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Great ideas for EL or WL classes from Larry Ferlazzo's newest book via @Edutopia 

TONS of resources on Common Core as related to PBL via Edutopia

Project-based learning (PBL) demands excellent assessment practices to ensure that all learners are supported in the learning process. With good assessment practices, PBL can create a culture of excellence for all students. We've compiled some of the best resources from Edutopia and the web to support your use of assessment in PBL, including information about strategies, advice on how to address the demands of standardized tests, and summaries of the research.

Great ideas for questioning strategies.

Great tips for using social media in the WL class!

Good tips for building a positive classroom culture.

Excellent resources for including game-based learning opportunities

Free downloadable resources on game-based learning.

Some good ideas for student engagement

"Sometimes, in order to gain perspective on a situation, I imagine myself zooming into outer space and looking down on whatever is going on. From a distance of thousands of feet above whatever craziness is happening I can see more clearly and determine the actions that are available for me to take. "

"On a given day, how much time do your students spend working on their fluency? At the elementary level, hours are devoted to reading and speaking fluency. In middle and high school, students read aloud, deliver oral presentations, and write in a variety of formats to improve upon their language fluency. And yet, while we devote a significant portion of every school day to a student's reading, writing and language fluency, how much time is devoted to the development of their technology fluency? "

Telling our story is an essential part of our humanness. It allows us to feel part of the community that knows our story, and it fosters empathy for those that surround us. Story is a powerful force in shaping mental models, motivating and persuading others, and teaching the lessons of life. Telling story extends back to a time when oral history dominated the tools of communication. And now the flood of technology tools that allow for instant communication has spun us back into a golden age where story again dominates the media landscape.

In 1968, two researchers conducted a fascinating study that proved the extent to which teacher expectations influence student performance. Positive expectations influence performance positively, and negative expectations influence performance negatively. In educational circles, this has been termed the Pygmalion Effect, or more colloquially, a self-fulfilling prophecy. What has always intrigued me about this study is specifically what the teachers did to communicate that they believed a certain set of students had "unusual potential for academic growth." The research isn't overly explicit about this, but it indicates that the teachers "may have paid closer attention to the students, and treated them differently in times of difficulty." This begs the following questions: Why can't teachers treat all of their students like this? How do we communicate to students whether we believe in them or not?

A new resource from the National Capital Language Resource Center - a must read for WL teachers who are seeking to implement a true standards-based, proficiency-oriented language program.

A new resource from the National Capital Language Resource Center - a must read for WL teachers who are seeking to implement a true standards-based, proficiency-oriented language program.

Students engage more passionately when trying to answer a question that interests them. Here are ten opening questions that have inspired this kind of learning

t's no secret that curiosity makes learning more effective and enjoyable. Curious students not only ask questions, but also actively seek out the answers. Without curiosity, Sir Isaac Newton would have never formulated the laws of physics, Alexander Fleming probably wouldn't have discovered penicillin, and Marie Curie's pioneering research on radioactivity may not exist.

Good reflection by Andrew Miller

Reflections of Student Understanding Travel journals are student-created "textbooks." Normal Park calls them travel journals because they chart the journey of students' learning. They are a great way for students to take ownership of their learning. Every student creates one, and every travel journal is unique to the student. Travel journals are a collection of the work students do for their science or social studies module. Teachers use travel journals on a daily basis; students create work and then add it to their journal throughout the quarter. Journals include writing and reflection pieces, graphic organizers, timelines, charts, drawings, diagrams, vocabulary, maps, pictures, and anything else that reflects students' learning and understanding of the module topic. Teachers also photocopy relevant articles and have students place those in their journals. During the course of one year, a student will create four journals for four different modules. Students take the journals home at the end of each quarter. Students love to show them off to their parents and keep them as a record of what they learned.

You know the hardest thing about teaching with project-based learning? Explaining it to someone. It seems to me that whenever I asked someone the definition of PBL, the description was always so complicated that my eyes would begin to glaze over immediately. So to help you in your own musings, I've devised an elevator speech to help you clearly see what's it all about.