Group items tagged

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.

"The Think-Pair-Share protocol is a simple way for all students to get a chance to think, talk, and learn from others. "

Think-pair-share is a great way to get students talking about information that is being taught. This is a great way to help students think about the topic that is being taught from a peer's point of view. Dimension: Student learning Rating: 2 This would work towards my fellow teammate's SMART goal,"By the end of quarter 1, 60% of students will score a 70% or higher on the Quarter 1 Literacy Assessment. This allows students to talk about what they are understanding about theme and gain new understandings.

SMART GOAL: Given 1 month of guided reading instruction, students in below grade-level reading groups will increase their reading level by at least one level. (Heather's goal) Dimension: Impact on Learning Impact: 4 Reason: Think-Pair-Share is a strategy where students have a discussion with a partner to solve a problem or answer a question posed by their teacher. After which, the students individually share their ideas/solutions with the entire class. I believe that this strategy will be useful in Heather's attempt in eliminating the reading comprehension gap in her class because asking varying levels of question encourages students to discuss new ideas that deepen their understanding. This strategy will also give Heather the opportunity to assess student understanding by monitoring their discussions. It also has the bonus factor of stimulating student engagement

SMART Goal: Given 1 month of guided reading instruction, students in below grade-level reading groups will increase their reading level by at least one level. This article gives an overview of the strategies that need to be taught in reading groups that help students become effective readers. These strategies for understanding words are called word-attack strategies. These must be taught explicitly.

Instructional gap between black and white students and suggestions to reduce the achievement gap.

I have a problem with these comparisons, because what are we comparing? Suburban White children with Inner City Black children? I would rather see what differences occur within the same socio-economic range. Then we can discuss what the differences are and how to decrease the gap. Otherwise it's apples to oranges.

This resource is the most complete guide that I was able to find in regards to developing SMART Goals as a means to pinpoint areas for professional growth. Many of the articles that I found online were short articles that just listed the definition and provided few examples of SMART Goals or anecdotal information based on the person writing the web page. I thought that this resource was a wonderful document that could be used by school systems to help teachers show growth. Currently, we have and SLO in Howard County, however, it requires us to make a student performance goal. It does not require us to develop as a professional in the process. I think that this is a complete disservice to our students. As a teacher, I believe that I am tasked with continuing to learn for all the year which I choose to stay in this profession. I should never be "comfortable" with my teaching practices and materials. I should always adapt materials to meet the needs of the students have each year and I should continuously be looking for new ways/materials to present information to students. As a math teacher and special educator, I think that Web 2.0 tools are the future of my field, however, most other professionals at my school disagree. They believe that students should learn in the classroom and not be provided with direct instruction of how to use the Web to help them learn a variety of mathematical concepts or ways to improve study methods. I hope to use this resource to develop my own practices and help others grow as well.

This is the position statement developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children related to mathematics in early childhood education. This document outlines 10 strategies for high quality math instruction in the early childhood classroom, as well as, 4 strategies for educational institutions, program developers and policy makers. I found the 10 strategies for teachers to be particularly beneficial in my own reflective practice.

This article, by the Access Center, discusses how to implement differentiation effectively in the classroom. The method put forward states that one must access student readiness, determine student interest and identify learning styles to successfully differentiation. Multiple strategies are also presented for implementation in a math classroom setting.

This article provides developmentally appropriate strategies for supporting math instruction in the early childhood classroom. Strategies include how to set up a math rich classroom, as well as, how to children to engage in mathematical play.

Most teachers believe that students have a fear of word problems, but this article will have you second guessing that. The article will have teachers thinking that word problems should be used from the start of a lesson and not at the very end of a homework assignment. Students normally perform better on word problems then algebraic solving because they have context clues to help them solve the problem.

To sum up this article you can look at the following quote from it; And he warned that the tendency to wait before using word problems could exacerbate gaps for students who struggle with algebra early on, because they may not be exposed to many word problems at all. Students have a fear of word problems because they perceive that they are too hard before they even begin working on them. This combined with the gaps in the vocabulary knowledge are making word problems more difficult for them.

This is an article that explores the strategy of introducing word problems first during math instruction. As a math teacher, I tend to introduce concepts first then build up to applying those concepts to word problems. The strategy of introducing the word problems first acts to help students solve a problem using any method they are comfortable with, without getting bogged down with the math too soon and becoming unwillingly to solve it. This could address the SMART learning goal, by helping us to rethink the way in which students approach word problems.

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.

SMART Goal: Given 1 month of guided reading instruction, students in below grade-level reading groups will increase their reading level by at least one level. This article explains how implementing consistent guided reading in the classroom can improve reading levels. This directly relates to my SMART Goal because it gives suggestions on how to organize and implement the difficult task of guided reading groups.

This site contains free resources for science teachers. Teachers can search to find resources by keyword, such as topic or class. Our group can use this to find lesson plans or activities to support our SMART goal of supplementing instruction for some AP Biology students.

Dimension: Student Engagement Rate: 4 My SMART Target Learning Goal is that 80 % of my Pre-kindergarten class will master their reading foundation skills by the 3rd trimester. This EL Education video introduces the concept of interactive writing. This concept allows students to use spelling patterns and high frequency words. The video demonstrated how all of the students participate in tapping out the letter sounds. The students were engaged in the video and used different techniques were utilized to display how various students were engaged in learning. They used different learning tools including: sky writing, full body movements, body writing, sharing the pens and white boards. This relates to my SMART goal because my students need to be able to master reading foundation skills. This is a key component to reading foundation skills. I practice some of these techniques already but I want to try all of them to see if that will improve my students reading foundation skills.

Dimension: Rigor and Relevance Rate: 4 - students think and work My SMART goal is that students will be able to solve an on grade level math task, that will require them to respond and defend their work to explain their reasoning 3 out of 5 times by the end of the 1st marking period. This EL Education video shows a great model of how to use interactive writing with younger students. The reason I gave this a score of 4 is because although students are in a whole group setting they still were required to think and work. Students had to think and act out words or spellings. They worked as a class to write the sentence. It required students to think and help! While I think this is a great video, I don't really think it is something that could work for my SMART goal. Yes it relates to writing but I think that my students would need something a little more advanced for 4th graders. I think if students had this lesson taught to them at a younger age it would help them achieve this goal. I don't think this instructional tactic is something that would teach students how to defend and support their answer.

In this online resource a teacher shares how to have students collaborate on the writing process using the online tool/app of Socrative. It is articulated very well and this is a process I have used in the past with AP writing students!

As a language teacher, I found this article to be relatable because it discusses the ways in which teachers can close the achievement gap with students whose first language is not English. The article discusses achievement gaps and ways to combat them for ELL students.

Additional information about milestones and K-12 math curriculum is available on The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Web site. NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics outlines grade-by-grade recommendations for classroom mathematics instruction for both content matter and process.

This online language learning platform uses gamification to motivate students and make language learning fun. It provides an individualized learning path (differentiation) to increase language proficiency. I have used Duolingo for my own language practice, for teaching my children languages, and in my classroom as a part of language instruction.

I selected this article since I primarily work with college students and need to offer additional support to help students use their self-advocacy skills for their own learning goals. I feel that this would be a good way to address learning gaps by integrating these skills into our instruction. Abstract: Self-advocacy is the ability to communicate one's needs and wants and to make decisions about the supports needed to achieve them (Stodden, Conway, & Chang, 2003). Research shows self-advocacy skills are related to academic performance and successful adaptation to college (Adams & Proctor, 2010; Getzel & Thoma, 2008; Hadley, 2006; Murray, Lombardi, & Kosty, 2014; Thoma & Wehmeyer, 2005).

This article talks about seeing all students as part of your classroom. I personally like how it lists things to think about when instructing students. Although some will think these are no brainers, its always good to reflect on yourself as an educator. Especially when it comes to students with IEPs and 504s. I also liked how it reminds educators to reflect on the whole student and think about forces outside the school that greatly affect the students performance in the classroom.