Group items tagged

"By setting up ways to get frequent feedback from students' works in progress, we can find out what they need-before it's too late. Several years ago, I decided that if I were going to spend time writing comments on my students' writing work or on assignments connected to their in-class reading, those comments had to do more than justify a grade. They had to give targeted feedback that would show students how to improve the quality of their work. I'd been finding the hours I spent writing feedback on students' work discouraging. For one thing, students didn't pay attention to my comments, and, for another, the quality of their work wasn't improving. A change in how I responded to their work was necessary. If I wanted my comments to fuel improvement, I realized, I had to build in time for learners to revise their work after receiving my suggestions. Not only did I change the timing of my feedback, but I also streamlined my process of writing comments, allowing myself more time to shift instruction in response to what I'd learned from reviewing work"

"Almost 4 years ago, I wrote a post on Langwitches titled Teaching Hyperlinked Writing and Reading. 4 years later, many (most?) teachers have not heard, let alone are teaching and coaching their students in the use of hyperlinked writing. The word "hyperlinked" is still being underlined in red as I am typing the word, indicating that it must be somehow misspelled or that the word does not exist."

"Take a moment to think about how you learned to write. What steps did you go through? What was your process?"

"In response, we asked her if she was willing to send us her argument-writing unit so we could share it with other teachers. We're pleased to publish it below, including all of her handouts and recommended videos embedded. And, of course, all students age 13 to 19 can find this year's contest here."

"The students work, huddled in pairs, jotting down ideas in notebooks. The classroom buzzes with collaboration, punctuated by giggles and laughter. Students are excited to be writing as we start our annual celebration of Script Frenzy! "

"Growing numbers of Twin Cities teachers are embracing blogs as a way to improve their students' writing skills, and students are discovering how they can connect with a global audience."

"Back in 2012, we shared how to cite a tweet. We followed that up with how to cite an app. So when we saw the very useful teachbytes graphic above making some noise on pinterest on several different popular #edtech websites, it reminded us of the constant demands changing technologies place on existing ways we do business. When and in what contexts it makes sense to cite social media content is probably a more relevant post than sharing a graphic that simply shows the format, but they're both nice to have, yes? Citation Style Of course, citation style matters, and the two most popular are the APA and MLA. The APA (American Psychological Association) has their rules for citing social media in academic writing. They even have a thorough ($12) guide to clarify the process, while the MLA (Modern Language Association), as far as we can tell, has yet to expressly address apps and social media as anything other than "software." And to an extent, this makes sense. As media becomes more nuanced, new modalities emerge, authors use new channels to distribute their thinking-and even as the "crowd" becomes a legitimate source of information (see wikipedia, twitter, erc.), new rules for governing that reality will continue to emerge. The more general those rules are, the less reactive governing bodies will have to be moment by moment."

"The rapid adoption of devices in the classroom has fundamentally changed the way we can create video. Every part of the creation process -- writing, recording, editing, and distributing -- is possible on the devices that can fit in our pocket. Vision is the most dominant of the five senses. Research shows that concepts are better remembered if they are taught visually. This is called the pictorial superiority effect, and it's why video is such a powerful learning tool. A video is created three times: when you write it, when you shoot it, and when you edit it. "

"SMART is an acronym that often stands for goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound. They're written by many organizations to set actionable goals commensurate with the group's vision and mission. While these types of goals have saturated staff meetings around the country enough to make the term a little cringe-worthy among adults, my third graders loved dissecting the acronym, and I found them more highly engaged in writing goal/resolutions than I can remember in recent years. This week, I'm happy to share with you how my students got started writing their new year's resolutions this week. "

"The Common Core State Standards recognize that to thrive in the newly wired world, students need to master new ways of reading and writing."

"Over the past year, in my work with ASCD affiliates, we have been exploring ways to revolutionize the ways we serve their affiliate members. Why? The writing is on the wall that today's educators have different needs and expectations. It's difficult to get out of the classroom to attend conferences, and when educators can get away for professional development they want to be actively engaged in acquiring meaning and building understanding. One concept I have asked affiliates to explore is the deconstruction of conferences, workshops and seminars into a newly emerging kind of professional development: the unconference."

"For the past five years I have collaborated with a playwright who works with my students as they write original plays. Each year, on the first day that she has been in the room with us, Kate and I stage a conflict about what should come next in the lesson. "

"In math, the Rule of Three is a method of finding a ratio. In English essay writing, the Rule of Three states that things are more interesting to read in triads. In presentations, the Rule of Three comes in handy to keep the audience engaged, and in entertainment, the idea of trebling makes jokes and gags funnier. As it turns out, economists, chemists, aviators, and scuba divers use the Rule of Three (even Agatha Christie did when she wrote a series of plays entitled, The Rule of Three). Although it has not been labeled as the Rule of Three, great educators have used it in classrooms since Aristotle (ever heard of syllogisms?). So what is the Rule of Three for learning? Well it is as simple as one, two, three (not kidding). The Rule of Three for learning basically establishes the requirement that students be given the opportunity to learn something at least three times before they are expected to know it and apply it."

"Social studies supervisors and teachers across the country are revising their unit plans to meet their state's content standards, as well as, the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History and Social Studies. Simultaneously, many states are implementing new evaluation and observation frameworks. The performance ratings employed by the most popular evaluation models encourage a shift away from teacher-led direct instruction to more student-centered activities incorporating inquiry and synthesis. In social studies, primary source document analysis goes hand in hand with the 9-12 Common Core reading and writing standards. Here are five top resources to align your curricula to the Common Core with student driven lessons. "

"When students write a paper, it goes without saying that they must cite the sources that they use in creating it. For generations, students have created note cards to document and organize these resources and/or submitted a bibliography page with their finished work. In the modern classroom, student research and creation has taken on a new look. Before, when students created a poster, and then separately handed in a bibliography page to the teacher, justice was done and fair credit was given for the ideas used."

"Principal Kamar Samuels had a problem: how to reach the most disaffected students at Bronx Writing Academy, a middle school serving mostly low-income students. The usual discipline methods weren't working and Samuels knew that if he could figure out how to engage his toughest students, he'd have a playbook to reach them all. So, he decided to make those students his focus group, asking them what they liked about school, and really listened to the answers. That technique is part of a user-centered design approach he's trying out in order to tackle some of the age-old problems in education, like low achievement for Latino and African-American boys, with a new lens."

"Do you know what the most common electronic device that college student's possess? According to Joshua Bolkan, a multimedia editor for Campus Technology and The Journal, "85% of college students own laptops while smartphones come in second at 65%". If technology is becoming a common practice among our students, what are we doing as professors to incorporate it into our classrooms? How can students use technology to reflect on their work? How can instructors use technology as a supplement in reading and writing courses? How can technology be used to deepen our student's critical thinking skills? These are questions we should be asking ourselves in a world where technology is paving the way to learning. "

"Essential questions rarely arise in a first draft. Here's how to construct good ones. The well-known aphorism that "writing is revision" applies particularly well to crafting essential questions. With more than 30 years' experience in teaching through questions and helping educators create great unit-framing queries, we've repeatedly seen the wisdom of this saying."

"Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression) is a national movement that celebrates and inspires youth self-expression through Spoken Word Poetry. Conceived in 2004, Project V.O.I.C.E. encourages young people to engage with the world around them and use Spoken Word Poetry as an instrument through which they can explore and better understand their culture, their society, and ultimately themselves. Project V.O.I.C.E. brings together performance, writing, and a supportive environment to inspire youth to recognize that their views are significant, valid, and necessary. "

"Shanahan on Literacy - nformation for teachers and parents on teaching and assessing reading, writing, and literacy, and information on Timothy Shanahan's upcoming professional appearances and publications."