Group items tagged

Document is http://www.fcrr.org/assessment/pdf/smallGroupAlternativeLessonStructures.pdf Article discusses Differentiated Reading Instruction:Small Group Alternative Lesson Structures for All Students, from the Florida Center for Reading Research. Related to elementary reading instruction.

Videos: EL Education provides a variety of educational resources for teachers across the world. This bookmarked section includes videos of teachers and students engaged in a variety of strategies for learning. One or more of these videos could be helpful as a strategy to include in your data action plan.

A great educational site with video and resources for teacher to help enhance teaching and learning across difference disciplines.

EDTC615 Fall2018 Group 6 Dimension: Student Engagement. The video EL Education- Policing in America: Using Powerful Topics and Tasks to Challenge, Engage, and Empower Students. Student Engagement. My SMART Learning goal is that "The percentage of students who will score 90% will increase by 80%. This means that 80% of the students will score 90%.". The dimension is Student Engagement. The video is appropriate for grade 9-12 and it covers social studies literacy. Moreover, the video provides strategies that educators can employ to challenge, engage and empower students. This is done by introducing students to topics that affect them every day. This is a good instructional tactics that can be employed by my team. During our review, we realized the important of student's engagement and team work to learning and understating the topics in the assessment data that we reviewed. Having students work in groups and on projects goes a long way to improve collaboration, team building and learning among students. In addition, students were given complex topics to explore and they were introduced to research paper. Educators can use the protocol to determine the level of engagements, design innovative curriculum and instructions, and increase students strategic reasoning skills. For instance, we may use some assessment tool like quizlet live to build collaborative learning and engagement among students. Student can become innovative through learning from the real-world related concepts or hands-on activities. The protocol can serve as blue print in this regard. EDTC615 Fall2018

Implementation Week 2 - Chris, Elijah, Noelle, Angela "Analyzing Differentiation in the Classroom: Using the COS-R" (available via UMUC Library): Citation: VanTassel-Baska, J. (2012). Analyzing Differentiation in the Classroom: Using the COS-R. Gifted Child Today, 35(1), 42-48. doi:10.1177/1076217511427431 This article discusses the use of the "Classroom Observation Scale-Revised" or COS-R. The COS-R is a tool intended for the use of observing and evaluating teachers in a more meaningful way. The COS-R assesses the teacher in a performance-based manner similar to performance-based assessments used for students. The goal of using this tool is to highlight "...the use of strategies that promote student learning and growth, especially in the area of higher order thinking, problem solving, and metacognition." This article was useful as one of our practicing teachers is an AP teacher and often needs to differentiate lesson planning for students of various high achievement levels. Other practicing teachers within our group expressed, much in the same manner as teachers referenced in the article, that many pedagogical tactics are not covered during teacher preparation programs, and there is a lack of strong feedback / recommendation of strategies that help increase teacher knowledge of differentiating instruction for various student populations.

WEEK 7 - Chris Baugher, Patricia Bankins and Alison Burns - First reading. "This paper investigates how pre-service teacher education can provide a strong literacy foundation for content area teachers. Pre-service teachers emphasized their growing awareness of how literacy strategies can enhance student learning in their specific subject areas." (Orr, Kukner and Timmons, 2014)

This article gives an interesting insight to content area literacy and infusing literacy into science and math classes. I was particularly interested in the different ways the sample teachers incorporate literacy strategies into their teaching. They talk of expanding notions of what learning and assessment can look like in science and math. Teachers must have a solid content knowledge themselves to be able to express "the most useful forms of representation of those [topics to be taught in the subject area and] ideas, the most powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations, and demonstrations-in a word, the ways of representing and formulating the subject that make it comprehensible to others. (Schulman, 1986, p. 9)

The article supports this week's activity and Willigham's video on content knowledge improving reading skill. The first section in 'content area literacy" says it all: "Content area literacy is the ability to acquire understandings of, and think critically about, new content in a discipline using reading, writing and multiple other forms..." (Draper, 2002; Heller & Greenleaf, 2007; Kane, 2011; McKenna & Robinson, 1990) The article as a whole supports and builds upon the importance of not only literacy but also what assessments could look like and what they should reflect. Lastly, "[b]ecause literacy is important in all subject areas, content area teachers can plat a significant role in their students' literacy development" (Alger, 2007, 2009; Draper, 2002; Lind, 2008, Heller & Greenleaf, 2007). Before students can learn the material, we as teachers must become familiar and competent enough in the content to not only explain the ideas but to show them and relate them to the students' lives and prior knowledge.

Week 8: Partner: Cecile Droz This article discusses a new way to give student's warm-up exercises. Instead of having them complete them at the beginning of class, the students will complete the warm ups up to 3 days before they are due. The warm-ups will prepare the students for the upcoming week of assignments. The best type of warm-up assignments give the students a scenario that they are familiar with. It is important for the educator to determine if there are any misconceptions by looking at the warm-ups to determine what concepts need to be addressed again.

Although not everything described in this article applies necessarily to all subjects, the idea that teachers need to be more aware of the prior knowledge students have before they present new materials is very interesting. In second language, for example teachers use students' oral and written productions to assess their command of grammar but before any cultural or historical unit, it would make sense to address prior knowledge and rectify what needs to be rectified before introducing new ideas/material.

The use of warm-ups as a combination of extension, priming, and pre-assessment is novel. This gives students time and mental space to make a prediction and then bring it to class, prepared and ready to learn. I will definitely be employing this in a class I am designing next year.

Week 9: Eli, Angela, Noelle and Chris This journal article is accessible given above through the UMUC library. The focus of this article discusses how observations can be used as an assessment tool for teachers when dealing with differentiation. The study specifically highlights differentiation in a high level G/T classroom and provides different observation tools that teachers can use to self assess. This article is useful to our team as although not all of us teach high level students, it made us think critically about the observation process of each of our schools. We realized the importance of observations when they are used correctly, where the observer gives constructive criticism in order to improve teaching strategies. Also the differentiation aspect of the article suggests proven strategies to use when contemplating differentiation, which are good examples for us who need more differentiation in our classes. References VanTassel-Baska, J. (2012). Analyzing Differentiation in the Classroom: Using the COS-R. Gifted Child Today, 35(1), 42-48. doi:10.1177/1076217511427431

"The Think-Pair-Share protocol is a simple way for all students to get a chance to think, talk, and learn from others. "

Think-pair-share is a great way to get students talking about information that is being taught. This is a great way to help students think about the topic that is being taught from a peer's point of view. Dimension: Student learning Rating: 2 This would work towards my fellow teammate's SMART goal,"By the end of quarter 1, 60% of students will score a 70% or higher on the Quarter 1 Literacy Assessment. This allows students to talk about what they are understanding about theme and gain new understandings.

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. (Heather's goal) Dimension: Impact on Learning Impact: 4 Reason: Think-Pair-Share is a strategy where students have a discussion with a partner to solve a problem or answer a question posed by their teacher. After which, the students individually share their ideas/solutions with the entire class. I believe that this strategy will be useful in Heather's attempt in eliminating the reading comprehension gap in her class because asking varying levels of question encourages students to discuss new ideas that deepen their understanding. This strategy will also give Heather the opportunity to assess student understanding by monitoring their discussions. It also has the bonus factor of stimulating student engagement

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.

It is impressive to watch critical thought happen in a classroom. Through this link you are able to watch a lesson that helps students build higher order thinking skills. This middle school literature lesson brings in the ELA Common Core by teaching how to analyze how a section in text fits into the overall theme and to cite textual evidence to support analysis of text. Through student-driven questioning, the entire class is engaged in critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation. This outstanding lesson was driven by the teacher as she required them to develop higher-level questions using Costa's question levels, verb starters, and Blooms Taxonomy. I have not used this technique of providing these questioning terms to my students to have the them develop the questions. I cannot wait to try this out next school year!

This video from the Teaching Chanel highlights ways and the importance of creating higher order questions in order to analyze and discuss a text. This would be a great resource for my Smart Goal of With my SMART goal: by the end of quarter 1, 60% of students will score a 70% or higher on the Quarter 1 Literacy Assessment. The Quarter 1 literacy assessment is on theme, standard RL 4.2. Having my students become "the teachers" of their own learning and create higher level questions can help them get a deeper understanding of the text and in turn, determine the theme.

Dimension: Impact on Learning Rating: 3- Medium-high impact SMART Goals: By the end of the unit, 50% of students will score 70% or higher on the assessment. By the end of the quarter, 80% of students will obtain a 60% or higher in Algebra 1 By the of Unit 5, 80% of students will score at least 70% on the end of unit assessment In this activity, students take a gallery walk to view the multiple ways of solving a math problem and representing their math thinking. This type of activity allows for students to display their work in a non-threatening way. The students will be checking their understanding and learning other solutions for a given math problem. This activity could also meet the Math and Social Studies goals of my group because gallery walks can foster discussions where students explain their thinking and teach each other in the process.

Week 9: Margarita Lugo, Erika Eason, Frances Parker This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library Description: This article takes a closer look the the kinds of accommodations in place for students with learning disabilities in math, science and world language class. Even though these accommodations are created and determined by learning and special education specialists, there is little research existing about which accommodations are recommended and effective for math, science, and world language courses. The author chose to focus on accommodations in these courses because of the lack of research of the effectiveness of accommodations in these courses as well as the documented struggle for students with learning disabilities in these courses. Smart goal: Our SMART goal is that "By the end of the numbers unit, 60% of students in the Special Education program in MS Spanish 1A - Period 2 will achieve 80% or higher on each formative assessment including listening, speaking and writing assessments". This article can help me achieve this goal by giving me new insight on the documented effectiveness of accommodations in the world language classroom. Framing Question: What kinds of accommodations would be most effective in the world language classroom? Which accommodations have been proved to be the most effective in the world language classroom? Citation: Ofiesh, N. S. (2007). Math, science, and foreign language: evidence-based accommodation decision making at the postsecondary level. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 22(4), 237-245.

Group 3: Erika Eason, Margarita Lugo, Frances Parker Week 8: This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. Description: Students with learning disabilities commonly either avoided or have been discouraged from taking World Language classes. This article describes "multi-sensory approaches" and the kind of instructional strategies, informed by brain-based research, that can help students with learning disabilities succeed in learning Spanish or another second language. The article focuses on how to create meaningful inclusion and skill building in Spanish courses through general accommodations, existing resources, and learning strategies. The article also references the relative lack of scholarly research on this topic and how that negatively impacts wider knowledge of ways to help students with learning disabilities learn a foreign language. This article was of interest to our group because the SMART goal is directly tied to improving the performance of special education students in Spanish class. The goal of the world languages department is for every student to learn one of the languages taught, yet that is not always possible since special education students who are not meeting the reading goals are frequently pulled from language classes to get reading support. Implementing strategies and other instructional moves that might keep the students in language class, are of interest to the teachers. While several of the multisensory strategies discussed were already known, there were a couple that reinforced practices that have already been implemented as a result of our group's data action plan and at least one new idea that our practicing teacher would like to try. This article would be particularly useful for Spanish teachers who are learning to differentiate their instruction and assessment for the first time and who need ideas about how to involve more Citation: Tolbert, J. B.,

The following article is a great argument for the importance of informing students on their educational data. It discusses the trend in teachers and administrators having all the numbers and students are the outsiders. The article argues that real gains can not be made unless students are analyzing their data and scores, then using that to set goals.

"When students themselves identify, analyze, and use data from their learning, they become active agents in their own growth. They set personal goals informed by data they understand, and they own those goals. The framework of student-engaged assessment provides a range of opportunities to involve students in using data to improve their learning. "

Week 7 This reading is discussing the use of rewards in teaching and education. It discusses the effects on motivation and if the behavior being rewarded will continue if the reward is removed. Depending on how you interpret this article, you can use rewards in the most effective way to change the targeted behavior or remind yourself that that you can aid students in discovering self motivation by rewarding them with praise.

Teachers often offer rewards for good work, but Willingham speaks of their potential dangers. Rewards must be used with care, only if necessary, for a specific reason, not as a constant. In an attempt to encourage desired behaviors, they could produce the opposite effect if an expected reward is outside of reach. Rewarding a student for the act of producing rather than for producing a quality product, can also lead to lack of motivation and interest in learning. The system can also backfire is the offered incentive is not a desired reward. Though it seems intuitive and effective short term to offer rewards, this article presents some great points for the thoughtful educator in pointing out that rewards can be used effectively, but may also be more trouble than they are worth.

I like the idea presented in the article that grades can be construed as rewards for students. At first I sort of rolled my eyes (internally) at the idea, but the way the article described rewards actually made it meaningful to me. The article says that rewards (when used) should be "Desirable, Certain, and Prompt" to be effective. For grades to motivate students, they should be desirable (i.e. the intrinsic reward of good grades should already be ingrained), the grades need to be Certain (that is, the students need to have clear ideas of what it takes to earn an "A" or "B" etc) and must be Prompt (students tend to fail to see the correlation between effort and grades if they are given feedback on work days or weeks after the assignment is performed). The idea of promptness really stood out to me because contractually, I am required to update grades for students every 2 weeks. I always found that to be woefully inadequate for students to learn from their assessed work. I want students to be able to learn from mistakes they make on their assignments, but often seeing a grade value weeks after the attempt is made is similar to the 'ice cream' example in the article. Having a grade with feedback a day after they make an attempt will make the student feel more 'attached' to that grade and be more likely to fix it. For a graded assignment that was done long ago, students may see it as a more detached product and less likely to care about making corrections.

This article presents the main ideas for planning effective and engaging lessons. It is based on backwards design so that the lessons are based on outcomes rather than just the activities. This article is also based on the DAP model that allows for the fact that students develop at their own pace. There is also a review of helpful lesson planning skills in assessment, direct instruction, differentiating instruction and developing objectives.

There are normally a high number of learning gaps in many classrooms. Learning gaps are defined as the difference between where students are in their learning and where they should be. A gap is frequently caused by an obstacle (something that stands in the way of progress) or misconception (a mistaken thought, idea, or misunderstanding).