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margarita_lp

Adapting Curriculum to Learners' Needs | EL Education - 11 views

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    My SMART Goal: "By the end of the numbers unit, 60% of students in the Special Education program in MS Spanish 1A - Period 2 will achieve 80% or higher on each formative assessment including listening, speaking and writing assessments." - This resource video on adapting curriculum to learners' needs could assist in differentiation the strategies and activities done in class for students with varying special needs to close their achievement gap since they are not currently receiving many of their needed accommodations.
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    The SMART Goal I will be using: "By the end of the four week close reading intervention, 80% of students will be able to demonstrate improvement in their writing ability by composing a paragraph with less then 5 grammatical, spelling, and structural errors. Students will meet with the teacher three times a week for a 30 min session". Planning Protocol: I would evaluate this video as a Rigor and Relevance of 4 as each student has an opportunity to engage with the content through differentiated activities suited to their individual learning needs. I feel this particular video was very useful in demonstrating various strategies for differentiating the lesson content to make it accessible to learners of various levels of proficiency. These methods could be extremely helpful in differentiating the content of my SMART Goal to ensure that every student has a opportunity to improve their writing skills according their level of skill.
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    Planning Protocol: Impact on Learning would be a good reflection on this video because the instructor is differentiating the lesson based on the data she has to make sure each student has some type of impact on his or hers learning. I think differentiating the lesson will have a huge impact on each students learning. The SMART Goal that I will be using is "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." I think this video will be a great instructional tactic because the lesson is differentiated based on the student. With the data the instructor has, the student will be able to receive more help that will help them respond and defend their work on grade level. With students that need more help with sentences.... a sentence starter can be used to help support them.
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    From the Planning Protocol Rubric I choose to relate this video to the dimension "Rigor and Relevance": At the Highest level-Students think and work. All students in this video are being challenged in very different ways this leading them to think and work independently and collaboratively. This teacher does a phenomenal job at differentiating her material on all levels. All students are doing the same work on the reading assignment however the avenue in which they give there response are different. She is able to give each student the support they need ahead of time so that students don't feel singled out. By doing this the students often feel empowered to be able to complete the assignment because they know the supports they need will be available to them. This also allows the teacher to go directly to the students who need extra support because the higher students have the challenges they need as well to not become board with the lesson. The SMART Goal I am focusing on this is one of my team 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" Our team could defiantly translate the instructional tactic used in this video to the above SMART goal. The teacher in the video is targeting specific learning goals in her instruction by reaching students at their specific needs and helping guide them all in the same direction teaching the same topic just in different ways. The above SMART goal is all about targeting instruction for the PARCC assessment to improve students scores. All students will have to take the same assessment however the supports they need along the way will be different.
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    This video had some great ideas especially about differentiation that could be used for me to achieve my SMART goal of 100% pass rate for standardized English Language tests amount a targeted group. The teacher's method of pre-arranged assignments to prevent students from feeling singled out is very clever, and especially important for students in that age group. I could see myself adapting these strategies for use in many different classes. From the dimension of 'teacher friendliness' I do think these tactics are not necessarily teacher friendly, but they sure seem to be worth it if it means positive student outcomes.
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    EDTC615 Fall2018 Group 6 Dimension: Teacher Friendliness My SMART target goal is the percentage of students who will score 90% will increase by 80%. This means that 80% of the students will score 90%. The instructional tactic I will use from this video is teacher friendliness. In the video, the teacher displays high level of support, and maintenance with the students. She showed how she provided materials to the students and go over the materials in the class. She also does some great prep work as well. She was seen going around the students table to provide supported as needed. This is very relevant tactic that can be used by my team. The data we both presented covers teaching Microsoft suite-excel, access, word and powerpoint. The instructional style boarders greatly on simulation training, grader activities, grader projects and hands-on practice. In this regard, it is important for the instructor to provide high maintenance and support the students as needed. For instance, during simulation training, the instructor needs to go around the class to assist individual student as needed. The instructor should also provide students will relevant materials and resources to help them achieve success. For instance, in meeting this goal, during our review, we realized that we should teach the topics using 2016 applications as against 2013 applications. This guide of quest was born out of our desire to promote students friendly learning environment. EDTC615 Fall2018
kmthoms5

Analyzing Differentiation in the Classroom - 0 views

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    Week 8: Dave and Kristina This article is found by searching "differentiation" in the MEd Program Diigo. This article is mainly about how teachers need to continue to observed and held accountable for their teaching methods in order to best educate high-ability learners. According to VanTassel Baska (2012), "teacher effectiveness has been shown to be the main determinant of student progress." The author is of the belief that if teachers are continually observed, sometimes in an unannounced situation, that they will continue to teach using complex higher order behaviors and that this is the way that gifted students will learn best. Teachers in our group can use this article to understand the reasoning behind continual professional development and observation. Both of us teach gifted students in our classes and we need to remember that these students need to provide extended activities for these students and that we need to consider if our lessons include the use of higher level skills. Often time as teachers, we tend to focus more on the students that struggle academically but, we need to remember that our gifted students also need extra support as well so that they are able to grow as learners. References VanTassel-Baska, J. (2012). Analyzing Differentiation in the Classroom: Using the COS-R. Gifted Child Today, 35(1), 42-48. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1177/1076217511427431
donero37

Closing the Achievement Gap - Educational Leadership - 38 views

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    In order to increase the achievement levels of minorities and low income students, there are three components that are the focus: high standards, a rigorous curriculum, and effective educators.
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    Caryn, I like that this article not only realistically talks about the historic and growing achievement gap, but that it also provides potential solutions. Not surprisingly, most of the solutions whether they be standards, curriculum, or teacher-based are all easily manageable. The only trick is to actually get some forward momentum on this decade's old issue. Victoria
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    Caryn, I'm reminded of the old educational psychology experiment where teachers were given false information about student abilities. Teachers who were told that a class was full of 'high performing' pupils ended up doing more high end assignments and pushing the students to do better while teachers were told their pupils were 'low achieving' did remedial assignments and barely pushed them to improve. I teach in a very diverse and low SES school, but I always do my best to assume that all of my students are able to do the high level work I assign in Physics. I also agree whole heartedly when then article claimed that teachers have to give extra help to students who are already at a disadvantage. My students do quite well when they apply themselves, but often that means they have to see me during lunch, after school, or even on Saturdays (when I work at a Saturday school program). Many students have jobs to help out their families or need to be home right after school to babysit siblings or to cook supper, etc. I find that the more time I can devote to being available to students, the better my classes perform. I must say however I would like to see an update to this. When it was talking about the lack of progress of students in the 1990s and then discussed 'data in the last 5 years..' I had to scroll up to the date of the article. Being that it is almost 15 years old, I was sad to see how many of the gaps still exist in our schools...
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    Combining standards, high standards for all learners and highly qualified teachers helps to close the learning gap.
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    I was very interested in this article because I teach at a title 1 school in MCPS. Majority of my students are minorities or low income students. Our FARMS percentage is extremely high. I do not mean to repeat what Caryn had posted earlier but I mean to piggyback on her comment "To increase the achievement levels of minority and low-income students, we need to focus on what really matters: high standards, a challenging curriculum, and good teachers." I know this to be true in my classroom. For my students I have to high expectations and structure. I have to present them with a challenging curriculum. I need to devote myself and give them all I can. But, progress has come to a halt, which happened around 1988, and since that time, the gaps have widened. To me that is frightening and it makes me want to act immediately. "Because if we don't get the numbers out on the table and talk about them, we're never going to close the gap once and for all." People need to not be afraid of talking about the data, addressing the data, conquering the data. But in order for none to take offense everyone needs to know the correct data. Before speaking, people need to be educated. There simply cannot be "downright wrong-notions about the whys beneath the achievement gap." This article is great and goes on to give us proper data. It informs us of what needs to happen in order to close the gap: standards are key, all students must have challenging curriculum, students need extra help, and teachers MATTER A LOT.
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    Looks into why the instructional gap has widened after 1988 after having been narrowed the previous 18 years.  Offers patterns and key concepts to look at when trying to understand how to close these gaps.
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    I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article as it relates to the student achievement gap. I currently teach at a Title 1 school in Prince George's County where majority of my students are working at a level below their perspective grade. This article does a great job breaking down the statistics and providing steps to move forward in solving this major issue. Lesson 1 spoke to me directly because the teaching and comprehension of standards are the building blocks of students growth. I reinforce the focus standard(s) of the week by way of intervention, homework, informal, and formal assessment. This article is very VALUABLE!!!
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    I love the lessons outlined in this resource. I especially like how Lesson 4 places a focus on the teachers and how they matter. In impoverished schools, many times the most qualified and effective teachers do not want to be there, therefore limiting the quality of teachers present. It is unfortunate that this happens but it is very common.
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    Helpful article on closing the gap with low income and minority students.
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    While this article came out too long ago to have up to date technological solutions, it still offers a brief, helpful framework for looking to improve classroom outcomes.
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    Excellent resource laying out the achievement gap problem (with data) and valuable solutions to close the gap.
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    This resource does an excellent job of breaking down and making sense of the achievement gap. When the numbers are presented in this way, it makes it clear just how wide that gap is and how worrying it is that the gap is once again increasing. The most interesting piece of the article was the stark contrast in the reasons for the gap between adult stakeholders and student stakeholders. The adults appear to place blame on factors beyond the classroom that are difficult to control, while the students highlight the growing concerns within the walls of the schools that are much more actionable.
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    The points in this article are personal to me as I teach adults at a Community College. In every cohort that I have 50% of my students have difficulty writing a cogent paragraph and 90% of them have never heard of an academic journal. While this is not part of my curriculum, I also teach these things. My students need to be sent into the workforce being able to participate in conversations in the workplace.
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    The article really breaks down what happens to students during high school where they fall behind to move forward in attending college. One thing they mention is test scores. To attend college students have to take and pass a standardized test that determines of they will get into college and what college they can get into. I believe community college is a great way to bridge the gap between high school and a university. There they can determine a major and may attend school part time while still working. This gives them the time to determine what they want to do in life while still being able to survive.
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    We should understand how race, poverty and the environment influences a child's potential in education before they even start Kindergarten. But like a disabilites or inequities there is diversity in the factors that cause these disparities and our solutions to remedies these gaps must offer a multifaceted approach. An approach that offers rigors instruction in the classrooms, access and guidance for continued learning at home and within our communities.
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    This post hits home, as I see it at my Title I school. Students struggle but even the students passing AP classes and Honors courses, yet when they see the SAT's or the ACT's. Last year, my school's valedictorian only got a 1000 on the SAT and did not get to attend her first choice. We, as a school, and larger, we as educators need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to get these students to get past whatever challenges exist outside of the school and have strict standards that need to be met.
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    This a great resource for every teacher.
melrichardson21

Exit Tickets | EL Education - 15 views

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    "At the end of class, students write on note cards or slips of paper an important idea they learned, a question they have, a prediction about what will come next, or a thought about the lesson for the day. Alternatively, students could turn-in such a response at the start of the next day-either based on the learning from the day before or the previous night's homework. These quick writes can be used to assess students' knowledge or to make decisions about next teaching steps or points that need clarifying. This reflection helps students to focus as they enter the classroom or solidifies learning before they leave."
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    My Smart goal is that "By the end of the numbers unit, 60% of students in the Special Education program in MS Spanish 1A - Period 2 will achieve 80% or higher on each formative assessment including listening, speaking and writing assessments." During our meetings we have noticed a significant gap in my pd. 2 in my SPED students. By using exit tickets, I can continuously gauge how well these specific students are understanding the new material of the week before getting to the formal formative assessment on Fridays. These exit tickets can be modified to include speaking and listening skills depending on where the formative reveals the greatest need is. - Margarita
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    This video using exit tickets is a great resource for my classroom. My SMART goal is Given 2 months of guided reading instruction, students in below grade-level reading groups will increase their reading level by at least two levels." Using the planning protocol I rated this a 4 in the aligned to the standards category. I could create quick exit tickets based on the story my students are reading. The students could answer the question and I could quickly assess whether they were able to comprehend and understand the story which is a part of my smart goal. Reading comprehension is an important factor when testing students' reading level. I would love to use this in my classroom.
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    Smart Target Learning Goal is by the end of marking period 1, 70% of students will score 90% or higher on the EMATS/ performance matters. This will allow me to see where students are still needing understanding about the topic that is being taught. The dimension would be depth of knowledge with 1:recall. This is something that students need to be able to do short hand before they can recall later on.
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    SMART GOAL: At least 80% of students in grade two will be reading level K books or above by the end of 6 weeks. (Julie's goal) Dimension: Alignment to Standards Impact: 2 Reason: Exit tickets are self-assessment questions prepared by teachers, often based on learning goals, that are to be completed by students. Since Julie's Smart Goal is based on measurement (80% of students), I believe that Exit Tickets will give her insight on the percentage of her students that illustrate her students reading comprehension levels. For Julie's Exit Tickets, I think that questions she pose should require answers in the form of explanations from students because I believe it would be the most effective way to help her detect the students that may require extra support. If there is not a common theme to student responses, then it may be an instruction gap that is the issue; if so, Julie would need to ensure that the curriculum/lesson plans correlate with state standards.
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    Smart Target Learning Goal: By the of Unit 5, 80% of students will score at least 70% on the end of unit assessment. My biggest problem is getting students to retain the important information that will be tested upon. Exit tickets will give me an incite to how well students are retaining the class content by creating exit tickets that are similar to exam questions at the end of a lesson where they learned the content to which the question related. This not only allows me to see if they learned the content but also will allow me to see which types of mistakes the students are making in regards to the test. From here my I will be able to modify my lessons in order to insure that my students are in line with the exam.
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    Smart Target Learning Goal: By the of Unit 5, 80% of students will score at least 70% on the end of unit assessment. My biggest problem is getting students to retain the important information that will be tested upon. Exit tickets will give me an incite to how well students are retaining the class content by creating exit tickets that are similar to exam questions at the end of a lesson where they learned the content to which the question related. This not only allows me to see if they learned the content but also will allow me to see which types of mistakes the students are making in regards to the test. From here my I will be able to modify my lessons in order to insure that my students are in line with the exam.
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    Dimension: Rigor and Relevance Impact: 4 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. Exit tickets are an excellent way for the students to show their ability to comprehend the text by answering a text dependent question about the story that they have read during guided reading. This will give the teacher an insight on the level of comprehension that they student has for that level book that is being read. This is much more rigorous than just asking and answering questions because students are applying the knowledge of the story into the writing that they are doing about the book.
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    Hi Elijah! I think the issue is sometimes students do have difficulty retaining the information. I think that the exit tickets will also give you insight into a few different dimensions from the protocol worksheet as well. My SMART goal is by the end of the marking, 80% or higher of students will score a 90% or higher on a base ten assessment. So I think looking at the exit tickets based on the dimensions you should look into student engagement. Since this is important when it comes to exit tickets. If students are not engaged during the lesson then the exit tickets is pretty much showing that the students retained nothing. I think that teachers should always shoot for a 3 or 4 based on the protocol. That way students retention of the information is greater therefore, exit tickets are hopefully higher.
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    Video: Exit Tickets Dimension Teacher Friendliness: Score: 3 I rate this strategy as a 3 in terms of teacher friendliness (3 = "low maintenance few materials and/or little prep work). With exit tickets, teachers can ask students to answer simple questions regarding the day's lesson in order to get a sense of students' understanding. This strategy involves little work to prepare for but provides a lot of insight into how to guide future instruction. There may be topics that many students misunderstood or areas that individual students need support in. The SMART goal I considered while watching this video is raising scores in AP Bio for select students who have not taken AP or advanced classes science classes before. I think exit tickets are a low maintenance way to guage which specific areas to focus on for these students.
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    Dimension: Impact on Learning Rating: 3- Medium-high impact SMART Goal: By the end of the marking, 80% or higher of students will score a 90% or higher on a base ten assessment. Exit tickets are a useful way to help both students and teachers recognize individual student mastery of a topic or skill. Since exit tickets informally assess student learning from that class period, there would be no impact on student learning as students are completing the task. However, teachers can use the information gathered from exit tickets to inform their instruction for the next days instruction. For instance, my groupmate could assign an exit card with 2-3 problems related to that day's lesson. After students complete the exit tickets, the teacher could evaluate to see who struggled and with what particular strategy. The teacher could then use that information to form small groups and provide re-teaching/alternate instruction as necessary. This ultimately will help students receive more personalized instruction thus enhancing impact on learning.
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    I agree that exit tickets are a useful way to evaluate mastery of a concept; however, I do feel they have an impact on student learning as they're completing the task. As students complete an exit card, it requires thought and skill to demonstrate your understanding. Sometimes students make mistakes on exit cards, which helps students learn and grow. This strategy would be helpful as I implement my plan to reach my SMART goal. My SMART goal is "by the end of Marking Period 3, ELL students identified will be able to explain how to solve for an unknown number in an equation with at least 80% accuracy ." Exit card would be extremely helpful in the process of determining necessary supports and areas of need as I complete my action plan. On the planning protocol rubric, I would rate this a four in the dimension of alignment to standards. Exit cards are directly related to what you have taught from the curriculum and therefore align with the standards. This is a great way to evaluate students quickly and frequently on the standards.
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    Dimension: Depth of Knowledge Rating: 3 - strategic reasoning SMART goal: 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. I believe that my team would be able to use this instructional tactic because we could use the exit card to see if students meet the SMART goal. I think that exit cards are a powerful tool for teachers to use because it shows instant data of student performance. It is a quick and informal way to see if students understand the concept or not. This video provides a unique way to students to use/take an exit card in the classroom. We could take ideas from this video and apply to it our own classroom.
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    I like the fact that students assess themselves (based on the learning target). They also give feedback to one another. In this model teachers can adjust instruction based on how students feel they reached learning targets. I am wondering, though, whether or not young students have enough self-realization to understand how they performed during a given lesson. If we're asking them to rate themselves, we have to hope that they understand how important this is, and what it really means. How does this video address dimensions in the 'Planning Protocol Rubric?' Since most of the dimensions were addressed (in other comments here), I'll comment on this video's ways of addressing 'Technology Integration.' No technology integration seen (though it's certainly possible that it may have occurred during the lesson and before this video was taken). Technology Integration level (based on the available video): 1. 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. (The ESOL RELA [WIDA Access] pre-test was given approximately one month ago, while the baseline math pre-test was developed by our school's math department [and contains test stems from past PARCC exams].)" The 'exit ticket' approach can be used in any classroom, but with ESOL learners it might be more difficult to ascertain whether or not they have understood the question/s on the exit ticket sheet. And again, do they have the skills, understanding and self-realization necessary to rate themselves on how they do in a given classroom on a daily basis?
melrichardson21

Helping All Learners: Tiering | EL Education - 14 views

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    A useful module that explains how tiering can provide help learners learn better and has videos of examples. This can help improve Smart Goals for improvement in assessments, and homework and classroom performance.
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    My groups (Group 4, ETDC615) SMART learning goal is "Given 1 month of supplemental biology instruction, students who are currently in AP Biology but took lower level Biology 1, will score at least a 3 on their next unit exam." This EL Education video focuses on using a tiering system of differentiation to make all the content available for all students to learn. Looking at this lesson in terms of impact on learning, it has a potential to have a high impact on student learning. By differentiated the material to different tiers based on students current skills the students are more likely to be successful, because the material will be the right level of engaging/challenging for each student. This lesson method could be used for my groups SMART goal, because I could do a better job to differentiate the material to make up for the learning gaps that students that came from low level biology one have.
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    Tiering a lesson is the act of differentiating content to create learning opportunities for all students and allow for the accessibility of content to all students. The learning goal for my group is that students will be able to analyze word problems to identify mathematical components needed to solve complex word problems and apply them to real-life problems and scenarios. Because many of my students struggle with extracting information from word problems, which in turn leads them to an incorrect solution, I believe that tiering would help students access problem-solving strategies in a way that is most helpful to them. While there is an emphasis on showing multiple strategies, it may help students to tier the content in a way that makes sense for the student. Having students circle all important numbers only helps if a student understands why those numbers are important. Tiering may be the way to help bring that understanding to them. Tiering is best evaluated using the impact on learning dimension because differentiation does have a high impact on learning. Allowing students better access to content in a way in which they understand, and puts them in control will impact their learning for years to come.
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    This is a great article for our start goal because it discusses how to help all learners and improve assessments which will help those students in need.
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    This video about differentiation in teaching provides the dimension of a high impact on learning. The ideal is to provide equivalent learning activities that cater to the students' strengths but bring all of the students to the same learning objective. On one end of the spectrum is the one-size-fits-all learning activity, while on the other end is the completely individualized learning plan for each student. Catering to different students learning styles can help achieve the SMART goal of : By the end of the month, give practice tests the day before exams with at least 75% scoring at least 75%.
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    I enjoyed the video on Tiering. Our teams' SMART goal is, "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." I think an important concept to note, is that this activity has a high Impact on Learning because it differentiates for the particular needs of each student. This process also encourages Student Engagement, which allows for the students to work comfortably in a peer environment. By having more time to plan differentiated work to meet simultaneous goals between students, the teacher is also scaffolding. The teacher is giving support to students who need it and to also challenge those students to maintain interest or to continue the work of those who have mastered a specific skill but may need more advanced strategies to continue the upward curve of learning. EDTC 615 Fall2018
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    With the video, the topic of towering the lesson is shown. With my SMART goal focusing on the 11th graders in my health education classes, it I'm important for me to address all the educational needs of my students. Currently, I use DI in my classes and I found a piece of information from the video that can I can begin to implement. The teacher had her students raise their hand with chosen number of fingers in the air. The number represents the level that each student feels they are on in regards to understanding the topic. While the exact way this strategy is used is not something I think will be effective with my high school students, the number system is. I can have my students write and post their perceived number and explain why they chose that number. Then, I can see the comfortability each student has with the topic. THey would have to apply extended reasoning which is a respresentation of depth of knowledge from the planning protocol rubric. EDTC Fall2018 EL
sfcanady

​8 Proven Ways to Help Close the Achievement Gap | EdSurge News - 13 views

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    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.
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    Emotional start, easy to read eight part checklist that can help bridge the instructional gap; good tools to make sure all is being done to properly cater towards the full comprehension of material by students.
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    This short article highlights years of research that examined the racial achievement gap. Research and finding suggest that much of what accounts for the disparities in achievement is attributed to socioeconomic factors. The article offers 8 ways for closing the gap among those most impacted based on the findings and best practices.
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    Great article. Another source of proof that higher levels of expectations and rigor really do help close the gap. I also like that they reinforce the value of school and home connection.
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    This article talks about using assessments to tell if interventions are working, this like a response to intervention. Raising the bar for the student to they can be successful. Monitor the students progress on a monthly basis and get the parents involved
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    When we met, April's mother was in drug rehabilitation and her father was in jail. She would stare at the ground and rarely utter a word. I was a sophomore in college and was serving as April's mentor; I feared that we might never develop a close relationship.
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    When we met, April's mother was in drug rehabilitation and her father was in jail. She would stare at the ground and rarely utter a word. I was a sophomore in college and was serving as April's mentor; I feared that we might never develop a close relationship.
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    I almost put this article up myself. Very moving.
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    This article highlights 8 ways to provide educational gains to students needing them most. The goal is closing the achievement gap between struggling learners and high performing students. 1. Use Evidence-Based Instruction, 2. Provide a Rigorous Curriculum, 3. Increase Instructional Time, 4. Introduce Supplemental Instruction, 5. Monitor Progress, Ideally Monthly, 6. Motivate & Engage, 7. Deepen Professional Development, 8. Link School and Home
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    This is a great article that highlights different things that can be done in the classroom to close the achievement gap the two that I think are most important are the increased instructional time, and link between school and home. I think almost every teacher has wished for more instructional time in the classroom, I know I only see my students every other day and I often think about how much more I could teach them if I saw them every day like math and ELA. I also think the communication between home and school is important to a student's ability to learn.
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    Great article! I like how it was connected to an inspirational story. I like how each of the ways was described. Often in the busyness of teaching, it's good to have reminders of what is needed, so that you can strengthen weaknesses.
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    (Week 9: Sheila, Suzanne and Cathy) This article is accessible through the link above. This article explains eight ways educators can inspire academic advancements in students, especially students from lower socioeconomic statuses. While mentoring the author gain insight on how to help close the achievement gap. The writer and her team identified that evidence base instruction, a rigorous curriculum, increased instructional time, supplemental instruction, progress monitoring, motivating and engaging, professional development, and a link to school and home would accomplish those gains. The author believes that "if teachers know about and follow those suggestions they could help close the achievement gap." (Fisher, 2015) This article can be a great resource for teachers. Many of the suggestions could be incorporated by most teachers. However, the article also assumes that if followed these eight tools will close the achievement gap. The author also does not explain how teachers can increase instructional time. Reference: Fisher, O. (Oct 2015). 8 proven ways to help close the achievement gap. Istation. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-10-27-8-proven-ways-to-help-close-the-achievement-gap
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    The article was very informative. I especially liked the 8th suggestion, "Link home and school." This is an essential piece that I think educators need to do a better job with for at-risk students. When there are more people engaged and involved, students have a broader network of support to ensure success. We need to do more community outreach to help our students improve both academically and in the broader sense.
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    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.
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    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.
cheneymele

Why Kids Need to Move, Touch and Experience to Learn | MindShift - 2 views

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    This KQED blog post provides information on current and past research that indicates how important movement and the use of our bodies are to learning. This research is called "embodied learning". The discussion on highly decorated classrooms is worth further exploration. This would be another great article for a text-based discussion in a PLC. The math and physics examples can be adapted for other content areas for use as instructional strategies.
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    (Week 9: Benjamin, Cheney, and Gretchen) This article is accessible through the link provided above. The main focus of this article is to inform educators of the positive effects movement can have on student learning. This article provides a series of studies where students were presented with different problems, mostly math, and encouraged to represent the problems with movement. Students who used physical movement to represent and solve mathematical problems demonstrated higher levels of success than their age-related peers who simply solved by reading a problem to themselves or aloud. This article is useful for all members of my team as it suggests methods for adapting physical movement to all content areas. Within this article it is suggested ""When students use their bodies in the learning process, it can have a big effect, even if it seems silly or unconnected to the learning goal at hand" (Schwartz, 2015). I think most teachers can find reassurance from this research-based article knowing that the implementation of movement doesn't have to fit directly with curriculum unit. The teachers within my specific team can use the practice of movement as an alternative method for instructing desired skills such as decoding strategies for reading or identifying/constructing numbers in base ten. Reference Schwartz, K. (2015, March 26). Why kids need to move, touch, and experience to learn. Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/39684/why-kids-need-to-move-touch-and-experience-to-learn
mbnorthark

Give One, Get One, Move On (Go Go Mo) | EL Education - 16 views

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    this is a "protocol students can use to share and gain knowledge in preparation for an assessment."
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    Dimension chosen: Student engagment Rating: 3 (Moderate engagement for most students) This activity would be good for preparing for my SMART learning goal of "by the end of quarter 1, 60% of students will score a 70% or higher on the Quarter 1 Literacy Assessment on Theme." Students could read a text and then come up with various themes based on their own evidence by passing around the clipboard. I think it would be engaging for majority of my fourth grade students to be able to move around and see new ideas from their classmates.
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    Dimension: Student Engagement Level: 3 (Moderate Engagement for most students) My partner's SMART goal is "By the end of the numbers unit, 60% of students in the Special Education program in MS Spanish 1A - Period 2 will achieve 80% or higher on each formative assessment including listening, speaking and writing assessments." I could see this GoGoMo protocol as a useful way to both check for understanding and review before upcoming Spanish assessments. Students could help each other review the material, and having to speak to other students also helps them practice in the target language. Also, because students are speaking to multiple other students, it helps keep them active and engaged with this class task.
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    Dimension chosen: Student engagement Rating: 3 This activity would be great to review different strategies to solve a certain math problem. Smart Target Learning Goal: By the end of marking period 1, 70% of students will score 90% or higher on the EMATS/ performance matters. This will help the students remember all the different strategies, the more practice the more likely they are going to remember different ways to solve when the assessment happens.
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    Dimension: Impact on learning Rating: 4 Students have to be able to reflect on their learning and they also be prepared to summarize it and present it to their peers. This repetition and organization of their learning will help them remember it better and possibly understand it in new ways.
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    Dimension: Student engagement Rating: 4 This is a good activity to allow students to collaborate and share ideas. It will allow them to focus on a specific topic (essay) by explaining and allowing interactions with peers so that students are not only reading but they understand that writing takes focus. This is useful in supporting my team's SMART Goal achievement for improving their writing proficiency for the 5th grade students so they are able to reach their WIDA exiting level of 4.4 because students will be able to remember what they are learning. As a writing tool, this concept would help to initiate a meaningful asset for improving a student's skills of communication and concepts of what is needed to form a proper essay for writing. It promotes brainstorming for supporting a topic of discussion.
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    Smart Target Learning Goal(s): By the of Unit 5, 80% of students will score at least 70% on the end of unit assessment By the end of the quarter, 80% of students will obtain a 60% or higher in Algebra 1 By the end of the unit, 50% of students will score 70% or higher on the assessment. Impact on learning - Using this protocol the teacher would be able to see what pieces of the content students are comfortable with and which pieces students are unsure about. This match my teams goals as we all wish to improve test scores. In our groups we noticed that there are gaps in the students learning across the board in specific areas. If we all implement this protocol we would be able to see what students do not understand and make sure to go over it before any assessments.
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    This protocol uses the most basic collaboration tool of pen and paper. My focus dimension is techonolgy integration. There are several options that can be used to integrate techonlogy but not overly complex to distract the students from the instructor's assigned topic. Students ciuld use googke drive, wiggio, padlet, recap, etc. SMART GOAL * For students to be able to analyze word problems to identify mathematical components needed to solve complex word problems and apply them to real life problems and scenarios. * Extending learning units when covering quadratic equations. Assign weekly formative tests to better track progress and adjust to students individual needs. The formative tests should only be 3-5 questions to be able to show progress and allow the teacher enough time to give detailed feedback but also adjust teaching strategy if necessary. * Goal is to show 90% student improvement from beginning of unit to the end of unit. * The games introduced will directly work to improve reading comprehension and application of quadratic formulas on multiple skill levels. * Time to complete goal is a unit of study, optimally 12-16 weeks. I would use this protocol with this SMART goal in the begining of a lesson as a way for students to share and monitor their own progress. However, the protocol does not allow for the teacher to be able to give direct feedback and adjust lessons. This is a huge part of the goal. If one of the technology tools was integrated into the lesson, it would allow the teacher to monitor progress easier and more individually.
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    I would rate the Go Go Mo protocol a 4 in the Rigor and Relevance dimension. While using this protocol, students are not only thinking (when they are giving) but also working. Students are actively moving around the classroom seeking out others from whom they can get new information. The teacher also suggested that they take their readings with them, which may hint at the fact that may still need to actively search for information. My group's SMART goal is that students will be able to analyze word problems to identify mathematical components needed to solve complex word problems and apply them to real-life problems and scenarios. This method could be effective (may be used on a smaller scale with 2-3 people for word problems) in that all students will have to identify information that they deem important and share with their classmates. From here, they can begin to decide what information is actually most important to solving the problem that is proposed and work together to solve the problem.
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    This activity will help close the learning gap by enabling collaboration and information sharing between students prior to exams.
rcourtot1015

Bridging Gaps in Language, Literacy, and Achievement - 2 views

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    This article discusses academic vocabulary and how it can have an impact on the achievement gap.
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    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.
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    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.
smartinez65

Helping Diverse Struggling Readers Through Reflective Teaching and Coaching - 6 views

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

Resource area for teaching - 6 views

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    With all the areas that children are taught in school, the author feels that while trying work at the achievement gap we should look at the engagement gap. The eagerness that children have a young age needs to be maintained. Hands-on learning should be implemented into the lesson.
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    This article hits the nail on the head! At my school we are redesigning our language program to a more student-centered, hands-on instructional approach. I think it is very important to change up the old ways of teaching and find new ways that really engage students. This year, I took out all the desks in my room. Taking down that physical barrier has helped to improve student engagement. We sit or stand in a circle and students are much more motivated! Including games and activities that connect to students' interest is also important.
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    This is a great article focusing on engagement in the classroom! It discusses the necessity of hands on learning to maintain students interest. This is important for students of all academic levels. Hands on learning not only engages students because they are "doing", they also are developing critical thinking skills. As a special education teacher, I know that in order to assist my students in learning, I need to keep their attention and provide them with interesting, hands on learning.
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    I love this article! I have always been a strong believer in hands on learning and I love that they call it an engagement gap! Students get bored when a teacher gets up and lectures them all day. They need to be engaged! The activities need to be purposeful and have a specific meaning but a teacher can make just about any topic engaging just by getting the kids moving and interacting. I 100% agree that students retain information longer when they are engaged and enjoying what they are learning.
jfahie

http://www.shapeamerica.org/advocacy/resources/toolkit/upload/A-in-A_March-April-14.pdf - 1 views

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    This article discusses the need to create a physical education program that is student-centered as well as standards based. The authors briefly discuss the Integrative Model for Learning and Motivation. This model focuses on three psychological that need to be present in the learning environment for students to achieve: autonomy; competence; relatedness. The thoughts expressed in this brief discussion can be used in all classes to help create an optimal learning environment that motivates students to learn.
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    Intrinsic motivation is clearly an issue with students in our data. The data shows that they often choose not to participate in assessments, which clearly demonstrates that there is no motivation from within to receive good grades. The models discussed in the article can be used in all classrooms, not just P.E.
Samantha Biskach

Slideshare - 6 views

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    Why reinvent the wheel when making PowerPoint presentations? This online tool is used to upload and download PowerPoint presentations and visuals on all sorts of topics. Users may search for an already created PowerPoint on a subject they may teach and download it for their own teaching purposes. Although this online source is open to anyone, it can be used in any classroom content or subject area under discussion; however, a teacher may need to customize sample PowerPoint presentations to fit their classroom needs. For example, if a language arts teacher needed to give notes on grammar and parts of speech, they may search for a PowerPoint already made including that information. This tool saves teacher time and helps spark ideas!
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    This is pretty neat. It reminds me of the "SmartExchange," resource site for SmartBoards. Only this would be the powerpoint/presentation equivalent. Nice find.
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    The tool I posted is Slideshare, a presentation platform where users can post PowerPoint presentations they have created for their classrooms or even businesses. I have used this tool in the past in order to find ready made notes presentations I could present to my 6th grade language arts students. The great thing about about Slideshare is that I can use already created PPTs and customize them to fit my students needs. I definitely recommend this site for the teacher who just doesn't seem to have extra time to create all new notes presentations. Don't reinvent the wheel!
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    Samantha- Are the PPTs all Creative Commons then? You are free to use, and alter?
Jim Sweigert

Closing the ELL/ESL Achievement Gap with Blended Learning - 1 views

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    "Closing the ELL/ESL Achievement Gap with Blended Learning," by Debbie Malone. Type of post: Strategies (in a sort of blog). This is an interesting article about helping ESOL/ELL students. Some important "take-aways," according to the author (regarding the blended learning approach she advocates): "However, one of the most valuable tools provided by online and blended learning programs is their continual checks for understanding, which provide educators with real-time actionable data. This helps teachers gauge whether their ELL/ESL students are keeping up with the rest of the class or whether they need more assistance. Educators can then spend more time working with individual students in areas where they are struggling and prevent problems from snowballing. "But technology can't solve all of the problems associated with the growing achievement gap between ELL/ESL students and native English speakers. Many educators have reported a lack of funding or personal development geared toward addressing the needs of ELL/ESL learners. Technology can, however, be leveraged to personalize the learning experience for these students. "Because the human element of the student-teacher relationship is still a vital classroom component, especially for ELL/ESL students, a blended learning classroom offers an ideal way to cultivate that relationship. Building on that, it may also be the answer to creating a more effective learning environment that lowers the language barrier for educators and increases academic achievement for ELL/ESL students." Great points! As the fictional movie character Borat used to say, "I like." However, I would like to see additional (and empirical) evidence. I do agree with the author on many points, though I would enjoy seeing a research study on this. Malone, D. (2014, November 12). Closing the ELL/ESL Achievement Gap with Blended Learning. Retrieved from https://blog.edgenuity.com/closing-the-ellesl-achievement-gap-through
pgbelliveau

How Partners in School Innovation is addressing the Teaching Gap | Partners in School I... - 1 views

  • (“To Close the Achievement Gap, We Need to Close the Teaching Gap”),
  • The teaching gap refers to disparities between the working conditions and level of support for teachers in the United States and their counterparts in other industrialized nations. 
  • teachers in the U.S. have larger class sizes, spend more time directly teaching children
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  • work more hours per week than the international average.
  • Perhaps most importantly, U.S. teachers have less time for planning, collaboration and access to quality professional development when compared with teachers in other countries.
  • PLCs, including one that supported kindergarten teachers to integrate Common Core-aligned writing into their everyday practice.
  • eachers came together three times throughout the year to learn about the three genres of Common Core writing (narrative, informative and opinion), score writing assessments, analyze student writing samples, set writing goals for their students and plan writing instruction that specifically met the needs of English learners. The learning from the PLC was then supported through collaboration at their school sites throughout the year.
  • professional learning helped them make significant changes in their approaches to writing instruction, resulting in improved performance of kindergarten students. Specifically, those students outperformed all other grades on the district’s end-of-year writing assessment.
  • student achievement increases when teachers have time to learn and plan together.
  • teachers were able to consistently and systematically reflect on student data and their instructional practice. In addition, teachers created clear, measurable goals and designed instructional plans that met the needs of their English learners.
  • advocate for policies that will help close the teaching gap
  • providing development on the instructional shifts within the Common Core, supporting teachers to collaboratively design and refine CCSS-based units and lessons, and providing professional development on how to assess CCSS mastery.
  • providing opportunities for teachers to engage in professional development and collaboration around creating culturally and linguistically responsive lessons and classroom learning environments that reflect the identities of their students
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    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.
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    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.
cbeard615

Early Identification of Student Performance and Effort Using an Online Homework System:... - 0 views

shared by cbeard615 on 26 Mar 18 - No Cached
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    (Week 8: Cathy, Sheila, Suzanne) This article is accessible through the link given above or by accessing the UMUC Library. This journal article focused on a study that looked at using an online homework system to identify struggling students early in the semester of a chemistry class. The program studied was Mastering Chemistry, a program supplied by Pearson textbook company. The article identified that students who took longer to complete the homework correlated ~65% of the time with students who did poorly in the class. By having an early detection system in place for struggling students, teachers could supply additional resources and modify instruction earlier than after the first exam. Teachers can benefit from utilizing electronic resources such as the Mastering Chemistry program mentioned in the article. One benefit is that teachers get immediate feedback on how much time students spend on homework and areas that students succeeded or struggled. According to the study, students who took longer to complete homework generally performed worse in the class. Utilizing the system to monitor student work can help teachers identify students who need intervention and topic areas that need clarification. References Perdian, D. (2013). Early Identification of Student Performance and Effort Using an Online Homework System: A Pilot Study. Journal Of Science Education & Technology, 22(5), 697-701. doi:10.1007/s10956-012-9423-7
celestel

What to Consider When Writing a Lesson Plan - 0 views

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    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.
principalsimons

Defining "Needs Assessment", "Learning Gaps" and the "Outcomes Measurement" Process. - 0 views

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    This article defines several key elements of the assessment process. Use it as a quick cheat sheet.
lvirgil

PROSPECTIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS' KNOWLEDGE IN MATHEMATICS AND PEDAGOGY FOR TEACHING ... - 0 views

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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.
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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.
Melinda Parsons

On-line course curricula and interactional strategies: The foundation and extensions t... - 2 views

This is an annotated bib for theories on adult education through distance education. Chaves, C. (2009). On-line course curricula and interactional strategies: The foundation and extensions to ad...

OMDE601

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