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This is an article about the RTI program and how students who are English Language Learners can benefit from using certain strategies and what areas they might struggle in. Teachers could use this resource as a guide to how to implement their own interventions for their students.

This website gives a good overview of what RTI is, as well as a background and makeup of ESOL learners in the United States. The article also provides teachers with strategies on how to teach certain skills to ESOL students, such as using a table that includes a picture and the word in both English and Spanish. As a user of RTI at my own school, I have seen the positive effects of this tool.

(Week 8: Michele, Ericka and Spencer) This article was retrieved using a search on Diigo. It can be accessed using this link http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/response-to-intervention-implications-for-spanish-speaking-english-language-learners In the article, Elsa Hagan provides the reader with insight into ways ELA teachers can improve reading levels of their Spanish-Speaking ELL students. Currently, there is a 29% gap in reading level with Spanish-Speaking ELL students when compared to other ELL students. To help bridge the gap, strategies need to be utilized. One involves the use of Response-to-Intervention (RTI) model to aid in monitoring the individual progress of all ELL students with an extra emphasis placed on the Spanish-Speaking students in the program. This will involve continuous monitoring of the Spanish-Speaking ELL students to ensure they are receiving the appropriate intervention strategies for their current level. Along with using RTI, the author indicates that a Phonological Awareness is needed. By aiding the ELL students ability to "process and manipulate" the sounds of the English language, their ability to read and comprehend information in English will improve. While this article was intended more for ESOL course teachers, the information provided can be utilized with all educators who have an ELL student in their class. The article identified that the Spanish language only has approximately 22 sounds where the English language has double the number of sounds. To aid in the improvement of reading in ELL students, we as non-ESOL class teachers, can exchange text that will be a lower reading level but still mean the same. Reference: Hagan, E. (2010) Response to intervention: implications for spanish-speaking english language learners. Retrieved on October 30, 2018 from http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/response-to-intervention-implications-for-spanish- speaking-english-language-learn

One of the biggest pushes in education today is letting students take control of tracking their own data and setting their own goals. To many teachers this task may be overwhelming and leave you trying to figure out the easiest way to implement this in your classroom.

(Week 9: Sarah, Mary and Jessica) This article is accessible through the link provided above. The main focus of this article is the importance of setting goals in the classroom. The teacher who wrote this article wanted to take her students' portfolios and turn them into a student data folder. Within the data folder there are "long term goals (the entire school year), short term goals (monthly, quarterly, weekly), goal reflections, and tracking charts (bar graphs, tables, charts, etc.)" (Harpole, 2013-2015). According to Harpole (2013-2015), "Each assessment would be based on the text we were reading that week in class. It contained four multiple choice questions with an answer justification required and a constructed response question. Students would take their weekly assessments on Friday. During the first ten minutes of class on Mondays, we would pass out data folders and students would record their scores." This allows students to set goals based on their score. Her research did show that the students were focused more on the number grade than any other grade. In turn, "My students set goals during Quarter Four that did not contain letter grades or words like "basic" and "unsatisfactory"( Harpole, 2013-2015). This implementation was very successful in her classroom. The article shows the process that Harpole took to improve her student's data folder. It took her a lot of time to perfect it in order to be able to share with other teachers. This article is a great lesson for all teachers. Every teacher wants to show data in their own way. Sometimes it's hard for teachers in different grade levels to show the data. This teacher came up with a packet that other teachers can use as a guide to help their fellow educators. I know that I would use this data folder for my students and just revamp it so that it's age appropriate for my students. The teachers in my group can use this article as a guide to help their students set goals. At the end, of t

This article is a great way to showcase the student's classroom goals and track student data. It gives the students the responsibility to track their own work and it would be a great tool to send home for their parents to view. The students have ownership of their work and their grade. Having weekly assessments on the content presented allows the students to see what they need to study and to ask the teacher for any help. I personally would keep the student's progress monitoring sheet in their own personal notebooks where they will have a copy of their progress monitoring sheet for them to fill out daily or weekly and their goals taped to the inside of their binder. This way the students can see if they have mastered their goals.

This presentation talks about instructional gaps and how they relate to a cycle of low achievement. There is a tendency for assignments to fall further away from the appropriate grade level. Following the Standards in Practice (SIP) model, teachers will be able to close an instructional gap and make assignments more rigorous in order to provide students with the instruction they need to obtain proficiency.

This article provides an overview of instructional gaps and how to expand assignments to ensure we are teaching and assessing students in way that provides good instruction. It was a helpful overview that provided me with great thinking points and a clear structure on how to move forward.

The article was a lot of help. I typically gave lower level readings to my students that are ELL's so they can understand their concept as their reading levels are typically lower. I'm going to try more with the SIP model to see if students will rise to the occasion.

In this article John Albert discusses ways to close the achievement gap through the blended learning approach. With this new learning approach growing more and more popular each school year, it is important to recognize how it can close gaps, if utilized correctly. John talks about five key points in implementing the blended learning approach successfully that will in return close achievement gaps; choosing the right tools, training staff, creating a data team, engaging parents, and highlighting success.

This paper discusses the importance of vocabulary instruction and instructional strategies in order to support vocabulary learning across all grade levels and content areas. Using direct and intentional vocabulary development in the educational setting provides students with the tools and language skills necessary to progress and thrive. This focus is instrumental in narrowing achievement gaps between students, and is particularly beneficial for ESOL students. As a language teacher, it was an excellent reminder of the need to continue vocabulary focus across all skill levels. The lower levels are very vocabulary-centric, but the higher levels become less vocabulary-focused and more communicative in nature. However, there are always more words to know and as concepts and themes of study become more sophisticated, so too becomes the language and word level. Various strategies must be employed, both emanating from the teacher's intentional instruction and students' independent work. This paper has concrete and specific instructional strategies that teachers of all content areas and across all age levels can employ.

I found this paper particularly interesting because it highlighted that when teachers explicitly teach vocabulary to students, it results in not only the increased retention of words learned, but of increased comprehension skills as well.

Week 8: "Language plays an important part in math instruction, particularly for ELLs. This article offers some strategies for making language an integral part of math instruction and the tools and language ELLs need to master math." This article delves deeper into the importance of content vocabulary and content knowledge. Often, the foundation and basics of content areas are brushed over creating a gap for many learners. In mathematics, despite the universal language, there are barriers due to language and deficit in content-related knowledge. This article offers strategies to bridge the gap and increase content knowledge to supplement the learning taking place.

Week 9: This is a great website to connect students to real life math problems. By doing math with real life problems students are problem solving like they would in a word problem, sometimes without even knowing it. This site gives sample lessons and projects to help teachers and parents connect math to the real world. Math covers so many topics that hopefully you can connect to your students that like music, design, weather and so much more.

The different resources on this site that give activities and ideas to introduce real world math situations to students gives an alternative way to teach mathematical concepts. Teaching these math concepts from multiple perspectives increases the chance of student success. By connecting math to the real world, students will become more invested in their learning.

This website provides links to many different websites that provide activities that students can participate in that will help them incorporate real world math problems. The article was sectioned off into four distinct sections including collections of real world math problems, online math activities, math collaboration, and more real world math activities. This is certainly a website that is worth saving and coming back to over a course of the year as there are many valuable resources that can be used.

Week 9: The article gives the top 10 evidence based teaching strategies research by Shaun Killian. These 10 strategies gives teachers steps to fine tune lesson plans and SMART goals for your DAP process. Shaun list these practices and gives a brief explanation for each practices. Most teachers care about their students' results, and if you are reading this article, you are undoubtedly one of them. There is no doubt that teachers make a difference to how well their kids do at school. For teaching strategies to be included on this list, they had to: Be supported by hard research, instead of anecdotal case studies or untested theories Have a substantially higher effect on student results than other teaching strategies Be able to be used on a wide range of subjects and in every year level

Response to Intervention's great promise is often undercut by the potential difficulty of implementation. However, evidence based teaching strategies are useful tools for the educator in a system that constantly changes as new theories and standards arise. This article gives an overview of the most effective teaching strategies, of which most can be fairly easily integrated into lessons. Some of the most intriguing strategies, are the ones that do not involve actions to take but an adjustment in teacher focus, such as nurturing metacognition and allowing flexible learning time.This serves as an effective reference and perhaps, reminder of good teaching methods, though a few specific examples would be all the more helpful. In the comments, the author offers a little more clarification about the strategies and their rankings.

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 is a great read for our SMART goal. An assessment is a great way to figure out what the students know, what they want to know, and what interests them the most so we are able to improve and adjust our teaching.

Week 9 Melissa and Claire: This article is accessible using the link above though Diigo Well crafted formative and performance assessments which include setting meaningful goals, and giving students ownership over the process can powerfully and positively affect teaching and learning. The key to good instruction is assessments. Assessments show what students know, what they want to know, it allows us to adjust our instruction to cater to each student. There are 5 keys to an effective assessment: Meaningful unit goals and questions, summative assessment through writing, performance assessment through presentation and portfolio, formative assessment and feedback along the way, and student ownership of assessment process. These methods of assessments are to be done with the students putting a focus on the student and their learning. Resource: The 5 Keys to Successful Comprehensive Assessment in Action By: Andrew Miller

The video resource on how to use data to reach SMART goals can be found here: https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/common-formative-assessment. This video explains how teachers can use data to strengthen teaching and learning to enhance students' abilities in class. This is a great tool for practicing teachers who are still learning about the value that data provides in the classroom. The teachingchannel.org also offers other video components that are directly related to data driven learning. Another Impactful Video can be found here as a resource: Using CFA's (Common Formative Assessments) for improving Teaching & Learning https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/common-formative-assessment This video covers how formative assessments can help with teacher instruction and student learning. By utilizing the CFA's, teachers can come up with learning goals that reflect the students' current needs, skill level and abilities.

"a simple and fun way for all students to get a chance to move, think, talk, and learn from others. The teacher first has students model: stand back-to-back with a partner, listen to the question and think, turn face-to-face, taking turns speaking and listening, then turning back-to-back"

This video shows individuals how to use a technique called back to back and face to face. I could use this technique in my classroom for my SMART goals. This would give me a better understanding of my student's ability to hear the sounds of letters. For example, I can say a word like "cat"; then, they can use the back to back and face to face technique to tell each other the first sound they hear in "cat". This would also be a wonderful tool to use for reading comprehension and answering questions during a story.

My SMART goal is by the end of Marking Period 3, English Language Learner (ELL) students identified will be able to explain how to solve for an unknown number in an equation with at least 80% accuracy. The back-to-back and face-to-face strategy is an excellent method for allowing students appropriate wait time to think through their responses, as well as an opportunity to hear model responses from their peers. This might help students develop language skills needed for their mathematical explanations. This could be used during a lesson to have students explain how they would solve an equation with a missing number. Using the planning protocol rubric, this is an effective strategy to increase student engagement during a lesson. I would rate this strategy a four on the rubric because it consists of high engagement for most students. All students have an opportunity to share their thoughts and hear a response from a peer. Rather than calling on one or two students to respond, this is an equitable strategy which involves all learners in the classroom.

Week 7: The site provides a colorful, engaging environment for mastering math skills. You can sign up for an account or 30 day trail. Educators can sign up for full account benefits with (e.g. student progress tracking and reports; and an awards system for learners for completing certain goals). *Very good site for remedial students learning math and language arts. This site also includes a page in Language arts for 2nd to 10th graders.Practice math online with IXL. The site offers thousands of online math practice skills covering pre-K to high school, with questions that adapt to a student's individual proficiency.

I used to use IXL with my students for reinforcement, the only problem I had when using it was it locks students out after a specific number of questions. There was only so much practice for allotted topics which sometimes was not enough extra practice.

Free users I believe get 10 questions a day, but what I like most about this is that when a student gets a question wrong, it provides a pretty in depth explanation. Great resource.

This is an excellent tool for Biology teachers to find creative and hands on activities for students. There are labs, warm-ups, and activities. Many of these activities allow for students to be creative.

This article describes how teachers use different forms of technology in the classroom to foster students' learning in the area of mathematics. In order to be considered an effective teaching tool, the article explains that instructors need to think about cognitive and mathematical fidelity when determining what computer programs to use in the classroom.

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.

This is a great source that provides the similar manipulatives that we use in math- digi blocks, fraction patterns, base tens blocks. Students can manipulate the resources online. In the homepage, you'll see that the manipulatives are organized by grade level and math topic.