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Shows examples of how to narrow down research questions

1. OWNERSHIP is key. For this project, the students were not listening to me on why Twain was or was not a racist, they were showing me and the rest of class what they thought. They were invested in winning their argument. They knew that their work was going to determine if he was guilty or not. Although I gave the assignment, the students were in charge the rest of the way. It was their project and they wanted to do it win. When students feel they own what they are doing, they will work harder. When the audience is larger, they want to impress everyone. These are not crazy ideas, they are the results of owning the work they are doing. OWNERSHIP is a major factor in the value of PBL. 2. CREATIVITY is the another major part of the PBL and is closely linked with OWNERSHIP. Students were allowed to be creative in their work as a lawyer or witness. Witnesses needed to stay within character, but could add their own elements on the witness stand. Allowing the students to create gives them a bigger sense of OWNERSHIP. 3. Another part of the PBL is the COLLABORATION. Students were working with each other trying to decide the best plan of attack. Witnesses would meet with their lawyers and discuss how the questions they were going to ask and how they should dress. The Jury worked on group projects researching the previous public opinions on Twain and his writing. Students were sharing ideas freely with one another. I had three sections of American Lit at the time, so I had three trails running. Lawyers would help others in the other classes and trash talk the opposing lawyers as well. It was all in good fun, but the collaboration had students working hard with one another to accomplish this goal. 4. Depending on how you set up your project, CRITICAL THINKING, is also an important part of PBL. With my Twain Trail, students needed to think about both sides of the argument. Students needed to prepare their witnesses for potential cross-examination questions. They needed to

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Excellent overview of science writing. This may be a must read for budding high school scientists.

Asked to assess their students' performance on nine specific writing skills, teachers tended to rate their students "good" or "fair" as opposed to "excellent" or "very good." Students received the best ratings on their ability to "effectively organize and structure writing assignments" and their ability to "understand and consider multiple viewpoints on a particular topic or issue." Teachers gave students the lowest ratings when it comes to "navigating issues of fair use and copyright in composition" and "reading and digesting long or complicated texts."

Excellent article on using cell phones in class. Links to research, templates for lessons, letter etc. This is a much read!

Instant chat room (with Twitter integration), for class "discussions"

Quick chat rooms on the fly.

Kids communicate without talking and see each others words...very cool.

WOW! Free tools related to literacy skills. The book builder tool has a section which reads a story (here's a link for "A Tortoise and a Hare") - They offer professional development and multimedia learning tools. ....."A Tortoise and a Hare" - just this one book offers an amazing variety of learning tools including: activating background knowledge, self assessment and reflection, collaboration and communication, action and expression, coping skills and strategies, challenge and support, recruiting interest, goal-centered learning, and designing flexible curriculum. Each of these skills has a specific activity within the story to address it (almost every page has a different one!). Every page also has a question to think about and respond to. At the end it discusses the moral in another activity and the story itself offers extension activities for follow-up. The story is read by a young girl, but there is also a text reader built in, a glossary, and word-by-word English/Spanish translations.

An educational research & development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning.

CAST is an educational research & development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning.

GamificationCo is your one stop for the latest news, insight, research and commentary on gamification. Come here to find the best technology providers, read about the most exciting companies, attend one of our events and workshops, or just connect with experts.

This blog houses a wealth of information on connectivism and shared knowlege. While I did not read every post, there is a large variety of articles, posted by various authors, written in the past several years. I think this would be a great place to conduct research on current information since there are articles only a few months old.

The Babson Survey Research Group released its last annual survey of the online-education landscape on Tuesday. You can read its report on the survey here, and below are some of its key findings:

"The NFER Assessment Hub, which has been designed to help school practitioners build their confidence with classroom assessment, offers a host of free support written by NFER's team of assessment researchers with teaching backgrounds. This support includes a collection of short-read articles which introduce various aspects of classroom assessment, as well as an exclusive new practitioner guide series titled 'Brushing up on assessment', due to be released weekly throughout October and November. From guidance on understanding assessment policies to tips on making the most of assessment data, the guides will offer valuable insight and advice to support practitioners in delivering an assessment approach that is right for their pupils and their school."

This article emphasizes that ELLs benefit when literature teachers include techniques that make the learning more accessible. I like the idea of connecting the literature to a real project. I do this same activity with my adult ELLs every semester. For example, this semester they are reading "Breaking Through", a true story about a boy whose parents are undocumented agricultural workers. It is a great story of perseverance and "grit" that shows how immigrants make this country stronger. I am going to pair the reading with a group project called "The Immigrant Experience in Houston". My students will research an immigrant group and chronicle the melting pot that is Houston. They will create a Power Point Presentation and share their research with the class. Food samples always get 5 extra points!

"Deliberate practice is essential for improving a wide range of skills important for everyday life, from tying shoelaces to reading and writing. Yet despite its importance for developing basic skills, academic success, and expertise, we know little about the development of deliberate practice. A new study from Australia found that children spontaneously practice skills to prepare for the future starting at the age of 6. The study, from researchers at the University of Queensland, is published in the journal Child Development."

A new study found that speech difficulties are linked with difficulties in learning to read when children first start school, but these effects are no longer apparent at 8 years of age. Researchers confirmed that early language impairment that co-occurs with speech difficulties predicts poor literacy skills at both 5½ and 8 years of age. Having a family history of dyslexia had a small but significant effect on literacy at both ages, above and beyond the effects of speech and language...

13 Ideas for How Parents Can Encourage Summer Reading http://t.co/Gg9DOTlY7f #kinderchat #1stchat

An important read for anyone who truly wants to understand what's really important in education and the false reform strategies of our current (and past) administration.