Group items tagged

Week 8: It's been called the fourth "R" of education: reading, writing, arithmetic and now, aerobics. But the gym class of generation Wii isn't the same one you probably remember from school. "You hear sometimes the old stories ... where you roll the ball out and students just played the game," says Hanna Vaandering, president of the Oregon Education Association.

The website helps guide teachers as well as parents to focus on the building blocks of reading and writing. This Pre-K guide is designed to walk teachers through several important building blocks, including sounds, print awareness, letters and more. Within each section, you'll find easy to read and use resources for learning more, and for trying some activities within your setting. Short videos bring concepts to life, booklists provide ideas for extension, and we provide guidance about when to have concerns about a child's development.

Navigate the inContext universe to explore reading, writing, and other language arts skills. You'll discover a giant network of terms, definitions, and activities; add your own examples to clarify terms; create, define, and illustrate new terms; and demonstrate what you've learned about a particular topic by writing a short paragraph in response to a summary question.

Edutopia is a great resource for lesson plan ideas and professional development. This article offers project-based learning opportunity for students learning simple circuits.

Week 8 - Virgil

This article by Sunday Cummins focuses on teaching students how to self-monitor while reading difficult texts. It suggests teaching students the coding method to help them learn how to self-monitor. Using meaningful symbols to mark up a text students learn how to evaluate what they understand and what they still need to comprehend as well how to go about achieving that deeper comprehension. (Week 7)

This article addresses aspects of my groups exploration of student reading level ability and achievement on state tests on critical reading. In this article, the author suggests the implementation of a coding method while reading in order to teach students how to self-inform their reading in order to improve upon the student's ability to conduct close readings of informational text. This is just the sort of strategy that could assist IEP and ESOL students (2 subset groups of struggling readers) to improve the learning gap when it comes to reading for meaning.

The article shows how you can encourage student dialogue. In this study, the class was given a cartoon showing characters discussing a new or current class topic that has common misconceptions associated with it. After viewing the cartoon, students are asked to take sides and either defend or refute one of the characters' opinions about what they are expressing. This helps students focus on the topic because they are not reading an article or passage that is asking for feedback, but rather they are taking part in a sort of 'debate' amongst these characters. It is a starting point for a student centered lesson and helps the students feel more at ease in defending or arguing a point; they are talking about ideas that the 'cartoon character' has instead of an idea or concept that 'they' came up with.

This article details the difference in achievement that has been attained by the KIPP charter schools in Baltimore, especially in middle schools. Although I was interested in how KIPP succeeded where so many others have failed, I realized that there are many differences between these schools and the school I teach in. (Parent & teacher buy-in, selectivity of the students they serve, etc). As such, I don't think the successes described here would be replicated at my school, with my 8th graders.

The article from Response To Intervention (RTI) focuses on ELLs and how we can support them with learning a new language. Some key points highlighted in the article that align to our teams EQ and would support ELL learners include: monitoring student progress 3 or more times a year, review a 3 tier system RTI outlines, and encourage general educators to participate in ESL/ESOL professional developments focused on meeting the needs of the ELLs in their classroom.

This free app is appropriate for anyone who can access a 3G or WiFi network to use all three sources (Thesaurus, Dictionary, and Translator). The application is invaluable for ESL students who can access the app via a mobile telephone for in-class assistance to hundreds of new words, definitions and translations.

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!

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!

Samantha- Are the PPTs all Creative Commons then? You are free to use, and alter?

This new PBS site includes not only lesson plans, but also different kinds of media, including the following: 1. Audio 2. Documents 3. Images 4. Interactives 5. Videos PBS has just recently opened this site, which allows educators to download video to their own computers or to play the file (full-screen if desired). Educators need to set up a free account in order to download files.

Even if you are not a fan of PBS, the teacher resources offered by PBS are extensive and encompass most content areas. Users can search by grade, content area, and topic.

I am eager to test out Slide Rocket. Seems like it surpasses PowerPoint and allows users to share and collaborate.

I just tried to use Slide Rocket and see that they are not accepting new users. They appear to have shifted to a company called clear view that is more for corporate use.

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

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

"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."

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.

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?

"In a jigsaw protocol small groups of students become experts in one section or text and hear oral summaries of the others. The protocol allows students to synthesize across texts and gain new understandings from their classmates about the topic as a whole."

EDTC615 FALL2018 My SMART goal is after one marking period of examining musical examples, 90% of students will be able to recognize musical notes and form. This protocol is going to have a high impact on the student learning because the students are able to discuss and dive deeper into their reading. I can apply this to my music class by handing students a piece of music and having them look for the form of the song and the musical notes. They then pair up with someone with the same song and go over the notes a form together.

Dimension: Student Engagement Rating: 4 - High engagement for most students I particularly enjoyed this strategy presented by fifth-grade teacher Jennifer Dauphinais. The highlights for me were the students engagement from the very beginning in stating the 'Learning Goal.' It's one thing for the teacher to know what the end-goal is, but it strengthens the activity when the student understands the "why." Having students become "experts" in their reading to then discuss details and main ideas in groups is a great recipe for reading comprehension. The students have the ability to hear different perspectives and everyone has a voice. I really enjoyed this. Author Daniel Venables challenges educators in his book, How Teachers Can Turn Data into an Action Plan to "do something different in the classroom" if one approach doesn't materialize student-learning (pp. 60). My gropu's SMART Target Learning Goal is for 75% of students will improve their informational text comprehension by 1 grade level. Dauphinais' 'Jigsaw' method is a fresh approach to literature instruction and could be a great tool for us to get the students to reach this goal. #EDTC615 #Spring2018

(Week 8: Mary, Jessica, and Sarah) This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. This journal article explains the willingness of teachers to differentiate assignments for their mixed-ability students. To show teacher's efficacy to differentiate assignments, a study is conducted between two school districts. The first school district is located in an urban area containing 4,000 students. The second school district is located in a suburban area with many students receiving free and reduced lunches. A Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale is used with the participants to see how often accommodations are made for students. This is a great journal article for all teachers to read! It is important to differentiate assignments for all students. A differentiated classroom is a place where children have resources to learn new information in different ways. As it is stated in the text, "Teachers who differentiate their instruction respond to learner needs in the way content is presented (the content dimension of differentiation), the way content is learned (the process dimension), and the ways students respond to the content (the product dimension). All these adaptations are designed to meet the individual characteristics of learners and to maximize their time in school" (Dixon, F. A., Yssel, N., McConnell, J. M., & Hardin, T., 2014). Through the study conducted in the article, teachers are able to see how important it is to attend professional developments to learn more about differentiation. References Dixon, F. A., Yssel, N., McConnell, J. M., & Hardin, T. (2014). Differentiated Instruction, Professional Development, and Teacher Efficacy. Journal For The Education Of The Gifted, 37(2), 111-127.

@Jessicacarr @sarahdonahey

A new study from Stanford shows that a simple teaching tactic may help close the achievement gap between Latino American students and their white peers. Geoffrey Cohen, a professor of education and psychology at Stanford, and David Sherman of the University of California-Santa Barbara, and their fellow researchers explored the negative effects of "stereotype threat,"...