Group items tagged

SMART Goal: By the end of marking period 3, 80% or higher of students will score a 90% or higher on a representing numbers assessment. This website is offers fun and engaging games to support math development of students grades pre-kindergarten through high school. When selecting a grade level, teachers can view a large list of skills associated with Common Core. Skills are categorized, making it easy for educators to look for desired math practice. In regard to the SMART goal posted above the teacher could select from the series of skills related to representing numbers such as: Counting tens and ones - up to 20, County on ten frames - up to 40, and Counting by tens - up to 100. Students will be motivated by this resource as it is colorful and interactive. A benefit to using this site is that when students are unable to answer a correctly, they are provided with an explanation of how to correctly apply the skill.

Dimension: Impact on Learning Rating: 3- Medium-high impact SMART Goals: By the end of the unit, 50% of students will score 70% or higher on the assessment. By the end of the quarter, 80% of students will obtain a 60% or higher in Algebra 1 By the of Unit 5, 80% of students will score at least 70% on the end of unit assessment In this activity, students take a gallery walk to view the multiple ways of solving a math problem and representing their math thinking. This type of activity allows for students to display their work in a non-threatening way. The students will be checking their understanding and learning other solutions for a given math problem. This activity could also meet the Math and Social Studies goals of my group because gallery walks can foster discussions where students explain their thinking and teach each other in the process.

This article talks about Bloom's belief that differentiated instructional approaches blended with varied amounts of time for completion for each student individually will lead to higher achievement among students. Bloom referred to this instructional variation and differentiation as mastery learning. Mastery learning can lead to higher academic achievement, increase in student confidence and increased engagement in classroom settings.

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.

Good article on how involving parents in the school community can lead to better student achievement and attendence.

"Parent involvement can make a difference in a child's education." I know this is true in my school. I know for a fact that my students who have parents that are involved do better academically. This does not mean that the parent necessarily has to have a high level of education. I have had students really succeed because their parents check their agenda and homework each night when they come home. Sometimes, just knowing or having a parent that cares and that is there to push you is enough.

I agree wholeheartedly with the quote that states "Parent involvement can make a difference in a child's education." Once I read this line, I was intrigued with the rest of the article. I am a very driven individual when it comes to education, and I want that for my son as well. My wife and I are constantly coaching our son on the importance of education, and making sure that he completes his work on time and correctly. I have seen first hand in my two years of teaching what parent involvement can do for a students school work. I have seen students whose parents are actively involved in their school careers, and the students performed on a much higher level than those of students whose parents did not seem to be involved.

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

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.

As an "online work platform with a new take on how everyday work gets done," students could use Podio as a school social network devoted to thier studies. Much like a Facebook account, students would use Podio to complete assignments and discuss classroom content. This collaborative tool can also be used as a place students could use to complete projects and group work assignments. This sort of experience would be effective for teachers looking to have students working with other students from different schools/districts on a common project. This could be useful with Project Based Learning assignments as well.

I see that Podio is targeting higher ed students, and wonder whether it would be to risky to use it in k12. See: http://blog.podio.com/2011/11/16/podios-free-university-program-supports-students-the-real-future-of-work/ There's no teacher control board as there is in Diigo, for example.

Dimension: Depth of Knowledge Rating: 3 This article is a good example of how to collaborate and learn from peer to peer. I like this exercise because it would allow students to apply words to topics for understanding what is necessary to build an essay. This could be used for group#4 action plan and a good tool to support my team's SMART Goal achievement for improving their writing proficiency for the 5th grade students because it focus on decreasing their English language barriers so they are able to reach their WIDA exiting level of 4.4. With practice students will be able to remember what they are learning so that they are able to break the text and understand what they mean in order to write. Scaffolding would be a good way to get to the bottom of improving in the English language.

Great video! It directly addresses many issues ESL/ELL teachers have in reaching their students, and in helping them make sense of complex texts (like the one mentioned here from 'The Washington Post') and other readings. (Again, as I often mention, if you have taken 'reading literacy' courses for your state teaching certification, you know that newspapers like 'The Post' are designed for students with grade 12+ reading ability.) For ESL/ELL learners, this is especially difficult. In the school featured here, 27% are ESL learners in a "blended" classroom in a Portland, Maine middle school. It appears that the social studies teacher and the ESL support teacher work effectively in tandem, helping students to be "close readers," and focusing on students themselves as those responsible for their own learning. The teachers use excellent ESL/FL strategies such as "pacing and pausing," "reading aloud," "sharing with partners," and so forth. ESL/ELL learners work together with their mainstream counterparts, and the process seems to work quite well. I like their approach ('Reading, Thinking, Talking, Writing') here. With proper teacher guidance, this puts the burden on the students to come up with their own interpretations of the text/s they are reading. From the 'Planning and Protocol Rubric': hitting '4s' on most dimensions, except for perhaps 'Technology Integration' (not entirely evident). Otherwise, students are expected to perform at a very high level. My SMART Learning Goal: After three weeks of targeted instruction--and in concert with the content-area teacher--75% or more of our students will score at least one point higher on their ESOL RELA and ESOL math assessments. Targeted instruction, based on the requirements of the 'Action Plan Tracking Sheet,' closely hews to what is going on in this video.

The 5 check for understanding strategies in this video really support our goal of : By the end of the month, give practice tests the day before exams with at least 75% scoring at least 75%.Checking for understanding is an important step in the teaching and learning process. The background knowledge that students bring into the classroom influences how they understand the material you share and the lessons or learning opportunities you provide. Unless you check for understanding, it is difficult to know exactly what students are getting out of the lesson. In the Planning protocol rubric, student engagement is high for most students. This goes far beyond just asking your students "do you get it?" and I really like the ones that involve movement! Being crammed in a desk all day is no fun at all.

My SMART goal is to achieve a 100% passing rate amount my target group of students for all county and state standardized English Language exams. This video does have techniques I can use to achieve this goal. I think the focus and techniques using for 'checking of understanding' can help achieve the protocols of 'rigor and relevance' as well as 'depth of knowledge.' I love the idea of debriefs, and 'catch-and-release' at the end of classes and would like to keep myself more honest at doing this, and tightening up my lessons to allow time at the end of my classes for debriefing and to avoid running lessons right up into the bell.

From the planning protocol rubric the other area I would relate this style of teaching to besides the ones listed above would be "impact on learning"- In which there would be a very high impact on learning. The strategies used in this video focus on student rigor. The principle breaks their instructional tactics into 5 different areas. The SMART target learning goal that these strategies could be used for would be one of my group members "After three weeks of targeted instruction, students will increase their pre-assessment scores by 3 or more points, or 75 percent or higher on the post-assessment" Looking at this learning goal you can see where the following strategies would be very helpful. As well as how we can use them to address the above SMART learning goal in our group. 1. Constantly checking the learning target. (are the students constantly working toward building their skills using PARCC like questions). 2. Guided practice ( The teacher will help lead students in instruction that will help mimic items that might be seen on the PARCC test. 3. Catch and release (The teacher will frequently bring everyone back to a large group to discuss trends or similarities he or she is seeing as students work independently) 4. Cold Calling ( making sure that each student is contributing and assessing that each student understands what is being taught) 5. Derbies ( doing things like exit tickets in the form of a PARCC question as the students leave as well as discussions to see where students are at.) All of these steps could be used for as an instructional tactic for the SMART learning goal in our group as mentioned in examples in the parentheses above. Great video and clearly a very high impact on student learning.

An informative and engaging article that provides eight solutions to tackling the achievement gap.  It is well organized and written with clear reasoning for each solution.

I really enjoyed this article. As a new instructor I am constantly looking to engage my adult students. Through my instruction, making that personal connection is so important. Once you make that personal connection I find that students start making a personal connection with their assignments as well. I find having a non-academic conversation at the beginning of class can help the students feel involved classroom citizens.

This article really gives great advice on how teachers can help close the achievement gap by changing small things they do in the classroom. The two things that stuck out to me was allowing more time and progress monitoring. Sometimes time is all a student needs to succeed. When students feel rushed they end up just picking whatever answer they think is right or just something to complete the assignment. Allowing students to return to their unfinished work could really help students concentrate knowing that they don't have to rush to finish an assignment. As far as progress monitoring goes, it helps when the teacher really cares about making sure the students are on the right track and that their parents are aware of the work they have completed or would need to complete to get them on track.

Explicit, intensive, persistent instructionTo become good readers, most students require explicit, intensive, and persistent instruction.[1] In explicit comprehension strategy instruction, the teacher chooses strategies that are closely aligned with the text students are reading.

(Week 7: Adiatu, Julie, and Heather) This journal article was found by Adiatu on Diigo, and is accessible through the link given above by accessing readingrockets.org. The journal article is focused on elements of effective reading comprehension instruction. The authors of the article state that effective comprehension instruction is when students "are able to develop, control, and use a variety of comprehension strategies to ensure that they understand what they read." (readingrockets.org) The article discusses various instruction strategies that students can also use independently in their learning; for example - thinking aloud. This journal article is useful to teachers in that it provides useful information on how to select appropriate reading materials for students, and it suggests instruction practices that motivate students to read widely in order to reach higher literacy levels. 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 they are currently implementing instruction techniques to achieve SMART learning goals. Reference: What is effective comprehension instruction? (2009, January 2). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-effective-comprehension-instruction

This Edutopia post discusses arts education having intrinsic value and its effects on achievement gaps.

Art education can lessen the achievement gap, specifically with students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (SES). Unfortunately, an 'opportunity gap' exists with low-income students, which makes them less likely to have access to art education as compared to their higher-income peers.

Dimension chosen: rigor & relevance Rating: 4- students think and work This is a blog that includes helpful tips and activities for teaching theme. With my SMART goal, by the end of quarter 1, 60% of students will score a 70% or higher on the Quarter 1 Literacy Assessment. The Quarter 1 literacy assessment is on theme, standard RL 4.2. The activities and suggestions from this blog will help me better prepare my students for the assessment.

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.

In this article, the authors describe why it is important to develop number sense rather than rote memorization with math facts. The article lists why number sense, reasoning, and deep understanding of numbers leads to more efficient problem solvers and higher achieving math mathematicians. A few engaging activities are listed to replace rote memorization of addition and multiplication math facts. A heavy emphasis on speed leads to anxiety and a distaste of mathematics in many young learners. Educators should be focusing on teaching students how to be flexible thinkers when faced with unknown math facts.

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.

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.