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The research looks at academic gaps of low income communities. They looked at 3 factors, teacher performance, class abilities and classroom size. The researchers found that the better teaching practices significantly increased students scores, but the class abilities did not. They also found that class size was a factor. Although class size is important, teachers can not completely control that. However, this research shows that students fell into instructional gaps due to instruction that was not meeting teaching standards or not provided adequate instruction on the material.

With all the areas that children are taught in school, the author feels that while trying work at the achievement gap we should look at the engagement gap. The eagerness that children have a young age needs to be maintained. Hands-on learning should be implemented into the lesson.

This is a great article focusing on engagement in the classroom! It discusses the necessity of hands on learning to maintain students interest. This is important for students of all academic levels. Hands on learning not only engages students because they are "doing", they also are developing critical thinking skills. As a special education teacher, I know that in order to assist my students in learning, I need to keep their attention and provide them with interesting, hands on learning.

I love this article! I have always been a strong believer in hands on learning and I love that they call it an engagement gap! Students get bored when a teacher gets up and lectures them all day. They need to be engaged! The activities need to be purposeful and have a specific meaning but a teacher can make just about any topic engaging just by getting the kids moving and interacting. I 100% agree that students retain information longer when they are engaged and enjoying what they are learning.

This article provides a variety of ELL terminology and instructional guidance for early childhood educators who are looking to support children who are ELL's. The articles focus is on language and literacy content approaches and best practices that should be included in ELL educational practice programs. Along with instructional practices, this article offers essential materials, The Early English Language Development Standards, and developmentally appropriate academic language all in guidance for supporting early ELL's.

This is a research from the 1970s and 1980s on the characteristics of effective elementary school teachers highlighted the importance of a strong academic focus, explicit instruction, and high levels of pupils on task. Extending this earlier research, recent large-scale studies on effective teachers of reading have highlighted the importance of motivating and balanced instruction, the teaching of strategies as well as skills, the encouragement of higher-level thinking, and the use of coaching as children are reading and writing. Common findings across recent studies on effective elementary teachers of reading are highlighted in this research paper. It suggest skills and strategies for teaching reading effectively

In 2011, the NEA put out a C.A.R.E guide. This guide focuses on four areas that need to be recognized in order to close the achievement gaps in education. These areas are Culture, Abilities, Resilience, and Effort. The guide includes strategies and activities to be utilized by students and teachers in order to assist in closing the academic achievement gap that exists with low income students. EDTC 615, k-12

This article describes how attendance effects students, their grades, and schools. Students who miss 10% of classes throughout the school year are considered chronically absent. The article looks at reasons why students do not attend school and offers suggestions on how to address that problem. It also outlines how a middle school cut its absenteeism in half in a short period of time.

One of the most interesting aspects of this article is that attendance issues faced by elementary schools directly correlate with reading levels and the subsequent chronic absenteeism in secondary schools. Three categoriesare identified to describe absences -barriers, discretion and aversion- or rather lack of access to public supports, parents and students do not understand importance of attendance, and a child struggling with academics, anxiety or bullying. Principals are utilizing attendance data to identify chronic absentee students and subsequently implementing strategies in their schools to incorporate interventions that will break down the barriers affecting school attendance rates. The article further discusses the positive effects that principals can have by reaching out to the community as well as the elementary feeder schools to collaboratively effect change that will increase attendance.

This paper presents one step in a multi-step process to improve concurrent support of ELLs' academic literacy development. It explains how literacy can close the gap between ELL's and Native English students. It also explains the process to build up literacy in the classroom, explains the 5 components of literacy, and gives evidence that that without literacy, ELLs are less likely to master content.

The Khan Academy is a free online resource for learners to access over 3,000 videos. Since the video tutorials are short, the content keeps even the most distracted student's attention. Working at a Community college, many students entering are required to take academic placement test in math and english. The math assessment seems to be the most fustrating among students. This site has interactive quizzes to assist in preparation and or to identify where the deficiency is for students. Students are advised to review the content prior to completing the assessments and to help as they matriculate throughout their required math courses.

PebbleGo is an early childhood research base for young children learning to read. Information is child friendly and includes many pictures and videos to enrich student learning. PebbleGo has a read aloud feature that allows text to be read to the audience, if necessary. It also has online games relating to topics on PebbleGo and printable resources. This resource requires login information and can be purchased as a subscription by an entire school.

Pebble Go is an excellent online resource for student reserach. This site is divided up by category of science, social studies, and biographies. Students use this interactive website to learn about different academic content areas. For each topic, readings, videos, games, and audio recordings are provided. This allows students of all ability levels to be able to access the information and understand the content. My students love this site as it is a great starting point for any reserach project!

As a goal for the next school year, I have decided to include a blog that would accompany my teaching and assignments my students would complete throughout the year. Through my searching, I discovered Kidblog. According to the site, "Kidblog is designed for K-12 teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog. Students publish posts and participate in academic discussions within a secure classroom blogging community." For my language arts students, they would use this tool by completing and discussing discussion questions relating to a novel study (we complete at least 4 throughout the year). In regards to writing, their personal blog would be a great place to stay organized with their process of writing. I also like how this platform allows students to start an e-portfolio, especially for their writing and composition samples.

This article emphasizes on a new teaching strategy called the flipped model which was created to improve student involvement and academic achievement using technology to move teacher's lecture outside the traditional classroom environment. This model introduces new subject area content to students at home (prior to class) for continual review of content, and moving homework and exercises with concepts inside the classroom with learning activities. Learners within this study preferred this method over the traditional approach, as it improved instructional practices. Therefore with improved instructional practices students can be better motivated and eager to learn thus resulting in improved assessments.

(Week 7 Jason Caputo and Ericka Posey- Group 8) This article is available through the UMUC library through the permalink above. This article examines a teacher directed model for closing achievement gaps. It explains why administrator driven directives and extensive scripting of curriculum are not always successful in closing achievement gaps. It explains the "risk is that prescriptive, bureaucratic approaches will drive talented and thoughtful teachers out of specific schools or the entire profession"(Levine and Marcus, 2007) However, it also points out potential flaws in systems without some oversight of teachers. In the case study presented, teachers avoid asking tough questions about instructional challenges, methods, and expectations/standards. Despite their good intentions and implementation of some effective strategies, during their team meeting/PLC time, "requests for help occurred around specific students or parents; teachers did not use this particular forum as a site for seeking help with core instructional challenges" (Levine and Marcus, 2007). While they are able to reduce some of the achievement gap, there is significant room for growth in their professional practice. The protocols discussed in our course address this, as they provide a professional and polite way to ask challenging questions about professional practice. References Levine, T. H., & Marcus, A. S. (2007). Closing the Achievement Gap through Teacher Collaboration: Facilitating Multiple Trajectories of Teacher Learning. Journal Of Advanced Academics, 19(1), 116-138.

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.

Two prominent methods for closing achievement gaps are discussed in this article: 1. increase district control over teaching and curriculum, and "minimum standard of instruction", 2. using teacher teams to develop curriculum and teaching methods. Because district control leads to set curriculum, methods, and assessments across schools, progress is easily measured. However, talented and creative teachers tend to feel less valued as educators, and more like tools of implementation. This could cause less effectiveness for having to fit lessons within such a strict construct. Teacher teams, or Professional Learning Networks, empower teachers for contributing to development of effective lessons. Educators tend to enjoy this approach, since it is more natural to teaching and learning, though it is difficult to measure what is being learned. Under district control, the focus can be on research based interventions, where measurement relies on teachers not straying from the mandated processes. Alternatively, it can focus on teacher learning, which would output teachers with similar goals, but who can draw from their own experience and knowledge. Mountain High School in Pleasantville, California, was divided into "learning communities" of around 80 students. Teachers were to serve as advisors, regularly contact families, collaborate with colleagues, and ELL and Special education students were divided amongst the communities. The teacher lack of experience with PDs showed, as they were more focused on student problems rather than ways to improve instruction. Teachers were also not used to contacting parents outside of problematic situations. It was also necessary to provide accommodations that help struggling students to strengthen the lacking skills that are preventing further growth. The proposed methods seemed sound, though implementation in the case study, was still problematic. The lack of success was potentially due to lack of understanding of what compris

(Week 9: Amber, Angela, And Kenneth) This article is accessible through the link given by accessing Diigo. This article discusses two methods for closing the achievement gap due to teacher collaboration. The article discusses how teachers can collectively have discussion that may identify and address the structural issues that are built into the school system. Teachers can use this article to begin to understand how their instructional practices can be hampered by systematic inequalities. The idea of all of this is for these "Collaborations to require and build trust, routines and skills for further collaboration efforts. This also means that the collaborators will need training in order to help them talk about issues of teaching and learning and critique each other's practice (Levine and Marcus, 2007). This would be useful for our practicing teacher because (1) They teach in different districts so there will be some disparities, (2) critiquing each other can be more helpful and a great learning experience. References Levine, T. H., & Marcus, A. S. (2007). Closing the achievement gap through teacher collaboration: facilitating multiple trajectories of teacher learning. Journal Of Advanced Academics, 19(1), 116-138. From http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ786607.pdf

(Week 8: Tolulope Oladipo and Michelle Bear) This is a journal article available in UMUC library. The link to the article is also provided below: REACH: A Framework for Differentiating: Classroom Instruction. Retrieved from https://www.dentonisd.org/cms/lib/tx21000245/centricity/Domain/900/diffedframeworkreach.pdf This article explores how educators can improve their teaching methods to achieve individualized instructions, educational standards, outcomes and academic achievement. The article discusses strategies for not just meeting the diverse needs of all students but for ensuring standard educational outcomes. The author examines the plight of two teachers: one general and one special education-the authors offer a rationale for differentiating instruction. They went further to conduct literature review of differentiated instruction, highlighting the myths, models, and evidence to support it. They employ the acronyms / mnemonic called REACH to develop a framework that includes a comprehensive inventory and several practical strategies for using it. This article is useful to my team to enable us determine how we can teach application software such as excel, PowerPoint, access, word using differentiated instructions. Through this article, we will come across those strategies that can be used to address our SMART Targeted Learning Goals, Instructional gaps and Learning gaps. The article swill equips us with skills needed to provide individualized instructions to students regardless of their needs, learning styles, learning pattern. The principles presented provide us with skills of becoming effective teacher, accommodating both special and general education students. References Racia, M.L., Gregg, M., Ellis, E., & Gable, R.A. (2008). REACH: A Framework for Differentiating: Classroom Instruction. Preventing School Failure. Winter2008, Vol. 52 Issue 2.

(Week 7: Jeremy, Kelly, Patience and Sherita) This article is originally a Diigo share from 2015. This journal article is accessible in the link given above. This journal article discusses how here in America, there is a pervasive fear surrounding teaching and learning math. The author suggests that the American public suffers from innumeracy. Through discussing the article, the group agrees that many countries have mastered the use of American mathematical principles. The article discussed that by utilizing and engaging in clear mathematical methods of learning for students and by creating valuable conversations, making the learning process more viable, the students consequently, learn. "Instead of having students memorize and then practice endless lists of equations - which Takahashi remembered from his own days in school - Matsuyama taught his college students to encourage passionate discussions among children so they would come to uncover math's procedures, properties and proofs for themselves. One day, for example, the young students would derive the formula for finding the area of a rectangle; the next, they would use what they learned to do the same for parallelograms. Taught this new way, math itself seemed transformed. It was not dull misery but challenging, stimulating and even fun." (Green, 2014) Teachers can use this article to further their instructional practices by utilizing math in a real world format, in a conversational and hands on applicable manner, making learning math fun and interesting for their students. In some instances, math classes may be seen as boring and monotonous tools that serve to be an overtly unloved subject area here in America. The simple truth, is that many teachers love to learn and teach math here in America, and there is a realization for teachers, that all nations compete mathematically. In technology, industry, trade, consumerism and capitalism, numbers and mathematical data maintain a lot of the privile

This article focuses on simple things that teachers should keep in mind when trying to close the achievement gap. It reminds teachers that they don't need to make grand, sweeping changes; just doing some small things can have a major impact in terms of both the instructional and achievement gaps. The steps include using data more effectively, reflecting on your own choices in the classroom with a purpose, staying open-minded and avoiding assumptions, ensuring that the class is academically and culturally relevant, and developing positive relationships with parents. These are not necessarily ground-breaking ideas, but they are small enough that they can be effectively implemented relatively quickly and then fostered more to help close those gaps for students.

I enjoyed this article as it gives very simple ways that teachers can do a better job. It also confirms what I've known to help by making more culturally friendly lessons that students are more accustomed to as we try to scaffold concepts that are foreign.

Manuel Hernandez Carmona is an ESL teacher from New York. The video describes the importance of providing culturally relevant material to students to ensure academic success. He emphasizes how critical it is to help students make connections with their own personal experiences to build bridges into other content.