Group items tagged

After creating a list of my students' names on this site, I can click a button to have students randomly chosen or another one to generate groups of 3, 4, or 5 students for class activities.

"...evidence...indicates that modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper that many people miss and, more importantly, prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way. In turn, such navigational difficulties may subtly inhibit reading comprehension. Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. A parallel line of research focuses on people's attitudes toward different kinds of media. Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper."

Helping students build metacognition. Includes interesting strategy by college professor who lets students skip 3/25 MC questions and instead mark why they do not know the answer (don't remember, can only narrow down to two, didn't study, etc.)

A brief introduction to world religions created by students, for students. Useful for Life of Pi discussion.

This article explains a new web application created by an English teacher that drills students on common grammar errors. It appear that the site is just getting started (they only currently have quizzes on apostrophes, subject/verb agreement, and commas/fragments/run ons), but this site looks like it has potential to be an excellent tool for formative assessment.

I set up a class and took a few quizzes. This would be very cool if we could make our own sentences since there are only a few types of quizzes right now--very basic. The best part is that the program clearly explains how the student can fix the mistake. Nice.

Terry and I were recently talking about the benefits of having students create their own questions to help them think more deeply about a reading. This article suggests questioning as an entry to deeper thinking.

I just finished up another round of question-based research with my sophomores! I love, love, love this process...and they prefer it to traditional tests. :)

Keep reading until page 2--teachers start recognizing students' problems comprehending basic conjunctions and inability to communicate in complex sentences. Much of their progress seems to come from explicitly helping students write more complex sentences. "For years, nothing seemed capable of turning around New Dorp High School's dismal performance-not firing bad teachers, not flashy education technology, not after-school programs. So, faced with closure, the school's principal went all-in on a very specific curriculum reform, placing an overwhelming focus on teaching the basics of analytic writing, every day, in virtually every class."

This is really interesting! I have been reading similar suggestions in Burke, Gallagher, and others that, while not as prescriptive, certainly endorse explicit modeling of sentence types and offering sentence stems for student practice.

The following is an excerpt from "Deeper Learning How Eight Innovative Public Schools Are Transforming Education in the Twenty-First Century," by Monica R. Martinez and Dennis McGrath. A particularly vivid example of putting students in the driver's seat of their own education is the way they handle what traditional schools refer to as parent-teacher conferences.

An interesting site that includes several articles and assessments on reading style, strategies, and skills. Much of the explanation after the one questionnaire I took is written at a college level, so students would need support to use this site.

May share this infographic with students--so few take notes! Maybe this will convince them when I cannot.

An argument against, and some alternatives (that are pretty nifty!)

"... when we are around people that we have a genuine interest in, our language subtly shifts." "When two people are paying close attention, they use language in the same way." They aren't aware of it, but if you look closely at their language, count up their use of "I," and "the," and "and", you can see it. It's right there. Also talks about power dynamics and the use of "I." This part of the article might helps students understand why first person is not always appropriate in their writing.

Lists of recommended reading for junior high and high school students.

A response to the article Alex shared about "robo-grading."

Advice on how teachers can help students with their college application essays

8 "lessons" in which an Irish professor examines the significance of particular techniques in poetry by examining examples. He talks through examinations of poetry titles, sound devices, figurative language, and cliches. Good models for teachers and students.