.
“If high schools were tru-
ly doing their job to the ab-
solute best of our abilities,
their wouldn’t be a need for
CTEC. It would be happen-
ing at every comprehensive
high school. We learn by ap-
plying it to something that
makes sense.”
While McNary doesn’t
currently have the resources
to have a technical education
center at their school, they
have put a large emphasis on
AVID (Advancement Via In-
dividual Determination) to
help their students succeed.
AVID, which is a col-
lege-readiness system de-
signed to increase the num-
ber of students who enroll
in four-year colleges in the
U.S., has been prominent
at McNary for a number of
years now. And in February
in 2018, McNary was recog-
nized as an AVID Schoolwide
Site of Distinction, becoming
just the fourth high school in
Oregon to receive that honor.
It is something that all Mc-
Nary teachers implement into
their curriculum.
“We focus on (AVID) so
much because that is about
the instructional strategies to
help a kid access what they
need,” Jespersen said. “As a
teacher, how do we break it
down the requisite academ-
ic skills for kids to learn the
things we want them to learn?
That is a part of our profes-
sional development plan that
we’ve been working on for a
number of years.”
More than anything, Jes-
persen wants to see his stu-
dents succeed once they leave
high school.
“We are trying to create
a culture here where people
are leaving our school, go-
ing of college, military, trade
schools or into the workforce
and hopefully, they are going
into something that they are
passionate about, because that
is where they are going to
thrive,” Jespersen said.
“We ask ourselves, ‘What
are we doing in our every day
instruction to help our kids’?”
CATCH-UP: ‘this ... class
isn’t in their own bubble’
(Continued from Page A1)
Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700
State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday, February 22-Saturday, March 2
Willamette University’s theatre department presents
Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni and freely
adapted and directed by Kevin Otos.Visit willamette.edu/
arts/theatre/performances for show times, tickets and
synopsis.
acy tutorials) was initially that
it would raise confi dence,”
Stefani said. “Freshmen year
is so important for kids to get
engaged and feel successful
right off the bat. We didn’t
want to throw them into a
English class that is way over
their heads … We knew that,
with our other English offer-
ings, they could catch up that
credit later on.”
Stefani was able to move
stuff around to get four liter-
acy tutorial classes, but it still
wasn’t enough.
“We told the English de-
partment that we don’t have
spots in support classes for all
of them so a lot of these kid-
dos are going to be in your
English-nine classes.” Stefani
said. “You have to differenti-
ate and support them and be
aware of their presence and
don’t assume anything when
it comes to reading and writ-
ing assignments.”
For more than a decade
now, McNary has been using
Read-180 technology for stu-
dents who aren’t profi cient in
reading and writing —which
involves reading off comput-
er, receiving instruction while
working with small groups
and independent reading.
However, McNary will
have to do things a little bit
different moving forward
when it comes to dealing
with literacy issues. (See relat-
ed story Remedial classes, Page
A1)
Even with the large bump
of kids below grading level
coming into this school year,
Stefani believes that this is not
they have the opportunity to
get that content and earn the
credit,” Stefani said.
“This wasn’t something that
the district was overturning
anything we were doing in
particular. There was just some
clarity with all the high schools
in the district.”
Fortunately, McNary fac-
ulty has implemented a litany
of strategies to try and combat
this issue.
Before the start of the
school year, both Principal
Erik Jespersen and Stefani
gathered with the entire staff
to inform them that tackling
this issue would require in-
volvement from everyone.
Sharing data and talking
about the reality of the situa-
tion wasn’t easy, but Jespersen
and Stefani felt that it needed
to be done for the betterment
of their students.
“The message was that this
incoming class isn’t in their
own bubble. If you’re seeing
low grades and behavioral
problems in the junior and se-
nior level classes, it’s probably
because we have got a signif-
icant portion of students who
are under the assumption of
being profi cient,” Stefani said.
“There are all sorts of tactics
for struggling readers to fl y un-
der the radar if they want to, so
without doing frequent tests of
their actual reading skills, com-
prehension, decoding, things
like that. Someone who knows
how to play the game of school
might be able to coast a little
bit.”
Jespersen also added: “It’s
an all-encompassing approach
when it comes to literacy. It
really is all hands on deck.”
“It’s not super motivating
just to stick kids in to a reme-
dial class and expect that were
going to get great results. Yes,
that is part of our approach,
but it really is an over-arching
approach to how we handle
school.”
One of the main focuses for
the school has been giving all
teachers critical reading strate-
gies that they can use, no mat-
ter the class, so that students
are getting support throughout
their day on all levels — it’s
easier said than done, especially
considering that the majority
of high school teachers learn
about their particular area of
expertise when they are train-
ing to become teachers, not
about learning the fundamen-
tals of educating a student.
“In high school, I’m teach-
ing content, but there’s not a
tremendous amount of train-
ing on how to teach a kid how
to read or write. I’m teaching
them about history,” Jespersen
said about his days of teaching
social studies.
“There’s not a ton of (col-
lege) classes on how to teach
kids how to read. Not a ton of
classes on how to teach kids
how to write.”
One big thing that McNary
teachers and staff want to im-
plement is adding context to
what kids are learning.
“We’re continually trying
to think about, when we’re
teaching reading and writing,
speaking and listening, are we
doing it in ways that provide
more context for the kids?”
Jespersen said.
“We want kids to thrive, we
just need to set things up dif-
ferently in order for them to
do that.”
Instead of a literacy tutori-
al, there will be an increased
number of freshman English
classes that will be co-taught
and feature multiple instruc-
tors that will be assisting stu-
dents at the same time.
Those same English in-
structors will also be teaching
a literacy skills lab for freshman
students who need extra help
with what they have learned
from their normal English
class, which will help them get
their graduation requirements
checked off.
“It’s just about going more
in-depth,” Jespersen said. “Just
like anything, some kids are
just going to need a little more
support.”
McNary will also be teach-
ing fi rst semester English for
freshmen that need to re-take
the class.
As McNary students are in
the infancy stages of second
semester, Jespersen and Ste-
fani have taken several steps to
make sure they are prepared
to help students to the best of
their ability.
“Coming into second se-
mester, we’re just making sure
we have as many supports in
place as possible,” Stefani said.
maze
Bohemian Rapsody (PG-13)
Fri 9:00; Sun 7:50
Fantastic Beasts 2 (PG-13)
Fri 2:00, 3:40, 5:50;
Sat 12:00, 2:30;
Sun 12:45, 3:25
The Grinch (PG)
Fri 1:45;
Sat 12:00, 2:15;
Sun 11:45, 1:35
Holmes & Watson (PG-13)
Sat 12:45
Instant Family (PG-13)
Fri 3:30, 6:45; Sat 6:45;
Sun 5:35, 6:30
Enter digits
from 1-9 into
the blank
spaces. Every
row must
contain one
of each digit.
So must every
column, as
must every
3x3 square.
Mortal Engines (PG-13)
Sat 9:00; Sun 8:45
On the Basis of Sex (PG-13)
Fri 4:30; Sat 4:25,
Sun 12:00, 4:10
Second Act (PG-13)
Fri 1:30
Smallfoot (PG)
Sat 2:30; Sun 2:15
UFC (21 & Older– R)
Sat 5:00
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