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This article focuses on how post-licensure education can help improve the teacher gap, which will, in effect, make teachers that are better prepared to close the achievement gap. The article highlights a few strategies that are essential to helping improve professional development for teachers already in the classroom. Some areas they mention specifically are better content mastery, a better way to assess students, improving the classroom environment, and better instructional strategies (or best practices).

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 article discusses academic vocabulary and how it can have an impact on the achievement gap.

This article discusses the relationship between achievement gaps and literacy gaps. As many students enter high school with low literacy skills, they become frustrated and struggle with the vocabulary needed to excel in math, science, social studies and other classes. As teachers, we need to help students to build the vocabulary needed to excel in all subject areas.

This article focuses on a potential root cause for the achievement gap, which the authors identified as the language and literacy gap. When students lack the language necessary to access the material in math, science, or other specialized classes; it can be difficult or overwhelming to try to bridge that gap in the classroom. Teachers need to do a better job of incorporating and explicitly teaching the academic language needed to be successful in the subject area in question. The process can start more general before leading to content specific "jargon," but the important thing is to expose students to the language frequently.

This site provided an article that looked into what the organization, Partners in School Innovations is doing to "not just close the achievement gap, but the teaching gap." Results from a survey are shared regarding average class sizes and the time spent teaching versus the time spent planning. The article provides a case study of a school that focused on instructional gaps and its results. This is a great read for administrators, policymakers and other stakeholders.

I realize this has more to do with achievement gaps than specific gaps within a single classroom, but it has been my experience that targeted instruction to support a few helps every learner in the room.

Kahoot is an excellent resource to incorporate technology, content, and fun in any classroom. I love using it. You can create your own, use one that is already made, or edit one of your liking. I mostly have used this as a review, but there is so much more that can be done with Kahoot and the kids love it!

ABCmouse.com helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more. For kids age 2 to Kindergarten.

Animated Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Arts & Music and English movies, quizzes, activity pages and school homework help for K-12 kids, aligned with state standards

This brief article discusses the importance of Summer Programs to help lessen the learning gap that happens over the summer. It also mentions the challenges of creating and/or keeping these programs but shows how beneficial they can be.

This article had a very interesting view on summer programs. Every year during the annual review for IEP/504 meetings, the team will decide if a student qualifies for our extended school year (ESY) summer program. Students are only recommended if we determine there will be a great regression for a student during the break. Although many students would benefit from this, students in our autism program are mostly placed in ESY. This year, we are looking into having a "family night" where parents can learn about skills/strategies they can work on over the summer in order to help their student from regressing during the summer. While some parents may work with their child over the summer, the reality is those students who really need it, will not work over the summer. I am hoping more counties will create more programs to help all learners during the summer months.

This article mentions how much of student learning is forgotten over the summer because of the gap in the school year. This article also mentions the difference in socio-economic levels and how student from higher incomes are more likely to participate in summer activities that encourage learning. Whereas students from low incomes are often spending the summer at home with limited activities.

This article speaks of how implementing the framework known as Environment as a Integrating Context (EIC) can help close the achievement gap for students and lead to deeper connections through all subjects. The framework focuses on using the surroundings, and community around the school as a basis for the education. Understanding that if students can connect knowledge to visual cues and surroundings that they see everyday, it will help in the long term memory of those lessons and a higher mastery rate. This framework in my opinion should be used for secondary education. I believe this because that particular age group will be able to connect what they are learning in other subjects through this framework and it would be extremely beneficial when it comes to the standardized testing.

This video provides an overview of the SIOP model sheltered instruction for English language learners.

Everyone's favorite math guru shares the top 10 ways you can enhance your students' math learning, test scores, and skills Several years ago, Michael, one of my third graders, wrote this in his journal: "I never used to look forward to math. All we did was add and subtract. This site offers a number of ideas that include how to teach writing in the math classroom.

Week 8 - This is an article on activating the working memory for learning. It offers strategies and suggestions of simple activities to exercise the brain on a daily basis in any content area.

This protocol helps students share their opinions by asking them to line up along a continuum based on their position on an issue.

Ericka Posey's Smart Target Learning Goal: By the end of April, 80% of the 10th grade LSN Government students will be able to analyze political cartoons and write accurate BCRs with 75% accuracy for historical content and meaning. This activity will assist my students achieve the goal as it gives students a verbal prompt, gives them a chance to analyze that prompt, take a stand and defend that stance with strong examples. The same skills used in the Take a Stand will assist my students in analyzing a political cartoon, take a stand on the written prompt and defend that prompt with evidence from the political cartoon. The only difference is in the Take A Stand everything is done verbally and in the analysis of the political cartoon and BCR is a written assignment.

My chosen dimension is student engagement, I would consider this activity to be highly engaged with a rating of 4 because of its participation requirement and discussion method among all students. The discussion tactic in this video forces students to share their various perspectives in an open environment. Also, the students can easily see each other's choice before going into detail about why they made that choice. The students learn to value different perspectives and methods from their peers. This tactic works with our SMART goal because it emphasizes critical thinking proof to resolve a real problem. This tactic allows students to know that it is not about having one right answer to the problem, but discovering many strategies and reasons to solve the problem. Also I like that students must use retained information to evaluate their decision and the decision of their peers.

(Week 8: Jennifer and Ashleigh) This article is accessible through the link above using the UMUC library database. This article analyzes data from an early childhood survey to determine how various instructional strategies in math impact students of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and varying readiness levels. The results of the study indicate differing exposure to instructional strategies to support students in math. For example, the study shows that students with high socioeconomic status and higher readiness levels have more exposure to the use of manipulatives, while students with lower socioeconomic statuses and lower readiness level have more exposure to music and movement to learn math. Additionally, the study found that only some instructional strategies have an impact on student achievement in math. This study is beneficial for teachers as they reflect on their current instructional practices in relation to student achievement. The results of the study express the need for differentiated math instruction for various communities of learners within the classroom. This is useful as we examine Ashleigh's Data Action Plan and how the use of manipulatives for measurement may or may not support achievement for all students. As strategies are implemented, Ashleigh can take note of which strategies are most beneficial for different subgroups within her classroom. References Bottia, M. C., Moller, S., Mickelson, R. A., & Stearns, E. (2014). Foundations of mathematics achievement: instructional practices and diverse kindergarten students. The Elementary School Journal, 115(1), 124-150.