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While a bit long (10 pages, including the reference list), this article provides ideas and strategies to help students with learning differences (LD) be more successful in Spanish classrooms. It references recent brain research and also reminds readers that students with LD do not have diminished intellectual capacity. The first part of the article gives background on LD, latter sections give suggestions about things Spanish teachers can do to help their students with LD be more successful in their classes.

(Week 8: Margarita, Erika, Frances) Article originally posted in Diigo. An additional source is here: http://www.academypublication.com/ojs/index.php/tpls/article/view/tpls0502225234/64 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. In some schools, special education students are often pulled from language classes to get reading support, so implementing strategies that might keep the students in language class are of interest to the Spanish teachers. While several of the 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. Reference Tolbert, J. B., Killu, K., & Lazarus, B. D. (2015). A framework for supporting students with learning disabilities in Spanish courses: connecting learning characteristics and instructional methods. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(2), 225-234. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0502.01

(I tried to edit my previous comment with some corrected info, but the changes wouldn't stick, so I am just reposting again) (Week 8: Margarita, Erika, Frances) The original link for this article was to a standalone PDF link. An additional source is here: http://www.academypublication.com/ojs/index.php/tpls/article/view/tpls0502225234/64 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 gr

This is a website that lets teacher find lesson plans that link math and the real world. Some lesson plans are free and others you need to pay for. This is great for high school teachers because the lessons have a heavy econ focus and most students like learning about and working with money.

This blog post explains the way to close the achievement gap in a mathematics classroom. The article touches upon stereotypes and ethnic and racial disparities, and other ways for educators to close the gap for their mathematics students.

Wow, what an interesting article! I'd never really considered racial inequality in math instruction before, but after reading the article, something to consider. One of the suggestions was to remove homework from math instruction due to some studetns unstable living situations. This makes sense and I think as teachers we often forget what some of our students are dealing with at home.

I really liked this article and the ideas in it. I try to celebrate the mistakes in my classroom, using them as a lesson within a lesson. I understand the point about homework, however I will continue to give my students homework. We are supposed to be preparing them for college. I don't remember one college class where most of my grade didn't come from work outside of class.

This article shows the success a group of schools have in teaching instruction when there is a purposeful, intimate focus on individual teachers. When teachers are given proper tools, instruction, and guidance, they will succeed in instructing students and therefore a greater percentage of students will have a better understanding of what is being taught.

Focused teacher development is needed to achieve student success! This is 100% true and this article talks about this in a great way. Great find!

I found this article helpful in the importance of providing individualized professional development to teachers so they are able to grow their practice around targeted skills students need to master.

With Pear Deck, educators are able to upload and create slideshows that allow students to follow along and interact on their electronic device. Within the slideshow educators can ask various question types and get student responses in real time. Educators can also get student feedback during a slideshow.

This article describes a model for teachers to employ when training students with disabilities to self-advocate on a day-to-day basis, thereby supporting students' ability to obtain needed accommodations while also engaging school contexts with a positive sense of self-directedness, agency, and efficacy.

This article provides detailed background information regarding explicit writing instruction, especially regarding students with special needs such as ADHD, but the strategies discussed can be adapted and used with all learners regardless of ability or grade level. The article begins with a focus on strategies for providing students with motivational contexts for their writing as well as making writing a routine that they enjoy. The rest of the article is divided into sections based on students' ability/age level (basic skills, revising and editing, and motivation). This article discusses strategies that can help address teachers address students' learning gaps in elaboration and explaining their ideas fully in expository writing tasks. Be sure to click "Single Page" at the bottom right of the article so you can see the entire article on one screen, and explore the links to the left of the article for more information about writing instruction for different populations!

This article discusses the effects of learning targets on all people in the school - students, teachers, principals and central-office administrators. It goes on to describe ways to create an effective learning target and the actions necessary order to do so. Furthermore, it outlines the process of learning targets. Effective learning targets are able to help close the achievement gap!

This guide offers five recommendations to help educators effectively use data to monitor students' academic progress and evaluate instructional practices.

I like how this article breaks down five different recommendations and makes it easy for the reader to explore what they choose without overwhelming them. I will be bookmarking this!

My school does not use data for instructional purposes. This is a great guide for us to use in order to start collecting and using data for instructional purposes.

Additional information about milestones and K-12 math curriculum is available on The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Web site. NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics outlines grade-by-grade recommendations for classroom mathematics instruction for both content matter and process.

This article from The Language Educator discusses how to differentiate instruction in the language classroom through the use of stations, complex instruction, orbital studies, centers, and tiered activities. The article showcases the success of differentiating instruction at a German immersion school and and a district-wide implementation of differentiated. Included are addresses to challenges with differentiating instruction in the language classroom.

Great article about how different states and communities reduced the achievement gap. It mentions Maryland, and states that MD provides extra instruction for students who are not on track to pass the High School Assessment. But I think it would be a lot more useful to provide extra instruction at lower grades to reduce the achievement gap early on.

This article talks about seeing all students as part of your classroom. I personally like how it lists things to think about when instructing students. Although some will think these are no brainers, its always good to reflect on yourself as an educator. Especially when it comes to students with IEPs and 504s. I also liked how it reminds educators to reflect on the whole student and think about forces outside the school that greatly affect the students performance in the classroom.

In an 11th-grade English class at Pittsfield Middle High School in rural New Hampshire, Jenny Wellington's students were gathered in a circle debating Henry David Thoreau's positions on personal responsibility. "Do you think Thoreau really was about 'every man for himself'?" asked one 16-year-old boy.

This article is very timely it talks about the NCLB law and how it isn't working. Threats to teachers firing, closing schools and students still continue to decline. Standardized testing isn't working. This is a great article, must read.

Using student achievement

Diigo's default comment: LearnZillion is the world's first open, cloud-based curriculum. We help teachers, schools, and districts improve instruction and respond to the specific needs of their students. My comments: Learn zillion provides a large bank of instructional videos and resources that align to the Common Core. The lessons are designed for teachers or students. I often show bits and pieces of certain videos to my students during our ELA or Math block. Occasionally I will just use a Learnzillion video for myself as a refresher on strategies for teaching a specific standard. This resource can help identify and eliminate instructional gaps in the classroom. Teachers can even log in and assign their students specific videos or just share a link.

The abstract included really says it all: "This reflective essay describes a teacher's development of a student-centered approach to teaching which bridges the gap between students' knowledge before and after a course. In 'mind the gap teaching,' students' prior knowledge leads the conversation and, in turn, the teaching, allowing them to integrate new information more effectively." The essay does a really great job of addressing the need for a lot of personal reflection as a teacher in an effort to improve instruction in the classroom.

I think this is a great article that shows the growth of a teacher throughout the years. The idea of calling the instructional gap between students knowledge as "mind the gap" speaks to the history nerd in me. I'd love to share this teachers journey with my fellow faculty members because we are making the switch in my school to a more student centered classroom, and we have a lot of skeptics. I think the section of benefits is the best, particularly the line about "the quality of comments" that students started sharing. It shows that the students are interested in what is going on in the classroom.

This article is a way to focus on student knowledge. Closing the gap between what is being taught and what is actually being retained by the students.

This article discusses the need for implementation of student-involved classroom assessment to aid in closing the achievement gap. The authors discuss how motivation occurs at both ends of the spectrum for learners; high achieving learners are motivated by their continued success while low achieving learners are motivated to give up as they have had few to little successful experiences in the classroom. The article goes on to discuss three methods of embedding students into the learning process that will prove to help them take ownership of their learning experience. The first is student involved classroom assessment. This tool allows students, "under the careful management of their teachers," to give input into how they will be assessed in the classroom. The second is student-involved record keeping. Here students are responsible for tracking their progress, allowing them to see and take charge of their personal growth in the classroom. Finally, student-involved communication is discussed. Students have the opportunity to advocate for themselves in setting such as parent/teacher conferences. The article also discusses four conditions that are necessary, in the opinion of the authors, to assist in closing the achievement gap.

I enjoyed this article, Jason, especially the premise that essentially enforcing the idea that students are underachieving as a whole by a set of arbitrary test scores can, consequently in some empirical cases, produce negative self-fulfilling prophecies in students' beliefs. This promotion of subconscious failing, if replicated and shown to be universally significant, holds dramatic implications. Looking back on my own experiences, Jason, I can remember the pride that I constantly felt in elementary school because we were known to be the leaders in our county; conversely though, if that were not the cause, I think it would be fair to conjecture that a pall of hopelessness may have replaced my academic banner of proverbial pride and high morale.