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Good pedagogy prescribes that effective programs "meet students where they are." For middle-school students, this means meeting them in adolescence. Adolescents are more concerned with social norms and more susceptible to peer influence than younger children. Additionally, the fact that these youth are still struggling after years of reading instruction suggests that their motivation to persist at reading is likely to have suffered. To fully support and engage such adolescents, reading programs must leverage social processes and include explicit support for motivation and strategy use.

This article makes a very good argument for incorporating e-mail into the classroom to improve student writing. The author explains how students are often bored with traditional writing assignments and editing/revising sessions using Microsoft Word (even though this is technology, it is less interactive). The author explains how having a second party on the other end of the email who will be reading their work encourages students to carefully proofread and make edits/revisions as necessary on their own before sending the e-mails. Students were also more interesting in the authentic writing tasks that e-mail communication allowed (such as writing to professionals in their fields of study/interest and receiving real responses). The author gives a plethora of ideas for utilizing e-mail to improve student writing in various content classes, including Language Arts, Math, Foreign Language, and Social Studies. Kristine and I found this article and are hoping to work in this strategy/component into our Data Action Plan (although we previously did not list it as a strategy to help with our SMART goals). WEEK 7

This article focuses on a special education teacher and the methods she uses to teach her students reading comprehension. It is a resource for instructional strategies that may help close the instructional gap.

Article from website including different strategies to help students read for comprehension of information.

WEEK 4, Teacher: Heather - 2nd Grade Teacher SMART Goal: Given 1 month of guided reading instruction, students in below grade-level reading groups will increase their reading level by at least one level. SUMMARY: This article offers ideas for effective vocabulary instruction for teachers, including word structure analysis and vocabulary words selection. The article discusses how student knowledge of deciphering vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension can be reinforced, and how instructors can detect the difference between the vocabulary of good and weak readers. The vocabulary exercises are targeted for students in grades 4 through 12, but I believe that it can be used in all classrooms because the article emphasizes the integration of vocabulary instruction in any content area, such as social studies and science. This article also offers teaching strategies on how to enable students to determine word meaning, and how students can effectively use dictionaries.

Week 7: We are always looking for new strategies for teaching fitness to our middle school students (the article focuses on students aged 13-19). Focuses not just on their physical ability but also their cognitive abilities. When we discussed this reading we all agreed when the article said " Be aware that many teenagers have a short attention span. Create variety to keep them excited and engaged. Circuits, boot camps, strength training and partner yoga are great choices for teens." We recently did a circuit workout that included all of those things. (Stevenson, 2013)

Test-taking can be taught earlier in academic settings. When students start learning these strategies young, testing can be more reflective of what they know because the testing barrier has been minimized.

WEEK 8 - (Chris Baugher, Patricia Bankis and A. Burns) Assessment is the key to good instruction. It shows us what students know and allows us to adjust our instruction. Assessment is tied to learning goals and standards, but students must own the assessment process as well, as they must be able to articulate what and how they are being assessed -- and its value.

This article provides five useful strategies to help students improve and to improve assessments. There are two key factors in this article which ring true for me. The first is "formative assessment and feedback along the way" (Miller 2015) where students are given specific feedback on their assessment on how to improve and continue forward (Miller 2015). "Formative assessment allowed students to experiment and, yes, sometimes fail. However, they were given the tools, both through feedback and instruction, to improve and move forward to success." (Miller 2015). What this entails if differentiated instruction; something my district and school are pushing for. The second is "student ownership of assessment process" (Miller 2015). Giving students choice, options, and freedom allows students to take ownership and responsibility for doing something all while doing their best on it. In addition, students will know more about what is being asked of them or what they're supposed to do in order to earn a higher grade or preform the task more effectively. "These methods mean that assessment is no longer done to students, but with them, putting the focus on the student and learning" (Miller 2015). Hopefully with these implementations and integration, students can feel the focus from assessment scores to learning content and gaining understanding.

This article is useful when considering big picture assessment objectives. In my own experiences, I have touched upon each of these strategies when conducting an assessment, but I've never built each of them into one assessment. The (5) strategies mentioned in this article include: Aligning Essential questions at the beginning of a unit to standars, building in written assessment components for students to describe/explain in writing, creating performance and project-based assessments to demonstrate understanding and application of concepts taught, regular and on-going formative assessments and feeback to help teachers to better tailor instruction to meet each learner's needs, and involving students in the decision-making process when choosing activities and when determining diagnostic measurement tools. As a World Language teacher, I think that these tasks which are challenging in themselves to build into curriculum, become extremely difficult in the L2 setting. I'm wondering how L2 instructors find themselves doing each of these things on a regular basis. Do they conduct all of it in L2, as it is suggested that L2 teachers do, or does some of this end up being done in English?

In the educational world of increased expectations and rising standards, teachers and school administrators understand the importance of closing the achievement gap. Project Star, a major longitudinal study of the effects of class size, discovered that reducing the number of...Read more ›

Increasing class sizes is a problem educators across America are facing. This article address how to counter this issue while still focusing on closing achievement gaps. One strategy mentioned is intentional small group instruction. Differentiating instruction by allowing high level learners move on independently while conducting mini lessons to those still struggling with a lesson, can help a teacher overwhelmed with class size.

This is a Slideshare presentation about color coding by Jugnu Agrawal and Gary Hoag. Research that supports color coding is provided as well as some strategies for different activities from organizational skills, to reading and writing. Teachers can follow some of these strategies to differentiate their lessons and add variety to a "traditional" lesson.

Meta-analysis was conducted on interventions used for mathematics with students with learning disabilities. There were four instructional components examine to determine their effectiveness and impact -- a) approached to instruction and/or curriculum design, b) formative assessment data and feedback to teachers, c) formative assessment data and feedback to students and d) peer-assisted mathematics instruction. The research indicates the positive impact of cognitive strategies and the direct instruction model for mathematics instruction. The information was beneficial. Direct instruction often used for reading instruction of students with disabilities so it only makes sense that is also works for math instruction. Research-based information helps me determine what instructional strategies and practices I will include in my classroom.

This article examines various methods for helping students with comprehension difficulties learn and acquire new content specific vocabulary. The primary focus of the article is on the importance of a multi strategy approach to help keep students engaged with vocabulary building activities.

"a Chalk Talk protocol allows students to have non-verbal "discussion.""

My group's SMART Target Learning Goal is 75% of students will improve their informational text comprehension by 1 grade level. The Dimension I'm referencing is Technology Integration. Although I feel this is a great tool and has a major impact on student learning, it does lack technology integration. I rate it as a 1. I think it rates off the scales in the other dimensions. Some sort of tech integration would make this a huge win all around.

EDTC615 FALL2018 I have found several dimensions from the Planning Protocol that I could assess this particular under for instance: Depth of Knowledge- The Chalk Talk can be use on a multitude of levels for DOK. From a basic warm up to a well thought out thought provoking silent Socrative seminar, depends on how the teacher want to use the tool in their classroom will determine the DOK. Teacher Friendliness - This instructional tactic is very teacher friendly and low maintenance across the board. you can just use a whiteboard and post it stickies, or chart paper and post it stickies, and just a window/liquid chalk and post it stickies. Rigor and Relevance- Again rigor and relevance is dependent upon how the teacher decides to use this instructional tactic in their classroom. This is a tool that can evoke deep thought or a tool that can be used as a quick response to a warm up question. Possible Technology Integration- Although the video did not depict a technology integration while I was watching the video an idea came to mind to use this idea in conjunction with Padlet app and divide the classroom up into groups with each a different Padlet question or conversation and first each member in the group share to the Padlet and then have the student rotate to each groups table and share a post to each other's Padlet. That is one way to integrate technology into a Chalk Talk discussion. This could be used as an instructional tactic for all our group members as an exit ticket, class survey, check for understanding of the day's lesson, warm-up question, and/or silent Socrative seminar. I can think of endless possibilities with this particular tool based on the dynamics of your student population, skill set, and grade level. Spencer's SMART Goal is 75% of the 24 students with a C or lower to have a B (80%) or higher in my class, by the end of the 1st quarter. Ericka's SMART Goal is By the end of 1st quarter 75% of the LSN Government students will be able to an

Slideshows teaching these skills with built in activities for students. Slideshows are in English, but students will need to understand the skill first before they can transfer it to the target language. Teachers can provide French examples to supplement the slideshows.

This video was useful for exploring the dimension of both 'student engagement' and 'depth of knowledge'. The teacher explores ideas and experiments with ways to involve the student into asking themselves what things are relevant to their own learning. This is relevant to my SMART goal of 100% pass rates among my SLO group on their standardized tests because I can have them explore and better understand the language, vocabulary, and contextual reading goals I am setting for them in my class. I think these strategies could be universally effective in nearly all learning environments.

Strategies to help struggling readers. Instructional approach for decoding, letter and word recognition, and involving parents and other support services like tutors and reading specialist.

This article is a resource for teaching content area vocabulary.

This report describes a program for improving reading comprehension skills in order to heighten understanding of materials covered in class and performance on activities and exams. The targeted population consisted of first-, fifth-, and eighth-grade students in a large, lower- to middle-class community located in central Illinois.

This interview provides research that supports an instructional gap based on gender. It mentions how and why girls are outperforming boys academically. The interviewees suggest ways to address the gender gap.

This article definitely examined many factors that could be a cause of an instructional gap, including gender. As I read through the interview, it discussed topics such as "Is it a problem that so few men are teachers? and Is single-sec education a viable strategy for addressing the problem"? My school has discussed creating an all-males 8th grade class, but without seeing proven data that this is in the best interest of the student/school, I don't think I could support this strategy. Great article on gender gaps and how it is effecting our educational system.

Rather interesting article. I work at an all boys school and it is very rewarding to see these young men excel in academics. We also study the male brain and customized our lessons to reach the male brain. Some customization used are brain breaks, water, multimedia and music and many others. Great article

(Week Nine: Ruchel and Beth) This article is accessible through the UMUC library via Document Express. This journal article is about differentiated instruction when it comes to teaching students the alphabet. The article highlights the fact that "Early literacy experiences vary widely... and children show substantial differences in their alphabet knowledge development. Thus, children in the same early childhood classroom may exhibit differing levels of alphabet knowledge" (Piasta, 2014). Teachers can use this article to further their instructional practice by using the strategies and assessments discussed in the article to work with students in ways that will help the individual child learn all the letters verses a whole class approach to teaching the alphabet. The article discuses how, "The familiarity of children with letters included in their own first names, for example, has long been observed" (Piasta, 2014). But when it comes to teaching the alphabet in a whole class approach teachers are not acknowledging "differences across letters, often providing the same amount and types of instructional activities for each of the 26 letters irrespective of the ease or difficulty of learning a particular letter (Piasta, 2014). The article provides an idea that all "Early childhood educators may wish to assess all the children in their classrooms or may first use established alphabet screening assessments" (Piasta, 2014). It is also helpful for educators "To conduct a diagnostic alphabet assessment, an educator presents a child with each of the 26 letters and asks the child to supply the name and/or sound for each letter. The educator marks whether the child supplied a correct name and/or sound. Although the assessment can be scored in terms of the total number of correct letter names or sounds (i.e., 0 to 26), most important for diagnostic purposes are which letter names and sounds the child knows (Piasta, 2014)...

...The article finds that small group learning "has been demonstrated to be more effective than whole-class or even one-to-one instruction in supporting young children's early literacy development (Piasta, 2014). The article also stresses the fact that educators should "plan and use effective teaching practices to deliver alphabet instruction on the selected letters. Alphabet instruction can take place in many fun, engaging, and authentic contexts" (Piasta, 2014). In closing, "Outside of planned alphabet instruction, educators may also take advantage of additional "teachable moments" to review and reinforce children's alphabet learning whenever these occur" (Piasta, 2014). References Piasta, S. B. (2014). Moving to Assessment-Guided Differentiated Instruction to Support Young Children's Alphabet Knowledge. Reading Teacher, 68(3), 202-211. doi:10.1002/trtr.1316