Group items tagged

"Closing the ELL/ESL Achievement Gap with Blended Learning," by Debbie Malone. Type of post: Strategies (in a sort of blog). This is an interesting article about helping ESOL/ELL students. Some important "take-aways," according to the author (regarding the blended learning approach she advocates): "However, one of the most valuable tools provided by online and blended learning programs is their continual checks for understanding, which provide educators with real-time actionable data. This helps teachers gauge whether their ELL/ESL students are keeping up with the rest of the class or whether they need more assistance. Educators can then spend more time working with individual students in areas where they are struggling and prevent problems from snowballing. "But technology can't solve all of the problems associated with the growing achievement gap between ELL/ESL students and native English speakers. Many educators have reported a lack of funding or personal development geared toward addressing the needs of ELL/ESL learners. Technology can, however, be leveraged to personalize the learning experience for these students. "Because the human element of the student-teacher relationship is still a vital classroom component, especially for ELL/ESL students, a blended learning classroom offers an ideal way to cultivate that relationship. Building on that, it may also be the answer to creating a more effective learning environment that lowers the language barrier for educators and increases academic achievement for ELL/ESL students." Great points! As the fictional movie character Borat used to say, "I like." However, I would like to see additional (and empirical) evidence. I do agree with the author on many points, though I would enjoy seeing a research study on this. Malone, D. (2014, November 12). Closing the ELL/ESL Achievement Gap with Blended Learning. Retrieved from https://blog.edgenuity.com/closing-the-ellesl-achievement-gap-through

(Week 7: Adiatu, Julie, and Heather) This journal article was found by Adiatu on the UMUC Library, and is accessible through the link given above by accessing ERIC. The journal article is based on a study of 132 fourth-graders, and focused on examining the relationship(s) that exists among sustainable attention, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. According to authors Yildiz & Çetinkaya, "Sustainable attention is the type of attention that provides the ability to focus on a task for a long time. It is required to analyze the sentences in reading material and to utilize them actively at different times" ( 2017). The study results showed that students that lacked sustainable attention had poorer reading speed, comprehension, and word recognition. This journal article is useful to teachers because it provides information on useful activities teachers can arrange to increase the attention levels of students. For example, the authors of the journal suggest that teachers record their students' oral readings and play it back for them. This journal article is useful to our group because the teachers' artifacts are based on the reading comprehension and vocabulary gaps of their students, and the authors stress that teachers should strictly monitor the oral reading skills of students that are having reading comprehension difficulties. Reference: Mustafa Yildiz , Ezgi Çetinkaya (2017). The relationship between good readers' attention, reading fluency and reading comprehension. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5, 366 - 371. doi: 10.13189/ujer.2017.050309., Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2017. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1134476

This article is a resource for teaching content area vocabulary.

An informative and engaging article that provides eight solutions to tackling the achievement gap.  It is well organized and written with clear reasoning for each solution.

I really enjoyed this article. As a new instructor I am constantly looking to engage my adult students. Through my instruction, making that personal connection is so important. Once you make that personal connection I find that students start making a personal connection with their assignments as well. I find having a non-academic conversation at the beginning of class can help the students feel involved classroom citizens.

This article really gives great advice on how teachers can help close the achievement gap by changing small things they do in the classroom. The two things that stuck out to me was allowing more time and progress monitoring. Sometimes time is all a student needs to succeed. When students feel rushed they end up just picking whatever answer they think is right or just something to complete the assignment. Allowing students to return to their unfinished work could really help students concentrate knowing that they don't have to rush to finish an assignment. As far as progress monitoring goes, it helps when the teacher really cares about making sure the students are on the right track and that their parents are aware of the work they have completed or would need to complete to get them on track.

This article describes the need to address the cultural gap that exists in our society. The author focuses on a first grade teacher, Lauren Mead, in Kirkland Washington and her journey to connect with her students on a deeper level. The article goes on to highlight sentiments from other educators about cultural awareness. The remarks of one teacher were very profound: "First and foremost, let your students know that their lived experiences are valid and valued. They have every right to hold on to who they are, what they know, and what they live, even if sometimes they have to stop and work through differences," he says. "But you also have to show them how to navigate our school culture so they can succeed." Understanding that more than achievement gaps exists in our classrooms will help educators engage students and begin to see progress in closing the learning and instructional gaps that are present.

Wow, very interesting article. I agree with the article in that it is important to value your student's diversity. I have a melting pot of students in my class and I am trying to get to know each family on a deeper level. This will allow me to make connections with this student and hopefully understand any barriers that may be relevant to their learning.

Instructional and Learning Gaps aren't always attributable to pedagogy or technology. I find it's more often the teacher-student relationship.

Week 7: This is a journal article based on reading behaviors, which emphasizes Daniel Willingham's arguments in the importance of building content knowledge. In reference to that, this journal discusses the effect background knowledge plays on comprehension of texts read. "The present study was designed to assess the role that background knowledge plays in determining young children's ability to process relationships that are explicitly and fully specified in a text in comparison to those that are only partially specified by the same text" (Pearson, 1979, pg. 201). This journal article stresses the relationship and connection that is made between texts and the reader based on background knowledge that has been built. This gives a great lens to see the effect of building such knowledge and seeing the benefits of it play out on the students.

Canadian and American business communities must work harder than ever to protect and enhance their USD 627.8 billion trade relationship.

How teachers are raising scores and student achievement by setting high expectations, frequent assessment and getting parents and families involved.

I really like the points that this article identifies in how teachers are closing the achievement gap. The main strategies that they are using are clearly helping students with their learning and understanding of the instruction. It is important to set high expectations for all students and to help students develop confidence in their learning. Through frequent assessment, we are able to monitor student growth and progress to identify what works for them and what needs to be improved. Parent involvement is also vital. Currently in my classroom, it is clear to me which parents are involved in their child's learning as it correlates to their child's performance. There needs to be a clear relationship and consistency between the two to maximize student success.

I found this article to be very intriguing, because although it makes the common claim that increased school attendance will result in higher GPA, it also describes how another variable, a student's distance living away from school, affects their attendance rate. According to this study, there is a statistically significant effect of the farther away one lives from school, the greater their absences will be. This is something I want to investigate further once I return to school and can see where some of my historically truant students are traveling from each day.

This artifact is a student handout of Bloom's Taxonomy for Science and Math. This table gives examples of different levels of questioning: Recalling information, understanding meaning, using learning in a new situation, ability to see parts and relationships, parts of information to create new whole, and judgement based on criteria.

WEEK 4, Name: Julie - 2ND Grade Teacher SMART Goal: At least 80% of students in grade two will be reading level K books or above by the end of 6 weeks. SUMMARY: This article focuses on reading instruction, and discusses why it is important for parents and educators to familiarize ourselves with what scientific-based research tells us about teaching reading comprehension. The topics covered in the article includes scientific research on phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, fluency instruction, vocabulary instruction, and text comprehension instruction. The article determines that there is not a one size fits all solution in reading comprehension intervention. For instance, the article states that students that have underlying decoding or fluency weaknesses would most likely also need instruction in vocabulary and comprehension strategies.

SMART Goal: Given one month, students in below grade level reading groups will be able to increase their reading level by at least one level. This resource is useful for teachers looking to improve the reading abilities of young students. When discussing phonics instruction, this article aides educators in articulating the significant relationship between letters of written language and sounds of spoken language to developing readers. In addition to addressing the fundamentals of phonics, this resource offers methods for fluency instruction, such as repeated oral reading.

"A word wall in the classroom is a powerful instructional tool to strengthen content vocabulary or concepts. A word wall can be an organized collection of words (and sometimes phrases) displayed on a wall or other space in the classroom."

Watching this video gave me a great idea for one of my group members Spencer who teaches ESOL students who struggle with verbal/conversational skills and written/language skills. 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. With this strategy students can build vocabulary skills by word connections and possible interactions with one another to help strengthen each others vocabulary skills often times with the teacher being the facilitator of instruction not the lead in the instruction.

Watching this video gave me ideas on supporting my students. Word Walls are important supports for students in the classroom. They help students solidify their thinking process and content knowledge. Students in this video did the thinking required. This is also important as students tend to rely on teacher lead information. Our SMART goal is that 75% of students will increase their informational text reading comprehension by one grade level. The word wall in this video is a great strategy to make connections with my students.

This article discusses academic vocabulary and how it can have an impact on the achievement gap.

This article discusses the relationship between achievement gaps and literacy gaps. As many students enter high school with low literacy skills, they become frustrated and struggle with the vocabulary needed to excel in math, science, social studies and other classes. As teachers, we need to help students to build the vocabulary needed to excel in all subject areas.

This article focuses on a potential root cause for the achievement gap, which the authors identified as the language and literacy gap. When students lack the language necessary to access the material in math, science, or other specialized classes; it can be difficult or overwhelming to try to bridge that gap in the classroom. Teachers need to do a better job of incorporating and explicitly teaching the academic language needed to be successful in the subject area in question. The process can start more general before leading to content specific "jargon," but the important thing is to expose students to the language frequently.

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.

Classroom management is a huge factor in closing the achievement gap. If there is no classroom management then the students will not be able to learn in the classroom. Students need their basic needs met in order to succeed in school, which includes having a teacher that gives them their full undivided attention and respect, and wants to build a relationship with them.

("Week 8" Group Members: Beth and Ruchel) The article explores a study conducted to see the patterns of within-group variability in the emergent literacy skills of preschoolers who are at risk for academic difficulties. The study can be used as a helpful resource to determine the relationships between early patterns of literacy performance and later reading achievement.