Group items tagged

("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.

This study focuses on the stages of literacy development in Kindergarten up to 8th graders. The author states how children's minds do not learn by taking mental pictures or by memorizing but by constructing mental images over time. It also includes resources to engage students in word study at various levels.

This resource explains how children from grades K-8 develop their knowledge of words/vocabulary. It explains how teachers can instruct in a way that meets each learner's needs by expanding from what they already know, adding new content, but not too much where the teacher frustrates the learner. This resource helps with my groups SMART Target Learning goals because it meets everyone's grade level (K-8), and focuses on reading skills.

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 blog post with tips for teaching both advanced and struggling students in the same classroom. This could provide some ideas for our goal of improving AP Bio scores for a sub-group of students in the class.

A 21-page study of Milton Public Schools addressing the achievement gap of special education students.

I find this interesting, considering we never question the tests. Teachers, Schools, Families, and School districts have been trying for years to close achievement gaps, yet the gap remains. I think it is time to stop discussing what we need to do and start looking at standardized tests as inappropriate.

This study suggests that policy makers need to re-examine how they view the educational gaps of students with disabilities, in that they are diverse in the range of disabilities that create these disparaties. Decision making to lessen the gap cannot look at a one size fits all solution when dealing with a heterogeneous sub-group.

(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

For any elementary (or even secondary!) teachers, this is a great site with animated videos for math and science topics. They have tutorials on how to solve different math problems, and explanations on any science topics. You can always pause the video to have discourse when needed.

Abstract: This study investigated teachers' uses of research on the identification and instruction of students at risk for reading disabilities (RD). It identified obstacles to teachers' uses of RD research and methods to bridge RD research and teachers' practices...

This article describes the incorporation of web conferencing in a foreign language classroom with the purpose of improving listening and speaking skills. Although the number of students in the study is small, the authors provide very specific recommendations for the implementation of this technology in the classroom. This technology allows students more time to practice and interact with their L2 since the conferencing can be done outside of the classroom.

Our data group for EDTC 615 is focusing on developing better speaking skills in the Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom. This article describes a structured process for reviewing textbooks to ensure that they provide explicit strategy instruction for listening and speaking. Using this method my group could review the explicit instruction that is currently in use in our classroom and decide if any modifications need to be made to improve student learning.

This article describes an innovative technique for teaching foreign language teaching skills. The researchers used interactive videos and webcams to capture their students responding to video prompts and capturing their responses for future review. The method also allows students to review their responses and create a digital portfolio of their speaking skills.

In this study, researchers are looking at the impact of Math Snacks on student achievement in Mathematics. Nine teachers in 2 districts took part in this research. The results showed that when teachers used Math Snacks and the materials in the program, there was a positive impact on student achievement. However, because of the small sample size, the results cannot be generalized.

You can't have a conversation about education reform without the words "achievement gap" coming in at some point, along with specific plans on how to close it. But are policymakers attempting to close it in an effective way? James Boutin, a veteran high school teacher just south of Seattle, Washington, answers in the following post.

This article offers suggested ways for educational systems to mitigate the achievement gap among minority students. Th author suggest that schools should encourage teachers to engage in instructional practices that specifically accommodate their minority students. The author offers a methodological framework for this approach called Hierarchical Linear Modeling.His study investigated the instructional practices that reduce the achievement gap among the minority population. Findings revealed that even when taking student background into account, various instructional practices can made a significant difference in closing the achievement gap.

This study describes a program designed to increase student achievement in reading. The targeted population consisted of two first grade classes and one second grade class in a small central Illinois community. The median household income was in the lower range.

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 interview provides research that supports an instructional gap based on gender. It mentions how and why girls are outperforming boys academically. The interviewees suggest ways to address the gender gap.

This article definitely examined many factors that could be a cause of an instructional gap, including gender. As I read through the interview, it discussed topics such as "Is it a problem that so few men are teachers? and Is single-sec education a viable strategy for addressing the problem"? My school has discussed creating an all-males 8th grade class, but without seeing proven data that this is in the best interest of the student/school, I don't think I could support this strategy. Great article on gender gaps and how it is effecting our educational system.

Rather interesting article. I work at an all boys school and it is very rewarding to see these young men excel in academics. We also study the male brain and customized our lessons to reach the male brain. Some customization used are brain breaks, water, multimedia and music and many others. Great article