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Week 8: Authors Yeping Li and Dennie Smith wrote this article which provides research on a teacher's knowledge of fractions; particularly fraction division, and is beneficial to upper elementary and middle school teachers who need to build upon what their students have learned in previous years. It shows that their is a divide between a teacher's confidence in teaching and their mastery of content; specifically in this case of fraction division.

Week 8: Authors Yeping Li and Dennie Smith wrote this article which provides research on a teacher's knowledge of fractions; particularly fraction division, and is beneficial to upper elementary and middle school teachers who need to build upon what their students have learned in previous years. It shows that their is a divide between a teacher's confidence in teaching and their mastery of content; specifically in this case of fraction division.

Week 7

(Week7: Jim, Sabrina, Jennifer) This Journal article is accessible through the link given above through the UMUC Library The focus of this article is small group alternative lessons that will help with differentiated reading instruction. The article itself identifies how students in the elementary grades struggle with Phonemic Awareness. Specifically in kindergarten and First grade and continuously miss the benchmark when being assessed. The article also Identifies what differentiated instruction looks like in this setting as well as many example activities on guided reading and other strategies to help address students who are struggling. Teachers are able to use this article as a reference for activities that they can incorporate into the classroom during their reading or guided reading block. The 3 members in our team all work in a secondary school and noticed that many of the activities or lessons were really geared toward elementary students. However when reflecting on the struggling students in our own classes on this topic we quickly realized that those students were indeed on an elementary reading level. Therefore we might not use the exact same strategies but rather adapt them as they do in the article to fit the needs of our learners and make them more age appropriate. Reference: Kosanovich, M, Ladinsky, K, Nelson, L, Torgesen, J,. (2007) Differentiated Reading Instruction: Small Group Alternative Lesson Structures for All Students. Guidance Document for Florida "Reading First" Schools. Florida Center for Reading Research ERIC Journal. pp. 11, Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED498777.pdf

@ Jessica Carr

(Week 7: Jessica Carr, Sarah Donahey, and Mark Cook) This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. This article discusses the need for vocabulary and comprehension instruction in the primary grades in order for long-term, adequate reading skills in elementary students. The authors examine research that have been done on primary grades in order to closely examine the reading skills that are needed for elementary-aged students. Reading outside of school, vocabulary, word-reading skills, conceptual knowledge, and comprehension strategies are the instructional approaches that the authors believe need to be taught in the primary grades in order for long-term goals to be met. Teachers can implement the instructional strategies being encouraged in this article, in their own practice. Teachers can also encourage reading outside of school for homework to help improve reading skills among their students. References: Block, K., M., & Duke, K., N. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades. The Future of Children, 22(2), 55-72. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23317411?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents

The article references stats that involve demographics pertaining to elementary reading and math. High school graduation rates and dropout rates amongst minorities in a californian community. The author looks at closing the achievement gap by getting parents involved and placing more emphasis on pre-K programs. The article states that when it comes to intervention, the way to look at it is, the earlier the better. The author provides suggestions to closing the gap.

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 article outlines the steps of a lesson plan. This may seem elementary, however the lesson plan forms the blueprint for student learning. With this outline, you can track where students may have gotten lost in the lesson and you can use that data to adjust instructional needs. Using this lesson plan format allows a teacher to be well-informed about the content and student outcomes expected.

This article of edweek focuses on closing the gap in students' vocabulary. Vocabulary is key to reading and comprehension, and this article takes the approach that better conversation is they way to improve vocabulary. While it mainly seems geared towards elementary level students, I think the idea is worthwhile for all levels of students.

This is a research from the 1970s and 1980s on the characteristics of effective elementary school teachers highlighted the importance of a strong academic focus, explicit instruction, and high levels of pupils on task. Extending this earlier research, recent large-scale studies on effective teachers of reading have highlighted the importance of motivating and balanced instruction, the teaching of strategies as well as skills, the encouragement of higher-level thinking, and the use of coaching as children are reading and writing. Common findings across recent studies on effective elementary teachers of reading are highlighted in this research paper. It suggest skills and strategies for teaching reading effectively

This article describes how attendance effects students, their grades, and schools. Students who miss 10% of classes throughout the school year are considered chronically absent. The article looks at reasons why students do not attend school and offers suggestions on how to address that problem. It also outlines how a middle school cut its absenteeism in half in a short period of time.

One of the most interesting aspects of this article is that attendance issues faced by elementary schools directly correlate with reading levels and the subsequent chronic absenteeism in secondary schools. Three categoriesare identified to describe absences -barriers, discretion and aversion- or rather lack of access to public supports, parents and students do not understand importance of attendance, and a child struggling with academics, anxiety or bullying. Principals are utilizing attendance data to identify chronic absentee students and subsequently implementing strategies in their schools to incorporate interventions that will break down the barriers affecting school attendance rates. The article further discusses the positive effects that principals can have by reaching out to the community as well as the elementary feeder schools to collaboratively effect change that will increase attendance.

Educational Learning Games for students in Preschool and Elementary school. Pre-school games include pre-reading, shapes, colors, numbers and mouse skills.

This article looks at the importance of technology use in the classrooms in the 21st century and how this technology can be used to help close learning gaps. It specifically looks at students who are "at-risk". This article addresses great points but also cautions that in order for technology to be effective, it needs to be accompanied by professional development.

This article highlights a report completed by the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Staford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education in 2014. The article notes that students can make significant increases in learning and engagement through the use of technology. However, students from poor socio economic backgrounds may not have the same instruction or access to technology as those from more affluent neighborhoods. The auther then presents a list of solutions.

I like that this article encourages a blended learning approach with technology. I think that tech is a powerful tool that needs to be paired with hands on activities for the early learners.

A few concrete examples of how to effectively differentiate math instruction for elementary students.

This article details how to establish mathematics discourse in the classroom. The article details specific steps to model, scaffold, and encourage mathematics discourse between students throughout a math block. Discourse supports collaboration, justification of ideas, and flexibility with mathematical thinking. The article is geared towards elementary students; however, the ideas are universal for all grades.

This article helps teachers create a friendly and safe math community. Students will be able to use math vocabulary to explain their thinking and reasoning when solving a problem.

The article references stats that involve demographics pertaining to elementary reading and math. High school graduation rates and dropout rates amongst minorities in a californian community. The author looks at closing the achievement gap by getting parents involved and placing more emphasis on pre-K programs. The article states that when it comes to intervention, the way to look at it is, the earlier the better. The author provides suggestions to closing the gap.

This article provides both in classroom as well as online teacher resources to incorporate when teaching word problems to upper elementary aged students. It provides easy to implement strategies and an overview of why they are important.

Many great ideas for activities to differentiate addition and subtraction for elementary students.

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.

This site is useful for elementary and middle school teachers who want to enhance their math curriculum by using interactive learning games. The site is organized by grade level and content, so teachers can easily assign particular games for the students to play. Teachers can set score goals for students to ensure they master a topic.

This article shows that through reflective teaching and coaching, diverse struggling readers can beneficiate from different strategies and will help to close instructional gaps.

I like the ideas presented here, they elaborate on the need for ELL students to have word association and phonetic instruction to further their understanding of content. This is particularly stressed in the elementary grades, however having a teaching coach for ELL learners in the higher grades could assist students that did not have phonetic instruction in the lower grades. One particular item of interest was the comment made that data results from assessment is not analyzed until later in the year and as a result does not benefit the students that took the assessment. Due to this the author stresses the need for collaboration of the teaching team to identify skills and strategies needed and subsequently develop ways to address the skill or strategy needed that will enhance learning.