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This article discuss the vast availability of technology and how using apps in the classroom can help close student learning gaps.

Smith points out that although children learn to count, they may not understand the concept of number. He posits that the world of mathematics must be entered, explored, and used principally through reason and that only a few mathematical concepts are learned via the senses or spoken language

This study gives insight into some common struggles students face when using graphing calculators. Knowing what obstacles a student may have can help you plan strategies to help your student prevent or overcome them.

Physical education is shifting gears in a major way to help students become more comfortable and successful in PE. Introducing technology is a new way to engage students in PE other than just rolling the ball out on to the floor. Recognizing that obesity is a huge problem in the US, teachers are turning to technology to help motivate students and present PE in a new fun light.

Week 7: Margarita Lugo and Erika Eason This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. This article focuses on the "multiple intelligence theory" and its application for foreign language teachers and their classrooms as a way to actively and authentically engage students in learning in all subject areas (however, this article does emphasize foreign language). This theory says that content can be taught in a variety of ways and recommends that teachers should design lessons, projects, homework, and assessments while thinking of students' learning preferences and styles. Specifically, the article goes through Gardner's theory and illustrates how it can be applied to Spanish classroom. Our SMART goal is that "By the end of the numbers unit, 60% of students in the Special Education program in MS Spanish 1A - Period 2 will achieve 80% or higher on each formative assessment including listening, speaking and writing assessments". This article can help me achieve this goal by giving me new insight on differentiating instruction and assessments for my SPED students who struggle in one or more areas of communication. References: Anders, L., & Willen, W. (2005/2006). Differentiating instruction in the Spanish as a foreign language course using multiple intelligence theory. International Journal of Learning, 12(6), 9-14. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database. (Accession No. 25089780)

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.

This article focuses on how a multi-strategy approach can assist students in learning new social studies content vocabulary. The article provides a case study that includes three groups of students which focused on different methods of vocabulary acquisition. The article notes that a multi-strategy approach is the best for assisting students in learning new vocabulary.

One of the things I found interesting was "students first learned to ask important questions about the text to guide their thinking and then used questions to help them develop a main-idea statement for a short section of text. They then learned to combine several main idea statements into a longer summary with the aid of a graphic organizer." These strategies were taught and practiced for six weeks at a time, before a new one was introduced.

This site provides templates for several different choice boards, which can be used to integrate more student choice into the work they do for classes. Providing students with a variety of options for how to complete assignments allows for teachers to differentiate instruction and assessment as well, to some degree, and also allows students to feel more in control of their learning.

This article makes a very good argument for incorporating e-mail into the classroom to improve student writing. The author explains how students are often bored with traditional writing assignments and editing/revising sessions using Microsoft Word (even though this is technology, it is less interactive). The author explains how having a second party on the other end of the email who will be reading their work encourages students to carefully proofread and make edits/revisions as necessary on their own before sending the e-mails. Students were also more interesting in the authentic writing tasks that e-mail communication allowed (such as writing to professionals in their fields of study/interest and receiving real responses). The author gives a plethora of ideas for utilizing e-mail to improve student writing in various content classes, including Language Arts, Math, Foreign Language, and Social Studies. Kristine and I found this article and are hoping to work in this strategy/component into our Data Action Plan (although we previously did not list it as a strategy to help with our SMART goals). WEEK 7

This blog site talks about what type of "Blended Learning" setting would be the best fit for a math classroom. The benefit in this is that it helps teachers find ideas for what to use in a blended classroom specifically when it comes to math instruction.

This article provides the basics of blended learning which addresses the 4 key elements of effective math instruction as identified by The National Dissemination Center For Children with Disabilities.

Week 8, Kristine G and Danica J. This PDF offers lots of mini-lessons to help students write better. Considering the time constraints we have had this semester, these mini-lessons are perfect for a quick review or an introduction to a writing topic. These are also great for differentiation to be used as enrichment or remediation. Resource type: activity

Should also be tagged: "middle school" "high school" "secondary" and "lesson"

This is a Microsoft product learning tool