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This article gives a brief overview of vocabulary development and then offers many different instructional strategies to teach vocabulary in the classroom. Strategies include interactive word walls, word mapping, and self-selected vocabulary among many others.

This article strongly correlates with my instructional focuses. After viewing the article, I was able to see the different levels of vocabulary comprehension as well as the interventions that can be used to assist and assess the student's levels of comprehension. This article is a great source for any reading/language arts educator.

Vocabulary plays a vital role in my class with ELL students. This resource contains criteria that will help monitor students vocabulary progress as well as give different strategies such as Self correction, Mapping, Graphic Morphemic Analysis, Interactive word Walls and more for ELL students and students with special needs. This resource aids my groups' SMART Target learning goals by providing strategies for comprehending academic vocabulary.

Meta-analysis was conducted on interventions used for mathematics with students with learning disabilities. There were four instructional components examine to determine their effectiveness and impact -- a) approached to instruction and/or curriculum design, b) formative assessment data and feedback to teachers, c) formative assessment data and feedback to students and d) peer-assisted mathematics instruction. The research indicates the positive impact of cognitive strategies and the direct instruction model for mathematics instruction. The information was beneficial. Direct instruction often used for reading instruction of students with disabilities so it only makes sense that is also works for math instruction. Research-based information helps me determine what instructional strategies and practices I will include in my classroom.

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 study investigated the effects of input- and output-based instruction on the development of L2 knowledge of 129 third-semester college students learning English in Iran. I found this to be an interesting study because it addressed both kinds of instruction and acknowledged the ongoing debate about the importance of each method and its role in student learning of a second language. The study recognizes that input-based instruction needs to be more than exposure alone and include instructional intervention in order to be effective, and that output-based instruction involve meaningful output practice activities supported with feedback. Although the study does not claim that output in and of itself leads to L2 development due to the need for teacher feedback, it does suggest that output-based instruction is as effective as or can be even more effective than input-based instruction.

Learning theories evolve as educational goals and cultural influences change. This article discusses classroom learning theories and their practice in schools.

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.

The article discusses how to use data in the classroom meaningfully.

The importance of short term goals in data driven decision making is addressed. It also discusses streamlining data so that teachers actually have time to create interventions, rather than just take assessments and read data.

This article is very resourceful in presenting ideas to create a data environment without inclusion of anxiety or pressure. In collecting and representing data, this article discusses several ways to display the data and set short term acceptable goals.

This is an online resource that students can use on their own to understand vowel sounds and practice them. Students could use this resource on their own or the teacher could use it as a lesson tool.

In this first chapter of his book, Popham (2008) attempts to define what formative assessment is and what it is not. He insists on the fact that formative assessment is a process and in his opinion a classroom process. He refers to a meta-analysis conducted by Black and William (1998b) to show evidence of the benefits of formative assessment and quotes Black and William's claim that "student gains in learning triggered by formative assessment are "amongst the largest ever reported for educational interventions" (p. 61). Popham also warns educators against testing companies who are now offering interim or benchmark tests as "formative assessments" and claims that there's no scientific evidence that district-developed or state-developed periodically administered assessments will improve students' achievement.

Students' middle grade attendance is a strong indicator of future high school performance. As such, middle teachers can use such attendance info to identify students who may tend to struggle in high school, and give those students needed support in advance of ninth grade. I have not been able to implement the strategies mentioned (its Summertime!) but I intend to try some this Fall with the 10 or 15 students that I know will be attendance issues in my 8th grade classes.

Like you mentioned, I already know a handful of students going into 8th grade (I teach 6th-8th grade computer technology as a creative arts course) that will be attendance, behavior, and/or low GPA's. I feel like while our schools try to support student learning, we too often push kids through from one grade to the next. I have students this past year who in the semester every other day that I instruct them (45 classes in all), they have missed more than half and yet they promote to the next grade. Each of the five areas highlighted raise good points and I actually find some of the statistics very alarming considering the small differences in percentages. For example, Figure 3 on page 8 depicts two identical students with exact achievement marks in 5th grade. By the time they reach 8th grade, one students attendance improves 2% and the other students attendance drops 4% to a 93% avg. attendance rate. While this doesn't sound like a terrible drop (at least to me), the possibility of these students being on track for 9th grade went from 93% for the student who improved attendance compared to 66% of this student being on track for 9th grade whose attendance dropped just a few percentage points. I think more needs to be done at the school level to improve performance and setup interventions that help our students succeed rather than worrying about the multiple standardized tests that students are required to complete throughout the year. Thank you for sharing! I'm definitely reading over this again as I prepare for the upcoming school year with my middle school students and may even share it with my staff.

WEEK 4, Name: Julie - 2ND Grade Teacher SMART Goal: At least 80% of students in grade two will be reading level K books or above by the end of 6 weeks. SUMMARY: This article focuses on reading instruction, and discusses why it is important for parents and educators to familiarize ourselves with what scientific-based research tells us about teaching reading comprehension. The topics covered in the article includes scientific research on phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, fluency instruction, vocabulary instruction, and text comprehension instruction. The article determines that there is not a one size fits all solution in reading comprehension intervention. For instance, the article states that students that have underlying decoding or fluency weaknesses would most likely also need instruction in vocabulary and comprehension strategies.

SMART Goal: Given one month, students in below grade level reading groups will be able to increase their reading level by at least one level. This resource is useful for teachers looking to improve the reading abilities of young students. When discussing phonics instruction, this article aides educators in articulating the significant relationship between letters of written language and sounds of spoken language to developing readers. In addition to addressing the fundamentals of phonics, this resource offers methods for fluency instruction, such as repeated oral reading.

Two prominent methods for closing achievement gaps are discussed in this article: 1. increase district control over teaching and curriculum, and "minimum standard of instruction", 2. using teacher teams to develop curriculum and teaching methods. Because district control leads to set curriculum, methods, and assessments across schools, progress is easily measured. However, talented and creative teachers tend to feel less valued as educators, and more like tools of implementation. This could cause less effectiveness for having to fit lessons within such a strict construct. Teacher teams, or Professional Learning Networks, empower teachers for contributing to development of effective lessons. Educators tend to enjoy this approach, since it is more natural to teaching and learning, though it is difficult to measure what is being learned. Under district control, the focus can be on research based interventions, where measurement relies on teachers not straying from the mandated processes. Alternatively, it can focus on teacher learning, which would output teachers with similar goals, but who can draw from their own experience and knowledge. Mountain High School in Pleasantville, California, was divided into "learning communities" of around 80 students. Teachers were to serve as advisors, regularly contact families, collaborate with colleagues, and ELL and Special education students were divided amongst the communities. The teacher lack of experience with PDs showed, as they were more focused on student problems rather than ways to improve instruction. Teachers were also not used to contacting parents outside of problematic situations. It was also necessary to provide accommodations that help struggling students to strengthen the lacking skills that are preventing further growth. The proposed methods seemed sound, though implementation in the case study, was still problematic. The lack of success was potentially due to lack of understanding of what compris

(Week 9: Amber, Angela, And Kenneth) This article is accessible through the link given by accessing Diigo. This article discusses two methods for closing the achievement gap due to teacher collaboration. The article discusses how teachers can collectively have discussion that may identify and address the structural issues that are built into the school system. Teachers can use this article to begin to understand how their instructional practices can be hampered by systematic inequalities. The idea of all of this is for these "Collaborations to require and build trust, routines and skills for further collaboration efforts. This also means that the collaborators will need training in order to help them talk about issues of teaching and learning and critique each other's practice (Levine and Marcus, 2007). This would be useful for our practicing teacher because (1) They teach in different districts so there will be some disparities, (2) critiquing each other can be more helpful and a great learning experience. References Levine, T. H., & Marcus, A. S. (2007). Closing the achievement gap through teacher collaboration: facilitating multiple trajectories of teacher learning. Journal Of Advanced Academics, 19(1), 116-138. From http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ786607.pdf

I provided a description, but it is not showing in here. It said: This website is a resource for finding fiction and nonfiction books. It requires a paid subscription, but is not too expensive and can make your classroom library ten times as big. This would directly impact my smart learning goal: 80% of students will reach level K in reading (lowest grade-appropriate reading level for second grade) by the beginning of the December. These books use the same level system and the teacher can assign specific texts for students to read to aid in the fluency and comprehension skills.

Smart Target Learning Goal: By the end of the four week close reading intervention, 80% of students will be able to write a paragraph with less then 5 grammatical, spelling, and structural errors. Students will meet with the teacher three times a week for a 30min session. Planning Protocol Rubric Score: Rigor and Relevance:4 Reading A-Z provides a vast amount of reading support and resources for students. Activities on RAZ would be extremely useful in helping a teacher differentiate instruction in order to make the content accessible to learners of various levels of proficiency.

By pretty much any measure, Cupertino High School in northern California is a successful place. Perched in the heart of Silicon Valley, Cupertino sent 85 percent of its senior class to college in 2009. Hundreds of its students choose among a dozen advanced placement classes each year.

This article shares a intervention that was used to help close the vocabulary gap between Latino and Anglo students. A group of 5th graders were taught academically useful words along with some strategies . Those strategies include, "using information from contex, from morphology, from knowledge about multiple meanings, and from cognates to infer word meaning." The students in the the study showed greater growth in vocabuary comprehension than students who were not a part of the study group.

Week 8- Fifteen years later, this article investigates recommendations provided by the National Research Council's seminal report:Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. The article discusses which of these recommendations have been implemented in U.S classrooms over the past 15 years and which strategies have been avoided. The authors then share more recent research studies sharing strategies that may help teachers improve primary-grade reading. Authors: Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block

The article provides valuable insight into the impact that vocabulary instruction can have on reading comprehension. It is also noted that because reading instructional has changed over the years this too has contributed to comprehension and vocabulary development. It appears that the approach to reading instruction needs to be revisited to determine which strategies works the most effectively.

I loved this article. My school is currently focusing on Academic Language in our School Improvement Plan, we are also an IB school where students are to use Academic Language more often. I'm glad to see that many of our commonly used words are included in this list. I also love how they go through the examples of how to teach a new word. In middle school I feel these higher level vocabulary words are used more often than in primary ages.