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This page provides a set of descriptions that detail the characteristics of quality student work regardless of content area. Teachers could use this in the PLCs as a gauge to evaluate student work. For students in middle school, high school and college, teachers could share these with students to help them achieve high quality work.

"This protocol is inclusive of all students and promotes collaboration and shared understanding as students either guess or share important words or concepts with their classmates in an interactive way."

Quiz Quiz trade is a great resource that fully involves students. Students are highly engaged in the reading and answering of questions with their classmates. This fits into my SMART goal of getting students to recognize their musical notes and forms because they can practice quizzing each other on different types of notes and songs.

"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.

(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

Week 8- Article posted by Concordia Online Education in Teaching Strategies and shares 4 effective learning models (hands-on learning, collaborative projects, experiential learning, and direct instruction) that educators can use when engaging their students. Not only does the article define what these 4 models are and why they are important, it also provides examples of how these 4 models have been used in the classroom.

Week 8- Fifteen years later, this article investigates recommendations provided by the National Research Council's seminal report:Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. The article discusses which of these recommendations have been implemented in U.S classrooms over the past 15 years and which strategies have been avoided. The authors then share more recent research studies sharing strategies that may help teachers improve primary-grade reading. Authors: Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block

The article provides valuable insight into the impact that vocabulary instruction can have on reading comprehension. It is also noted that because reading instructional has changed over the years this too has contributed to comprehension and vocabulary development. It appears that the approach to reading instruction needs to be revisited to determine which strategies works the most effectively.

I loved this article. My school is currently focusing on Academic Language in our School Improvement Plan, we are also an IB school where students are to use Academic Language more often. I'm glad to see that many of our commonly used words are included in this list. I also love how they go through the examples of how to teach a new word. In middle school I feel these higher level vocabulary words are used more often than in primary ages.

Author Rebecca Alber shares six scaffolding strategies designed to provide successful learning experiences for our students. Teachers can use these to support our diverse learners.

(Week 7: Michele, Ericka and Spencer) This article is accessible through the link --> https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber. This article focuses on a learning technique called scaffolding. Used as a precursor to differentiated instruction (DI), scaffolding involves chunking the lesson into parts so a higher level of emphasis can be placed on information the teacher desires the students to learn. In the article, the author, Rebecca Alber, provides the reader with 6 strategies to use in their lessons that can incorporate the learning tool scaffolding. To determine the scaffolding strategy, the author emphasizes the use of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). "The ZPD is the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning that they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance." Some scaffolding strategies include pre-teaching vocabulary, fishbowl and use of visual aids. Teachers can use scaffolding in class to help encourage higher level thinking which allow students to better understand the information and skills learned in class. Additionally, teachers who do not have the resources to DI (space, time, additional teacher support) can use scaffolding strategies to aid in meeting the educational needs of all their students. Although one strategy does not work, the author emphasizes the importance of trying other. Reference: Alber, R. (2011). 6 scaffolding strategies to use with your students. Retrieved on October 23, 2018 from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber EDTC615 Fall2018

This article includes example-based insights and techniques for using student performance data when talking to parents about their children.

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.

Written by a kid, this website provides information about space for elementary age students in kid-friendly language. This site would be useful as one of several sources for elementary research about space. I like the design of the site, the large font size, and that the information is broken into bullets within each topic. I do not like that the site has ads, but there are not as many as on some other "kid" sites.

Julia, This is a great site. It works well with your scavenger hunt and it has a lot of information. Thanks for sharing a site I will use in my own classroom.

This is an online platform for educators and students with the technology to create GLOGS - online multimedia posters - with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more. This would allow students to display knowledge and skills to create multimedia projects. It allows students to use animations, web cams, audio, attachments and blogs in the creation of their projects. It also has a feature that allows students to share their work with particular individuals or social networks. A subscription to this tool is as cheap as $10 for a whole year. They have other levels for pricing as well.

I have used superteachertools.com as a way to create seating charts, random calling of students and create groups. This website is free and easy to use. Teachers just need to input the names of their students in each class before they can use the tools.

This looks great! It will definitely make creating games MUCH easier! Bookmarking to my school laptop right now!!

This DOES look great, thanks for sharing. It is a pity that so much is flash so you can't use it on iPads. Am going to explore this as it looks like it will help and save time.

The Teaching Channel is "a thriving online community where teachers can watch, share, and learn diverse techniques to help every student grow." This module includes videos and handouts that you can view on your own or present to others. Objectives are to "develop an understanding of how to use multiple data sources, analyze data to trace the causes of low achievement and find solutions, and articulate how to support teachers' use of data to improve instruction."

Numerous innovations in the education technology space are beginning to show potential in improving education and helping address skills gaps. Some of these advancements include Khan academy and Read 180 (self paced instruction for students). Professional development of digital resources is imperative to help close instructional gaps. EDTC 615 - instructional gap solutions

I love that this resource provides multiple examples of tools that we can use within our instruction. The categorization of each example also provides a clear explanation of how it can be incorporated. I think that one important point that was discussed within this page was how students can develop 21st Century Skills through implementing these tools. As 21st Century Skills are becoming a major focus in instruction, this shows how it can be addressed.

This was a great tool that shared tons of tools that teachers can use in our instruction. Some really great resources I have found to use were Khan Academy, Google Apps for Education, and One Note. This article has a lot of great visuals to help understand more about how we, as educators, can use technology to help close the skills gaps.

This site supported by the American Federation of Teachers and TES offers free preK-12 lesson plans and resources for many subjects, including physical education and world languages. Resources are rated by teachers and you can search by content area, most popular and more. Teachers can add this to their arsenal of teaching activities and lessons when work on improving their curriculum, particularly those using a data action plan model, such as in our EDTC 615 course.

This free resource has lesson plans and professional development articles. I found the article on differentiating addition and subtraction lessons using technology very helpful. This resource has many activities and lessons that will assist with improving curriculum.

Wiggio is a great resource for collaboration within groups. The site allows users to post important dates within a shared calendar, use to do lists and assign specific tasks to group members and my favorite of all, send text/voice messages to remind group members of important info.

Schooltube is a videosharing site for teachers and students all over the United States. It can be used to locate and share video content for all grade levels.

If you copy/paste youtube links into a search box, it creates an ad-free/comment-free link that you can save to access a youtube video for your class. It also eliminates the "suggested videos" that pop up at the end of each video.